other use of SLink

[tutu13Participant]

Hi everyone, do you know if we could use the SLink socket to send audio channels to a computer for multitrack recording?
What would it take for the computer to convert the SLink format (apparently A&H priority) that it receives
in audio format? .. a vitrual converter (app, driver, …)? a card? an external box?

THANKS

[TobiParticipant]

Hi,
yes I know… there is no Windows or Mac Driver for SLink — so no, can’t do it.

Best Regards,
Tobias

PS: Make a feature request for a driver 🙂

[nottooloudParticipant]

That would be cool. I bought the Dante card for my SQ6 so I can record all the channels.

[BrianParticipant]

This is 100% speculation on my part. I have no real knowledge of what is really required….

That being said, I have to assume it would require a hardware interface of some sort (could be a PCIe card, or perhaps a stand alone interface that plugged into the computer via USB, etc). This is because unlike Dante, I have to assume the proprietary A&H protocols doesn’t follow normal 802.3 structure. Therefore I also have to assume that a normal ethernet port on a computer would not recognize any of the traffic coming into a port. Following this logic leads me to conclude that a dedicated piece of hardware with it’s own SLink/GigaAce port would be required to translate the data into something the computer could understand.

Dante can use a software interface (DVS) because the computer can read the data coming across the normal network port because it conforms to 802.3 which is what the computer is natively programmed to “see”. Waves gets around this because they created their own operating system, so it can translate the Waves protocol natively while a regular OS like Windows/Linux/Mac wouldn’t be able to.

Again, this is just my guess as a non-IT professional that only knows enough about networking to get himself into trouble! 😉

[mfusaParticipant]

Not aware of any way to do this. S-Link is proprietary to my knowledge and AH has not given us a way to use it to send audio to/from other devices. With that said, most A&H boards only have 1 S-Link port by default which is often used for audio racks anyway. If you’re going to install another I/O card to get a second S-Link port then might as well go with Waves or Dante; both of which will allow you to record to a PC. I use a single Waves card in a GLD and one in an SQ and I use it to BOTH distribute audio between the boards as well as run processing on both boards (all done through Waves Super Rack Soundgrid).

Of course, if your recording channel count requirements are low you could just use the USB-B port on the console.

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