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The original challenge laid down to dedicated DAWs by TripleDAT has been raised by new functionality. Rob James boots it up
AS NOTED in the original TripleDAT 2 review (Studio Sound, April 1997); 'There is more than one way to approach the challenge of designing an affordable digital audio workstation.' The original TripleDAT did all the processing and recording using a Pentium PC - the only additional hardware being a proprietary interface card for audio I-O and MIDI. Performance was, and still is, governed by the speed of the processor and storage system.
A year on, and the software has been refined and significant additions have appeared in the shape of a new interface card, the TDAT 16, and a stand-alone convertor, the A-16. The new interface gives 16 simultaneous channels of digital I-O and relies on ADAT optical connections. For those people with ADATs or mixers such as the Yamaha 02R and 03D this is a cost-effective solution, both in hardware terms and, the not inconsiderable, cost of decent quality audio cables. If the particular application requires analogue I-O then the new A-16 convertor will fit the bill. This offers 16 analogue inputs and outputs and connects to the T DAT 16 via 4 ADAT optical-fibre 'leads'.
TDAT 16 requires Windows 95. The board itself is a PCI type and installation is plug-and-play. The driver for this is installed in the customary Windows 95 fashion, a great improvement over the original. There is a further daughter-board that does not require a PC slot and is connected to the TDAT 16 card with a ribbon cable. It does use a PC case card space but this should not be a problem unless your machine is filled to the gunwales with extra hardware. The main card has 4 optical connection sockets and a stereo 1/4-inch jack that provides analogue output of a monitor mix. There is onboard DSP that gives the card mixing, routeing and sample-rate conversion capabilities in hardware. The daughter sync board has two BNC connectors for wordclock and a 9-pin D-connector for ADAT sync. The optical connectors may also be used to connect to suitably equipped DAT or CD machines in optical SPDIF format.
The TripleDAT software installs without drama or fuss....