Thread: Active component setup crossover help

alright i have been looking and digging around a little more and looks like the M-audio firewire 410 is a good unit and might work for what i want to do. It has 8 channel out and i might be able to make use of 5 out of those 8. i will use the 1/4 inch to rca adapter cables from the store to go direct to the amp and it has ASIO so i can use all the other software to tweak it. Amazing little unit i just hope it will work with my 1ghz processor i have and 1 gb ram.

http://www.djcables.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=111

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWire410.html

So now, you basically just need to process the audio...in your case, active crossover.
I'll give you my setup as an example....

I use AudioMulch to cross over, delay, phase and adjust levels of the audio stream...you can pretty much do whatever you want with the audio with AM...in real time, depending on your processing power/resources...
BTW, I run LS_Filter VST for my crossover...it's a 3-way crossover with 2 channel pass-thru as well. It might be a little resource hungry on your system, but it's an awesome plugin! If it's too much, there are other available...

Now, on the output, it gets a little weird. Instead of my RCA's (from the 1/8" jacks) being left/right, they are now high/low. Run like this, each stereo channel (1/8" out) on the card is now mono...so one output will be used for the drivers mid/high, and another jack will be used for the passengers mid/high...
You can, of course, configure another jack just for your sub out as well...

I run my audio stream at 24-bit/96Khz because I have a collection of DVD-A and SACD's, but I'm pretty sure you'll HAVE to run 16-bit, 44Khz with just a 1Ghz CPU...which is perfectly fine for audio CD data.
The CPU will also limit the amount of VST plugins you can run effectively...

And I must say, good choice on the 720PRS's!! I'm running 2 pair in my car (with 2 sound cards/11 channels) and setup right, they work really well...

When your ready to setup your crossover, let me know...I'll give you a good starting reference point...

(Actually, in reality, I could go one further...I could reduce this to 2 + sub channel and email you the configuration file. As long as you have the same plugins, you'd be up and running in no time!)

Here is an image of my AudioMulch setup...
This is 4 channel, 2-way, + sub + 2 X VU Meter outputs...
You'll just have 2 channel, 2-way plus the sub out so it'll look a little simpler...

Thanks!
That certainly is another option, using the amps, if you have that available...probably a little easier too!

here is the conversation between me and jan about running the setup. The issue is the processing power will not be near enough and i do not want to spend the money currently to build a new pc as better ones are around the block. Nvidia has a good chance at making a new setup along with atom for a netbook/ mini pc. i would like that setup as it has dvi, vga, excellent video card and dual core atom. I would like to use that setup with a good sound card or the firewire. I want to temporarily use my m10000 and then upgrade to the newer one. What can i run in the background to do all my processing, time delay, crossover and eq and still be able to run navigation. I know that is asking for alot but i need a temp solution. I could always use the setting on the jl 450/4 temp until i get a strong carputer. I figured i could experiment with the basics and learn it so when i upgrade i will be better informed.

In the worst case scenario i could use the amp crossover, and use the pc to equalizer and time delay. how would that be as far as a load on the pc.


Quote: Originally Posted by faiz_23
I own a c134 with a m10000 which is a 1ghz processor, 1gb ram. i can get a coaxial out from the motherboard and run it to a sound card. Since the case is so small i wanted to get an external option.

This set-up isn't going to me even near enough processing power to do tuning on the PC. it's the absolutely bare minimum to run in the car IMHO. You're going to run into lots of lag.

Quote:
I would like to have the ability to tinker with all that using centrafuse as my frontend.

It's going to run a bit slow on the M10000, not too bad, but a bit slow.

Quote:
I am looking at a asio sound card like the m-audio firewire 410 and wanted to see if you think that would be a good setup compared to creative labs cards. I want to be able to use alot of the free software on the wikipedia like the kx.

Centrafuse doesn't support ASIO. You should head over to the Centrafuse forums and read up on this stuff first before you plan it all out.

you need to undesrstand what it's going to require as far as processing power and what centrafuse can and can't do. In order to have Centrafuse handle all of this, it needs to be able to take the audio stream in first, this is something it can't do currently. I'd also suggest you post on the forums. Keeping everything private doesn't help the community learn. I'm a big advocate of posting out in the open, that way the information is out there for other people the be able to read and learn from.

Good luck with it all!

~Jan

i was looking at zapco dc reference amp as they are built solid and have tons of options for crossover and processing. little pricey but well worth it, the only issue was i wanted everything integrated into the carputer and the cost of the jl 450/4 is very tempting for the features it has out of the box and the rest of the money could be put towards a new carputer

Originally Posted by pcpete

I've got an m-audio fw 410, with active setup, exactly like you're planning...

I have'nt set up my processing like wungun (<-frickin awesome btw), but I use my Zapco amps DSP for processing. One of these days I'm going to give these vst plugins a try though...

Check my sig for schematics and details of my setup...

Hmmm...
Centrafuse doesn't have to support ASIO. Audiomulch does and your audio card will certainly support it as well. Maybe it's because I use Virtual Audio Cable as my 'default' sound device, and setup Centrafuse to play to it?
AM then uses this as it's input before proccessing it and outputing to your sound card.

I wouldn't say outright that your setup won't be powerful enough. Considering your only running 2 channels and sub, it's not asking alot.
2 channels as in hi/lo & L/R...so 4 audio streams + sub....
Considering I got away using 11 streams in my chain and processing at 16-bit/48Khz on a (then) 1.8Ghz single core/1GB RAM and doing a little more with the VST's than what your planning...(I've since upgraded to 2.2Ghz dual core and processing at 24-bit/96Khz)

You might even forgo the sub output, and have your sub amp control your crossover, totally by-passing AM. Then you just have 2 channels to worry about.
With THAT said, you will have to be careful as to what VST's you put in your DSP chain...
I would forget using an EQ plugin...you'll likely not need much adjustment with the crossover setup properly, and most multiband EQ's are hogs...Centrafuse has a small EQ built in, which easily handles broad adjustments.

Also, you can do without the delay plugin. Especcially when your just running a front L/R stage, it's not critical...

All that's left is your crossover plugin! With just that, thru 2 channels, and upping your ASIO buffer/latency levels, I think it's doable...
And considering your going to upgrade in the future, might as well get your feet wet now! If it turns out you ARE starved for CPU cycles, the 720's do have passive crossovers, so you wouldn't be left high and dry.
I say go for it!

i am really eager to do this and i am not tied down to centrafuse as i have not bought it. if it is going to need a lot of power to process than i can stick with road runner and i guidance. i was able to run that combo on the 1 gig and 256mb ram and bluetooth gps. do you think for $140 it is worth it as a usb card and i can run coax digital from motherboard to m audio or should i do firewire