I just bought 2 of the DS2416s
from zZounds... although one is a gift for my brother.
For those of you not
familiar with this card... When installed inside a personal computer, the
DS2416 digital mixing card offers the mixing power of the successful Yamaha
02R digital mixer plus 16 tracks of hard disk recording with up to 32-bit
resolution. The DSP Factory appears to
be a comprehensive digital
mixing and recording system, providing full-time 24-channel digital mixing and
two of Yamaha's top-quality digital effects processors, without having to rely
on the computer's internal processing power.
Additionally, the DS2416 card includes an audio-streaming
engine which provides 8 tracks of simultaneous recording to, and 16 tracks
playback from, the computer's disk drive. I'm hoping this feature will give me
greater success than I had with computer-based composition
previously.
The card isn't flawless - it only supports a 33 MHz bus speed
and there's no lightpipe, for example, but it's attractive in many ways...
those of you who may be in the market for a card might consider it...
And besides, there's a deal to be had right now. Like you, I had an email flyer this
week from zZounds and they're blowing out the DS2416 with a separate digital
I/O interface card (that's two cards), with a MSRP of $1295... for only $299!
It was something of an impulse buy for me - I didn't think they would last
long at that price, although they are still in stock over there. Sweetwater
and Musician's Friend are each still selling the card for $600. So, I bought
two.
You can read about the zZounds deal here (there are
two):
http://www.zzounds.com/love.music?p=p.YAMDS2416AX16AT&z=1022981872889
http://www.zzounds.com/love.music?p=p.YAMDS2416AX44&a=em032701
Best bet for info though is the Yamaha site, where you'll have
to do a search for the DS2416. The brochure and Owner's Manual are worth
perusing. On the Yamaha site, you'll see
references to the sequencers supported... they've got some big names in
there.
For reviews, check out:
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/reviews/h2hsoundcards2/ds2416.asp
http://www.yamaha.com/proaudio/SHOWCASE/REVIEWS/review23.htm
Best
of luck to you,
Kevin