Digigram VX Pocket

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Commercial DJ mate of mine who's not v audio-literate has asked me how he
can do his VOs at home on his laptop. OK, nice project, nice excuse to have
a look at all the latest USB & Firewire interfaces... I was thinking the
new Lexicon box etc...but his needs are quite specific & I don't want to
confuse him or have him pay for more than he needs - like MIDI, DSP, loadsa
channels, moving (or any) faders etc.

He's got pres (OK they're in a Behringer desk but for his purposes I think
they'll do). Amazingly he's got an RE-20 which he was basically given (????)
when his station changed studios. Started off at the tascam US-122 but that
has pres and MIDI & I'd like to see him with at least SPDIF in & out for his
rack-mount Minidisc... so before looking at the Echo range I remembered the
old Digigram Pocket and had a look at their site. Now this seems to be the
go, but it looks a bit odd. Where does the AD take place...in the actual
PCMCIA card? I know people say they're OK but can this be any good? I'm used
to units with breakout boxes that keep this stuff away from the computer and
I thought it took more space than that anyway (I'm a multiface user).

Also their site says "the VX Pocket V2 has two balanced analogue mono inputs
at microphone or line level..." So it has pres? Where? The cables go
straight to the card! And are both analogue inputs really on XLR only?

Anything else you'd recommend? Mike R mentioned the Indigo (?) card in a
search but I've run outta time to look into that tonight

 

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"Karl Engel" <karlengel-at-excite-dot-com> wrote in message news:<41125750@dnews.tpgi.com.au>...
> Commercial DJ mate of mine who's not v audio-literate has asked me how he
> can do his VOs at home on his laptop. OK, nice project, nice excuse to have
> a look at all the latest USB & Firewire interfaces... I was thinking the
> new Lexicon box etc...but his needs are quite specific & I don't want to
> confuse him or have him pay for more than he needs - like MIDI, DSP, loadsa
> channels, moving (or any) faders etc.
>
> He's got pres (OK they're in a Behringer desk but for his purposes I think
> they'll do). Amazingly he's got an RE-20 which he was basically given (????)
> when his station changed studios. Started off at the tascam US-122 but that
> has pres and MIDI & I'd like to see him with at least SPDIF in & out for his
> rack-mount Minidisc... so before looking at the Echo range I remembered the
> old Digigram Pocket and had a look at their site. Now this seems to be the
> go, but it looks a bit odd. Where does the AD take place...in the actual
> PCMCIA card? I know people say they're OK but can this be any good? I'm used
> to units with breakout boxes that keep this stuff away from the computer and
> I thought it took more space than that anyway (I'm a multiface user).
>
> Also their site says "the VX Pocket V2 has two balanced analogue mono inputs
> at microphone or line level..." So it has pres? Where? The cables go
> straight to the card! And are both analogue inputs really on XLR only?
>
> Anything else you'd recommend? Mike R mentioned the Indigo (?) card in a
> search but I've run outta time to look into that tonight

The Indigi i/o card looks like the go now that I've looked into it.
Any pros/cons vs Digigram? Don't see that he needs time code synch.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Karl Engel wrote:

> Where does the AD take place...in the actual PCMCIA card?

That is where the guts are, yes. I don't happen to use it that way, but
I did a quick test when I first got the card and it certainly can be
used that way, as many people apparently do. (I use an outboard preamp
and A/D converter to feed S-P/DIF into the card.)


> I know people say they're OK but can this be any good?

My own conservative reaction is to doubt it just because the circuitry
is so very small and tucked into the presumably very noisy environment
of a laptop computer's innards. But I've never heard a bad thing said
about the sound of the card, and on the contrary several people here
have posted that it sounded good to them. So it's probably worth a try.
If the thing works well and sounds good, that's great even if it makes
some of my preconceptions obsolete.


> Also their site says "the VX Pocket V2 has two balanced analogue mono
> inputs at microphone or line level..." So it has pres? Where?

Same place: in that teeny little card! Safe bet: there are no input
transformers in the preamp circuit.


> And are both analogue inputs really on XLR only?

Yes, that's right. So are the analog outputs. Is this a problem?

 

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"Karl Engel" <karlengel-at-excite-dot-com> wrote in message news:<41125750@dnews.tpgi.com.au>...
> Commercial DJ mate of mine who's not v audio-literate has asked me how he
> can do his VOs at home on his laptop. OK, nice project, nice excuse to have
> a look at all the latest USB & Firewire interfaces... I was thinking the
> new Lexicon box etc...but his needs are quite specific & I don't want to
> confuse him or have him pay for more than he needs - like MIDI, DSP, loadsa
> channels, moving (or any) faders etc.
>
> He's got pres (OK they're in a Behringer desk but for his purposes I think
> they'll do). Amazingly he's got an RE-20 which he was basically given (????)
> when his station changed studios. Started off at the tascam US-122 but that
> has pres and MIDI & I'd like to see him with at least SPDIF in & out for his
> rack-mount Minidisc... so before looking at the Echo range I remembered the
> old Digigram Pocket and had a look at their site. Now this seems to be the
> go, but it looks a bit odd. Where does the AD take place...in the actual
> PCMCIA card? I know people say they're OK but can this be any good? I'm used
> to units with breakout boxes that keep this stuff away from the computer and
> I thought it took more space than that anyway (I'm a multiface user).


> Also their site says "the VX Pocket V2 has two balanced analogue mono inputs
> at microphone or line level..." So it has pres? Where? The cables go
> straight to the card! And are both analogue inputs really on XLR only?
>
> Anything else you'd recommend? Mike R mentioned the Indigo (?) card in a
> search but I've run outta time to look into that tonight

Digiram is relatively expensive; Indigo doesn't do SPDIF. Have a look
at M-Audio's USB Audiofile

 

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In article <41125750@dnews.tpgi.com.au> "Karl Engel" <karlengel-at-excite-dot-com> writes:

> Also their site says "the VX Pocket V2 has two balanced analogue mono inputs
> at microphone or line level..." So it has pres? Where? The cables go
> straight to the card! And are both analogue inputs really on XLR only?

A mic preamp doesn't have to be an outboard box. It does sort of have
enough gain to use with a mic, but it doesn't provide phantom power.
When I've used mine for recording, it's always connected to a mixer.

The A/D and D/A converters are on the VX Pocket card, and they actually
sound quite good.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Karl Engel wrote:
>
> The Indigo i/o card looks like the go now that I've looked into it.
> Any pros/cons vs Digigram?

Indigo: unbalanced -10 connections on miniplugs, but no dongle

Digigram: balanced +4 on XLR's but uses a breakout cable.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

VxPocket is limited to 48 KS/s. Works well but is a bit pricey.

Have a look at the M-Audiophile USB, Audiophile Firewire, and Transit
(the Transit is very low cost).

--
Len Moskowitz PDAudio, Binaural Mics, Cables, DPA, M-Audio
Core Sound http/www.stealthmicrophones.com
Teaneck, New Jersey USA http/www.core-sound.com
moskowit@core-sound.com Tel: 201-801-0812, FAX: 201-801-0912