Four Track/ Multitrack?

[Recording Guy]

Just wondering if any developers managed to get the pcm_record.c duplicated X4 or so to make
4 track recorder plugin?

 
Is it very complicated and time consuming to implement in rockbox?


The navigation buttons are there..

mode stereo or mono (already built in to rockbox with Frequency samplerate)

track 1 or 1+2    arm/record toggle..stop
track 2,               arm/record toggle..stop
track 3 or 3+4    arm/record toggle..stop
track 4               arm/record toggle..stop

mute button (solo might be getting a bit fancy and complicated as would panning possibly?)
but all that could be done later in Audacity or some prog.

It seems some developers were a bit scathing of the idea, but they might find themselves doing choral voiceovers or Jimmy Page/ Les Paul Frippertronics 

Plus it would thrust Rockbox into the limelight even more as a cool nifty little prog for circuit benders/nutters, and the signal to noise aint that bad at all!

Possibly this is not a direction that The Devs wanted to go in, if so, fair enough.

[saratoga]

Are there any devices that have more then 2 channels?

[Recording Guy]

Hi Saratoga,

Well I didn't mean seperate physical channels, The TI chips do have 6 inputs:

http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tlv320aic32.html

But I was thinking buffered streams using the ram or something like that?

I can only go by the Iriver H10 which is handling audio in Rockbox exceptionally well, heck my netbook glitches more than this little thing.

Do you think this would be harder to implement on say the Wolfson chips that do not have the extra input pins like the TI chips have?

[saratoga]

I don't know what you're asking.

[Recording Guy]

Well this link might give you an idea of what I am talking about:

http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/fourtrack/

There are others out there like Houndogs Multitrack.

Not sure what the insides of an iphone have, but sending tracks over wifi
to a computer sounds dumb, and it is stuck in that Apple mode of doing things i.e
dumbed down and cutesy no control of sample rates etc.

It uses buffer streams to achieve what it does.
 
I wonder whether a SIMPLE 4 track is achievable in Rockbox.

It is something to do with pcm_record.c

[saratoga]

I'm not sure what you're asking, but:

You can already record one stereo track, stop recording, and then later record a second stereo track.

You cannot record one track while playing another.

Does that answer the question?

[Recording Guy]

Yes thanks Saratoga.

I read some older threads about Rockbox multitrack recording and a quote from JS Mike h :

"anything the core recording uses (the very same API in fact) is available to a plugin intended to do exotic things.

Some have said they can't get recording to function in a plugin so I simply recommend they imitate pcm_record.c to the letter - no shortcuts because they assume some function call isn't nescessary - they all are. Use the API as intended and it will work. It is verified to work.

EDIT - I'll mention here too that full-duplex sound on ColdFire based devices is also verified to work. I've handed out the effects plugins (simple proofs of concept) source codes to those who have asked on several occasions."

I guess no one actually got this to work as a plugin, and I don't know where the plugin repository is, if there is one.

[saratoga]

I guess no one actually got this to work as a plugin, and I don't know where the plugin repository is, if there is one.

Plugins are in /apps/plugins.  The Contribute to Rockbox link on the front page may be of interest to you if you want to work with plugins.

[funman]

Look at pitch_detector.c to see a plugin which uses recording

[Recording Guy]

Thanks, I found the plugins on the website.

Quote By Saratoga:

"You can already record one stereo track, stop recording, and then later record a second stereo track.

You cannot record one track while playing another."

Could you say why you cannot record one track while playing another?

I don't mean because someone has not the time or the inclination to programme this function,

but are there physical barriers inherent in the Rockbox compatable Ipods, Irivers Santas Archos that make this impossible? That is the question.

Throw some technical s*it in the thread please without getting angry..

[saratoga]

Could you say why you cannot record one track while playing another?

I don't mean because someone has not the time or the inclination to programme this function,

but are there physical barriers inherent in the Rockbox compatable Ipods, Irivers Santas Archos that make this impossible? That is the question.

Depends on the hardware.  Some can only do one at a time, others can do both.  Its never been implemented in Rockbox as far as I know for any player.

[Recording Guy]

Ok, thanks for that.