DigiDesign Sound Accelerator for Mac SE/30

Oh, I missed the updates here. Really nice to see the photos of the setups!! SEthiry, I really like the composition of the second to last photo you took. It is very striking.

I'll take a photo of my box tomorrow when I get some sunlight in the room to hopefully get a better capture.

Here are photos of my AD-In A/D converter:

I forgot to ask, when you turn on your A/D box, does it make a loud external humming sound? I am thinking the internal PSU may not be running optimally.

Whoa, that white box is uhm... VINTAGE } :beige:

@tt Mine does make the hum, for about 2 seconds, and then it's gone.

It may be a capacitor load or something like that.

Maybe a little too vintage... It would be nice to have separate L/R outputs on the interface like yours has. :b&w:

:drool: :drool:

You lucky sod...

I was wondering how people used Sound Designer on SE and SE/30s! I can never even find NuBus Audiomedia or Sound Accelerators! I would go gaga over an SE card

In the early days of digital they were mostly used for sample editing in conjunction with Emulator and later with Akai samplers. Hence the software name - "Sound Designer".

SE and SE/30 were of limited expandability, so SA and AM versions for these were considered a "poor investment" by audio recording and editing folks - they needed more "power" (computers kept getting faster all the time) and extra NuBus slots for their other cards.

Also, one needed to be in the league of well earning independent engineers/composers or owner of a more or less successfull recording studio to justify the purchase of that gear. I know all this, besause I already was in the scene by the early '90s.

http://www.mikecollins.plus.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/Sound%20Tools.pdf

http://www.mikecollins.plus.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/Sound%20Tools%20Review.pdf

@CJ_Miller:

NuBus versions of SA and AM could be found - you just have to look harder and ask around. ;-)

I also suspect that many of AM II's are still in use these days and people aren't dumping them only besause they're "old".

The model I have is white and only has inputs. It looks like it was designed for the SE/30 to sit right on top of it.

Click to expand...

Compact Macs always were just a bit too short for comfortable viewing, as well as effective convection cooling. Apple also made their Compact Mac HDDs and the CD in the Zero Foot Print form factor. There are tons of ZFP designs from other manufacturers. With a different faceplate without the 1U mounting ears, would that long low SuperDuperBox be a ZFP case for a IIx/IIfx perchance?

Very cool boxen, I wish I had a breakout box for my NuBus SAII. The headphone jack out is all I really need in order to choke stereo out of my Duo's. What a PITA that project was!

Very cool boxen, I wish I had a breakout box for my NuBus SAII.

Click to expand...

Why would you need that? Coolness factor? ;-)

If you're not going to record or connect your Mac to some outboard gear via digital cable (external DAC, DAT recorder etc.) but all you need is analog output, I can tell you that output circuitry of SAII NuBus and SE/30 cards is identical to that in the A/D box pictured above.

* Same convertors - Analog Devices AD1856 or pin compatible Burr Brown PCM56.

* Same encapsulated Murata low pass filters.

* Same I/V stage ICs - NE5532

* Same red WIMA 1uF capacitors

.......everything..........

All you need is Y-split cable to go from jack to RCA (Cinch).

EDIT - oh, ok, Digi used "audiophile quality" WIMA FKP caps (green boxen) in filters instead of blue NP0 ceramic ones on cards, but that's the only difference.

I like to play around with all kinds of toys. So far I've done some some audio recording with my PAS16 and A/V with my Radius VideoVision Studio.

Nothing serious, but fun nonetheless. factor works too! :lol: