Outputting multiple waveforms to a 5.1 or 7.1 sound card

[tzoom84]

I initially started off by trying to use a piece of hardware that would require playing two different wave files to two separate sound cards, as shown in this post. However, that proved to be very difficult to synchronize. I posted a new message because this is now a different topic.

Coq Rouge in the other post recommending just using a 5.1 sound card that are quite available. This sounds like a great solution since data would be quite synchronized as it all gets passed at once to just a single piece of hardware. With this approach, I am still not sure how to properly go about it.

Assuming I have 4 channels in one .wav file, do I:

1) Read in sound .wav file, it will automatically bundle all channels together.

2) Spit it right out to the sound card.

3) Result out of sound card will be 4 signals coming off two jacks (each holding 2 channels)?

I''m curious how I can control channels independently. For example, if I only want audio to come out of channels 2 and 6 at one time, and then 3 and 5 another ... any ideas?

Thanks!

[Coq_Rouge]

It is some problems related to the using sound cards. Most of them are related to the fact that NI has done a VERY poor job with the sound interface. The sound system is full of bugs. And NI do care to do anything with that fact at all. I am also somewhat uncertain on how many channels the NI sound system support. I Think it is four but it could also be six.

Another fact is that neither Labview or Windows is a real-time system. So you have to write data in chunks to the sound card. The NI labview sound system will fail more or less if you update more than about 10 times pr second. But within this limitations something may certainly be done.

You can also use this sound system. http://www.zeitnitz.de/Christian/waveio The difference is that this sound system interface. Is all that the Labview soundsystem is not. It supports up to six channels I think. And it works. The NI sound system do not. But with this system you also have to forget all about so called realtime performance