S-PDIF vs USB
I am hoping someone can weigh in on the pros and cons of having a dedicated S-PDIF digital out connection vs USB.
It is my understanding that the GNX3 has S-PDIF, whereas the GNX4 and GNX3K (also RPx50 and GSP1101) provide access to the digital stream via USB.
I am wondering why Digitech decided to ditch the digital out and go with the USB option.
Does the GNX3 have latency issues with the S-PDIF?
Does S-PDIF have latency issues in general?
Did Digitech ditch S-PDIF because most consumer computers don't have S-PDIF connections?
Is ASIO simply easier to integrate into audio programs like ProTracks?
Cheers.
It is my understanding that the GNX3 has S-PDIF, whereas the GNX4 and GNX3K (also RPx50 and GSP1101) provide access to the digital stream via USB.
I am wondering why Digitech decided to ditch the digital out and go with the USB option.
Does the GNX3 have latency issues with the S-PDIF?
Does S-PDIF have latency issues in general?
Did Digitech ditch S-PDIF because most consumer computers don't have S-PDIF connections?
Is ASIO simply easier to integrate into audio programs like ProTracks?
Cheers.
Comments
Possibly one of the biggest blounders of the new items.
None.
None.
Possibly one of the most short-sighted business decisions in a long time. If they left the SPDIF in, they would avoid all the problems with Vista.
As Iliace said, SPDIF assumes you already have an audio interface with a digital input, but USB IS the audio interface with digital input.
Folks owning pro equipment with SPDIF have missed the SPDIF on the new GNX units. Most consumers don't even know what SPDIF is and don't have an SPDIF input on their audio card, so they don't miss it.
Most computer owners have USB these days, so they can use the USB connection to get a \"pro quality\" bi-directional audio interface to their GNX without purchasing a separate \"pro quality\" audio interface. Of course, that assumes that they can get the USB working on their computers, which has been a challenge for lots of users. The USB audio interface also allows for 4 simultaneous digital tracks out of the GNX4, but with SPDIF you only get 1 digital track, so that is a plus if you are recording your band live, as you can run guitar, vocals, keys into your GNX and record live all at the same time.
Regarding MIDI, communicating with GenEdit to the GNX3 required a midi connection, which most consumers either don't have or don't really understand. The USB connection on new GNX's also serves as a midi connection, thus eliminating the need for a user to purchase and setup a separate midi connection to use X Edit software.
I'm not sure why DigiTech pulled the SPDIF from the new boxes, but I have to agree with their decision to provide USB and make that the new standard. If it came down to an either/or choice, I would choose USB in a heartbeat.
Now if I just had those Vista drivers to make it work... :-)
Me to
Annnnway...despite the lack of SPDIF, the GNX4 is clearly a superior machine to the '3 in most ways. I'm betting DT decided to bag the digi-interface 'cuz some company profiled demographic poll result told them that the i/face was not important enough to the people that were buying the things that when they drew up the '4, they put the bux into other features...for better or worse, right???
So S-PDIF is uni-directional? which makes re-amping impossible I guess.
I like not having to concern myself with MIDI and S-PDIF connections and simply having the USB connection handle everything.
Pros of S-PDIF
don't need drivers.
Not so reliant on a particular OS. A MIDI based GenEdit would probably work just fine on all flavours of Windows and could possibly make cross platform development work (Windows/Mac/GNU/Linux).
Pros of USB
Buzz word compliance
Re-amping
Don't need as many cables
Not everyone has MIDI connections
Not everyone has S-PDIF connections.
S-PDIF is slow to type on the keyboard.
Now if I was smart enough to figure out how to convert the ASIO stream to JACK and figure out how to upload/tweak patches within GNU/Linux I'd be a happy boy.