MPC2 audio cable splitter? \ VOGONS

MPC2 audio cable splitter?

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First post, by mattrock1988

Posted on 2017-02-02, 09:58

mattrock1988 Offline

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Since I'll be running two sound cards in the foreseeable future, I just arrived at a bit of a conundrum. I want both cards to play CD audio, but I believe only one MPC2 cable can be plugged into the disc drive at any time. Is there a way I can use a splitter in order to feed one cord to two sound cards simultaneously?

Retro PC: Intel Celeron Mendocino @ 500 MHz, TYAN Tomahawk BX, 6 GB IDE Quantum Bigfoot, 256 MB SDRAM, DVD-ROM, 1.44 MB floppy, Nvidia GeForce MX 440 AGP, ESS AudioDrive 1868F ISA

Reply 1 of 5, by gdjacobs

Posted on 2017-02-02, 14:55

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Sure, as long as the input impedance of the sound cards is high enough. If not, you'll have volume attenuation.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 2 of 5, by Jorpho

Posted on 2017-02-02, 15:49

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If the question is whether such a splitter exists, then no, I expect you'll have to cobble together your own. (It might be possible to do it with just a couple of staples.)

If you can get a CD drive with a headphone jack, then you could use the MPC cable for one card and the headphone jack for the other, routed through the card's Line In port. (I'm not sure if you would need to unplug the headphone jack when using the MPC cable.) Or you could conceivably put together some kind of mixer that will take as input the CD audio and speaker outputs of both cards, but that might be overkill.

Reply 3 of 5, by mattrock1988

Posted on 2017-02-02, 17:44

mattrock1988 Offline

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Good suggestions! I might also try running both cards under Windows at the same time, assuming that's even supported. CD audio and DOS software will run through the AWE64 while my Windows apps like Cakewalk as well as games run over the PCI card.

Retro PC: Intel Celeron Mendocino @ 500 MHz, TYAN Tomahawk BX, 6 GB IDE Quantum Bigfoot, 256 MB SDRAM, DVD-ROM, 1.44 MB floppy, Nvidia GeForce MX 440 AGP, ESS AudioDrive 1868F ISA

Reply 4 of 5, by Errius

Posted on 2017-02-02, 17:59

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I think with Windows ME/2K onward you don't need a cable. The OS can read the audio tracks digitally.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 5 of 5, by Jorpho

Posted on 2017-02-02, 18:40

Jorpho Offline

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Errius wrote:
I think with Windows ME/2K onward you don't need a cable. The OS can read the audio tracks digitally.

Yes, I think it ought to at least work in Windows 98 SE as well. (There have been some suggestions lately that WDM drivers might be required.)

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