Hi I was wondering if any could tell me the name for a specific piece of equipment.
I am using q lab to playback sound during a show, at the moment we are just using 2 speakers and connecting the computer to the sound desk via the headphone output.
The composer has mention he might like to try using 4 speakers. I have been told there is a piece of equipment that you connect to the computer via the usb input and this allows you to use more channels.

Does anyone know the name of this?

Thanks a lot


Hammy

That is commonly known as a sound interface or external sound card. There are a number about that offer 4 channels outputs so let Google be your friend.



Is he looking to have 4 independent channels at the same time? If not then you could rig something up where you “pan” your 2 speakers from front to back depending on where you want the sound to go.

"USB Audio Interface" would probably be your Google search. There are lots of options out there ranging from basic two channels up to 8 or more channels.

If you can live with unbalanced outputs, the M-Audio Fast Track Pro (HERE) is fairly hard to beat for price.

However, besides the hardware, you'll need software that can do four channel working...and of course amps and speakers for your four channels as well.

Bob

Q Lab is capable of that however.

I have a Mac Mini running Q Lab into a M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge, which gives us 32 outputs on ADAT, or analog outputs when paired with a few Behringer ADA8000s. However, we also have Q Lab attached to a Yamaha digital desk via MIDI, and using MIDI cues from Q Lab we can fade and pan on the desk rather than in QLab - and using routing you can manipulate your sound effects across more outputs than you have on your Mac.

However, for your needs I would look at the M-Audio cards as suggested, or the Edirol range of cards, which also offer comparative quality within the same lower-end price bracket.

Also - remember that Q Lab can address multiple sound cards simultaneously, so you could get away with running two channels through the internal sound card as well as whatever else you attach - although these can't be run from the same cue - (each cue is routed to an output device) - so you'd have to break down the multi-channel sound into different files and fire the cues simultaneously. (Unless you create aggregate sound devices to make all your sound cards appear in software as one device, but then it's just getting complicated.)