Digital out up-sample hardware

    Hi, guys!


    I was trying to play my kemper the other day against some backing tracks ad GP tabs and I ran into the 44.1/48 issue. My rig is as follows: Kemper (digital out) >> Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (digital in) >> speakers. I have no issue to paly the Kemper by setting everything to 44.1 sample rate. However, other media (mp3s, backing tracks and gp tabs) have serious cracking and popping issues with this sample rate. I would increase it to 48 but then the Kemper can't provide that as a master clock.


    Some may say that I should go and use the analog outs of the Kemper into the analog in of the soundcard. I did that and the preamps of the soundcard (which are good, btw) amplify everything, as they are supposed to do. I get incredible volumes of reverb and delay and I cannot use such effects. The mp3s sound well at 48.


    Therefore, I want to use the digital in of the soundcard by keeping the 48 sample rate.


    I found these litle critters on the web that are supposed to upsample the audio signal and solve all my petty problems:


    ESI DR DAC prime - http://www.esi-audio.com/products/drdacprime/
    M-AUDIO SUPER DAC - http://www.m-audio.com/products/view/super-dac#.VzBFhYSLT4Y


    The ESI one looks more promissing ar it has digital in and out.


    Has anybody used such products to change the sample rate? Do they actually do what I am trying to do? Or am I wasting time?


    I came across some hi-end sample rate converters but they cost 1K+ and I am not willing to spend that amount of money on sound conversion.


    Thanks,
    Catalin

    The Ultramatch will do what you want, but.. if you get noise and crackles when playing back mp3s and other stuff at 44.1 kHz, something is going wrong inside your computer.
    If you get more reverb and / or delays on your analog outs vs. digital out something is wrong too (probably the Kemper output settings?!).
    Doing some more research for the cause of your problems might make buying additional equipment redundand.
    HTH

    Quote from mrs-zambesi

    The Ultramatch will do what you want, but.. if you get noise and crackles when playing back mp3s and other stuff at 44.1 kHz, something is going wrong inside your computer.
    If you get more reverb and / or delays on your analog outs vs. digital out something is wrong too (probably the Kemper output settings?!).
    Doing some more research for the cause of your problems might make buying additional equipment redundand.
    HTH


    Yeah, it does sound strange (pun not intended).


    What are you playing your backing tracks from (what program)?

    I did an extensive check, meanig that I turned all the knobs and soft buttons on and off and I found out that the sound card had a problem with the "headphone space" button. I turned it off and now I get the same sound through the analog in as well as through the S/PDIF in. Curious thing, other soundcards did not have an issue with the headphone space feature.


    The 44.1 pops and clicks still remain an issue, but not one I should consider. I keep everything at 48 and I raise the latency at 10ms, which is acceptable. No issues there.


    Thanks,
    Catalin