I am in the process of installing an Elan VIA! Music system (similar to the Escient cd management system) using 3 Sony 400 disc changers.

The client wants to be able to burn his favorite lists from the VIA! Music onto CD so it can be played in the car, and at his other residence. To do this, I need a source of a optical digital mixer so that:

1) the original track and song information is copied to the burned disc.

2) The burned disc isn't one long track.

3) The burned disc doesn't end up with long periods of silence (when changing discs).

4) And most importantly, so the burning process doen't have to be "baby-sitted"

I know there was a piece called the DXS from Nirvis, but it is discontinued. So I'm back to square one.

Anyone familiar with a piece that would work?

Thanks in advance,

JJP

FCP makes a digital audio matrix switcher that comes in 8x8, 16x16, and 32x32 flavors. The I/O modules can be configured for EIAJ, coaxial, AES/EBU, among some other formats like TDIF and ADAT. Not a mixer, by nature, the problem you would face with this piece is that you would have to tell the switcher to change sources depending upon which transport was playing. I assume that the Elan is sending some control code that would be able to be used to send the appropriate MIDI SYSEX command to the switcher. This could be accomplished via Crestron, AMX, or through Elan Via programming if you know how... or an application running on a PC.

The Elan setup does not sound like it lends itself readily to that type of process. I'm sure that there will be complications as you try to implement that. The only multi-changer controller that I can think of that has only a single digital output from any changer is the Escient Powerplay, but is quite costly. Also, the Escient Fireball might be good, as it is similiar to a Tunebase controller, but with an on board hardrive that you could store the music to and then load onto a CD for copying. I don't know as we haven't played with a unit yet.