I have recently removed one of these from a system and as it's a bit of
"professional" kit I thought maybe its of some use to somebody ..

If theres anybody out there (in the UK) who wants one of these (or even
knows what it is) then get in touch and you can have it for the cost of
the postage.

Abandoned Trolley <fred@fred-smith.co.uk> wrote:
>
> I have recently removed one of these from a system and as it's a bit of
> "professional" kit I thought maybe its of some use to somebody ..
>
> If theres anybody out there (in the UK) who wants one of these (or even
> knows what it is) then get in touch and you can have it for the cost of
> the postage.

It's fancy soundcard. Drivers and docs here, for Windows up to XP:
http://www.marian.de/files/marc2p/

says:

Your MARC 2 PRO provides some special characteristics. In the
following you will get a short overview of them:
- Support of 24 bit and 96 kHz
- Balanced analog inputs and outputs
- An integrated SyncBus
- Windows multi-client drivers for ASIO, GSIF, MME and DirectSound
- Multiple card support (upto 4 cards can be used at the same time)
- DAT Marker support
- Latency-free and flexible monitoring
- Using ASIO latency periods of 2 ms are possible
- Wordclock synchronisation
- AES/EBU digital ports
- Electrical S/PDIF digital ports

https://www.musikhaus-korn.de/en/marian-marc-2-pro/pd/98401
says:

The four channel Marc 2 Pro is the perfect solution for professional audio
transfer of a digital audio workstation and offers uncompromised
high-end-features. The balanced analog and digital connectors, including an
internal connector for a CD-ROM drive with digital audio output, excel due
to a wide range of driver support and very low latency values. This
features are completed by a wordclock input and DAT-marker support. All
features qualifies the Marc 2 PRO especially for the usage in pro audio and
mastering studios, post pro and broadcast.

The effective hardware design and a continuously evolving high speed driver
suite provide a disturbance-free operation and minimal latency values in all
software surroundings.

Flexible routing, start-stop synchronisation of all in- and outputs, sample
exact transfer on all channels and direct delay-free controlling of the
inputs (zero-latency monitoring) make the Marc 2 PRO the ideal partner for
demanding harddisk-recording, as well.

Driver suite
Features:

short PCI card: 32-bit 33MHz, 5V
Sample formats: 8, 16, 20, 24, 32 Bit Mono/Stereo
Sample rates analog: 8-96 kHz +/-15% Pitch
Sample rates digital: 32-96 kHz +/-15% Pitch
Frequency response @ 44,1 kHz: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
Frequency response @ 96 kHz: 20 Hz to 40 kHz
Input/output level: +18 dBu
SNR AD @ 44.1 kHz: 104 dB(A)
SNR DA @ 44.1 kHz: 114 dB(A)
THD+N AD @ -0,5 dbFS: 0,002%
THD+N DA @ 0 dbFS: 0,002%
Special versions with input Level Gain +24 dBu available

Theo

On 13/11/2023 23:49, Theo wrote:
> Abandoned Trolley <fred@fred-smith.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> I have recently removed one of these from a system and as it's a bit of
>> "professional" kit I thought maybe its of some use to somebody ..
>>
>> If theres anybody out there (in the UK) who wants one of these (or even
>> knows what it is) then get in touch and you can have it for the cost of
>> the postage.
>
> It's fancy soundcard. Drivers and docs here, for Windows up to XP:
> http://www.marian.de/files/marc2p/
>
> says:
>
> Your MARC 2 PRO provides some special characteristics. In the
> following you will get a short overview of them:
> - Support of 24 bit and 96 kHz
> - Balanced analog inputs and outputs
> - An integrated SyncBus
> - Windows multi-client drivers for ASIO, GSIF, MME and DirectSound
> - Multiple card support (upto 4 cards can be used at the same time)
> - DAT Marker support
> - Latency-free and flexible monitoring
> - Using ASIO latency periods of 2 ms are possible
> - Wordclock synchronisation
> - AES/EBU digital ports
> - Electrical S/PDIF digital ports
>
>
> https://www.musikhaus-korn.de/en/marian-marc-2-pro/pd/98401
> says:
>
> The four channel Marc 2 Pro is the perfect solution for professional audio
> transfer of a digital audio workstation and offers uncompromised
> high-end-features. The balanced analog and digital connectors, including an
> internal connector for a CD-ROM drive with digital audio output, excel due
> to a wide range of driver support and very low latency values. This
> features are completed by a wordclock input and DAT-marker support. All
> features qualifies the Marc 2 PRO especially for the usage in pro audio and
> mastering studios, post pro and broadcast.
>
> The effective hardware design and a continuously evolving high speed driver
> suite provide a disturbance-free operation and minimal latency values in all
> software surroundings.
>
> Flexible routing, start-stop synchronisation of all in- and outputs, sample
> exact transfer on all channels and direct delay-free controlling of the
> inputs (zero-latency monitoring) make the Marc 2 PRO the ideal partner for
> demanding harddisk-recording, as well.
>
> Driver suite
> Features:
>
> short PCI card: 32-bit 33MHz, 5V
> Sample formats: 8, 16, 20, 24, 32 Bit Mono/Stereo
> Sample rates analog: 8-96 kHz +/-15% Pitch
> Sample rates digital: 32-96 kHz +/-15% Pitch
> Frequency response @ 44,1 kHz: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
> Frequency response @ 96 kHz: 20 Hz to 40 kHz
> Input/output level: +18 dBu
> SNR AD @ 44.1 kHz: 104 dB(A)
> SNR DA @ 44.1 kHz: 114 dB(A)
> THD+N AD @ -0,5 dbFS: 0,002%
> THD+N DA @ 0 dbFS: 0,002%
> Special versions with input Level Gain +24 dBu available
>
>
>
> Theo

96 kHz support is rather overkill as most people's ears cannot hear
beyond 20 kHz and the Nyquist principle states tha you have to to sample
at twice the highest frequency (to do ADC and then DAC faithfully) so
that's 40 kHz. CDs already support 44 Khz audio....

>> Your MARC 2 PRO provides some special characteristics. In the
>> following you will get a short overview of them:
>> - Support of 24 bit and 96 kHz
>> - Balanced analog inputs and outputs
>> - An integrated SyncBus
>> - Windows multi-client drivers for ASIO, GSIF, MME and DirectSound
>> - Multiple card support (upto 4 cards can be used at the same time)
>> - DAT Marker support
>> - Latency-free and flexible monitoring
>> - Using ASIO latency periods of 2 ms are possible
>> - Wordclock synchronisation
>> - AES/EBU digital ports
>> - Electrical S/PDIF digital ports
>>
** theres also a couple of SPDIF optical connectors **
>>
>>
>> Driver suite
>> Features:
>>
>>      short PCI card: 32-bit 33MHz, 5V
>>      Sample formats: 8, 16, 20, 24, 32 Bit Mono/Stereo
>>      Sample rates analog: 8-96 kHz +/-15% Pitch
>>      Sample rates digital: 32-96 kHz +/-15% Pitch
>>      Frequency response @ 44,1 kHz: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
>>      Frequency response @ 96 kHz: 20 Hz to 40 kHz
>>      Input/output level: +18 dBu
>>      SNR AD @ 44.1 kHz: 104 dB(A)
>>      SNR DA @ 44.1 kHz: 114 dB(A)
>>      THD+N AD @ -0,5 dbFS: 0,002%
>>      THD+N DA @ 0 dbFS: 0,002%
>>      Special versions with input Level Gain +24 dBu available
>>
>>
>>
>> Theo
>
>
> 96 kHz support is rather overkill as most people's ears cannot hear
> beyond 20 kHz and the Nyquist principle states tha you have to to sample
> at twice the highest frequency (to do ADC and then DAC faithfully) so
> that's 40 kHz. CDs already support 44 Khz audio....

Perhaps so, but a lot of "professional" recordings are done at 192kHZ
and a 384kHZ standard is in use as well, but I don't know how widespread
that is.

Meanwhile, in the last 40 years the resolution of the ADCs has moved
from 16 bits to 20 bits to 24 and (claimed) in some cases 32 bits

The £20 version of Cubase which I use supports 192 kHZ and its "big
brother" product Nuendo supports 384kHZ

You can pick up 4 channel 192k USB interfaces on eBay for less than £100
- the quality of the mic pre-amps might be another issue though ...

CDs may already "support" 44 Khz audio but it might be more accurate to
say that they are limited to it

On 14/11/2023 08:22, SH wrote:
>
> 96 kHz support is rather overkill as most people's ears cannot hear
> beyond 20 kHz and the Nyquist principle states tha you have to to sample
> at twice the highest frequency (to do ADC and then DAC faithfully) so
> that's 40 kHz. CDs already support 44 Khz audio....

CDs are 44,100Hz, and broadcast commonly uses 48,000.

If you want to transfer from one to the other there's a risk you'll get
artefacts at 3,900Hz.

Convert from 96k to either and you'll be fine.

You'll also find it's commonplace to have far higher standards in a
studio than you need in a home system - just because they are going to
be mixing all sorts of things, and probably running through the loop
several times.

Andy