SoundGrid is a networking and processing platform audio application made by

Waves Audio Waves Audio Ltd. is a developer and supplier of professional digital audio signal processing technologies and audio signal processing, audio effects, used in recording, mixing, mastering, post production, broadcast, and live sound. The company's ...

and developed in cooperation with

DiGiCo DiGiCo is a British company based in Chessington, England that designs, markets, and manufactures digital mixing consoles and other audio technologies for the live sound, musical theatre, broadcast, and installed sound markets. Originally foun ...

. It consists of a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based server that runs the SoundGrid environment, compatible plug-ins, a Mac or

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

control computer, and an

audio interface An audio interface is a piece of computer hardware that allows the input and output of audio signals to and from a host computer or recording device. Audio interfaces are closely related to computer sound cards, but whereas sound cards are opti ...

for

input/output In computing, input/output (I/O, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, possibly a human or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals ...

(I/O). It is used for live sound, broadcast, and post production—and provides a low- latency environment for audio processing on certain hardware audio mixing consoles, e.g., DiGiCo,

Allen & Heath Allen & Heath (also known as AH or A&H) is a company based in Penryn, Cornwall, England, specialising in the manufacture of audio mixing consoles. Allen & Heath also makes sound management systems for industrial installations and DJ mixers ...

, and

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

Features

* Low latency (less than 1ms) for SoundGrid-compatible plugins. * Runs on Intel CPUs and 1Gbit/s

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

networks. * Integrates with analog and digital mixing consoles. * Provides redundancy and recovery. * Splits output to record on a standard

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...

(DAW). * Comprises network infrastructure for sound installations.

Audio transport and system control

SoundGrid is a proprietary Ethernet Layer 2 protocol and

EtherType EtherType is a two-octet field in an Ethernet frame. It is used to indicate which protocol is encapsulated in the payload of the frame and is used at the receiving end by the data link layer to determine how the payload is processed. The same f ...

. It routes audio between networked I/O devices and processes it on plugin servers connected to the same network. The I/O device converts SoundGrid packets to standard and proprietary audio protocols.

Audio processing

Using

native processing Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are a ...

, SoundGrid runs on standard CPUs under an optimized

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

(OS). Waves Audio says this provides "predictability, stability, and low latency" that was previously exclusive to dedicated DSP-based systems. Consequently, SoundGrid can run large numbers of plugins, as well as CPU-intensive plugins. Separate computers provide SoundGrid processing: * One or more SoundGrid Server are dedicated to audio processing in a customized Linux OS optimized for audio processing. * A Windows or Mac computer runs SoundGrid Host, the host application and user interface.

Audio interfacing

Audio interfaces with SoundGrid by integrating a SoundGrid-programmed

FPGA A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturinghence the term '' field-programmable''. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware de ...

(

Xilinx Xilinx, Inc. ( ) was an American technology and semiconductor company that primarily supplied programmable logic devices. The company was known for inventing the first commercially viable field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and creating the fi ...

Spartan 3) into a mixing console's I/O ports. The FPGA receives I2S or other audio signal formats and converts them to the SoundGrid format. The FPGA also transfers control messages between control nodes external to the SoundGrid network and the SoundGrid control application.

Control software

SoundGrid audio processing, connections, system configuration, and monitoring are controlled by the MultiRack SoundGrid control application, which runs on Windows and Mac computers, including embedded systems. MultiRack SoundGrid displays rows of virtual plugin chains, named Racks, each of which chains up to eight Waves plugins. A Rack processes audio from a user-selected input and sends the processed output to a user-selected output. MultiRack SoundGrid offers remote parameter control and navigation over

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

, or over an inter-application API by integration with the console's host application.

System configuration

To configure a system, the user: * Connects and routes audio between system components * Configures I/O devices * Configures plugin servers * Sets system sample rate, block size, and latency * Monitors and controls system and component status * Sets redundancy and recovery modes

Scalability

Users can configure SoundGrid systems for optimal effectiveness per channel-count, processing capabilities, routing, and sample rate—and expand them by adding I/O or processing devices.

References

{{Reflist Broadcast engineering Ethernet Audio network protocols Digital audio