T1 ToneMatch® Audio Engine / USB
Hilmar-at-Bose talks about the USB interface[1]
Contents
Live Application of USB in the T1™
Firstly, the T1 is designed as a convenient and powerful interface for a live musician. We try to put many useful controls directly at your finger tips so you can operate them while your playing or between songs. This basic idea has also influenced how we've implemented USB audio streaming. We try to accomodate the most common use cases (background tracks, DJ, quick recording) with the least amount of hassle & configuration work, even if that makes less common uses cases more difficult to accomodate.
USB audio in general
When you plug in the T1 into your PC it will appear to the PC as a USB sound card (USB audio device in Windows). You can play and record audio just like with any other soundcard, i.e. if you use for example Windows Media Player to play a song, the audio will be routed via USB to the T1. On the T1 you can decide where you want it. You can route it either to the master (e.g. when using the PC to play background tracks) or into channel 4/5 to process it to your hearts content. The T1 can also send audio back to the PC. You can select what you want to send. It can be either channel (1,2,3,4/5) or Aux or Master. For example you can make a little submix on the AUX bus and record that with for example Windows Sound Recorder or Audactity.
Latency and Digital Audio Workstation
USB audio requires a fairly complicated driver stack and hence we have decided to operate wiht the Windows standard drivers. That's fairly rugged but also not particularly fast, so processing sounds in real time on the PC and sending back to the T1 may or may not work depdning how the computer is configured, what operating system is running, and what other processes are going on at the same time.
Digital Media players and USB host
The T1 is only a USB client and requires a USB host (= PC). That means you cannot connect an MP3 player directly to the T1 digitally. The best way to connect is analog through Ch 4/5.
- ↑ Hilmar-at-Bose in the Stereo Operation discussion Bose Message Boards