The new Wavelink (£TBA) provides analogue audio outputs for the MOTU Digital Waveboard, a £1,395 Mac NuBus card that provides 16-bit, 44.1kHz direct to disk recording for the Mac II series, and includes built in S/PDIF digital audio I/O.
However, the Waveboard seems overpriced compared with Digidesign's new Audiomedia II NuBus card, which includes both S/PDIF and analogue I/O, yet retails for only £899. Another blow to the Waveboard is that Audiomedia II is supplied with Sound Designer II 2.0, the Sound Tools stereo waveform editing/playlisting/DSP software. At present, the only software the Waveboard supports is Digital Performer. However, MOTU would say in their defence that the Waveboard has its own onboard SCSI, and so less powerful Macs should run applications software only. The Waveboard also includes an onboard slot for expansion to play back four tracks, though these will be internally mixed to stereo, since the Waveboard itself offers only S/PDIF (ie. a stereo) output.
Like Audiomedia II, Sound Tools II (£3,495) offers two simultaneous audio tracks; however, Sound Tools II is expandable to four tracks (each with its own independent output) with the addition of an accelerator card (£TBA). Despite Audiomedia's 2-track limitation, rumours suggest that Cubase Audio may be able to support two Audiomedia II cards in one Mac, thereby providing 4-track simultaneous playback, though probably not recording.
Not surprisingly, the original Sound Tools system and the Audiomedia card have been discontinued, unlike SampleCell (£2,420 with 8MB RAM), a NuBus card that turns the Mac into a professional 16-bit sampler and includes a 630MB sound library on CD-ROM disk.
Pro Deck, the multitrack tapeless recording software, previously only available with Pro Tools, can now be purchased separately (£399) for use with Sound Tools II. Pro Tools itself is still going strong, at £6,122.97 for the basic four independent simultaneous track system (which includes Pro Deck and waveform editing software), four extra independent tracks for £3,499, and each additional eight tracks costing £3,499.