[AussieMacGamer]

First tech help thread in quite a while! I miss these things.

So, for my Studio Arts Video film this year, i am very interested in doing a Surround Sound Mixdown. As far as my setup goes, i have a Yamaha 5.1 receiver which takes a 5.1 signal from the Optical audio out on my Macbook Pro. The Macbook Pro only outputs in AC3 as far as i know. Whatever it outputs in, it doesn't do hardware decoding, so i cant mix with it. I need an external soundcard.

So far I'm looking at the Griffin Firewave for Mac.

Advantages

• Firewire
  The thing runs through a firewire 400 port, so i don't have to use one of my sacred USB ports. Not only that, its piggybackable, so i can use another FW 400 if i need to.
  
  
• Interface designed for Mac
  The interface is designed for Mac and seems well written and easy to use
  
  
• Cheap
  This thing can be picked up for cheap on Ebay (i already bought one to have a look, but am going to exchange it)

Disadvantages(there's many of these)

• Confusing Output
  The output on this thing, doesn't jive with me so well. It outputs to 3 x 3.5mm jacks. One each for L/R, SRL/SRR, C/S. While my amp does have individual inputs, it has them split per channel, not into 3 sets of 2. To add to my annoyance, the inputs arent 3.5mm their you're standard RCA looking jack inputs.
  
• No XP compatability (as far as i know)
  The card doesn't seem to have any XP compatibility whatsoever, so there is no way of me being able to use this under bootcamp for games.
  
• Kinda big
  Not the worst

Basically, if anyone knows of a better, cheaper card, let me know. Otherwise, does anyone have any idea on how to connect this baby to my amp? I am guessing i am going to need a 3.5mm stereo splitter adapter, Or a cable which splits both signals into their own jack.

[AussieMacGamer]

I tried each output using a standard ipod video cable (the extended 3 channel 3.5mm jack to 3 RCA) It works for the L/R, LS/RS but not the Centre and LFW channels. Any ideas?

[Greg Gant]

I assume with the Firewave right? Its not like the device supports a 1/8 inch tri-tip, so I'm not sure what you're trying to do, get all six channels to a receiver/amplifier/speaker set? It clearly is labeled it has three 1/8inch ports, meaning you need three cables.

Also it completely depends on said software for LFE channel mixing and treatment of center channel mastering. Generally for pans of sounds with various apps, default to four channel pans as the center generally is reserved for sound isolation and the LFE is mastered separately as a reaffirmation of the bass. I haven't bothered to use Soundtrack 2 but I'd guess if you're just testing with a 1/8 to RCA cable and wondering why it only outputs to four channels, this would be the issue.

[AussieMacGamer]

So will 3 dual-tip 3.5mm to two RCA jack cable's work?

[Cyan421]

It seems you answered you own question. If a cable with 1/8th inch stereo on one end and RCA on the other, or adapters don't work your pretty much out of luck. From a pro audio standpoint, I find it hard to believe that would work. But I can't think of a cheaper way to do it.

[teflon]

that'll work, yeah. Since its literally just cabling and not any hardware in the splitting of the two signals.