Korg 1212 I/O (1996)

A PCI card that gave a desktop Mac twelve channels in and twelve out, and the marketing was accurate.

Overview

Twelve inputs and twelve outputs, all usable at once, on a single PCI card that dropped into a Mac's expansion slot. That was Korg's SoundLink DRS 1212 I/O. List price was $1,250 bundled with Macromedia's Deck II software, which in the mid-nineties undercut what dedicated multichannel hardware had been commanding. The card was part of Korg's broader SoundLink DRS (Digital Recording System) concept, a modular setup that let a studio buy the pieces it needed and add the rest later.

Here is the connectivity. Two analog inputs and two analog outputs on unbalanced stereo TRS quarter-inch connectors - 18-bit on the input side, 20-bit on the output, according to Korg's own literature. Then an RCA S/PDIF digital I/O pair, and eight channels of ADAT optical I/O, which made the card interesting to anyone already running an ADAT. Korg hammered one detail in every ad: all of these I/Os can be used simultaneously. No switching, and no giving up the analog pair to free up the optical port.

For synchronization, the 1212 I/O carried a Word Clock input and output plus an ADAT time-code input. That is a lot of clocking for a card in this class, and it let the 1212 fit into a larger digital rig instead of sitting isolated in a computer. Sound on Sound (July 1997, p.158) noted that the main interface was the ADAT standard optical port, an unusual choice compared to most competing systems, with the S/PDIF and analog connections rounding out the complement.

The card's fate was tied to the software that shipped with it. Deck II was the carrot, and Korg's advertising leaned hard on the combination, saying the 1212 I/O plus Deck II "brings the price of full-function, multi-channel computer based recording to a point that just about anyone can afford." That's marketing copy, not an independent verdict. The underlying claim held up, though. The card also worked with Steinberg's Cubase VST, which listed the Korg 1212 I/O among its supported multichannel interfaces alongside Digidesign's AudioMedia III and Lexicon Studio.

The wider SoundLink DRS family gave the 1212 room to grow. It connected directly to Korg's 168RC recording console, the system's centerpiece. That's a digital desk with a pair of ADAT optical interfaces providing sixteen channels of ADAT I/O and eight analog inputs, each with an onboard 18-bit A/D converter. Studios needing more analog inputs but only one ADAT could add an 880 A/D rack unit via optical cable. The 880 A/D listed at $1,200 and the 880 D/A at $1,000. The 168RC ran $3,200. Owners of Korg's Trinity workstation could fold that into the chain too, keeping the signal digital through final mixdown.

Reception was strong enough to leave a paper trail. Mix (January 1999, p.79) records that the 1212 I/O took Electronic Musician's 1998 Editor's Choice for audio card and an EQ Blue Ribbon Award for Best Product from the 101st AES Convention. Those are the kind of honors that, in hindsight, mark the moment computer-based recording stopped being a compromise and started being the default — and a $1,250 card with twelve simultaneous channels was a big part of why.

The caveats are the ones that come with any PCI card of the era. This is a Mac expansion-slot device, tied to a bus standard that has long since vanished from new machines. Its usefulness depends on software - Deck II, Cubase VST, and whatever else could address it - running on hardware and operating systems that are themselves collector's items. A working 1212 I/O today is a piece of a system, not a standalone purchase. The 18-bit input and 20-bit output conversion figures are modest by later standards, and the unbalanced analog I/O shows the card was built to a price.

What makes the 1212 I/O worth remembering is the simultaneity. Twelve in, twelve out, all at once, on one card, for the price of a decent used car payment — that was the promise, and Korg kept it. In a lineage that runs from the 1212 through the later SoundLink components and on into the Trinity era, it stands as the inexpensive front door to digital multichannel recording.

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