I Feel I Should Know This ......., really basic advice needed please Options

[Jaysee]

I'm a bit embaressed to ask this as I'm sure it must have cropped up on the forum lots of times.
I'm a bit puzzled by the 'optical' audio in and out on the back of my new G5. If they allow one to record audio with such high fidelity why did my apple reseller feel the need to install the MAudio delta44 card/breakoutbox. I'm guessing it has something to do with the 44's higher sampling rate or that the optical ports are somehow 'hard wired' to the OSX 'sound manager' thingy(?)
cheers, jaysee.

[formatj]

The optical ports give you 2 channels of digital audio in and out. You would need an A/D or D/A converter box to use these or an external device that has digital in/out.
The delta 44 gives you 4 analog ins and outs.

What external sound sources are you trying to record?
I'm assuming you are sending the outputs to your monitors.

[Jaysee]

What external sound sources are you trying to record?
I'm assuming you are sending the outputs to your monitors.

Hi, I ordered all the various bits of my set up over a period of 4 months or more, but they all arrived at once a couple of weeks ago, so I've got a lot of confusing learning curves to climb simultaneously before I get it all working.
I guess the main instrument to record will be my new kurzweil 2661, which in addition to its analogue outs apparently has an ADAT/AES out optical jack. (I dont have an ADAT recording machine)
The Kurzweil instruction manuals are pretty heavy going but it would appear to be a pretty self contained system on its own, with a well specified built in sequencer and on board sampling (I'm still waiting for the SMP61 sampler option to arrive)
I bought NI Komplete including the Kontakt sampler months ago but as my hardware has only just arrived I havent installed any thing like that yet.
The only other thing I'm likely to record on the G5 into DP4 is my nord modular and my ancient trusty EMS Synthi A which is being restored by EMS at the moment after 30 years of use and abuse by me.
I havent got a decent mic yet apart from a pair of beat up pzm's I unearthed the other day gaffa'd to either side of a big piece of wood in the garage. not so much dummy head as dummy plank:-)

re the monitor question: To be honest I havent even got that far yet! I have a pair of tapcoS5's and a little tapco 6306 mixer. but I'm even slightly confused as to which order to set them up!
kurzweil to mixer to delta44 inputs?
or kurzweil to delta44 ins, then delta44 outs to mixer to monitors?

Good Lord if I'm getting this confused while old and sober, how the hell did I ever cope with learning my old EMS and other quirky analogue synths when I was young and drunk? cheers, jaysee