PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hi Asio prof!
what are the difference between those 10 different types of asio source/dest?
I currently use plain asio source/dest. and everything is working fine, even if i record in 24bit. what are all the other types for? do they sound better?

Stardust, the only difference between asio1 & asio2 is synchronisation and direct monitoring. If you don't use either of these, it asio1 is exactly the same as asio2. [edit] On SFP, there's a difference in the Send modules too: for asio1, source and dest each have their own popup. The asio2 Source takes care of it's own and of the Dest's amount of channels.

heinrich,
you can always record higher bitdepths for lower bitdepth driver, recording 24bit wavs from 16bit driver will leave 8 bits unused.
32flt is 24bit precision with 8 bits overhead, you can look at these 8 like an exponent, in the style of '24bit value' x 10^'8bit value' 32flt cannot clip because of that; it has near infinite dynamic range.

16bit has 0 - -96dB range; 2^16 = 65.536 possible values per sample. 16bit is what ends on cd.
24bit has 0 - -192dB range, has 2^24 = 16.777.216 numbers to express the amplitude,
32bit integer has 0 - -288dB range, 2^32 possible sample values,
32flt... tbh i don't know the dB range There's 24bit accuracy the other 8 bits makes for a multiplier of some sort.
32flt doesn't clip, and only has 24bit precision, independant of the level,
32integer offers the highest accuracy, 32 precise bits. For all integer formats (16, 24, 32): unused dB result in unused bits. Floating Point just adjusts the multiplier and always has 24bit precision. I think. (Anyone can confirm or break that?)

I use 24bit usually, which offers 256 times the precision of 16bit. I still have to watch my VU meters cos clips are heared.

ASIO drivers come in all these bitdepths. Some ASIO drivers have names that rhyme on 64. The regular ASIO drivers offer up to 32 mono channels, 64 can go up to 64 mono channels. Double click the driver to set the number of channels.

There's also Wave driver, which includes directx support so you don't have to choose Directx driver in the player/editor. Load one driver per source/dest you want to record or mix simultaneously.
At least one Wave driver must be in the project for a sequencer to be able to access SFP's ASIO driver.

GSIF drivers are for Gigasampler, but I think they're not compatible with the current Giga version.

Digital Wave Source can be used to send AC3 audio, ie. for watching DVD's or so, over S/P-DIF to a surround amplifier. SFP cannot make or record AC3, you have to record classic multichannel then convert on native software. Apparently this restriction is a licensing issue.

16 Wave Interleaved is rarely used, I think an old version of Cakewalk used that.

Sound Card Dest and Source are ment to route sound from another soundcard. You can double click the devices and select an onboard soundcard. Well, that's the theory, but in reality, as long as both cards don't use the same clock, I wouldn't rely on it. So you hook up a digital connection (adat, spdif) between both cards and you don't need the Sound Card device anymore

Sequencer drivers are MIDI IO for software MIDI gear.


Have fun,

at0m.

_________________
Imagine a planet without ads...


[edit] added other drivers than ASIO and removed a bit of which I wasn't too sure.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: at0m|c on 2005-03-23 15:01 ]</font>

Thanks Atom for the very explanatory reply. Last week I've tryed a demo version of the NI kompact and it crashes. The second time i've tryed to start the sampler (without changing my sfp project or restarting scope)a pop-up tells me that: "scope card driver not started or asio in/out not present in the project".

So I've understand that the problem was the asio driver and I've tryed all the variuos souces/destinations.
Only one works: the simple "asio" (without any number after).

Has anybody idea why this happens?
Has someome experiment the same?
Does anybody have any suggestion about how to use the other asio type to take advantage of them?

Thanks!

Hi stardust,
Can you gently post your project? I'm wondering if it's my scope's installation gone bad, or if is something else.

Thanks

Here's a trick for when Scope ASIO gets lost: set samplerate in Scope to external, so the sequencer doesn't find it. This is often enough to reset the part of the ASIO engine that causes the problem. (re: Simple 'ASIO' driver: does that use ASIO drivers or Directx?)

Thanks to all, now I'm making some very interesting tests and I will post the results soon.

@ stardust:the project was near the same of yours, the only one difference was a midi merger and a virtual midi keyboard. This confirms to me that the problem is somewhere around the configuration.

I'm doing tests about a procedure i need to do to make the things working.

Do you run a host sequencer like Cubase or Logic while you start the stand alone version of Kompakt?
Once the SFP asio drivers are used by your host sequencer they aren´t free for the NI stand alone versions. Within a host sequencer you have to use the vst plugin version of Kompakt.

Hi Chris,
Thank you for the tip, but I use the standalone without any external sequencer.
The standalone was the only one musical program running.

I've just finished the tests I tell before. The result is a procedure I need to do to be able to run the kompact with the asio drivers.

1- start the NI program. If in the previous start kompact used the asio drivers and if in the current project there are the asio devices, the program doesn't crash. Else (asio drivers not present)the standalone crashes in a very bad way If i change the project and then i try to restart kontakt, the stand alone tells me that there aren't the asio source/dest in the current project. Any other try to fix the thing doesn't work.

2- I need to choose the multimedia driver AND THEN close the Kompact.

3- Then I need to close the scope. This is absolutely necessary. I've try to change the samplerate from master to sync without any success.

4- Then I restart scope and choose the project with the asio inside.

5- Then I restart the kompact. A pop-up tells to me that there aren't any multimedia device properly installed. I don't care it because I need to swich on the asio.

6- Swiching on the asio the stand alone works correctly.


A thing I need to choose with caution is the samplerate, because if I change the rate in the samplerate setting's window (of scope) it works (for example from 44100 to 96000), when I open the kompact's window i noticed that the frequence has automatically changed to the same valour, but when I push the button to accept the change the program crashes. So I need to redo the steps from 2- to the end.

I'm thinking of a synchronization error of the samplerate frequences. Any other idea? Could be an installation error?

It's quite logic that changing the project causes Kontakt loosing the ASIO.
Scope's DSP's get reloaded, after beeing cleared, so there's no way out here

Sometimes I accidently close down SFP whyle Cubase is still active (happens sometimes when I have Cubase 'hided').
I hate the warning that comes up then
Because even - eh, also - my mac doesn't like this, I always have to restart, and if I get a freez, twice.

After restart I have to delete the Sound Panel's prefs and the ASIO prefs of Cubase, which are renewed to default after the next restart.
(I also could use a prefs backup, but I usually don't change Cubase's prefs.
The Sound Panel needs a restart anyway).

Even then it can take a whyle before I can get everything stable again.
Boring restarts and even renewing the drivers including the OMS driver are the only options.

To make it short, I'm telling you this to underline that ASIO is vulnarable, it's one of the main reasons I hope Creamware will fix the OSX support asap
To avoid problems, you just have to start and close down the ASIO programs in the right sequence.

To close positive:
If you choose 'Disable audio' in the Options/audio menu, you can change project in SFP!
I use this very often, it works perfect and safe

Don't know if Kontakt-standalone can unchain the ASIO connection this way, you could choose the ASIO connection of your built-in soundcard to release the SFP ASIO connection (before you close SFP...).
That's how it works with me at least, and it should work the same on pc.
One thing: if you, in any way, was using multi (ASIO) outs with the Kontakt, you probably will see a warning that you will loose output settings.
Therefor, you better save the instrument before changing ASIO settings


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2005-04-09 20:24 ]</font>

Thanks Stardust for your tries! They are very appreciated
I'm a bit lucky, because my startup project has a samplerate of 44100, and I change it only when I need more definition (like when I need to register some synth track).

Generally when I use cubase and I change the project, I have the warning that Hubrid tells before (I agree with him: it's very annoing), but nothing crashes, I only need to recall the asio in the "asio multitrack" window. This fact and the one you tell to me (related to reaktor and not to kontakt) suggest to me that probably there's something wrong in the asio(or samplerate) management of the native instruent's stndalones.

Later I'll try to use kontakt in the vst enviroment of cubase, to see if it's better