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[retrospek]

Hi all,

I'm still confused exactly what ASIO is and if I can use it on my systems.

I have two machines, one with a Audigy 2 card and the other with an external Extigy USB.  Can these run ASIO ?

Also, exactly what does ASIO do ? and how do I configure it ?

It seems like a number of you are using ASIO and I'm starting to feel left out  

Thanks,

Mark

[Autoelph]

Let me answer the one I can:

ASIO is a somewhat new standard of data flow to your audio card, allowing certain programs the ability to access the card directly without going through other MS related protocols. This can create stunning stereo audio as well as surround and 5.1 data streams and also leave your system resources free to do other important things.

I also have yet to get ASIO working in MC with my card, although I have used it with some audio editing software, so I know it works. I have an uneasy feeling though that MC probably won't support my card anytime soon, if ever, but your cards should be supported now or sometime soon.

Hope that helps...you may want to research ASIO yourself and your cards abilities with ASIO before getting too frustated with it in MC, as MC is currently beta, and the ASIO support in MC is very recent.

[retrospek]

Thanks Autoelph,

So has anyone on here got it to work with the Creative cards and have any tips on how to configure it ?

Thanks,

Mark

[TURBO]

ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output), developed by Steinberg, is a cross-platform, multi-channel audio transfer protocol that is being adopted by many of the manufacturers of audio/MIDI sequencing applications. It allows software to have access to the multi-channel capabilities of a wide range of powerful sound cards.
ASIO expands on the basic capabilities of a standard computer sound card, most of which can only provide stereo (two-channel) audio input and output. The ASIO specification defines the interface that manufacturers of professional audio sound cards must use to create an ASIO driver for their hardware. This driver allows the host audio/MIDI application to "see" all of the inputs and outputs available on the sound card. The user can then assign these I/O ports as needed for recording or playback when using an ASIO-compatible software program. This allows the users to record more tracks simultaneously than the previous limitation of two channels imposed by a standard sound card.  

[PhatPhreddy]

The big deal why ASIO is important is because M$ screwed the pooch again !! With any OS past 98 (any WDM driver model OS) sound gets passed through the KMixer which resamples the sound... It does not do this in a transparent way and results is a distorted resampled audio stream... Obviously this is not wanted...

So developers have to use workarounds... The easiest workaround for this seems to be using the ASIO interface developed by Stienberg.  The main purpose of the interface is to provide a low latency means of communicating directly with the soundcard and sidestepping all the windows headaches.

The end result is a cleaner sound... This is only going to be of importance if higher end sound is the direction you are going, I have not done any testing to see how ASIO works with lossy files like MP3 but it does have a subtantial effect with lossless files...

Of course the whole thing will be moot when M$ finally sorts thier KMangler like they have been treatening to since they broke it !!!

[mkutsen]

I have Audigy 1

My setup:

Options -> Playback -> Output -> Mode -> ASIO
Under Settings: Device -> Creative ASIO

DSP

Don't use Multichannel output - select "Source number of channels" Creative uses their own software for multichannel output.

Sample rate - for Audigy 1 - 48,000 with ASIO drivers
I think with Audigy 2 you can go as high as 192,000

[mkutsen]

What's the difference between ASIO and Direct Sound 9 drivers?

[retrospek]

Thanks for all the replies.

Mkutsen - thanks for your reply.  I've now configured it using your information and it works on my Audigy 2 card.  However, it won't go above 48,000 Hz.

My other machine (with the Extigy USB Card) is telling me that it couldn't find a ASIO device in MC.  Does anyone know if the Extigy supports ASIO ?

Thanks again,

Mark

[mkutsen]

I have set-up, wave mapper and ASIO in different Zones, and I can't really tell the difference in audio quality when I swithch between the zones.  Not even with audio CDs.  However ASIO is a lot less stable, especially with internet streams.

Also, Direct Sound only outputs to the front two channels bypassing the Audigy Surround Sound and digital effects software.  If I attempt to use the MC9 DSP effects and JRSS it does map to all of my 4 channels, but sounds like crap.