Settings for Native Instruments Audio 8 DJ? Got some probs

[rmmahe]

Hey!

I'm currently trying a lot different possible settings in combination with my Native Instruments Audio 8 DJ soundcard.
But I'm always running in some troubles with the sound ...
(the Audio 8 is the source, so I'm using the line-ins)

Hardware:
Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S-6410
Intel Core2Duo T-7250 (2x 2 GHz)
4 GB RAM

Software:
Windows 7 x64
All updates installed, drivers are up2date too.

I want to use this setup to stream live events.
I've attached a screenshot of how I configured the input/output

proppfrexx.png (55.16 KiB) Viewed 12074 times

Now to my different problems:

It doesn't matter if I use ASIO, WDM or WASAPI.
From time to time everything is silent, which means nothing get's broadcasted, the levelmeters next to the faders (in the mixer) are at the bottom and don't move.
The soundcard itself shows me that there is a signal incoming (if you don't know the Audio 8 => there are LEDs for this)
Sometimes the sound comes back, sometimes I've to restart proppfrexx to get things working again, sometimes it's enough if I just click one of the SND-Buttons of a channel (it doesn't matter which one ...)

The other problem apears only if I use ASIO (which I prefer to WDM and WASAPI).
Sometimes I get a kind of distortion, it sounds like when you plug in a cable and have the sound turned on.
I can't reproduce it ... sometimes it's here and sometimes not and it's very short.

I don't thing I've mixed something up with the settings, for me everything looks correct and fine.

But I want to know which settings you recommend, I think it will work with these then

Thx in advance

[rmmahe]

I can't set the OUT-channel to ASIO, the ASIO driver I use is only for the Audio 8.

Here the screenshots of the settings you asked for:

routing.png (55.37 KiB) Viewed 12065 times

wdm.png (56.21 KiB) Viewed 12065 times

I don't need the OUT-channel, what I'm streaming is the AIR-Channel (Air1).

[radio42]

The setup looks okay so far.
What are your routing settings resp. the SND settings for the different mixer-channels.

The only issue I might see (which might be causing issues is the OUT mixer-channel), if thats in use somewhere (e.g. via SND).
As here you are 'mixing' ASIO and WDM.
What would happen, if you are also using ASIO for this channel?
And what are your WDM buffer settings (general settings, section Audio: Playback Buffer and Update Period).

[radio42]

As far as I can see does the Audio 8 have 4 stereo inputs and 4 stereao outputs - so why don't you have another ASIO output available, you are so far only usin one?

The issue might be, that when mixing two different soundcards, their sample rate might not be perfectly running at the same clock speed, as such the one gets its buffer either overrun or underrun.

[rmmahe]

I just routed the Full-Duplex to the internal soundcard because I don't really need it xD
I'll try what you said.

Meanwhile, currently it's running without this sporadic silence, bit I've some kind of noise sometimes.
I'll upload a short sample in a few minutes (I Just arrived at home)

[rmmahe]

Here is the example, in the last 15 seconds you will hear that it has nothing todo with a to high input level (just open it in an editor which shows you the waveform).

Edit: I should include the link xD http://stuff.mahe.at/tmp/example.mp3

[radio42]

Listening to the provided audio indeed sounds totally distorted to me - typically as if the input signal was clipping (which means, that the input gain is too high).
Note, that the input level must be adjusted in windows mixer resp. ASIo control panel.
Have you tried to lower that.
Else the signal might already arrive distorted - have you tried to lower the volume on the source of the input (e.g. your mixer console or playback device)?

How have you recorded that? Did you record that directly from the ASIO mixer-input-channel using the ProppFrexx REC function?
Are you using any DSPs/VSTs on the mixer-channel?

[rmmahe]

The Input-Level was okay so far.

How have you recorded that? Did you record that directly from the ASIO mixer-input-channel using the ProppFrexx REC function?
Are you using any DSPs/VSTs on the mixer-channel?

Yes, that's the way I recorded it.
I've only AGC aktivated.

[radio42]

Have you tried to lower the volume on the source of the input (e.g. your mixer console or playback device)?
And have you ried to deactivate the AGC?

How does it sound when the above two options are changed?

[djgait]

One thing I had with working with Proppfrexx and different driver types (e.g. WASAPI and ASIO) is that the WASAPI part is sometimes overwritten bij windows itself.

A WASAPI controlled device is set up in 2 ways in windows 7.
First you can set it up by using the driver provided control panel (realtek audio manager, creative sound panel or something like that)
Second windows 7 has an audio device control panel in wich you can set things up

The problem lies most of the time in the win7 control panel an the driver control panel not communicating (poorly written, not up to date or buggy). For example, when you set the card up in the driver control panel to be just stereo (2 channel, even when it's a 5.1 card), but the windows 7 panel is set up as 5.1, then you can get weird behaviour.
If you set up the sound card to be 48khz but windows says 41khz, stuttering may appear.

I've had an issue that my ASIO m-audio delta 410 card could not function properly on proppfrexx (jittering sound, failing sound). By turning off the device in the Windows audio devices control panel (not hardware control panel!), there were no errors when playing in Proppfrexx.

I guess win 7 aimed at ease of use with implementation of the audio device control panel, but poor communication between drivers and windows may cause issues.

So check is the settings of all drivers are the same as in the audio device control panel, or disable the ASIO audio cards, so they won't appear as WASAPI units (and probably prevent the device being controlled by both WASAPI and ASIO.)