Asio

[ogs]

I use a Sound Devices USBPre2 to transfer vinyl to my PC. Sound Devices has released Asio drivers to enable recording/playback up to 24/192 in Windows (max 24/48 without Asio), bypassing much of Windows' sound degrading audio code. Is Asio support in VinylStudio "moving up" on the list of new features to be added soon?

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Moving up, I guess.  However, it is wrong to say that the standard Windows USB audio drivers degrade the incoming audio.  That is simply not true.  The only problem is that the sample rate is limited.

[ogs]

I have not had the opportunity to compare asio vs non-asio recordings with the same setup so my claim for the built in drivers may certainly be wrong! The transfers I have done so far sounds very nice indeed. The USBPre2 is a audio class 2.0 device. MAC OS from 10.5.8 can address it up to 24/192. I would like to record at higher rates also in Windows and hope asio support is not too far away.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, we'll bump it up the list.

[ogs]

Thanks!

[Jos van Eekelen]

I'm relatively new to VS but the discussion is not quite clear to me. I'm using a Cakewalk UA1G with a Packard Bell netbook for recording, ASIO drivers installed. VS version 8.0.2. I set the recording options to FLAC/48 kHz/24 bits per sample since this seemed to be the best setting until I read about ASIO not being supported (yet). Nonetheless everything seems to work quite well. My question is how the UA1G settings and these in VS relate to each other?

[ogs]

24/48 is also the best I can get for my USBPre 2 with VS in Windows at the moment. This means that VS is talking to the sound card via Windows' drivers. 24/48 is the max supported resolution for the USB driver in Windows.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Yes, I think that's right.  The manufacturers could probably provide their own, higher resolution driver but they don't seem to bother.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi folks,

There's now a beta-test version of VinylStudio which supports ASIO.  If you'd like to try it we'd be grateful.  You can get it from here:

http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/VSInstall_V8_20B1.exe

Please let us know how it goes.

[ogs]

Hi,

my USBPre 2 with Asio drivers is working fine for both recording with monitoring and playback. Sample rate switching is also working. I have not recorded a complete album with the beta version yet. I'll report back after that.
I need to have the usb device connected and running before I start VS. If I plug the USBPre while VS is running and then try to change device, VS will hang. I guess this is to be expected. I attach a screen shot of the USBPre 2 Asio applet.

Olav

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Excellent, thank you.  I would not expect VinylStudio to hang under the conditions you describe.  It might be a shortcoming of the ASIO driver you are using.

[ogs]

Excellent, thank you.  I would not expect VinylStudio to hang under the conditions you describe. 

You are right, it does not hang any more. I can not reproduce the error, so VinylStudio and the USBPre 2 asio driver seems to be best of friends. 

[Jos van Eekelen]

Just tried it on a test system (UA-1G + Vista 32 bit, Toshiba laptop, recording @96 kHz/32 bits). Recording was ok but I did not get a signal back on the UA-1G, no playback signal. I'll do some more testing on the regular system later and report back.
BTW, thanks for implementing ASIO.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, thanks very much.  Please keep me posted.

[Jos van Eekelen]

I did some further testing on my regular system (Packard Bell netbook, W7 starter/32 bits, Cakewalk UA-1G, BS beta). Everything seems to work fine. Tried both 48 kHz and 96 kHz, both 24 bits and everything workes as expected. Same comment as ogs, Cakewalk/Roland advises to unplug/plugin the device after changing setting, this caused VS to hang but that's to be expected. A restart of VS cured that. Unplugging/plugging in of devices is not regular practice so I'm not surprised it causes some inconvenience.
BTW, the labeling of inputs of Asio device (IN and IN(R) could be a bit more unambiguous. I assume it means left and right respectively. Perhaps something for the final version.