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?
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.
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.
OK, we'll bump it up the list.
Thanks!
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?
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.
Yes, I think that's right. The manufacturers could probably provide their own, higher resolution driver but they don't seem to bother.
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.
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
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.
Quote from: Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft) on October 12, 2011, 09:40:02 AM
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. :)
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.
OK, thanks very much. Please keep me posted.
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.
Thanks once again. The labelling of the ASIO inputs and outputs are read directly from the driver so that's all we have to display.
I'll look into the hanging issue. I suspect it is because no signal is coming from the device, even after it has been plugged back in. VinylStudio expects a regular 'heartbeat' callback from the device and will currently hang if it doesn't get it.
I have just recorded an album at 24/96 playing at 33.3 with no problem.
I did, however, get a real BSOD crash requiring a reset, then a complete freeze of my laptop when I used the speed conversion function playing the LP at 45. This is XP Pro sp3 with all updates. Antivirus (!avast) is disabled when recording.
Hmmm. I'm not sure what VinylStudio could have done to cause this. Have you / do you use ASIO from other applications?
The only other ASIO enabled recording software I have tried is Wavosaur. No problem there. For playback Foobar2k and J River. Also without problems. I will do some more tests an see if I can find anything.
OK, thanks. Perhaps you could also run the following test program, copy the results to the clipboard and email them to me:
http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/private/asio_test.exe
You can email me at:
p DOT sanders AT alpinesoft DOT co DOT uk
You have mail..
Got it, thanks. I can't see any obvious reason for the crashes. If / when you can find time for further testing that would be good. I will also do some further testing here.
To anyone monitoring this thread, there is a new version available:
http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/VSInstall_V8_20B2.exe
This fixes the 'hanging' issue when a USB device is disconnected and addresses one or two other bugs. It is also a full release build and so runs at full speed.