aerond

I'm wondering what's the differences between the two.
For now, all I can see (or hear) is:
- Master Mixer: plays 5.1 ac3 files perfectly (channels are well dispatched on outputs), doesn't use rear/center/lfe for regular stereo files (despite setting 5.1 copy in Surrounder+), have very annoying random tics and tacs noise when playing.
- SPDIF/AC3: use all 5.1 outputs for stereo files (copy), is unable to play true 5.1 ac3 files, doesn't make noises.

I wonder why I cannot get sound on all outputs (front+rear+center+lfe) with regular stereo files using Master Mixer. Same goes for SPDIF/AC3 about true 5.1 sounds. If anyone can tell me how to achieve normal playing of 5.1 sounds and copy front to center/rear for 2.0 stereo sounds on both devices, that would be great!

I also wonder why Master Mixer outputs those strange noises while Wave out x/x have no problem so far. Does anyone knows something about this noise (I've seen many threads about this issue but no reason given)?

(I'm using Audigy 4 Pro SB0380 on Win7 64bits)

trex_daemon

Try to mix the signal coming from FXbus 0/1 with 2/3 with a stereo mixer and feed it to xrouting first 2 inputs. It should work fine with mastermixer. Also, increase the buffer sizes in the settings and you will have no clicks drops etc.

aerond

Thanks a lot for your response.

I still don't understand very well a lot of things about those wmd drivers (that are wave x/x, waveHQ, spidf/ac3, master, etc.) that can be set on Windows settings.

I understand quite well the DSP page of kX settings, the sound routing inside the graph. But I don't know where to logically place those wmd outputs on this graph. For example, when I select wave 4/5 as output device, what does it change on the DSP graph logic? Does it change something on the FXbus? or does it change the behaviour of the Epilog? Or does it have nothing to do with the DSP settings?

If I use a very simple DSP graph, like FXbus 0/1 to Epilog 0/1 and Epilog hearphones, I can expect a wave file to be played on both the front speakers and the hearphones. So Epilog looks like a representation of the physical output of the sound card. But if I choose waveHQ, there will be nothing on the hearphones. Does it mean that Epilog is not a real representation of the card's outputs, but instead a representation of the wmd driver's input? Then it's up to this driver to output the sound where it wants (and, in this case, waveHQ ignores the hearphones)?

Russ

There is a bug with the routing of stereo audio from Master Mixer in Windows Vista/7.
By default WaveHQ bypasses the DSP (otherwise enters the DSP via P16v plugin).
All (non-WaveHQ) audio from the OS enters the DSP via FxBus. Different devices uses different FxBus pins.

Current routing with Vista/7 is like this:
Master Mixer:
- Should use FxBus 0/1 with stereo audio, but because of bug, may use 2/3, 4/5, or 6/7
- Multi-channel audio uses FxBus 2/3 (front), 4/5 (rear), 6/7 (center/LFE)
Wave 2/3:
- uses FxBus 2/3
Wave 4/5:
- uses FxBus 4/5
Wave 6/7:
- uses FxBus 6/7
SPDIF/AC3:
- uses FxBus 0/1 (when not doing AC3 pass-through)

See kX Router for more info on FxBus assignments.

aerond

Russ, thanks a lot for your reply. It clarifies a lot of things for me. So, should I say that the output device selected in Windows correspond to FXbus outputs, that is 'what we will use to feed the DSP with'? That makes sense now. I guess same goes for recording devices: the Recording Mixer device correspond to the Epilog pins (recL/recR) where it will get the data from? And of course, the Wave In HQ device bypasses the DSP.

Russ

Yes, and in earlier OS's, there is no Master Mixer... it is Wave 0/1 (thus FxBus 0/1).
With the default routing:
FxBus 0/1 follows a path that allows upmixing.
FxBus 2/3/ is routed to the front.
FxBus 4/5 is routed to the rear.
FxBus 6/7 is routed to center/LFE.

From the above, the extra wave devices are useful if you want to route audio to specific outputs (multi-room setups, etc).

Recording is a little more complicated:
You have the RecL/RecR pins of epilog that work as you think it would, but also there are more connections inside of epilog (basically a copy of prolog) which allows you to record from external sources, without having anything connected to the RecL/RecR pins (controlled on the recording page of kxmixer).

aerond

You mean ASIO? I only use ASIO for recording (I never even tried recL/recR)

Russ

No, the (WinMM/MME/WDM) recording info I mentioned was in response to:

---
ASIO recording uses the ASIO pins on epilog, and ASIO playback uses the corresponding FxBus pins.

(I guess that maybe I do not know what you mean by "Recording Mixer device"?)

aerond

Oh, ok
Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate.