Virtual sound card?

borphee · Apr 13, 2004, 07:58 PM

Would it be possible for the authors to modify the kX drivers to create a 'virtual' SB Live card?

Something that could pretend to be a SB Live card and do the expected processing, but then just pass the data onto your regular card? (Or to a WAV file, which could come in handy during debugging etc.)

I realize you wouldn't be able to emulate all aspects of the hardware, but you could probably get close enough to satisfy most programs.

Does anybody know of any other "virtual sound card"? I know there is a "virtual audio cable" program. I've never used it, but I think it only prentends to be a basic sound card and then just dumps the data to a file and/or to your real card. (Useful for debugging, but a little limited and not free.)

Any other 'virtual sound card' programs out there?

NightBreed · Apr 13, 2004, 08:27 PM

That's not a bad idea. Would be nice to have a virtual sound card to carry around to another computer that doesnt have a live or audigy and do audio processing there. Or something along that idea. Could almost upload that into a smart media card and carry that around.

**dj_stick** · Apr 14, 2004, 01:32 AM

hmm virtual sound card+ kx compatible, not sure there IS one available like that… but you would need a condierably more powerful CPU than if there was a physical card… my old 750mhz athlon struggled a bit with the card… and as for converting the DSP instructions to x86 instructions realtime… more cpu load

it can be done i think, but it takes time, and will greatly reduce performace and increase latency (due to insruction conversion)

borphee · Apr 14, 2004, 06:12 AM

Sure, you'd need a more powerful processor to handle the DPS stuff, but that's not really a problem these days.

You aren't going to be playing games with full DSP emulation, but that wouldn't be its goal. (Well, if you have a 3+ ghz system you probably could without too much effort.)

Also, for testing purposes on slower hardware, the sound card could just write the stuff to a WAV file and then play it when you get done. A change like that would be trivial compared to the rest of the stuff.

Instruction conversion wouldn't be a major issue... You'd convert it (to interpreted tokens) when you load the DSP with your program and then run that conversion. It wouldn't be nearly as complicated as regular cpu emulation which has to translate 'on-the-fly'.

And as I said in the first message, I've heard there is a program called "Virtual Audio Cable" which pretends to be a regular sound card. So that part is possible. It just can't do any DSP stuff. (I've never tried it, but I assume it's probably a basic SB16 kind of card.)

I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to do a full sbLive emulation (as a full virtual device) and then run the normal drivers on top of it, or change the drivers to just pretend there is a sb card there. The first would be best, but the second would undoubtably be easier.

Anyway, I just thought I'd bring up the subject in case anyone thought it was a good idea and might want to write something like that.

**dj_stick** · Apr 14, 2004, 06:38 AM

well virtual midi and virtual audio has been done… as for virtual DSP i'd like to see that possible, but i'm still not sure about ASIO latency issues…

Apr 13, 2004, 07:58 PM	#1
borphee DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Virtual sound card? Would it be possible for the authors to modify the kX drivers to create a 'virtual' SB Live card? Something that could pretend to be a SB Live card and do the expected processing, but then just pass the data onto your regular card? (Or to a WAV file, which could come in handy during debugging etc.) I realize you wouldn't be able to emulate all aspects of the hardware, but you could probably get close enough to satisfy most programs. Does anybody know of any other "virtual sound card"? I know there is a "virtual audio cable" program. I've never used it, but I think it only prentends to be a basic sound card and then just dumps the data to a file and/or to your real card. (Useful for debugging, but a little limited and not free.) Any other 'virtual sound card' programs out there?

Apr 13, 2004, 08:27 PM	#2
NightBreed DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: May 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 380 Rep Power: 0	That's not a bad idea. Would be nice to have a virtual sound card to carry around to another computer that doesnt have a live or audigy and do audio processing there. Or something along that idea. Could almost upload that into a smart media card and carry that around.

Apr 14, 2004, 06:12 AM	Thread Starter #4
borphee DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Sure, you'd need a more powerful processor to handle the DPS stuff, but that's not really a problem these days. You aren't going to be playing games with full DSP emulation, but that wouldn't be its goal. (Well, if you have a 3+ ghz system you probably could without too much effort.) Also, for testing purposes on slower hardware, the sound card could just write the stuff to a WAV file and then play it when you get done. A change like that would be trivial compared to the rest of the stuff. Instruction conversion wouldn't be a major issue... You'd convert it (to interpreted tokens) when you load the DSP with your program and then run that conversion. It wouldn't be nearly as complicated as regular cpu emulation which has to translate 'on-the-fly'. And as I said in the first message, I've heard there is a program called "Virtual Audio Cable" which pretends to be a regular sound card. So that part is possible. It just can't do any DSP stuff. (I've never tried it, but I assume it's probably a basic SB16 kind of card.) I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to do a full sbLive emulation (as a full virtual device) and then run the normal drivers on top of it, or change the drivers to just pretend there is a sb card there. The first would be best, but the second would undoubtably be easier. Anyway, I just thought I'd bring up the subject in case anyone thought it was a good idea and might want to write something like that.