Don't let Windows destroy your sounds!

Codmate

Codmate

Codmate

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Don't let Windows destroy your sounds! ASIO-capable card owners take note!

Apparently KMixer causes all sorts of depredation to the sounds we love - avoid it!
http://www.avforums.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-250100.html

I've been using Foobar with ASIO for a while now, but didn't let anybody else in on the secret ;)

If, like me, you have an M-Audio card you will notice a huge difference!

Grab yourself Foobar2000 from here:
http://www.foobar2000.org/

Now get ASIO support from here (as long as your card has ASIO of course!):
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/index.html

You will want the Columns UI and Album Panel:
http://yuo.be/columns.php

Unless you spend a bazillion years configuring it, you will find Foobar's interface to be pretty pants... However - the impact bypassing Windows and going straight through ASIO has on sound quality is incredible.

I just A/Bd it with WMP and Winamp using both 'Primary Sound Driver' and M-Audio Multi, and ASIO was actually about 3db louder for a start!

I believe there is an ASIO plug-in for Winamp, but I never got it to work...
 
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Basically ASIO is Steinberg's alternative to Windows sound architecture. Its main purpose is for recording applications, but it generally provides a much cleaner path to the soundcard than the regular means.

Quite simply, you need these files:
http://www.foobar2000.org/foobar2000_0.9.4.2.exe
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/foo_out_asio.zip
http://yuo.be/download/foo_uie_albumlist-0.2.1.7z
http://yuo.be/download/foo_ui_columns-0.1.3-beta1v7.7z

First run foobar2000_0.9.4.2.exe

Then shut down Foobar if it has opened automatically.

If you don't have anything that can unzip the '.7z' files, grab winrar (it can be found with Google easily), and unzip 'em.

Copy foo_ui_columns.dll and foo_uie_albumlist.dll to the components directory within the directory that foobar has been installed in. This will probably be C:\Program Files\foobar2000\components

Do the same with whatever comes out of foo_out_asio.zip when you extract it.

Now fire up foobar and choose the Columns UI.
To make it a bit more usable do the following...
Go to File:Preferences and set it up like this.

You change things in the big window (above where it says 'use contextmenu to change layout') by right clicking. You'll figure it out ;)

OK - now we're going to improve the signal path...
Expand the 'Output' menu tree and click on ASIO Virtual Devices. Set it up as you see it here

There will be some differences with your card - you will have only two output channels I'm guessing - and maybe SPDIF.

As long as M-Audio Delta ASIO is the driver you are using, you're in the right ballpark.

You won't be able to set this up while anything is playing - so make sure the player is stopped. You also will not want any other audio applications open when you make this change.

Now hilight the 'Output' preference menu item and make it look something like this.

Now hit 'Save All', close the menus, hit play and enjoy improved sound.

As an aside, there is a nice add-on for Firefox which lets you control Foobar through the status bar of the browser:
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/219/

The only problem with this set-up is Foobar's rubbish interface :(

You can make it look really nice - but it takes a hell of a lot of work :\

I just can't sacrifice the audio quality though. I don't know if this does anything for Creative cards - but it made a big difference on my Delta66, and I'm assuming will make a difference for any user that uses a Delta series card (M-Audio 2496, 192, Delta44, Delta1010 etc.).

It's worth trying on any card with ASIO support though.

When you have it set up nicely, try firing up Media Player and doing an A/B comparison.

Good isn't it? :D

Let me know if you have any trouble with the configuration or anything else.

Cheers :)
 
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If you can be bothered I'd be interested to know if it makes a difference.

I don't even know if all the X-Fi cards support ASIO, and how stable it is.

I know ASIO support was pretty flaky on older Creative cards - but I heard that they had improved this area vastly...

The set-up screens will look pretty different I guess but, um, use your intuition if you're brave :)

You can't break anything to my knowledge :)
 
I kind of ' dislike ' foorbar as i can't work with it, it aint intuïtive.
i'd rather stick with WMP10 or 11. Is there an ASIO plugin you can point me at?
I'll google it but you seem to know what you're talking about ;)

Lone
 
Codmate I have to say thank you! This is the easiest guide I've seen for setting up ASIO with Foobar! I used to have it all set up but could never figure out what I was doing from all the other guides but this is perfect!

What impact does the buffer length have on the quality?
 
Mundu said:
Codmate I have to say thank you! This is the easiest guide I've seen for setting up ASIO with Foobar! I used to have it all set up but could never figure out what I was doing from all the other guides but this is perfect!

What impact does the buffer length have on the quality?
Click to expand...
Thanks :)

I'm not sure about the buffer - but I put it near the highest recommended amount as I have plenty of RAM and I'm assuming this is the main factor. I guess it's just your regular audio buffer - won't affect quality I don't think, just try playing with it if things are skipping.

I encountered a weird bug just now where audio stopped playing in other applications. It's as though FooBar didn't release the soundcard driver properly. Or something.

I changed the audio device bewteen the two that work best for me in non-ASIO apps (M-Audio Multi and M-Audio 1/2) and hit 'Apply' in the Windows control panel (Control Panel:Sounds And Audio Devices:Audio) a few times and it returned to normal.

I think Windows or the driver got a bit confused, so watch out for that.

It might be a bug in Last.FM, which I am running, as closing this also seems to help.
 
I was reading up on this ASIO thing a few months ago and came to the conclusion it wouldn't work on an Audigy 2 ZS, however I just tried it for a laugh and it seems to work. I already use Foobar, so I installed the ASIO dll, went into 'output' in the foobar options and was suprised to see 'creative ASIO' driver there.

It only works if I also use the foobar resampler (in DSP Manager), resampling everything to 48 KHz (which is worth doing anyway with an Audigy 2 ZS which resamples everything to 48 KHz anyway, and the foorbar resampler does a better job).

What I can't say yet is how much better it sounds cause it's too late to really try it properly, but I certainly will give it a good test tomorrow and report back. I did just have a little test and it did seem to sound clearer. I will do some Foobar/ASIO versus MP10/KMixer comparisons tomorrow.
 
lone_bullet said:
I kind of ' dislike ' foorbar as i can't work with it, it aint intuïtive.
i'd rather stick with WMP10 or 11. Is there an ASIO plugin you can point me at?
I'll google it but you seem to know what you're talking about ;)

Lone
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you're saying about FooBar.
It's not very usable - but if you spend the time, like many awkward applications, you can just about handle it.

The 'Show Volume Control' option (why does this even exist!) is nicely hidden away here!

I don't know if an ASIO plug for WMP exists :o
 
Just been testing with my AKG headphones, and I'm not sure using ASIO produces any benefits on an Audigy 2 ZS. Maybe I'm misunderstanding - is it for digital output only, as I'm using analogue (into Sonic Impact t-amp connected to MA Bronze B2s).

At first it does seem like there's a big improvement, but that's actually due to increased volume (in my case). I can confirm that ASIO is working because the wave volume now has no effect when using foobar. If I play the same HQ MP3 using MP10 with wave volume on full, and using foobar with ASIO, it sounds virtually identical.

For anyone doing back to back comparisons, make sure you turn wave volume to full to get a fair comparison.

There's actually two Creative ASIO drivers, a 16-bit 48 KHz one and a 32-bit 96 KHz one (both require resampling to that frequency using foobar resampler or they won't play), but they sound identical to me.

It may well be a different case on an X-Fi though where you can bypass the X-Fi's resampler altogether (by putting it in media creation mode IIRC). Pitty I use my PC for games too much to switch to an M-Audio card. Oh well.
 
I tried this a while back with my Audigy and also on my mothers M-Audio. It made next to no difference. I normally use foobar with Kernel Streaming support enabled to bypass the windows mixer.
 
said i would muck it up :D , dont get this
Now hilight the 'Output' preference menu item and make it look something like this.

I don't have the option of ASIO virtual devices which I assume is because I haven't downloaded the ASIO driver from your link in the first post, but when I hit the download link - it goes back to the homepage.

or is it me


Babyface UK
 
babyface uk said:
said i would muck it up :D , dont get this
Now hilight the 'Output' preference menu item and make it look something like this.

I don't have the option of ASIO virtual devices which I assume is because I haven't downloaded the ASIO driver from your link in the first post, but when I hit the download link - it goes back to the homepage.

or is it me


Babyface UK
Click to expand...

Try this direct link:
http://www.foobar2000.org/components/foo_out_asio.zip

Copy the contents of the zip to FooBar's components directory.
 
dbmzk1 said:
I tried this a while back with my Audigy and also on my mothers M-Audio. It made next to no difference. I normally use foobar with Kernel Streaming support enabled to bypass the windows mixer.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you did it correctly?

It must be the M-Audio ASIO driver that is selected, as opposed to any other one. I made this mistake in the past and thought it wasn't making much difference.

You'll know if you got it right - as with me I had a really noticable leap in volume and top-end clarity apart from anything else.

Maybe it only has this effect on certain cards - although I would expect the effect to be the same accross the M-Audio Delta range.
 
fish99 said:
Just been testing with my AKG headphones, and I'm not sure using ASIO produces any benefits on an Audigy 2 ZS. Maybe I'm misunderstanding - is it for digital output only, as I'm using analogue (into Sonic Impact t-amp connected to MA Bronze B2s).

At first it does seem like there's a big improvement, but that's actually due to increased volume (in my case). I can confirm that ASIO is working because the wave volume now has no effect when using foobar. If I play the same HQ MP3 using MP10 with wave volume on full, and using foobar with ASIO, it sounds virtually identical.

For anyone doing back to back comparisons, make sure you turn wave volume to full to get a fair comparison.

There's actually two Creative ASIO drivers, a 16-bit 48 KHz one and a 32-bit 96 KHz one (both require resampling to that frequency using foobar resampler or they won't play), but they sound identical to me.

It may well be a different case on an X-Fi though where you can bypass the X-Fi's resampler altogether (by putting it in media creation mode IIRC). Pitty I use my PC for games too much to switch to an M-Audio card. Oh well.
Click to expand...

No - it's not for digital out, more for bypassing the windows mixer and Directsound gubbins:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output

I guess it's possible that 'Media Creation Mode' on the X-Fi does something similar.

I can't test with 'Wave Volume' on full, as M-Audio's drivers seem to bypass the windows mixer already. The M-Audio mixer does have hardware wav-out controls for each channel (1/2/3/4 - and then the SPDIF ones in my case).

I did do a direct comparison with all the volumes on full in the M-Audio mixer, and the ASIO volume was unquestionably around 3 to 6 db louder. The level of clarity also suddenly matched what I'm used to hearing in Cubase and Wavelab.

I used to put this down to working in 24/48 in those apps, but now I'm not so sure...
 
urh....foobar.....:p


winamp 4tw, there is an asio plugin for that but i wouldnt say that kmixer is that much worse than asio, (using an xfi elite pro).

Its mainly dependant on how well encoded you music is, .flac is the one where there is a HUGE change in quality when moving from kmixer to asio.
 
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