Don't let Windows destroy your sounds!

Codmate said:
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.
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The obvious question is - if KMixer was already being bypassed by the M-Audio drivers, why would ASIO sound better?

The first thing I noticed was the extra volume too, it's easy to confuse that with extra clarity since louder sound waves do suffer less distortion travelling through the air, plus they drown out other background noise better. As soon as I put wave volume up to full, the sound through KMixer gained the same extra clarity I thought ASIO was producing, and then ASIO and KMixer sounded identical.

Not saying you're imagining it btw since obviously I don't have an M-Audio card, but I can confirm it doesn't do anything obvious with an Audigy 2 ZS. Probably just the Creative ASIO drivers suck.
 
fish99 said:
The obvious question is - if KMixer was already being bypassed by the M-Audio drivers, why would ASIO sound better?

The first thing I noticed was the extra volume too, it's easy to confuse that with extra clarity since louder sound waves do suffer less distortion travelling through the air, plus they drown out other background noise better. As soon as I put wave volume up to full, the sound through KMixer gained the same extra clarity I thought ASIO was producing, and then ASIO and KMixer sounded identical.

Not saying you're imagining it btw since obviously I don't have an M-Audio card, but I can confirm it doesn't do anything obvious with an Audigy 2 ZS. Probably just the Creative ASIO drivers suck.
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Yeah - I was wondering that too.

I'm guessing that the architecture might send stuff through DirectSound unless you are using ASIO - and that is where all the hideous business happens.

There is a definite and real difference in quality when I use ASIO at least.
It's tough to do volume matching properly without specialist hardware, but I did try testing a friend and doing this last night, and he agreed that there was much more clairity in ASIO mode.

I'm guessing that on the older Creative cards (that resample everything to 48k anyway), there won't be much of a difference.
 
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lay-z-boy said:
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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Yeah - I'm using FLAC for all my music, maybe that accounts for noticing the difference in clarity more easily...
 
spent the last hour or so comparing foobar using ASIO to WMP11 my results are in.

Setup: M-Audio 192 sound card to Marantz pm7200 amp to Monitor audio RS6 speakers.

Played
Madonna - Papa don't preach ( WMA lossless )
Muse - Newborn ( WAV )
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By the Way ( WAV )
Wagner - The four seasons Summer ( WMA Lossless )

Hint - to get on peoples nerves, play the same bit of music over and over and over..........


And i can't tell any difference at all in both WMA lossless or WAV. perhaps as i rip in lossless or wav then any difference is so small its not noticeable over mp3 and the like.
Fish99 - as a side note I used to have the Audigy 2 zs before i got my M Audio 192 and the difference was very noticeable so i'd recommend a m-audio card if your in the market for a soundcard soon.

Babyface UK
 
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Codmate:

I tried your (above) recommendations with a Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 sound card, hooked up to a NAD C 320BEE/Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s, and the improvment was noticeable, better detail and the sound is "tighter", so pleased with improvements.

Many thanks for sharing this info. :)
 
jbloggs said:
Codmate:

I tried your (above) recommendations with a Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 sound card, hooked up to a NAD C 320BEE/Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s, and the improvment was noticeable, better detail and the sound is "tighter", so pleased with improvements.

Many thanks for sharing this info. :)
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What codec was what you played in? mp3, lossless, wav?

Babyface UK
 
I have an E-MU 0404 soundcard which I use for DJ mixing with Traktor DJ Studio and ASIO is very important for this because ASIO is very low latency. with directsound I get about 35-40ms response and ASIO it's nearer 8ms :)
 
FLAC rips from EAC here. Playing through my EMU-0404 to my CA Azur 450A & Wharfedale 9.1s. Makes difference through my headphones moreso.
 
Codmate said:
There is a definite and real difference in quality when I use ASIO at least.
It's tough to do volume matching properly without specialist hardware, but I did try testing a friend and doing this last night, and he agreed that there was much more clairity in ASIO mode.

I'm guessing that on the older Creative cards (that resample everything to 48k anyway), there won't be much of a difference.
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Okeydokey. Yeah I'm sure you're right about the Creative drivers. Plus it would be hard to tell a difference anyway with the crappy SQ Creative have. I recently had an old Diamond A3D card in my system for a few days and it wasn't funny how much better it sounded than my Audigy 2 with music.

Tempted to get an M-Audio 2496 but I dunno if I use my PC for music enough to justify it.
 
Well - it seems very variable, depending on your set-up so far.
Some combinations seem to benefit, some not.

Unsurprisingly the recording cards like EMU and M-Audio Delta stuff seem to benefit most it seems.

I've also recently read good things about using the M-Audio Transit with ASIO:
http://www.maudio.co.uk/products/en_gb/Transit-main.html

Looks like a cool product (no - I don't work for M-Audio - lol)...
 
could also be that sound is a very subjective medium, what sounds good or better to one person may not to another. or my hearings up the creak :D


Babyface UK
 
Been using the asio drivers with foobar for my flacs for quite some time now and to me there is quite an improvement over the standard drivers. I thought everyone with a 2496 was using them!!
Well done for the heads up on this one though codmate.

:)
m
 
I managed to get the asio driver working with Winamp and my X-Fi Music. I can't really tell if there's any improvement over the kmixer, but it appears I can't use Winamp to alter the volume with the asio driver working though!
 
Will this work with Windows Media Payer 11? I have a 2496 and thought I might give this a go.

Also, Is it worth using this, a most of my music is ripped at 192kps using LAME? I'm tempted to start encoding in FLAC but the file sizes look horrendous.
 
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