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Subject:sound card
Posted by: samcat
Date:1/19/2006 3:31:47 AM

I have been using audio studio without any problems. I can find my soundcard (alesis multimix 8 usb). When I use sound forge 8 the only selection available is microsoft sound mapper. Help!

Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: ForumAdmin
Date:1/19/2006 7:04:55 AM

In Options->Preferences->Audio, switch the "Audio device type" to "Windows Classic Wave Driver" and you will be able to explicitly select your sound card in the "Default playback device" combo.

J.

Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: samcat
Date:1/19/2006 12:07:04 PM

o.k. but I am not sure I am selecting the right choice. Is there a preferred driver to use with an alesis multimix 8 usb or will they all work? Is one driver better than another? thanks.

Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: ForumAdmin
Date:1/19/2006 1:49:13 PM

If you select it in the "Audio device type:" combo, you'll be using the ASIO driver model, which will provide lower latency, but may decrease stability or conflict with other applications depending on what else you are using.

If you select "Windows Classic Wave Driver", then select the Alesis in the "Default playback device:" combo, you'll be using the "standard" Windows driver.

J.

Message last edited on1/19/2006 1:49:36 PM byForumAdmin.
Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: samcat
Date:1/20/2006 2:49:00 AM

You mention "if you select it", what do you mean "it"? I can now record and play back in 16 bit mode, but not in 32 bit. If I try 32 bit, I can click on record, but when I stop recording I get the message "usb device not found for recording, usb device not found for playback". Do you have any ideas for fixes? I just updated all drivers (audio), defraged the drive and ran scandisk. No problems identified. I had been using audio studio and bought SF 8 only because I wanted 32 bit recording. Thanks.

Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: ForumAdmin
Date:1/20/2006 8:01:18 AM

"It" is your sound card driver.

32-bit audio comes in two flavors, 32-bit PCM and 32-bit floating point.

32-bit PCM hardware is extremely rare (I can't think of a single device at the moment). 32-bit floating point is, for audio i/o purposes, equivalent to 24-bit PCM, which is the typical resolution for most pro audio devices.

Regardless, I don't think either is available to you. According to the Alesis website:

"The MultiMix mixers also have USB audio, which allows direct computer audio interfacing for 16-bit simultaneous stereo input and output."

You can try 24-bit, but the literature implies that the device supports only 16-bit PCM over USB.

While the effects inside the device may be applied at a higher resolution, that doesn't necessarily equate to its input/output resolution.

J.

Message last edited on1/20/2006 8:02:27 AM byForumAdmin.
Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: samcat
Date:1/20/2006 12:32:37 PM

I am recording a choir. Will it make that much difference whether I go to 32 bit in sound quality? Concert is burned to a cd.

Subject:RE: sound card
Reply by: ForumAdmin
Date:1/20/2006 1:20:56 PM

With your current hardware, I don't think you have a choice.

General practice is to record at the highest bit-depth available and usually a higher sampling rate (typically 24-bit, 96 kHz).

The CD will have to be burned at 16-bit, 44.1kHz, regardless. So unless you intend to do a lot of processing after recording, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz should suffice.

J.

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