Can I use Two Devices with ASIO drivers in Sonar 8

kmckinst

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Oct 31, 2010
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Hello,

I am running win 7 64bit and Sonar with a Firepod and an HT-Omega Claro Plus.

My computer has AMD x6 and 8 gigs ddr3 ram. So it should be fast but i notice more CPU usage when running the Firepod as the recording and playback device in the driver options. I recorded 4 tracks using a total of 6 VST plugin effects and no MIDI (just record guitar parts, bass and Drum VST. CPU load during playback with the Fire-pod is around 9-10% while through the HT-Omega is 0-1% so naturally i would want to use this. 9-10% on the Firepod seams rather high given my system specs.

I have updated drivers for everything and original thought it might be caused by the bit rate set at different values for each device but this was not the case. I have tried it with both 48 and 44.1. I was not holding my breath that this would work just I just thought i would try it.

In the driver menu under audio options i can select one device and the rest are greyed out. Can i select the HTOMEGA as the output and the Firepod as input using ASIO driver mode.

If this is not a possibility can somehow connect the s/pdif input on the Sound card (HTOMEGA) to the S/pdif output on the Firepod and just use the HTOMEGA drivers as the input and output. Would this work? I really want to use the Firepod in some way because of the phantom power inputs rather than buy a new recording interface (spent enough money on this new build already).

Thanks for reading and i really appreciate any help.
 

anwaypasible

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Oct 15, 2007
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using s/pdif might trim the audio quality when it is encoded to a surround sound format (not to be confused with PCM stereo)

the firepod has its own internal processor?
because if it does, then the CPU shouldnt really be needed at all.
the input and output would be controlled by the system bus (northbridge/southbridge)

but i have read in the past that AMD doesnt use one of the system bus processors.
(i think it was the northbridge)
meaning the processor is used for directing traffic when, normally? , a seperate processor would handle the load.

but it is also true of buffer sizes.. if your buffer size is too big or too small, your processor might be being forced to work extra hard to swallow the junks of data (or transmit data from the buffer to destination).
either one could be used with a higher priority to keep the latency down.

if you tell the processor to 'hurry up'
of course the usage percentage is going to go up.
the processor doesnt have to use one stream of data and rely completely on the clock cycle rate of the processor.
instead, it can seperate the data into chunks and manage each chunk.. then put all chunks back together as the final step.
the work above would obviously cause usage percentage to go up.

sometimes a piece of hardware simply has instructions that are handed to an external processor that 'manages' or 'supervises' those instructions.
that is how many of the integrated soundcards work.
(although, the instructions dont necessarily have to be on the soundcard.. since the motherboard is custom built, those instructions could be inside the system bus)


your best bet is to try adjusting buffer sizes and look to learn if the firepod has its own internal processor that can handle everything.
if those two dont bring the usage up or down.. then you need to become a software engineer to learn what the data is and where it is supposed to go and why it is going where it is going.
once you know all of that, you are free to create custom drivers to route the data more efficiently if possible.


with all of that said..
maybe you are looking for something like 'virtual audio cable'
do a web search for it and the website should tell you about it.
but
it connects inputs and outputs, allowing you to connect pieces of software together.
i dont know if you need an audio renderer or the virtual cable or if the virtual cable is the solution to virtually connect different pieces of hardware.
i dont see why it would connect software pins and not hardware pins.. but maybe hardware pins are much more difficult (or more expensive) to grab and use.
 

anwaypasible

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Oct 15, 2007
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another program i stumbled upon is called 'graph edit'
it supposedly lets you connect one thing to another.

i tried to intercept the s/pdif input from the cable box as it goes into the soundcard, but the soundcard continued to play the s/pdif signal and apparently rejected any input sent to it.
probably a hardwired (or hardcoded) feature of the soundcard.
maybe you will have some luck with it.

i tried to use virtual audio cable to do the same thing.. but it was confusing and didnt appear to do anything right without having to dive deep into the user manual (or maybe ask for some help on a forum)
but
virtual audio cable does say it can work with ASIO .. so maybe it has the speed you are after.