"Help with the Digital out coaxile!"

[Chammy]

Can any one help with how to get the digital out of the coaxile connection to work with a recording program on my computer?I have the VS840EX 8 trk and Id like to transfer my recording from the VS to my computer.I have been using N Track Studio as a cmoputer studio.I cant seem to find anything on the program to recognize the connection.I hear there is but I cant seem to find it.

[Track Rat]

Does the computer soundcard have a S/PDIF input?

[Chammy]

Yup,it has Optical/Coaxial S/PDIF In & Outs.Right now I am checking if there are any updates for it.

[Jim Y]

Depends on the soundcard. An ordinary Windows AC97 type only allows one record source that you have to pick, either in the Windows sound mixer or with a proper control panel installed with the full card drivers. If you only have the default Windows driver for the card (The speaker Icon in the system tray tool bar), it's unlikely you'll have access to the s/pdif selection. In the case of an AC97 type card, your recording software has nothing to do with selecting the record source from the card.

[Chammy]

But what is the AC97?And where do i find aall this out?I am new.Sorry.

[monty]

You might want to check these out.

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...hreadid=106967


http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...hreadid=106026

[Jim Y]

AC97 is simply the name of a "standard" Windows sound system. It only provides for one stereo recording source. Recent versions of Windows have their own drivers ready to support many of the chips used in pc audio. Intel, Avance, VIA, Crystal and C-media being common ones. The standard doesn't have to have an s/pdif input, so Windows own drivers don't support it even if the chip and card has it. Only by installing the makers own drivers will you get extra features.

We need to know a few things to help you.

Your version of Windows (98, XP etc)? If you don't know the make of Soundcard, we will need to show you how to find out, and this is different for versions of Windows.

Your make of soundcard? For all I know it isn't an AC97 but something better with multichannel drivers, in which case you should be able to pick the s/pdif input in N-track.

Have you installed any drivers or were the card and drivers pre-installed when you got the machine?

What is the choice of drivers (names) in N-track. I'm not familiar with this program, but it will be in a menu with names like Preferences, Options, Settings, Devices, Audio, etc...

[Chammy]

woa, ok,I am going to search now.Be right back.

[Chammy]

Ok its chipset is the CMI8738/C3DX PCI audio.Aopen Cobra.My OS is WinXP pro.N tracks Studio.This is the sound cards mixer control path: sndvol32.exe .Ok I went into the Audio devices and this is what I read:

1- NME: C-Media Audio Device
NME NVidia(R) nForce(TM) Audio
NME Wave Mapper
NVidia ASIO
WDM C-Media Wave Device
WDM: NVdia(R) nForce (TM)Audio

This is in both the playback and recording options menu.

[Jim Y]

Yes, you have an AC97 device, you have to select the record input in the cards own mixer.

As it happens, my wifes pc has the same soundchip as the Cobra.
There is an icon down on the Windows Taskbar, looks like a fader control with a "blob" on each side. Clicking this opens the cards control panel which has a record button. Clicking record shows the record inputs. On the far right (without a fader 'cause it doesn't need one) is the s/pdif button. There is also a button with a hammer and spanner icon that leads you to some settings tabs. Here you can choose 44.1 or 48Khz (44.1 for an 840), Validity detection (so you can see if it's locked to the s/pdif input) and which s/pdif input 1 or 2. Presumably this last chooses between the coax or optical input (or it could be between the bracket s/pdif and a CD driver connector on the card).

If you don't have this control panel, you haven't installed the Cobra drivers. The card I have had instructions to run the XP driver Setup.exe on the CD BEFORE installing the card in the PC. This is so that XP will use the full driver and not its own basic one.
This URL should get you the latest C-media driver for XP...
ftp://210.59.227.41/Driver/WDM/CMI8738_WDM_0639XP.zip

The C Media Wave Device is the one to pick in N-track, and you should get best performance with the WDM option.

[Chammy]

Ok I have it installed now but the funny thing is is when i go to open the mixer icon i get an activity but the mixer doesnt open up.I think i might have installed it wroing.Let me check again.

[Chammy]

So far I opend up the soundcards mixer properties in N Track and went into the recording control panel and so far I only found stereo mix, microphone,CD audio,Aux,line in, and Wav.Wait,let me restart.

[Jim Y]

...and?

[Chammy]

Oh oops sorry.Well i checked and I still cant get the mixer open.i haev to open through the accesories and into PCI applcations.But in the drop down menu in the n track for mixer settings I dont see anything there that says s/pdif connections.I might be doing something wrong still but i guess I can try and reinstall cause I think i intslled something else into C media folder by mistake.sssssssssss.Bear with me.

[Jim Y]

You won't get an s/pdif input choice in N-track. Pick one of the C-media devices instead and select the s/pdif button in the record section of the C-media mixer from the task bar. N-track sees 2 C-media drivers, one is MME and the other it calls WDM. Either should work.

You may have to go into the C-media settings tabs I mentioned and switch to 2 channel output.

Incidentally, if you right click the taskbar icon and select "About" it tell you the mixer version. Mine has "1.44"

[Chammy]

Well I have the 1.5.5.0.But the drivers I notice that I have are : C:\C-Media\W2K-ME.I'm not sure if I have the right drivers in.i might have to uninstall and reinstall the right drivers. I also notice I have a WIN_ME folder,DOS, and CMI8738_WDM_0639XP folder.But when I click on the mixer icon I get an activity cursor but then nothing happens.Its like it wants to run but nothing happens.It just wont open. " crys uncontrollably"

[Jim Y]

Try Windows Settings/Conrol Panel - Add/Remove programs.
See if you have an entry "C-media WDM driver" and remove it.

Otherwise you can uninstall the driver in System/ Hardware properties and find the driver in the list under "Sound, Video and Game Controllers". Right click on the C-media entry.
You could also try the update driver option and manually select with "have disk" pointing Windows to the following folder on your driver CD...

The correct driver is in the Cd folder "CMI8738_WDM_0639XP" for XP.

[Chammy]

You know what I noticed?I have several folders for this, I have 2 C media folders and 1 PCI Audio Aplications.Is that not good?I thought i was supposed to have one.Unless the PCI one is for the integrated sound that comes with the mother board.Not sure.i will look into it.I think i will uninstall the drivers for CMedia and then re install them.Ill get back again.

[Jim Y]

The Audio Applications are , I suspect, C-medias utilities - some kind of Media player etc, which you don't actually need. The proper driver itself provides all the necessary controls to work the soundcard. I understood your on-board sound is the N-vidia N-force one from the list in N-track (what's with all the N-'s ?).

It seems you've got it in a mess with too many driver installs. I suggest you uninstall the Cobra software AND delete the folders AND remove the Cobra card. When Windows restarts, see if you can install the drivers from the setup on the Drivers CD. Shut down and fit the Cobra. Start up and XP should then install the proper driver. Or download the driver from C-media that I showed you and install that (before refitting the card!).

You should only have one C-media folder in Program Files. This contains 2 folders. DOS, which in my example is empty and WinME which contains the WDM drivers and despite the name of the folder, these ARE correct for WinME, Win2000 or WinXP.

[Jim Y]

Just thought, there are 2 different types of the C-media chip covered by the same part number.
Integrated (on-board)
PCI (as on the Cobra card).
So you want the PCI drivers here...
http://www.cmedia.com.tw/download/OS...8738_index.htm

[Chammy]

okeedoke,Im in the process right now.brb.

[Chammy]

Ok,i hope I did it right this time.Ok, i just reinstalled the drivers.But this is the way I did it.I first pressed the uninstall which had the cmedia logo and it ,i guess uninstalled.So then i went and deleted all the folders that were asociated with CMedia, the PCI Applications folder and CMedia folders in both the C drive area and in Programs folder.Then i went and installed the drivers from the CD and then went to install teh drivers from teh updated patch you refered me to.Now I brought up teh Audio Rack and this came up when i clicked on teh mixer Icon:

Chip Version: CMI8738 6 CH with SPDIF

Configuration:

Line in and rear speaker output share the same jack.

I was wondering , was I supposed to just install from the downloaded patch or install from CD first and then the patch.i dont where the Audio rack patch to.I keep gettting an error.Earlier when i went to click on the mixer icon i got a blank screen and then bloby color.The it diappeared.

[Chammy]

Ok,now when i go to the audio rack it seems to read out on this:

[Chammy]

And then i was able to get this after i pressed the hammer thingy at the top:

[Chammy]

And this when i pressed the hammer on the bottom part: