stumped. and pulling hair out.

H

HazardX

New member
hello, I'm having a lot of trouble trying to get the desired result out of my equipment, and unfortunately, i'm VERY new to this stuff, so please bear with me.

what i have:

hardware:
Athlon xp3200
512mb dual channel pc3200
asus a7n8x-e (w/ on-board nvidia sound)
terratec ews88d
d/a converter
line6 POD

software:
windows xp pro
sonar producer edition
gigastudio 160 v2.54
soundforge 7.0

what i want to happen:
gigastudio-sampling (obvious)
sonar-to sequence samples/midi/audio (obvious again)
soundforge-record/edit audio
*and have it all come out of the same set of speakers either out of the on-board sound, or system-out on ews88d :)

setup:
guitar into line6 pod. POD into d/a converter (1/4" L/R out of pod into RCA L/R in on converter) converter to optical in on ews88d via lightpipe.

my progress is: i've been able to record into sonar/cakewalk, but i can only hear what i've recorded on playback, not while i'm recording, or testing meters. i have gigastudio working with cakewalk, but the output is going to waveplay 1/2 in the ews88d control panel, no idea on how to make it so i can hear it.

anyone know how to get sonar/gigastudio/ews88d to play nice?
what should my settings be? (in windows, sonar, gigastudio, and the ews88d control panel.) I've tried several different combinations, but they're all guesses at best.
do i need any additional equipment? (please note that my budget is stretched quite a bit just trying to get all of this stuff, so be gentle :)

any assistance would be greatly appreciated ;)
 
Most soundcards have a control panel setting that allows you to echo the Line In back to the output so you can monitor what's going in. That's what you want to do.

What are you listening to? If the inputs are coming in the Terratec but your output is going out via the on-board sound, there's no way you can hear what's coming in the Terratec's input.

This might be your issue with Gigastudio too...
 
You want to disable the onboard sound and make everything go through the EWS88D. Make sure it's enabled in your recording software and that the volume is up on the Windows mixer for all functions. I don't use your particular software but there will be a way of selecting your I/O. Check out the control panel for the EWS88D also and make sure all the I/O are correct for your setup. Don't forget to synch the word clock...
 
I hear a lot of complaints about audio out problems with GigaStudio when used in conjunction with other apps. Perhaps you need to use a multiclient driver like MME in order for 2 programs to address your card simultaneously. But maybe it can be addressed as multiclient right in hardware (vs. software drivers) in which case your back into the Control Panel to route the signals. The EWS must have a mixer panel. Also check to see if there are any conflicts between control of the drivers between the control panel and the apps. Most interfaces I have seen (i.e. M-Audio Delta 44 etc.), have a provision which disables an application like Sonar from changing the driver settings from how they are configured in the control panel. Often that application will try to overwrite the default setting which could cause audio problems. Hope this helps a little. Good Luck!
 
here's how far i've gotten so far, i'll try to be as specific as i can:

i WAS able to record into cakewalk, but not anymore for some reason. (yes, the track is armed and the input is set, but no feed.) i'm doing everything i did last time that got it to work, but no luck this time.

i can record into sound recorder (silly, but i just wanted to test it), soundforge, and samplitude; although samplitude gives me an error: "the specified format is not supported, or cannot be translated." when i try to playback what i've recorded.

i get a similiar error when i try to record to cakewalk from soundforge, even though soundforge works when cakewalk is not running.

if i run the wave profiler or try to change the bit depth in cakewalk, i lose all of my audio inputs and outputs in the drop-down menus in track properties, even though they are listed in the audio drivers list in options/audio/drivers. only the midi drivers are there. the only way to get the audio drivers to register again in track properties is to uninstall, delete any remains, and reinstall.

as far as being able to hear gigastudio, i forgot that the ews88d is an all digital card. it has an 1/8" analogue out (called "system out") but it is completely independent from whatever is going into or out of the card (digital-wise). a theory is to get another d/a converter (sigh) and connect it to the optical out of the ews88d, then run the converter into the line in on the on-board sound. that way, at least i'm thinking, i can get everything to come out of one output. (the line out of the on-board sound)

god doesn't get this frustrated.
 
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