what driver does my soundcard use?

[dobro]

I've got a Gadgetlabs Wave 824 card. Anybody know what kind of driver it uses? The instruction manual mentions an ASIO option that you can use, depending on your software. So, does that mean that the default is WDM? How many kinds of drivers are there for soundcards? A million, or only two?

Reason I ask: despite the fact that Gadgetlabs died a while back, there's a guy who's done a new ASIO driver for the card in question which gets latency times way, way down.

 

[drstawl]

If you have a choice, go with ASIO.

Some software doesn't support the use of ASIO drivers- the Sound Forge stuff, for example.

 

[jet-rocker]

I don't know any of this for sure--I've never owned a gadget labs card--this is what I've read.

Gadget Labs died before creating WDM drivers. (WDM is what you need for low latency Sonar, and NTracks.)

But a group of Gadget Labs diehards wrote their own WDM drivers. These are available at some Web-site somewhere... that helps.

I'd search all the audio boards and RAP if that's what you're looking for.

You use Cool Edit right? I'm not sure what drivers are best for that software.

-Jett

 

[Slackmaster2K]

DS, MME, ASIO, WDM.

Which model you're using will depend on your software configuration. That is, you should be able to select the soundcard and driver model you want to use in your application.

For example, in Fruity Loops I can choose between DS and ASIO for my Delta1010. In n-Track I can choose between DS, WDM, ASIO, and MME on my Delta.

All of these models are contained in a "single" driver, for all intents and purposes. Switching between MME and ASIO doesn't require an actual driver change, as long as the driver your using supports both MME and ASIO.

How you'll use the new ASIO driver for the gadgetlabs will sort of depend on how the guy implemented it, and how gadgetlabs drivers were packaged in the first place. Is it a standalone ASIO-only driver that you have to install every time you want to use ASIO? Does the new ASIO driver work in conjunction with the existing gadgetlabs driver? You get the idear.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Slackmaster2K]

(jet-rocker, just to nitpick, n-Track supports both ASIO and WDM for low latency, not just WDM)

 

[dobro]

drstawl - I think he claims the ASIO driver latency's down to 1 ms or something equally ridiculous.

jet-rocker - thanks for the offer, but I think I know the site (GLUG) - that's where the downloads are. The guy who runs the site says the WDM drivers that were developed are pretty buggy. The ASIO driver works, from all reports. As for Cool Edit, I think it's happy with just about any driver.

Slack - Four driver types - thanks. I don't think Cool lets you choose drivers - it talks a lot about fiddling with buffer settings and such to get whatever driver you've got working better.

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Dobro, the audio application HAS to pick the driver model. This has less to do with the actual "driver software" you have installed.

When you install drivers for a typical soundcard, you are installing support for one or more models, with at least DS and MME usually. Which mode the audio application will function in is very important. You can't just install an "ASIO driver" and expect an audio application to use ASIO if it can only use WDM, DS, and MME. For instance, no matter hard you squint while you install your ASIO driver, Windows Media Player will not use ASIO, neither will CEP.

I think what you're picturing in your mind is this: you install an "ASIO Driver", and all of your audio applications use this driver to play and record audio. But this is not how it works, because the audio application has to talk to the driver, and the interfaces for the various driver models are not all the same. When you install a driver for your soundcard, you are installing a multi-functional piece of software that can process requests from various pieces of software using various driver models. Your driver choice is limited both by your driver support, AND the application.

I am guessing that the ASIO driver in question was built in to the pre-existing driver. Hopefully there will be control panel support because with ASIO, your buffering is determined by the driver, not the application.

Many systems can get down to 1ms latency on a single track, so don't be bummed when you can't work with this kind of latency in real life. If you're mostly just recording straight analog and mixing, then you only need to get your latency down into the 50-60ms range for it to make you happy. This almost doesn't even require low latency drivers, as I've worked with DS drivers in Fruity Loops with latency as low as 80ms. But I digress, if you can use the new ASIO drivers, you'll probably be very happy.

BTW, if CEP is your app of choice, you cannot use ASIO.

Slackmaster 2000