ASIO4All fixed my windows 7 64bit Asio driver problem in sonar 8.5

Finally after a month of headache trying to figure out why when I pick ASIO in sonar I cant get audio working. it plays but cant hear anything tired everything I could possibly do. So today I decided to give asio 4 all a try and man was this the best thing that happened or what. Now I can Set it to ASIO set the to 5ms and no more delay's with Bull $**** wasapi driver crap. I Couldn't get omnisphere working properly with less then 15ms buffer.
 
anyhow thought I put it here incase someone else is pulling their hair

That "broke" my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 interface when I installed it trying to get an HT Omega Striker 7.1 sound card to be recognized by Sonar.  It allowed the Striker 7.1 PC sound card to be recognized but the Saffire Pro 40 was no longer recognized.  I had to use the System Restore function to get rid of the ASIO4All install as it wouldn't uninstall any other way.  And, even though the system was "restored" I had to reinstall the Saffire Pro 40 drivers.

Jim Roseberry

 
FWIW, ASIO4ALL is really a "last ditch effort" type solution for audio interfaces with crap (or no) ASIO drivers.
If the audio interface has a proper ASIO driver, it's a step backward.  

See I disagree with that, FWIW I can get 2-3msec lower latency and ASIO4ALL is far more stable for my Alesis Multimix 12 FW than the ASIO drivers provided by Alesis, oh hang on just read the crap drivers bit. LOL.........

But seriously like most things computer related there is no one size fits all solution. ASIO4ALL (ASIO4SOME ??) is a great solution, for others it doesn't work as well if at all. My personal experience of it has been very positive though. Who cares how or why it works, or even if it shouldn't work in theory, as long as it does work in practice?

I'd avoid audio interfaces that don't provide rock-solid drivers. That's the most direct solution...

True that, but sometimes some folk get stuck with crap drivers (or even good drivers that just don't play nice on a specific system) AFTER an expensive card purchase.

I concur with your latency test results too Jim but as in the OP's case 'some' functionality is better than none, and hey for getting ASIO working from your on-board chip when you go mobile it is useful there too.

It's free as well so there's nothing to lose by trying it and although it won't improve latency it certainly can and does improve stability in some circumstances as the OP is testifying to here first-hand.

Talk about installation and removal problems I've never seen before as it doesn't affect any other driver installation, and it goes on and comes off perfectly cleanly.

Certainly not a 'preferred' solution sure but very handy to have on your utility belt.

My use of ASIO4All was because HT Omega did not have ASIO drivers for the Striker 7.1 audio card and their tech support told me to install it.  It worked for the Striker 7.1 card but disabled the Saffire Pro 40.  After I got the Striker 7.1 working in Sonar I found out I really didin't like or need it.  System Restore was the only way to completely get rid of ASI4All and not have some fragments still around in the registry.

Jim Roseberry


Hi Jon,
 
I don't disagree with anything you're saying...  
 
As someone who's always pushing the low-latency envelope (especially with Firewire audio interfaces), rock-solid (stock) drivers are a prerequisite.
 
 

And this is why I'd recommend one of your rigs so highly to anyone...

...anyone that's fallen over and grazed their knees trying to go out their own way, all I can do is show them where the band-aids are kept, having been to the first-aid box many times myself... 

I have Producer X1, a RME UFX, and an AXE-FxII I want to use at the same time. The Axe-FxII is a guitar processor with a built in audio interface.

I want to be able to run both devices at the same time in X1 so I can record vocals along with the guitars in a live setting. I am, I hate to admit, a Sonar beginner. Let me preface my questions with the reason I posted in this thread. I was able to use Asio4All in Reaper and all inputs and outputs from both devices were available to me.

In X1, if I set the driver mode to ASIO I have the UFX devices available. All others are greyed out. There is no way for me to choose Asio4all as the driver mode so it never recognizes that both devices are active. If I choose WDM for driver mode it makes all in and outs for both devices available. However, loading a single MIDI track with session drummer 3 and hitting a drum produces the most god awful hissy noise. I can switch it back over to ASIO and hit the drum and all is well. Arrrghhh!

So, here are my sad but true newbie questions:

1. I would rather not use Asio4all. I have one of the best audio interfaces on the market. THE best guitar processing kit. And the most complete version of Sonar. I would think I should be able to use them all simultaneously with their own stellar drivers. No? Any suggestions appreciated on how to do this would be great.  I can't even get it to do what I can in Reaper.

2. If there aren't any possible ways to do this other than using Asio4all then how can I get the option to choose it in the driver mode dropdown?

3. Are there issues with WDM? Why would it corrupt the sounds from SD3 like that? I guess what I am asking is am I missing some simple setting that will fix this and allow me to run the two devices under WDM?

I know these are pretty basic questions but I am a tad frustrated at this point so I thought I would toss it out there and see if anyone has some answers.
 
I am running:
 
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
Win7 Ultimate 64
Intel i7 930 2.80 GHz 
6-GB Ram 
Sonar X1 Producer 64

Thanks,

Craig

First let me say, thank you for the prompt response!!!

I understand that ASIO only allows one driver and that Asio4all is a WDM wrapper. I read that before and thats why I was trying it to solve my delima. I dowloaded reaper today to see if I could get it to work with both devices using Asio4all. I did get it to work as it allwed me to choose Asio4all in their driver dropdown menu and subsequently access to all the ins and outs on both devices. All was good there.

But hey, I bought Producer X1 and I fiigure I should be able to get it to work under WDM or at the very least just like I did with the Reaper experiment.

With that said, I am using the Axe II as an input to the UFX through AES digitally. It also has a USB connection to the PC that transfers 6 audio channels (4 out (2 wet, 2 dry) and 2 in)) and 2 MIDI channels (1 in , 1 out). Now again, in Reaper with Asio4all I was able to access all (AES, 2 wet, 2 dry, 2in, 2 MIDI) channels. In Sonar X1 I see them all but can only access one device while the other is greyed out and I do not get Asio4all as an option in the driver dropdown. So it seems X1 is not recognizing Asio4all.

Now if I choose the WDM driver mode I have access to all the Ins and Outs. But as I said, just trying SD3 proved awful. The hiss I referred to was not like a amp or pickup hum. I hit a drum or anything one little tap and I get like 10 seconds of SCREECHING noise... and LOUD. So I figure I must have something wrong there with some settings cause if I simply change back to ASIO it sounds fine. I'll play with the buffers etc as you suggested. My PC is pretty powerful and I only had the one MIDI track with SD3 in the project so I don't think its a matter of low resources. Maybe its a SD3 issue. Ill have to try some other synths.

If I could get WDM working is that the better of the two options? 

Thanks again for your input. I have just been scratching my head wondering if its Sonar, Asio4all, or the Axe that wont allow all 3 to play in X1 when they all do in Reaper. *sigh*
 
Craig

Hey Beagle, thank again for helping. It's very much appreciated.

So I went and played around. It wasn't session drummer at all. I am going to have to play a lot more. Very frustrating though since I was able to do the Asio4 thing in Reaper in about 15 mins total. For the life of me I cannot get Asio4all to work in sonar after several days. It just will not allow both devices like it does in Reaper.

So, I messed around some more with WDM. I armed a audio track coming from the Axe AES no problem and sounded great. Tried it again with the USB audio input from the Axe and as soon as I arm the track to record the input meter pegs so I know I am getting noise from somewhere. I thought it may be an issue having USB and AES hooked up simultaneously but when i disable AES I still got the hot input. So now I am thinking there is maybe an issue with Sonar and some USB conflict. Now I opened another session drummer and you were right. I had the buller very small and it was awful sounding. I had to increase it to the max to get rid of all the crackles. That doesnt seem right to me. My latency will be horrible. I am beginning to think WDM just isnt good with my combination and I am screwed cause Asio4all doesnt wonk in Sonar for me either. 

I may be relagated to use Reaper I guess. That is kind of sad seeing as I paid all this money for X1 and I really like the interface etc. 

Next I am going to get X1 working with both units seperately and see if i get the same issues.

I know its going to turn out to be some darn setting I missed.

Thanks again

Craig,
 
You won't see ASIO4ALL as an option.  You select it by selecting ASIO mode in the 'Driver Settings."  If you have another ASIO driver that is taking precidence then you may need to make some adjustments to the configuration file to have X1 select ASIO4ALL first.  I use a set up very much like what you are trying to do.  It does work for me with WDM/KS or ASIO (ASIO4ALL).  I can see the pins on each of multiple devices and select from one or more of them.  ASIO4ALL tends to see the devices better than X1 in WDM mode, but I think there are fixes on the way for this.
 
 

gcolbert


Craig,
 
You won't see ASIO4ALL as an option.  You select it by selecting ASIO mode in the 'Driver Settings."  If you have another ASIO driver that is taking precidence then you may need to make some adjustments to the configuration file to have X1 select ASIO4ALL first.  I use a set up very much like what you are trying to do.  It does work for me with WDM/KS or ASIO (ASIO4ALL).  I can see the pins on each of multiple devices and select from one or more of them.  ASIO4ALL tends to see the devices better than X1 in WDM mode, but I think there are fixes on the way for this.
 
 

I kind of figured it wasn't going to give me the option in the dropdown menu. I noticed when  I chose ASIO and then restarted X1 all the ins and outs are there. The UFX, AxeII, and Asio4all are all there but the AxeII and UFX are greyed out. SO as you say, it's like the UFX is taking control first and not letting ASIO4 access. Seems like everytime I make a change I need to rboot as well so this is a pain in the rear configuring. I have to admit I like the Reaper approach better. It put Asio4all in the dropdown and then you simple choose 1st and last device.
 
I know its just a matter of some setting i missed or corrupted with all the playing. Is there a quick way to restore all the defaults in X1 without reinstalling. I can look that up. :)
 
I would actually like to get it running under WDM as well so I can compare what works best. I know I have something set wrong to be getting so much noise just by arming the track. WHat is odd thoug to me is that I dont get that contention or noise with ASIO. I will keep plugging away and let you guys know what I find out.
 
Thanks so much for the reply. It is hugely appreciated.
 
Craig

Well I think I have reached the end of my rope. 3 days is too much wasted time. I got things to work sometimes and not others. Never with all 3 units at once. I repeat the same steps after doing complete uninstalls and reloads and get eratic behaviour. I have had X1 freeze on me at least 5 times. Seems like any change to drivers in preferences requires restarting X1 or even Windows reboots.

I did find where the noise was coming from with WDM chosen. It just created another unknown.  I only had the AxeFX hooked up to PC and ran X1. Under Asio I was able to get the two stereo inputs from the axe and the one output. All was good. 

I changed to WDM again and got the noise. I searched in the configuration file and found that if I set "ShowMultiChannelInputs" and ShowMultiChannelOutputs" to False it would go away. Unfortunately it took away one of the inputs (the 2nd dry stereo channel) as well. Put it back on True and it pegs the meter with noise. If I change back to ASIO all is well and I get all ins and out and changing those two attributes effects nothing.

I am beginning to think the Axe just doesn't bode well with the WDM driver. I am still baffled why Asio4all will work in Reaper after literally 5 mins but not X1 but oh well. Arrrrrghhh! I guess I will just play with Reaper for now until I can figure some way around this. Burns me though cause I was really hyped on X1 and really disappointed in its inability to take changes on the fly. Its too darn difficult to figure out whats going on with all the reboots, freezes, and inconsistency when taking identical paths.

I appreciate all your efforts and assistance.

I need a beer.

Craig

I should have thought of telling you to do that.  I didn't remember that one.  sorry.

you might be able to edit the config file to stop the other units outputs from being checked by default, but I'm not sure how to do that.  I've sent an email to a fellow user who knows more about the Aud.ini file than I do, maybe he'll drop in and be able to help with that.