- ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE DRIVERS
- ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE UPDATE
- ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE DRIVER
- ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE SOFTWARE
ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE DRIVERS
The first problem involved characteristic 5-15 sample glitches that would mar audio recorded when the ASIO drivers were set to external sync, and a quick tinker with the demo of Sonic Foundry's Vegas 4.0 confirmed this problem was not confined to Cubase SX. In the absence of a digital input this determines whether the sample rate clock is generated by the USB device itself or the host computer, and according to Propagamma's web site, external sync is the "recommended option and necessary for recording", though internal sync can be used for more accurate clocking on playback. The most troublesome issues I experienced with the Maya 44 USB were specific to my IBM Thinkpad T30 laptop, and seemed to be related to the internal/external sync settings for the ASIO driver.
ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE SOFTWARE
Since an ever-increasing number of audio programs now support ASIO this shouldn't be much of a problem, but for those who resist the lure of cutting-edge software it's something to bear in mind. The rather convoluted installation procedure was not the only acknowledged shortcoming with the supplied drivers: though the situation may have changed by the time you read this, at the time of writing only ASIO applications could take advantage of the Maya 44 USB's four-in, four-out capability, as only a stereo pair is available with the standard WDM interface. When the process is complete, the Maya should be listed by name among the USB controllers in Device Manager, and as 'AudioDevice on USB Bus' in the Sound, Video, and Game Controllers section.
ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE UPDATE
Anyone who's had to manually update drivers before shouldn't encounter any nasty surprises here, and the manual does provide a fairly good walk-through for the less confident. After a reboot, Windows again installs the generic drivers, which then require manually updating to Audiotrak's specific ones via a trip to the Device Manager applet in Control Panel.
ASIO FOR GENERIC USB DEVICE DRIVER
The first steps involve plugging in the device, waiting for Windows to finish loading its generic USB drivers, and installing Propagamma's ASIO driver - a simple enough process consisting of clicking 'yes' a few times. Installation on Windows XP is currently not quite as straightforward as it could be.
All this comes in a lightweight, USB-powered package little larger than a Cornish pasty, with eight phono sockets in a neat row down one side, and LED activity indicators visible through the semi-transparent casing. OK, so it may not boast 24-bit converters, but Audiotrak have provided ASIO 2 drivers courtesy of German USB-meisters Propagamma, which alone cost 60 Euros in their commercial form. Priced at £100, it comes with four analogue ins and outs, plus a combined headphone socket and optical digital output. Now Audiotrak, the 'consumer' division of ESI, have come up with another, in the form of the Maya 44 USB, which joins the surround sound-orientated Maya EX and Maya EX7 in their growing USB range.
If you've been looking for something to get audio in and out of a laptop computer, or you don't fancy messing about with PCI cards, you can't have helped noticing that the cheaper end of the market is dominated by USB devices, many of which offer tempting specifications for not much money.
Laptop users on a budget can't help but be tempted by the Audiotrak Maya 44 USB's promise of four-channel analogue I/O, low-latency ASIO drivers and multi-client support for under £100.
0 kommentar(er)
