Please mackie, for the love of all that is holy.

[Autobot]

Is http://www.asio4all.com/ not an option? I never used the Mackie driver it was very unstable for me.

I went that route and TBH it had better latency then a lot of ASIO drivers and it works well, but it's just a wrapper for the stock WDM that fools the system into believing there is an ASIO driver. It works well, and is stable, but not a preferred method.

May I ask why ASIO4All is not the "preferred method"? Are any drawbacks Im not aware of?

It's the same sound you get with windows media player playback. It's not bad, it is stable, and it is a solution, but it's not taking advantage of the ad/da converters.

Autobot seems to be talking about using the ASIO4all system in conjunction with his Mackie Blackjack. If that's what he's doing, then it absolutely would be taking advantage of the Mackie's ad/da convertors.

Yes. That's what I meant and observed.

[Dasheesh]

Is http://www.asio4all.com/ not an option? I never used the Mackie driver it was very unstable for me.

I went that route and TBH it had better latency then a lot of ASIO drivers and it works well, but it's just a wrapper for the stock WDM that fools the system into believing there is an ASIO driver. It works well, and is stable, but not a preferred method.

May I ask why ASIO4All is not the "preferred method"? Are any drawbacks Im not aware of?

It's the same sound you get with windows media player playback. It's not bad, it is stable, and it is a solution, but it's not taking advantage of the ad/da converters.

Autobot seems to be talking about using the ASIO4all system in conjunction with his Mackie Blackjack. If that's what he's doing, then it absolutely would be taking advantage of the Mackie's ad/da convertors.

Yes. That's what I meant and observed.

Forgive me but I'm not sure how you run both at the same time? I am just getting up and rolling with windows after a long hiatus so I'm probably missing something here. As a matter of fact we should probably get the facts from people who know better than me. I know ASIO drivers are preferred, but if you are getting lower latencies from WDM and it is more stable why is ASIO preferred?

I can say from my perspective, listening on my SHURE cans, I can hear a difference between the two. Seems WDM is weightier, and more solid, while the ASIO is more detailed and crisper. Am I imagining this?

[whyterabbyt]

Forgive me but I'm not sure how you run both at the same time?

Both what? If you mean driver types, ASIO4all is just a clever 'translator' that talks ASIO to the host, but low level 'Windows driver' to the audio device.

I am just getting up and rolling with windows after a long hiatus so I'm probably missing something here. As a matter of fact we should probably get the facts from people who know better than me. I know ASIO drivers are preferred, but if you are getting lower latencies from WDM and it is more stable why is ASIO preferred?

Well, generally, ASIO drivers give lower latency, so that's why they're preferred. In cases where they were giving higher latency etc, there'd be no specific need to use them, if the application supports something else, though an individual might still choose to for whatever reason.

I can say from my perspective, listening on my SHURE cans, I can hear a difference between the two. Seems WDM is weightier, and more solid, while the ASIO is more detailed and crisper. Am I imagining this?

If you're talking about the same device, then yes, its more likely that you are than the different driver type is changing the data in some perceivably consistent manner.

So whilst audio cards aimed at gamers etc have possibly got equalisation etc built in at the driver level to 'sweeten' the sound, a high-end device shouldnt be doing anything at the driver level other than buffering data transfers backwards and forwards, and that shouldnt be affected by the driver type. They're just moving data, not changing it.

[Dasheesh]

Is this the consensus then? So shall it be, ASIOforall then.

Still have a right to a working driver for this mackie. You have not been forgiven.

[Kaine]

Thanks for that information, it's something to think about, but the drivers were made by someone called "loud inc." maybe they are TC? but this is not a recent problem. It's literally been bitched about on every internet forum since the release of the product.

Loud Inc is Mackies parent company.

My point is, if they couldn't/wouldn't invest in newer drivers whilst the company that writes them was still able too, then I'm just pointing out that the chances of them deciding to do so now is pretty much zero.

[BertKoor]

I can hear a difference between the two. Seems WDM is weightier, and more solid, while the ASIO is more detailed and crisper. Am I imagining this?

Possibilities:

1) Sample rate conversion. WDM doesn't care what sample rate the application wants, it will convert that sample rate to whatever the device is set to (with questionable quality). With ASIO the application (or ASIO control panel) dictates the sampling rate, and it won't be converted (which is preferred). ASIO4All is in essence WDM, so WDM might do sampling rate conversion. You can do some tests in your DAW, play a (soft synths only, no WAV recordings!) project in different sampling rates. Maybe you'll find the one that WDM is locked to. Might be 48kHz instead of 44.1kHz or 96kHz...

2) Sound enhancing DSP. Somewhere in the WDM model there's room for DSPs to intercept and process the sound. Can be a simple EQ, "chrystal" audio, WOW, stereo enhancements tuned to headphone or multimedia speaker or laptop speaker setups. Dig into your Windows Control Panel, somewhere in the Audio settings these might be buried. Turn off every enhancement you can find there, it's not what you need. Regular ASIO bypasses this, but chances are Asio4All still goes through these processes.

[.jon]

Lesson is, never buy digital audio stuff from US brands, they just don't have the competence.

[Kaine]

I think the lesson is to buy from firms that develop the whole thing from the ground up in house, rather than buy in important parts like the controller solution that can then get withdrawn from market without them being given notice.

It's not all bad that side of the pond, you've got Lynx after all.

[fmr]

Lesson is, never buy digital audio stuff from US brands, they just don't have the competence.

I have been using MOTU hardware since ever, and it works very well. The drivers are very good and reliable (but MOTU was born as a software company, so, the don't need to ask third parties to write their drivers). It's harware only companies that should be avoided, IMO.

OTOH, RME is a hardware only company, and their drivers are probably the best ones in the market.

[incubus]

(smart ass mode on)

Many great albums were made w/o being x64

[Kaine]

Yes, but some of us don't want to be writing Gregorian chants.

</smart ass mode>