ASIO, 48k and 44.1k questions

[audiobot202]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new user of Tracktion and I haved a few questions. I have an Audigy soundcard but instead of the stock Creative drivers I'm using the free KX drivers which seem better quality and have better ASIO implementation.
In Tracktion I am able to choose 48k or 44.1k and at this stage to reduce bugs and problems I'd rather be recording in 44.1 all the way. Will my ASIO bug out or Tracktion bug out if I set it to use 44.1 all the time? Or do I need to use 48k exclusively?
I could use ASIO4ALL or Wuschels ASIO also...any differences? Any opinions on the best way to go for ASIO?

Steve

[puerileboy]

I could use ASIO4ALL or Wuschels ASIO also...any differences? Any opinions on the best way to go for ASIO?
Steve

i tried ASIO4ALL, and found the sound less glossy, and i had to move my latency up to avoid getting pops, i am using KX now. May not be the same for you as i am using a Live card.

[audiobot202]

ahh...cool. I think we'd probably have a very similar experience seeing as they are both SB cards running with KX audio drivers.
I think that the KX drivers allow 44.1k sample rates.
KX ASIO seems good for me, although I've found that I have to push the latency to 20ms (which, in all honesty is still barely noticeable for me) to get rid of all pops.

[audiobot202]

I think I found that answer here:
http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=50402

Looks like we have to use 48k for any recording in Tracktion if we use KX ASIO drivers due to the hardware being locked to this samplerate. I wish they'd fix this issue...although I'm sure they only care about gamers and not budget music makers !

So...if this is the case, I should also render to a 16/48k wave file when the Tracktion project is finished right? Or does Tracktion have good dithering type algorythms inbuilt?

[puerileboy]

Looks like we have to use 48k for any recording in Tracktion if we use KX ASIO drivers due to the hardware being locked to this samplerate.

i hesitated mentioning that as i didn't know if the DSP on the Audigy was locked into 48000 as well, as a matter of fact, i still am not sure. i know the Live cards are, worth checking out for your Audigy. i run everything @ 48000, so i never worry it, might hit my CPU a little harder, but careful plugin selection (a lot of Synth1, Ravity and SFZ, and sparing use of Crystal, Sampletank etc), and Freezing parts as soon as possible, i seem to do okay. i have a 1.2 athlon, with 512 mg and i run 10ms latency just fine

[audiobot202]

I'm pretty sure the Audigy is still locked to a 48k sample rate. It's one issue Creative either did not care to fix or forgot about. Not sure about Audigy 2.
What really bugs me is that I have an old Egosys 20 bit card lying around here but no drivers for it as it's one of the early models and they seem to have discontinued drivers. Oh well...

So, obviously you've set your Tracktion to use 16/48k all the way while you work and do you render at 48k also? Or do you allow Tracktion to change the sample rate when you save?
Do you find that working in 48k makes a big difference sound wise?
In general I like the KX drivers, but I don't delve into them too much really, unlike some users. I find the technical stuff a bit too complicated.

I'm running a 2.6 Athlon XP with 512 mb ram at 10 ms latency. I find that I prefer this latency as it's barely noticeable and doesn't put as much strain on the cpu.

One other rendering problem I've found is that after rendering a 16/48k project to a 16/44.1k file, the pitch of certain instruments is off, however if I stick to 16/48k it sounds ok. Anyone else find this problem?

[puerileboy]

So, obviously you've set your Tracktion to use 16/48k all the way while you work and do you render at 48k also? Or do you allow Tracktion to change the sample rate when you save?
Do you find that working in 48k makes a big difference sound wise?

i had to actually check this out as i usually am a bit bleary-eyed by the time i render to wav. i render @ the default 16/41k, never really thought about it <smirk>, i suppose if it had all gone horribly wrong i would have. i guess the reason is when you are playing outside the KX drivers the sample rate is a non-issue. i have brought wav files i have rendered
(@ 16/41k) back into the mix and never had a problem with tuning, so Tracktion(/what ever host, as i use eXT as well) must do a compensation. The only time i ever had a problem with tuning was with the first versions of Absynth. It was setup to only use 41k regardless of the host, and all of it's sounds were a sharp 2 half steps up, but this was fixed in 2.0 and later.

Being that it is a higher sample rate, i am sure that i am getting a silkier sound, but since i have only ever used 48k, i really have nothing to compare it against.

[audiobot202]

OK. I think that it may be an issue with certain VST instruments rather than with Tracktion itself. The plug in question was Augur and I noticed that changing it's sample rate on a render seemed to make it very 'pitchy'. So maybe it doesn't like that?
I think I'll continue to render at 16/48 just to try and retain all the sample rate information I can. I always go into an audio editor like Audition afterwards anyway to tweak and master it, so it will be converted back to 16/44.1 for burning there.

[antti]

OK. I think that it may be an issue with certain VST instruments rather than with Tracktion itself. The plug in question was Augur and I noticed that changing it's sample rate on a render seemed to make it very 'pitchy'. So maybe it doesn't like that?

There is a bug in Augur if you change samplerate after instantiating the VSTi. A fix is to remove the plugin, change samplerate, reinstantiate plugin.
I'll fix this when I get around uploading next version.

[audiobot202]

ahh...that would make sense. I think that's how it originally happened. Now I'm always at 48k it shouldn't be a problem again.
Great plugins by the way ! Love the sound of Asynth as well
The GUI is very simple to understand which is excellent.

Steve