I have the 16-bit version of n-Track and that is fine with me. I have no need to upgrade to the 24-bit version.
I am setting up my new X-Fi soundcard, which supports 16-bit ASIO. I tried ASIO with n-Track. At first, when I recorded, I got 24-bit files, which was interesing since my n-Track version is only supposed to support 16-bit. What gives with that?
I wanted to record in 16-bit, so I checked the “force 16-bit” checkbox in the recording settings. n-Track crashes with that setting. In fact, it was the first time I have had XP lock up totally and require a hardware reset. I couldn’t find a reference to “force 16-bit” in the help files. Is the correct way to get 16-bit ASIO?
Any help getting 16-bit ASIO configured would be appreciated.
Have you tried WDM? As I said, those Xi-Fi drivers scare me… I would imagine they put more into the WDM drivers as it is a consumer oriented card, so let’s hope WDM works. Also, I know you have your heart set on 16 bit, but there is no harm in going 24 bit and converting after the fact to 16 bit.
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| Any help getting 16-bit ASIO configured would be appreciated. |
Hi Vivona - still persevering with creative then
I’ve never seen Xfi but on the audigy you have to select a different driver under ntrack preferences (and other s/w) to choose between 16bit and 24bit. Selecting 24bit driver disables all the internal “virtual” inputs that route through the DSP. I would imagine selecting a 24bit driver and then forcing it to 16bit through the s/w would crash the system. The correct way to use 16bit on audigy is to make sure the 16bit driver is selected. I have never used the “force to 16bit” option in ntrack.
Bubba, creative seem not to bother too much with the WDM driver - they are fairly crippled - certainly on the audigy, and I guess on the xfi as well. They limit use to a single stereo pair of inputs only, and don’t allow access to any of the virtual inputs for signal routing.
Also, remember n-Track will playback wav files of different bit depths just fine as long as the sample rates match. I dunno if that helps or not… but there it is… Your backing tracks can be 16/44.1 and your new material can be 24/44.1 Internally, n-Track makes everything 32 bits.
Just choose 16 bits at mixdown.
D
Thanks for your responses.
Bubbagump - The WDM drivers work fine. I just wanted to try ASIO to see what the difference was.
maaszy - Yep, I’m still with Creative. I dropped my attempt to get the Audigy to work and bought an X-Fi because it can do 16/44 without resampling. It works perfectly in that respect using the WDM drivers. Since I never record beyond stereo, the Creative WDM drivers are fine and the RMAA test results are excellent. I did not see anything in the X-Fi manual about different ASIO drivers for 16 versus 24 bit. The specs do say it will do ASIO in 16/44, so I will check further into this.
Diogenes - If I record the vocals at 24/44, the resultant wave files will be larger than if I record at 16/44. I regularly backup the recorded wave files of my projects to CD and like to organize my backups so that the final music CD and the backup of the vocal files used on that CD are pretty much the same size, i.e. a full CD of music has a corresponding CD of the mixdown wave files and another CD of the vocal files plus .sng files. The tracks are backed up separately as part of my large collection of tracks.
One unanswered question… if I have the 16-bit license for n-Track, why am I able to record at 24-bit?
| Quote (vivona @ Jan. 18 2006,14:44) |
| Bubbagump - The WDM drivers work fine. I just wanted to try ASIO to see what the difference was. |
For what you are doing, there will not be enough difference to be worth it to you to try to get ASIO working if it is a pain.
I have resolved the problem.
First, there is only one ASIO driver, regardless of bit depth. Just like WDM, the bit depth is set in the recording software, not the soundcard driver application. I tested the X-Fi ASIO driver on Sony Movie Studio and it worked fine at 16/44. So I assumed the problem was with n-Track. I was on build 1980, so I upgraded to the latest version (2042). That resolved the driver conflict. Then I selected “force 16-bit” and could record 16/44 files with the ASIO driver, but then I got the evaluation copy noise every 20 seconds. Turns out that when you use an ASIO driver in n-Track, it operates as if it is in 24-bit mode, even if you select “force 16-bit”, so since I have the 16-bit license, it expects me to upgrade to the 24-bit license. I don’t know if that is the case for every ASIO driver, but it certainly was the case with the X-Fi ASIO.
Since the WDM drivers work fine, I will stay with them for now. I do think it is not correct for n-Track to expect a 24-bit license for recording 16-bit ASIO, but I will pursue that at another time.
I also have the X-Fi, but can’t be able to use the Mono recording while using the WDM drivers. Is this impossible??
cheers