Sound Blaster

[frubsen]

Hey all, I just upgraded from a SB Live 5.1 Sound card to an X-FI Xtreme Audio Card and am now having problems with guitar port.  There seems to be a delay or lag time from playing to actually hearing the sound.  It sounds like its about half a second or so which makes it really annoying for trying to play.

Is there a remedy for this or is there something wrong with the card/drivers?

Also, is Line in and Mic levels no longer in the windows volume playback control? 

[jutapa]

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frubsen wrote:

Hey all, I just upgraded from a SB Live 5.1 Sound card to an X-FI Xtreme Audio Card and am now having problems with guitar port.  There seems to be a delay or lag time from playing to actually hearing the sound.  It sounds like its about half a second or so which makes it really annoying for trying to play.

Is there a remedy for this or is there something wrong with the card/drivers?

Also, is Line in and Mic levels no longer in the windows volume playback control? 

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You should be able to control I/Os through Windows mixer(s) and Creative Control Panel (comes with the driver package). If you like to install those software intend for X-Fi you need to download the CD image from BadBoys site (if he still has the site up an running). You get those mixers showing up either through panel which pops up when you enter mmsys.cpl in start->run... prompt (Audio tab, Volume buttons). Individual mixer panels can be called with commands sndvol32 (play) and sndvol32 /r (recording).

The lag you have there is normally called as latency. You get rid of it by using ASIO driver mode with 2 - 10ms latency settings. You can set the latency through ASIO controlpanel. If the guitarport has an ASIO driver it's own, use it's control panel or try with asio4all driver (http://www.asio4all.com).

jutapa

Message Edited by jutapa on 01-19-200810:10 PM

[frubsen]

i installed that asio driver and played around with the settings and nothing seemed to help, i never had this problem with my old sb live 5.1 card so i dont know why this one should be any different.

the line out of the guitar port goes into the line in of the sound card if that makes any difference.

[jutapa]

If you connect the GuitarPort through USB port, is there too much latency then too?

IMO, you should try to play through some ASIO capable software so you can select the ASIO driver and I/Os properly and then set the ASIO latency low enough. I recommend Reaper but if it feels too complicated then VSTHost is usble (though, you need to have one VST effect plugin loaded to get the signal out (Voxengo SPAN as for an example).

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/default.htm

http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php

http://www.voxengo.com/product/SPAN/

jutapa

[frubsen]

well the guitar port is connected to the computer through usb anyways but i run the line out to to the line in of the sound card so i it comes through my normal speaker and i dont have to switch them back and forth every time i want to play the guitar

[jutapa]

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frubsen wrote:

well the guitar port is connected to the computer through usb anyways but i run the line out to to the line in of the sound card so i it comes through my normal speaker and i dont have to switch them back and forth every time i want to play the guitar

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Hmm.. so your signal path is Guitar -> GuitarPort In -> PC (USB) - possible software - PC USB - GuitarPort -> X-Fi In -> X-Fi Out? In this case there are two A/D - D/A conversions done. How is the monitoring set up?

What if you use router and take the output from GuitarPort to X-Fi internally by using some software (I'm not sure if this can be done easy w/o extra latency with that setup but as or an example, you can route signal using ReaAsio driver but then yoiu need two software running there ...)? Router (comes with Virtual Audio Cable) could also be used but it produces some extra latency so you don't get any advantage with it.

I'll try to find some pics (IIRC I have) showing up the connections and give more detailed instructions then later.

jutapa

Message Edited by jutapa on 01-20-200812:22 PM

[frubsen]

my big question is, what is so different from my old sb live card from this x-fi card....i thought this was a better card?  i never had any latancy issues with the old card with guitarport

[jutapa]

Basically, not much in this type task but, I suppose you just need the software to get it set up properly.

Does the GuitarPort need a driver to be set up or does it use some Windows generic USB audio driver? If there is a spesific driver for GP then I suppose latency comes from USB driver (if it's not ASIO) rather than X-Fi's otherwise, you need to have X-Fi software to make needed settings for X-Fi card. Did you try that internal routing?

jutapa

P.S. Here are the files you need to (maybe) get that X-Fi software installed for your OEM card.

Original CD + Path for OEM cards :
http://files.filefront.com/ISO+SB+X+Fi+series/;5020773;/fileinfo.html
http://www.driverheaven.net/audio-general-technical-discussion/99401-modded-file-x-fi-installer-cd-h...

or

YoupPAX version:
http://www.driverheaven.net/audio-general-technical-discussion/136428-youpax-driver-information-thre...

Message Edited by jutapa on 01-20-200812:35 PM

[the_can]

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jutapa wrote:

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frubsen wrote:

Hey all, I just upgraded from a SB Live 5.1 Sound card to an X-FI Xtreme Audio Card and am now having problems with guitar port. There seems to be a delay or lag time from playing to actually hearing the sound. It sounds like its about half a second or so which makes it really annoying for trying to play.

Is there a remedy for this or is there something wrong with the card/drivers?

Also, is Line in and Mic levels no longer in the windows volume playback control?

---

You should be able to control I/Os through Windows mixer(s) and Creative Control Panel (comes with the driver package). If you like to install those software intend for X-Fi you need to download the CD image from BadBoys site (if he still has the site up an running). You get those mixers showing up either through panel which pops up when you enter mmsys.cpl in start->run... prompt (Audio tab, Volume buttons). Individual mixer panels can be called with commands sndvol32 (play) and sndvol32 /r (recording).

The lag you have there is normally called as latency. You get rid of it by using ASIO driver mode with 2 - 10ms latency settings. You can set the latency through ASIO controlpanel. If the guitarport has an ASIO driver it's own, use it's control panel or try with asio4all driver (http://www.asio4all.com).

jutapa

Message Edited by jutapa on 01-19-200810:10 PM

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Is this a standalone driver? Or is it something used in addition to an existing sound driver? I'm having a similar problem with my mic, there is a delay (and it has to be turned up really loud to be heard, although that may be a different problem) and I'm looking for a solution.

[jutapa]

Asio4all is a sort of wdm/ks wrapper which can be used only with ASIO capable software, ... so it's not a general driver 'mode' for every audio software.
 
You say delay (do you mean you hear the voice lets say one second later from when you speak) ... have you checked if EAX is enabled? IIRC, setting the "monitoring while recording" OFF and/or selecting mic as a recording source instead of "what u hear" may help?
 
jutapa