[ScottieB]

Hey all... I've done a lot of reading on this today but haven't come up with anything that actually works yet... here's my story...

So on Jan 1 I finally installed Windows 7. I have a Creative X-Fi (with the front panel box). In XP I always used ASIO from Foobar to my X-Fi in Music Creation mode, bit-perfect on. I listen to a lot of 24-bit 96khz stuff (vinyl rips, DVD-A, SACD etc) and this always worked perfectlly.

When I installed Win7 I pretty much set up everything the same way. Installed foobar, ASIO output driver etc. And it all worked perfectly... until today. I found that the windows alert sounds were driving me insane, so I started fiddling with the sound playback devices in the control panel to change the sounds etc.

Well, this messed something up, because my ASIO has yet to work right since. With a fresh reboot, it seems to work fine, but then after some time, I will get no audio output whatsoever from Foobar. If I open the Creative Control Panel I can see that the device seems to be getting a signal - it shows the level meters, but I get nothing through my DAC. With some fiddling I can get it to play again, but 96khz audio seems to stop working altogether. Sometimes 44khz will work, sometimes nothing will work without a reboot.

I read a lot about WASAPI and figured I'd try that too. It woouldn't work at all at first, but after a reboot it seems to be ok... but I'm baffled as to why ASIO seemed to stop working completely.

Is there a way to reset my sound preference to deafult and see if that will bring things back to normal with ASIO? I had originally not changed anything here and it wasn't till I started fiddling with the sound effects that my ASIO went wacky...

I'm open to ideas... just frustrated at this point. Any help appreciated!

Thanks.
Scott

 

[.Sup]

Are you using Asio4all? If so take a look at the asio4all icon in windows taskbar and select the playback device again.

 

[ScottieB]

Hey there.

No, using the creative ASIO driver.

 

[Mad Max]

That's wierd. Are you sure you only touched the Windows Sounds. What else did you mess with?

 

[ScottieB]

Hmm I guess some other settings in that same section - the audio playback devices. No doubt I botched something. But no matter what I try now I can't get it back to how it was.

There are two choices for playback devices - 'speakers' and 'creative spdif'. Inside those are choices for the default output/sample rate etc.

I honestly wasn't paying much attention (yeah I know duh) which is why was hoping there was a way to reset the defaults - since it worked before I touched it/screwed it up.

 

[khaos974]

WIndows 7 is known to have problems with asio4all. You could try the WASAPI plugin in Foobar which also gives bit perfect.

 

[Napilopez]

Odd, I've been running 7 since the original released alpha and have never had issues with asio4all... Sorry I can't help much though =/

 

[ScottieB]

So there's no way to reset defaults on a windows control panel huh? I'm pretty sure that would solve this, as it was working at one point.

 

[giedrys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottieB /img/forum/go_quote.gif So there's no way to reset defaults on a windows control panel huh? I'm pretty sure that would solve this, as it was working at one point.

Well, you can reset defaults by going to:

playback devices>speakers>properties>advanced>restore defaults

In sounds, just restore to windows default option.

After that you may need to reinstall your soundcard drivers and foobar.

 

[ScottieB]

OK thanks, I'll have a look at that - no worries on re-installations.

 

[chronomitch]

It's possible that you tried to play something else (like a Windows sound effect), while listening to music via ASIO using Foobar2000. Depending on the driver, this may have caused problems because ASIO is supposed to be an exclusive audio mode while everything else is mixed together (Windows sound effects, DirectSound, audio from YouTube, etc).

Perhaps the ASIO driver couldn't handle the mode switch and stopped playing sound from the ASIO source altogether.

I would suggest trying ASIO4ALL and WASAPI to see if you get the same problems.

 

[ScottieB]

Hi Chronomitch.

this sounds like what happened... makes sense. Thing is, when I first had it set up, I didn't get this problem - Windows sounds were able to play regardless of ASIO being in use - like they (ASIO and Windows sounds) were somehow 'sharing' the functionality. Since my reason for changing things in the first place was to change those sounds, it makes sense that I botched some setting in there.

WASAPI seems to be working quite well, but when Foobar is running I can't get sound from ANY other apps. I understand that this is normal from other reading I've done, but I liked how it was before- if I wanted to watch a youtube video for example I could just pause foobar... now with WASAPI I have to actually quit the app.

As long as it keeps working I'm ok sticking with it how it is now, but the geek in me would love to track down what happened and see if I can replicate it/get back to where I was.

Thx for all the input.

 

[chronomitch]

Your drivers may be able to handle the mode switch if the Windows mixer sample rate (bit depth and frequency) are set to the same mode that your ASIO driver is using. Go to control panel -> sound -> properties of your audio device. Since most of your music is 24bit/96khz, try setting the default sound mode to that. See if that works.

Oh, and this goes without saying, but if this works and you are able to listen to multiple sources at once, it won't be bit perfect anymore because sound will be mixed by the Windows mixer, rather than passing through to your sound card drivers.

 

[ScottieB]

Interesting... I think I did set that default sound to that - and that was when it started acting funny... ASIO wouldn't play 24/96 anymore - even though the level meters were moving (they had a signal) in the Creative Audio Creation Mode panel.

Makes sense, though, that if it had been working the way I described at one point, then it wouldn't technically be bit-perfect... this was what XP did (mixed sounds anyway) and noone ever seemed to be able to explain it... I guess now with the WASAPI it works as it should... just wish I didn't have to quit foobar just to hear sounds from other apps. I can deal with it though.

thanks again.

Scott

 

[Punnisher]

I was surprised at how well wasapi foobar worked. Simple to set up as well. It's quite nice for me because I hardly need to listen to two applications at once. Quitting foobar is just as easy as pausing music, luckily.

When I tried asio and windows xp, it seemed very much like a hacked together solution, buggy and not worth the hassle. My regret is not having another copy of 7 for my music pc.