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Post by davidparker on Apr 8, 2012 5:01:11 GMT
Hi. I recently bought a small cheap multichannel USB sound card called the "External Sound Card USB 6 Channel 5.1 Audio". It is advertised here: www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B003TO3KHY/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_next_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=2. It is based on the CMedia CM6206 chip. I want to use this with Ableton Live to send sounds to individual channels. Using the driver that came with the sound card I can only access 2 channels. If I install asio4all then I can see 8 channels in the Ableton Live audio preferences. However, when I try to access them I either get sound coming from the wrong channels, or sometimes the program stops responding completely and the asio4all icon repeatedly blinks a red exclamation mark. This latter suggests to me that it is trying to tell me something. Any suggestions for getting this working please? David. |
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Post by davidparker on Apr 9, 2012 5:12:18 GMT
I have concluded that it is not possible to do what I want with this hardware. I can send audio to the correct channels if I create a 5.1 format file (such as ac3) and play it using a player that can handle such a file, but it is not possible to access each channel individually "on the fly" via asio4all in a program such as Ableton Live. I presume that the external sound card has a 5.1 decoder built into it. If anyone can enlighten me about this matter please let me know, otherwise I will be creating some ac3 files as a workaround.
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Post by stephane on Aug 2, 2012 20:14:42 GMT
I own the same 5.1 External USB Sound Card "China import" as you, based on the CM6206 chip.
I have the same problems as you, failing to individually access the 6 channels with ASIO4ALL, using any CM6206-based hardware.
I said "any CM6206-based hardware" because I also own a Sweex 7.1 External USB Sound Card, equipped with the same CM6206 chip. Also failing to individually access the 6 channels with ASIO4ALL.
CM6206 is a modernized version of CM106.
The Trust SC-5500P 5.1 External USB Sound Card has a CM106 inside. I also own one. And never got issues with.
On my computer, I have installed the CM106-based adapter (Trust SC-5500P), the CM6206-based Sweex 7.1 External USB Sound Card, and the CM6206-based 5.1 External USB Sound Card "China import".
All three sound cards come with nearly the same setup utility for Windows. Of course those setup utilities are not involving ASIO4ALL. After rebooting the computer one should see a new icon in the Windows task bar, when there is a USB sound card plugged in. This gives access to a small Windows utility enabling to decide how many output channels must be in use (very important), and enabling to identify the audio outputs, individually. On my computer, everything works fine at this stage. For the three different sound cards (Trust, Sweex, China import), all channels are there, without crosstalk. Looks thus encouraging.
The problem is only showing when accessing the channels using ASIO4ALL.
In the Windows System Control panel I de-activated the onboard Realtek HD Audio sound hardware. This way ASIO4ALL should not mess with the Realtek HD Audio harware on the motherboard.
Of course I have ASIO4ALL installed.
I then installed ASIOSigGen (free utility easy to find on the web).
Sending a -12 dB white noise to channels 1/2 or 2/3 or 4/5.
It gets interesting here.
Results are perfect using the CM106-based sound card (Trust SC-5500P).
Results are a mess using the CM6206-based sound cards (Sweex and China import). When sending to 1/2, all outputs gets energized. When sending to 7/8, not only 7/8 gets energized, but 5/6 also. Complete mess.
I thus have the impression that the CM6206 chip capabilities enumeration is messy, when talking to ASIO4ALL.
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