Post by Chris on Sept 5, 2013 21:43:37 GMT
Ever heard of "AmaMix"? ... or "AmaRecTV Live"?
Just like me, ... 'til yesterday.
Get a first glance at:
www.amarectv.com/english/amarectv_e.htm
It is a freeware (except for the video codec used with it) developed by Amaman,
and it contains a small little utility called "AmaMix". This mixer provides
for 4 inputs and 2 outputs (stereo only) and does a magic in trying to keep
2 output soundcards in sync.
The trick seems to be done by varying the bitrate of buffer I/O in a smooth,
nearly imperceptible way - as far as I understand from the google translation
of the japanese web site at Yahoo.
But wait, before you download the v2.31 version from the english (a bit oudated)
link at:
cgi.geocities.jp/amarectv/cgi-bin/kz_dl_counter.cgi?http://www.amarectv.com/english/download/amarectv231_en.zip
you might spare yourself some time, because the current development version
brings a lot of improvements over the v2.31 version (especially in the buffering
mechanism used and thus in audio perception). I already tested this on Win XP x86
and Win7 x64.
You can find the latest versions of "AmaRecTV Live" from his blog at:
amalabo.blog35.fc2.com/blog-entry-248.html
which is v3.00a:
cgi.geocities.jp/amarectv/cgi-bin/kz_dl_counter.cgi?http://www.amarectv.com/download/amarectv300a.zip
Then you should update (after the software installation!) to the latest
DS Audio Renderer v2.30a found in Amaman's blog article at:
amalabo.blog35.fc2.com/blog-entry-209.html
or download directly from:
cgi.geocities.jp/amarectv/cgi-bin/kz_dl_counter.cgi?http://www.amarectv.com/download/AmAudioRenderer230a.zip
A short installation help:
--------------------------
- Unzip the installation file to a subfolder of your choice.
- Run "live_setup231a_en.exe" (english version) or "live_setup300.exe" (japanese
version only), which will install some DirectShow filters to the directory
of your choice and register them.
* Be prepared to have a japanese installation menu for v3.00a (but it should be
intuitive to click the right buttons)
- Now you can put your freshly unzipped directory anywhere you want.
- Unpack the "AmAudioRenderer230a.zip" and put "AmAudioRenderer.ax" BOTH into your
installation directory (the dir from your setup) AND into your unzipped folder.
* Reason: an ini file is written for "AmAudioRenderer.ax" after you configured
your AmaMixer ("AmaMix.exe"). The ini file resides thus in the unzipped
directory and not in the system wide setup folder, where your DS filters
were registered.
- Now run "AmaMix.exe" and configure it.
* The "(Zg,i,E,C)"-like entry simply means "NONE" in the "Input Device"
selection menu.
* In the "Config/Live" menu you may disable the "AmaRecTV Live" setting
if you don't use the TV/Video software.
- And now ... have fun!
It should be clear, that audio reproduction cannot be bitperfect - better bitrate
perfect - this way. But the perception is, IMHO, much more "ear-caressing" than
the crackling, glitching and noise after some time of running asio4all setups
(especially with Win7 and i.e. two soundcards = unbearable).
The software from Amaman seems under heavy development, so there's room
for upcoming improvements.
IMHO, the basic idea behind "AmaMix" and his concept is just great!
A big THX from here to Amaman!
You may contact him at amamann@hotmail.co.jp