Don't map through soundcard

Posted on

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member Since: Oct 23, 2007

I was thumbing through Db's XP tune up, or tune down should I say and I'm curious; whats the purpose of this and does it have any effects on the normal usage of stock soundcards?

Do Not Map Through Soundcard:

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Hardware Tab > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties > Audio Devices > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties, and check the "Do not map through this device" checkbox.

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Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 25, 2007 05:27 am

Using the MS device mapper just uses unnecessary resources, it's best to explicitly select the exact device you want to use. Using the device mapper can lead to some extra latency and other such issues.

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 25, 2007 06:06 am

Simple enough :)

I've done almost everything on your list, but I still have about a second of monitoring latency.

::slamming computer against wall::

I just cant win with this thing

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 25, 2007 06:26 am

Have you selected WDM or ASIO driver type in Sonar itself? Did you get the latest drivers for your device?

If you are not using WDM or ASIO, that leaves MME or, standard oldschool multimedia drivers, which will give a lot of latency, they aren't good drivers for recording, only DVD playback, mp3 playback and whatnot...

Hold 'Em Czar
Member
Since: Dec 30, 2004


Oct 25, 2007 08:30 am

Keith, you should upgrade to Sonar 7...they've worked out those bugs....

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 25, 2007 08:38 am

What bugs?

The Eternal Student
Member
Since: Oct 08, 2005


Oct 25, 2007 07:03 pm

what sound card are you using? might have something to do with it...

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Oct 25, 2007 09:27 pm

Ya, I think you are using the stock sound card aren't you? If so 1 second of latency is pretty good for that card.

I will assume then it is using the Windows MME drivers which are an emulated driver.

You can try reducing the buffer in the Audio options section a little bit but it may introduce some noise.

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 25, 2007 11:47 pm

Yeah, I'm using the stock SigmaTel as I cant afford an external interface that I want at the moment. I have ASIO4ALL, but I'm not sure if it even does anything to help the issue.

Hold 'Em Czar
Member
Since: Dec 30, 2004


Oct 26, 2007 03:08 am

i have no idea what was gooin' on in my head on that first post....really, no clue.

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 26, 2007 03:17 am

It's all good Whosyourdaddy... we have no idea what was gooin' on in your head either, lol

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 26, 2007 05:15 am

LOL, Yeah WYD is a mystery to most of us... :-D

Honestly Keith, you may not get much performanc eout of that SigmaTel, you can tweak all you want, but at the end at the day it's still a stock card and prolly won't do well.


Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 26, 2007 05:27 am

Actually Db, I fingerd it out. I had a driver clash between ASIO and WDM. My iTunes was running in the background and I didn' know it.. it runs on start up. I set it to not run on start up, and changed a couple buffers and what not, and now my monitoring is a cool 23 milliseconds. Not too bad, eh? Thanks everyone for your help BTW :)

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 26, 2007 05:41 am

Ah, cool. 23 MS is still a bit but totally workable. With even a $100 investment you could well get down under 10 MS...just something to consider down the road, 23 is doable though, for sure.

Nice work troubleshooting the problem.

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 26, 2007 07:23 am

I messed with the buffers a little more and tweaked a couple other tiny bits and got it down to 11ms. I know a couple bucks will fix the issue, but 11ms isn't bad at all compared to an entire second. And I'm holding out for a decent, high end external interface, havn't picked one yet though. But this setup will work for now, eh?

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Oct 26, 2007 07:39 am

wow, a sigmatel down to 11ms? You deserve some sort of prize for that one!

Start recording though, see how many tracks you get before it chokes and dies...you have done impressive tuning, I'll give it up to ya on that...kudos to ya! Now, see how many tracks you can get out of it before problems surface such as dropouts, tracking getting out of sync and such things. I'm curious to know what you can squeeze out of it.

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 26, 2007 08:23 am

I've got a 12 track song I've been making as a learning type thing, and to test it with various VSTs and live audio and I havn't seen any side effects yet... I'm wondering if I should back some of these settings off before it crashes, knock on wood lol

in playback my CPU:14% Disk: 9%

So far so good!

The Eternal Student
Member
Since: Oct 08, 2005


Oct 26, 2007 11:03 pm

unlikely you'll max out the recording capabilities as only one track can be recorded at a time, right?

yeah, I can't believe how much CPU time iTunes takes, not surprising that disabling it helped.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Oct 28, 2007 06:37 pm

Ya, Keith, you probably wont see any ill effects until you start to record with all 12 tracks playing back at once. If it doesn't cough and sputter I am with dB on you getting some kind of award for getting that low latency with the sigmatel chip. That is extremely low for that kind of chip.

Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member
Since: Oct 23, 2007


Oct 29, 2007 08:33 am

I've gotten to 17 tracks (I cant find my samples for session drummer, so I'm using some old drum samples I dug up and have each on their own track)before it starts to act up. I'm not exactly sure what I've done to it to squeeze this kinda performance, but I'm not complaining.

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002


Oct 29, 2007 09:33 pm

I know I mentioned in the other thread about how to locate your program files and the other files that come with it. I suggest opening your file browser, explorer or whatever and dig around a bit. They should be there, I did find out it installs with 6 as well as 7.

Another thing is you can go in and do a selective install of just Session Drummer 2 and make sure you remember were it loads the content.

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