Trouble putting cheap audio interface to work...

[rbd]

Hello, I've just bought from ebay one of those cheap jack to usb audio interfaces, see one here: Guitar Bass to USB Link Cable Adapter PC Recording 10FEET | eBay

I normally use an X3 Live for recording, but I wanted something lighter and simpler so I could practice in the living room while watching tv

It's supposed to be PnP, so no drivers available. The fact is I can "see" it in Windows audio settings as an additional audio device (Windows 7 64, btw) after it installed with a generic Windows driver. There's a meter that shows audio activity and I can hear the guitar when I turn on some option I forgot the name.

But when I try to actually use it, in Sonar or Windows Sound Recorder, it doesn't show up as an option. It shows just the onboard Realtek, and if I connect the X3, a few more options appear in the input/output settings.

If this device appears in the Windows audio settings, why won't it appear in Sonar? Would ASIO4ALL help in any way? I think it would improve latency but not replace the driver itself. But it is mentioned in some similar interface guides...

Probably a noob question, the ebay seller wasn't much help so far, but I'm not sure yet if its a faulty device or a faulty user Anyone tried one of these?

 

[iceythe]

It means that the generic driver is WDM only. WDM is Windows' standard API for sound card drivers. DAWs use ASIO (at least on Windows), which is a different kind of driver than WDM.

Yes, ASIO4All can "wrap" any kind of WDM sound driver into a generic ASIO driver. That is probably the easiest solution.

 

[rbd]

Now I'm confused. I thought asio4all wouldn't do any good because I was already able to set the onboard soundcard to ASIO with good latency. But I went and installed it anyway and there was some progress, but not yet as expected.

So, now the new USB device appears as an option. But if I choose the driver mode as ASIO, the onboard soundcard is grayed out in the output options. It will only let me choose the USB as an output, which obviously is no good. There's an "ASIO Panel" button that won't do anything if I press it.

If I choose driver mode as WDM, I can choose the USB as an input and the onboard as the output. But even with the default 100ms latency it distorts horribly, and even more if I set the latency to about 50ms, which is still not usable...

So any more tips...?

 

[iceythe]

Ah, yes. Setting up ASIO4All can be a bit tricky. You can only have one ASIO driver active at any time. You need to choose ASIO4All, and then set up the devices within ASIO4All control panel.
When you've selected the ASIO4All driver, a green rectangle should pop up in your system tray. Click it, and then click the wrench.

That's your list of WDM-capable devices. Now, ASIO requires one input source and one output source. Your input should be your USB-cable, and your output should be your Realtek "Out".

Set the "on" flag on those, and remove from everything else. If you are running any program that uses WDM, you may need to close them first. When there's a blue arrow pointing on the listed device, it means it's ready to use. If there is a red x, it means something is locking the device out and you need to terminate some programs. If you get a yellow symbol, though, that is kinda hard to solve as it can mean dozens of things.

 

[the unbearable]

it helps to reinstall asio4all any time you make an i/o hw change. imvho.....