Sound Device Recommendation

[bf1001]

Hi - We need some help finding a replacement sound device.

Our setup: We're a low budget 160 seat black box community theater. We're running SCS 9.x on an HP laptop.

We have tried a number of different sound devices; Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook (pcmcia device), Audigy 2 NX (USB2) and a M-Audio Firewire 410.

The output of these device are directed into 7.1 home theater surround system which directly drives the speakers in the theater. This setup suits us perfectly as far as function and volume. But we are having issues.

With the 2 Audigy devices we cannot get total speaker separation/control and we get spill-over on the speakers (i.e. If we select the “Front of the House” speakers, we get output on all speakers.). The channels that work correctly have a good output level, while others are so low, you can barely hear them. Basically, the output levels are fine on the 2 main stereo pairs, while the other suffer from low volume.

Our M-Audio 410 device worked perfectly, for a while anyway. It had a nasty habit of popping off in the middle of a show (actors weren't very fond of that!), and was very particular in which order the devices had to be powered on. A failure during a show require a complete power down and reset. We thought we were on a dirty circuit so we installed a surge protector/battery backup with filter and it didn’t appear to help any. We are not over-driving the inputs on our surround system, there is built-in protection to prevent this from happening.

We would like a recommendation from the forum about a suitable sound device.

[jmgordon]

Knowing the exact SCS version number you are using may be helpful.

Have you looked at this thread, which has observations on speaker assignments? Are you using the specific Creative Labs settings recommended in the Help file under Options - Audio Driver?

Sounds like your FireWire 410 is faulty, I have had no trouble with mine over a number of shows. I agree that the powering up has to be done in the right order for Windows and SCS to recognise that it is there. Presumably your laptop FireWire is only 4-wire so you have to use the PSU. M-Audio recommend not hot-plugging FireWire, to avoid damage to computer and/or sound card.

Malcolm

[Mike Daniell]

I've done some more testing of the Creative Labs issues since the thread that Malcolm mentioned, using an 'SB Audigy 4', which is a PCI soundcard in my desktop PC. Options for the Audigy 4 are set using the Creative Audio Console, so I presume the Audigy 2's have a similar facility. The important Windows, Audigy and SCS settings seem to be as follows:

Windows and Audigy

• Make sure that the Windows Control Panel Speaker Settings and the Audigy Audio Console Speaker Selection show the same number of speakers (eg 7.1 Speakers), and enough speakers for the number of outputs you want to use.

Audigy

• Under the EAX tab make sure (No Effects) is selected.
• Under the CMSS 3D tab select Off to turn off CMSS.

SCS

• In the Audio Driver options, make sure Do NOT use floating point for audio channels is checked. The other two checkboxes may be left clear.
• In Production Properties, to select speaker outputs you must use settings like 'Rear/Side Speakers (stereo)' - do NOT use settings like 'Outputs 3/4 (stereo)'.

Regarding the last dot point above, this is a requirement I've only recently worked out. The reason is that if you select any speaker setting that starts with the words 'Output' or 'Outputs' then SCS sets a flag in certain calls to the audio library, and that flag appears to be incompatible with Creative Labs audio drivers.

hth with the Audigy usage.