Show Cue System

Mike,

In the entry for SCS 11.1.3 RC1 is the line:
RC1: New option: Added a 'push stream' option for ASIO (using BASS) to fix problem of glitches in ASIO playback. This 'push stream' option is selected by default.

Does this mean that if selected, ASIO drivers will work the same as WDM drivers for certain devices?

The reason I ask is because I've been staying with WIndows XP and using WDM drivers for a couple of devices because in Windows 7, the WDM drivers have limited outputs available (usually, just a stereo pair) and I've had problems with glitches in the past when using ASIO drivers. Now perhaps I can upgrade to a newer computer running W7 and use the ASIO drivers for full functionality with a better chance of avoiding glitches. Is this correct?

Bruce,

The short answer: Please try 11.1.3RC2 which I have just released. I'm confident you will find ASIO will perform well with this version.

The long answer: Much testing has been going on recently to sort out the issue of glitches in ASIO playback. The introduction of 'push streams' seemed to fix that for most scenarios. However there was one scenario in which a user found glitches would still occur, and that was when playing WAV files located on a network drive, even with a fast network connection. We definitely do not recommend you use network drives during productions, but this user edits audio files from another computer and so for rehearsals it is convenient to have files on a network drive so they can be easily accessed by both the theatre and design computers. The problem with network drives is that gaps can and do occur in the file transfer process, and even a short gap could be too long for the ASIO processing to absorb.

However, after discussions with the BASS developer, we now have a pre-release of the next version of the BASS audio library, which supports asynchronous file reading/buffering: data is read from the file in advance by a separate thread. After a couple of trials setting different buffer sizes, we now believe we have resolved the ASIO glitches issue, and this solution is implemented in SCS 11.1.3RC2.

My thanks to Christian Peters for assisting with the network drive issue, and also thanks to the BASS developer for providing advice and this pre-release of the new bass.dll, which he has also given me permission to include with SCS releases. Thanks also to several other SCS users for ASIO testing, especially Gary Tarolli, Jens Peter Schalow and Alexander Strauch.

Awesome Mike!

I'm in the middle of a production run and after the show closes, I'll give it a try.

SCS 11.1.3 has now been released and includes a new version of the BASS audio library which supports asynchronous file reading/buffering: data is read from the file in advance by a separate thread. This feature has been included in SCS primarily for ASIO outputs, and ASIO playback is now glitch-free. With this buffering implemented we found that 'push streams' are no longer necessary, so have been removed.