Official Sony position re M-Audio ASIO drivers in Vegas?

Elizabeth Lowrey wrote on 4/24/2004, 1:57 PM

As indicated by the number of posts I've found throughout the last year or so dealing with ASIO driver issues for M-Audio cards, a number of people are unable to satisfactorily use those drivers in Vegas. I personally use the Delta 1010 (card & breakout rackmount box) and have NEVER gotten ASIO drivers to work properly in Vegas since buying and installing the program a little over a year ago. The sound gets horribly behind the picture by a couple of seconds or so, and no amount of adjustment within the Delta 1010 control panel options cures this. Accordingly, I have always had to use the "Windows Classic Driver" option on the "audio device" tab of Vegas prefs.

A week ago I was forced to reinstall my OS and all programs because of a computer issue unrelated to Vegas. In the process I disconnected all non-essential hardware, completely reformated the system drive, cleanly installed W2K with all latest service packs and security updates, reinstalled each piece of hardware one at a time with the latest drivers, then reinstalled all programs with their latest updates.

I'm currently running Vegas 4e with plans to upgrade to Vegas 5 shortly. I am running the Delta 1010 with the newest 5.10.00.5036 drivers.

Since this reinstall, I have, as always, been able to select the M-Audio ASIO drivers and use them without issues in multitrack recording projects within Cubase VST/32 (v5.1). I use the lowest latency settings and get audio without clicks and pops on at least 8 tracks of audio with several realtime effects.

Within Vegas, however, I now hear NOTHING when I select the ASIO drivers, and that is the case even after ensuring that the card is not running system sounds and after rebooting.

I've obviously had no problems with video editing using the Windows Classic drivers and am content to continue doing so. But I've always lamented that I don't have the option of using the ASIO drivers in Vegas should the supposed latency advantages of those drivers become important in a particular project.

What is the official Sony position regarding the compatibility/usability of M-Audio ASIO drivers in Vegas? Are the issues reported by me and others regarded as the fault of the drivers and, if so, why am I able to use the drivers in Cubase without problems?

Comments

TorS wrote on 4/24/2004, 3:00 PM

For an official position this post ought to be sufficient - although you might be luckier during the week. But also you might get some knowledgeable input if you crossposted to the Vegas Audio Forum as well.
Tor

farss wrote on 4/24/2004, 3:46 PM

The guys in the audio forum seem to be pretty dowm on M-Audio in general. I have the Firewire-410, only thing I could find that had the features I needed. Although I can record with it using the ASIO drivers I had a few problem trying to record from the SPDIF input until I updated the drivers. I'd add the the drivers seem to be more than just drivers, they also load the code into the unit.

I guess you've checked for any updates to the drivers for your setup. I'm certain a Search of the Audio Forum will reveal a lot of info about M-Audio, you may even find the solution over there. I seem to recall some case of M-Audio gear where the older versions of the drivers worked and the latest ones didn't.

planders wrote on 4/24/2004, 4:08 PM

Yes, apparently an older version works properly. A search of the audio forum will also reveal several official posts from the developers on this long-standing issue; apparently M-Audio has not been particularly interested in helping to resolve these issues.

For what it's worth, Echo's ASIO drivers work without a hitch in both Vegas and Acid, and posts in the audio forum reveal that Echo has been much more willing to help the Sony/SF team resolve any problems.

Spot|DSE wrote on 4/24/2004, 4:14 PM

Can't comment on Sony's 'official' response, but I'm using 3 Delta 1010's with older drivers, ASIO is fine, but at the same time, I'm getting excellent response from Classic drivers. I've not loaded the final version of Vegas 5 on my main studio machine though. However, I can't imagine it being any different.
Echo is snappier, no doubt about it at all. We use Layla and Mona on the road, or an M-Audio 410. Layla/Mona are great. At NAB, Sony was using Darla's on most of the machines, I think.

Randy Brown wrote on 4/24/2004, 6:15 PM

>> but I'm using 3 Delta 1010's with older drivers<<
Spot,which drivers are you using?
TIA,
Randy

Elizabeth Lowrey wrote on 4/24/2004, 6:33 PM

I searched ALL forums with the terms "maudio" OR "m-aduio" AND "ASIO" and also searched for "delta" in combo with "ASIO" before posting this thread. Found nothing about an older set of drivers working better, although I can say that an earlier driver from M-audio was screwy according to my own findings -- wouldn't even allow my system to access it for system sounds. But this driver set, which I was using most of last year and is the latest for the 1010, works fine with regular utility apps (e.g., quicktime player, wmp) and Vegas using the standard windows drivers, and ASIO also works fine in Cubase VST 32. It's the ASIO/Vegas combination that has always given me fits.

Elizabeth Lowrey wrote on 4/24/2004, 6:36 PM

planders, as per my reply to farss below, I had searched all the forums using permutations of "maudio", "delta", and "ASIO" before posting. Do you happen to know which version of the delta ASIO drivers are purported to work in vegas? I haven't found that info on this forum.

Elizabeth Lowrey wrote on 4/24/2004, 6:43 PM

Spot, probably should have directed my response to planders to you but hadn't read your reply yet. Which drivers are you using?

My system is self built but is 3 years old. I'll throw out the description in case something jumps out as a possible culprit in my inability to get ASIO to work:

Asus A7M266 (AMD 761 northbridge)
1.33 GHz Athlon
512 MB PC 2100 DDR SDRAM
Adaptec 19160 Ultra 160 SCSI Controller
Seagate Cheetah & Barracuda SCSI drives (3)
Pioneer and Plextor SCSI optical drives
nVidia GeForce 3 AGP
M-Audio Delta 1010
1394 PCI firewire card (TI chipset)
Canopus DVStorm
Ethernet PCI card
Windows 2000, SP 4

PeterWright wrote on 4/24/2004, 6:48 PM

I have an MAudio Quattro, and until recently I could use it ok in Sound Forge but not in Vegas.

A few weeks ago however I was pleased to discover new drivers posted and these work fine - have you checked you have the latest?

MJhig wrote on 4/24/2004, 6:51 PM

The 27s are the older drivers that work for those with problems. I have posted reams myself on M-Audio along with many others. After years of frustration I now, fortunately, can run the most current.

The 27s lack multi-client ASIO support however. This is not a problem if you don't run two audio apps. simultaneously using ASIO.

The common complaint was crackle recorded with the audio, sync was never discussed in the Audio forum.

As always, use the included uninstaller and if using 98 check the readme for the file that needs to be deleted and the overall procedure.

As a side note, ASIO is for low latency, if you are not tracking live performances against recorded tracks ASIO would be unnecessary. Classic is pretty low latency in that regard also.

MJ

MJhig wrote on 4/24/2004, 7:01 PM

I could use it ok in Sound Forge with ASIO drivers

Mmm, does Sound Forge support ASIO?

MJ

Elizabeth Lowrey wrote on 4/24/2004, 7:12 PM

MJ, thanks for the info. I may try the 27. I just came from the M-audio site and see that it's still available.

I must have been mistaken when I said the 36 was the driver I was using last year because it has a release date of 12/26/03. I do know that a previous driver would not work at all for my system, not sure if it was the 27 or the one immediately before it. I had last updated my drivers in September of last year.

My understanding of the advantage of ASIO was what you stated. I bought Cubase VST 32 two years ago for the rare times when I discipline myself for actual music work. It's an incredibly deep program, but I ABHOR the interface. So counter intuitive IMO, and the documentation isn't exactly earth shattering. So I've been lazy and have never really learned how to use it and, worse, have to relearn what little I did know every time I go into the program.

In contrast, when I first opened Vegas almost everything I wanted to do I could do intuitively. The easiest "deep" program I've ever used, bar none. I bought it originally only to get DVD-Architect and its Dolby AC-3 encoding at a reasonable price, since I did video editing with a Premiere/DV Storm realtime system. But I quickly fell in love with Vegas and it is now the editor I use 95% of the time.

I would love to be able to do audio only projects with it. That won't be entirely practical for me since it lacks MIDI sequencing capabilities. But it is viable for audio only multitrack recording, although I would obviously prefer to have the ASIO option in that event.

PeterWright wrote on 4/24/2004, 7:24 PM

thanks mjhig - the words "with ASIO drivers" were erroneous - now removed.

I meant I could use the Quattro ok in Sound Forge, but couldn't get ASIO working in Vegas - till the new drivers came out.

MJhig wrote on 4/24/2004, 7:50 PM

EClaire,

The dates on the M-Audio driver page were (possibly still are) erroneous. They rebuilt their site 6 or so months ago and the release dates took on the date of the site rebuild.

I think most of us are Vegas users for the reasons you post. I'm an old musician that worked with MIDI gear before PC based sequencers/DAWs even existed.

Once PC based sequencers were an option I began with Cakewalk, used it for years. Fortunately I discovered Vegas 2 and abandoned all audio in Cakewalk. Now I simply sync Sonar to Vegas via MIDI Clock and do all MIDI in Sonar and Audio in Vegas. Shoot, because of Vegas 3's Video functionality I began to delve into video. I did have prior PC imagery experience, Photoshop, Ulead, website/HTML etc so I had a foundation but Vegas makes Video/Slideshows so simple and intuitive the learning curve was virtually non existent. By virtue of Vegas' video being built on an audio multi-tracking foundation it just plain makes sense.

If Sony/Madison incorporates MIDI support I will happily uninstall Sonar and be done with Cakewalk. Vegas' lack of MIDI support is the deal breaker prohibiting Vegas from taking over the audio market.

MJ