Foobar, Asio, Kernel Streaming, K-mixers...my head hurts

chadh · « **on:** 20 Mar 2006, 04:45 am »

I need to get my office PC set up to play music. I'll have a 300gb hard disc with loads of FLAC files (back-up for my home hard disc, used in a squeezebox system). I'll also have a usb dac/headphone amp that will hook up directly to the PC. But I don't know how to set up the software to play the files.

By popular acclaim, the software to use is Foobar 2000. Does anyone know of a simple online tutorial for how to set this thing up and use it?

To secure optimal playback, one is meant to bypass the K-Mixer when operating on a Windows machine. So I should simply turn it off? Or do I need to use ASIO? What is ASIO, and how do I use it?

Why does this all seems so complicated to me?

Chad

Folsom · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 06:28 am »

If you check on Foobar2000's website there are links to some thing like wikipedia or wikipedia maybe, I forget, with a guide. There is also links to a forum dedicated to a lot of that type of stuff...

I could help you set it up in general. I suppose it depends on what you want to do with it. If you get really frustrated I would be willing to help over the phone if need be.

Basically to get the player working decently with out to much effort I just like to add Columns UI, give some color to every other song and inbetween, and use the settings I need for by-passing as much software as I can, as well as upsampling (in my case, it helps to a proportional amount) if need be. Add tracknumber column, make track numbers 01 instead of 1...... Then I use the mass-tagging function usually for my ripped stuff if it does not have tags to begin with.

blizzard · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 01:11 pm »

Hi Chad,

Information is out there. But, it's a real pain to find it all.

Here is a great set up tutorial to get you started:

http://tagz.brother-john.net/

This helped me out a lot. Npt sure about the ASIO thing.

Good Luck,
Steve

ted_b · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 02:05 pm »

The headfi forum's computer-as-source subforum is a great place for foobar info.
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59

Also, if you want foobar gui setup, just search here on my name and foobar. I have the setup steps listed in an older thread.. My foobar gui screenshot is in my gallery. I use kernel streaming, BTW.

Edit: here's that thread
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=16633&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10

chadh · « **Reply #4 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 04:03 pm »

Thanks guys. That's a real help!

Chad

x84HurstOlds · « **Reply #5 on:** 20 Mar 2006, 05:17 pm »

A couple other good places to look are at the AVS Forums, for info on ASIO and/or kernel streaming (scroll down to post #6 of this thread):

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php
t=364771&highlight=ASIO

(mind the wrap!)

or on hydrogenaudio.org, where searching should yield a bunch of useful stuff on foobar, plugins, etc.

In short, you will need either a sound card that directly supports ASIO or kernel streaming, or you will need to use a "wrapper" such as ASIO4ALL. Then you have to tell foobar to actually use ASIO, which is just a matter of changing a couple things in Preferences. Unfortunately, you can't just "switch off" kmixer (don't I wish!)

It *is* confusing at first, it's not just you - but there is good info, like the avsforum thread above, and a couple of others there. Bookmarks are a wonderful thing!

Ed

slugworth · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Apr 2006, 12:40 pm »

Am I bypassing k-mixer?
off-ramp, EAC,foobar
I have a m-audio transit icon not the windows version appearing.
Also in preferences I have m-audio transit selected, but there's nothing about waveout or directsound options. Foobar v0.9.
Everthing working I just to make sure playback is optimized.
Only want/need 16/44.1 output

chadh · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Apr 2006, 02:57 pm »

v0.9 doesn't come with kernel streaming abilities built in. You need to download that component from here: http://www.foobar2000.com/components/index.html

Once you have installed that, go to
preferences -> output -> output devices. You should see the m-audio transit on the list as well as another new option that is something like "m-audio transit (K)". The (K) designation tells you that this option utilises kernel streaming. Whether this option will work for you seems dependent on whether the m-audio transit (or off ramp) drivers allow kernel streaming. I presume that kernel streaming is usable with the off ramp, though.

Chad

slugworth · « **Reply #8 on:** 6 Apr 2006, 05:45 am »

Actually I've already tried that. Shows up as m-transit(KS) in the drop-down menu, but doesn't work. I'm now using v0.8.3, kernel streaming is available in preferences and working fine. I have also downloaded a couple ASIO variants, which I installed in foobar's component folder and they show up there. However, they are not listed as options in preferences.
BTW, if I'm reading their threads correctly, V0.9 does not and will not support ASIO (They seem actually hostile to ASIO)
Oh well, I'm not going to complain about freeware!

chadh · « **Reply #9 on:** 6 Apr 2006, 01:49 pm »

Actually, I had the same problem with getting the KS feature to work. I asked around a little and got the impression that the problem doesn't lie with Foobar, but wth the drivers for the audio device (some drivers will simply not allow the KS to work). But if you can get KS to work in v.83 it seems I may have been misinformed.

of course this would all be irrelevant if v.09 supported ASIO - but it doesn't. I don't know about hostility to ASIO, but there is some issue with the software that actually makes it impossible simply to develop a plug-in ASIO component as used in v0.8.3. This is fixable, but will apparently be left as an exercise for some ambitious hacker. Given the outrage that Foobar users are showing, I don't imagine we'll have to wait too long before v0.9 supports ASIO.

It's weird that you can't get ASIO working with v0.8.3. I never used that version so I'm no help. But I guess it doesn't really matter if you have KS operational.

Let me know if you uncover any explanations for your KS/ASIO experiences.

Chad