Computer gurus, please help! (Powerwave and ASIO output)

monsterbill · « **on:** 29 Jul 2004, 06:45 pm »

I am using a Griffin Powerave as the external soundcard for my Windows XP computer. It sounds much better when I use the ASIO driver from http://www.usb-audio.com.

The problem is, that when I install the ASIO driver, the volume control on my control panel and media players stops working. (The volume control turns that pale grey color Microsoft uses to indicate that an option isn't available.) The sound playback control panel recognizes that the Griffin is plugged in and is the output device. I have none of these problems when I use the built-in driver in XP, but it doesn't sound as nice.

The folks at Griffin had no idea what was going on, and http://www.usb-audio.com hasn't gotten back to me.

Please help.

Thanks,
Bill

jqp · « **Reply #1 on:** 29 Jul 2004, 07:51 pm »

My first question is : Is it supposed to work that way? Is there a volume control on the external box, for WAV, CD, etc?

monsterbill · « **Reply #2 on:** 29 Jul 2004, 09:56 pm »

Well, no and no.

That is, it was not designed to be used with ASIO on XP. Rather, Griffin designed it with the expectation that on Mac users would use ASIO. But it sounds much better using this output, so I'm trying to figure out how to do it on XP.

But, no, it doesn't have any volume control on the device, and it was designed to have the volume controlled by the source.

jqp · « **Reply #3 on:** 29 Jul 2004, 11:09 pm »

Yes 32 samples is nice and makes the PC much better for sound work. So I can see why you want to use the driver.

I have never been a big fan of USB. It has all these issues that have to be managed by the USB controller, which is required to control the bus and data transfer. And therefore drivers have to work with it and Operating systems, and hardware. There is always some funky bug. And the ports can go bad. Also I think USB drains the CPU more than Firewire. I prefer Firewire since it does not need a controller. Also it is isosynchronus (big techie word of the day). So if you have for example 3 devices, then all 3 would get 400mbps bandwidth to use, while USB2 the 480 is shared between devices. And that sharing can be ugly - also I think devices have to be reregistered when you plug them in and out.

But they are both niche-supported buses, so can be a pain for some applications. You won't find Firewire keyboards or mouses, but I have a video camera that uses firewire for the video and USB for the still pictures (from the memorystick). (Sony DVR-TR730 or something) My USB KVM switch is a pain in the butt because there is always this delay. So I use the other one that is instantaneous and use the PS/2 mouse and keyboard.

But, both buses are necessary today *sigh*