kX ASIO Performance: Attention Lex N.

thomasabarnes · Mar 14, 2006, 11:56 PM

After reading about the ASIO performance of 3534f compared to driver versions released after 3534f, I decided to install it and try it out. I must say I'm happy about what I see! ASIO performance is considerably better than any kX driver versions I have used (3537-3538j). What I'm seeing is that I don't get any pops or clicks or I don't see my host drop audio unless my CPU overloads from the project. It's the best ASIO performance I've seen, and I'm really happy about it. If I didn't hear Lex mention the great performance of 3534f in another previous thread, I probably never would have known about it.

Other kX users may want to try out 3534f. There are, however, some down sides. No ProFX, and some of the other software enhancements are missing, such as the Driver Settings access from the kX icon in the taskbar, and other kX programmers' driver version dependent plugins are not compatible, such as Russ' PluginQL.

My main reason for getting this PC is music production, so I want the best ASIO driver I can get. I have 2 partitions on this PC, one for gaming and one for Music Production. So, I can continue to use 3538 versions on the Gaming partition. It would be a bummer to lose the improved ProFX releases, so I'm asking you Lex to make the ProFX available for 3534f? And, hopefully, Russ can compile PluginQL for 3534f as well. Sure there are other plugins made by other kX programmers that are useful, but these 2 I find very useful.

Some wishful thinking, but 3534f does have impressive ASIO performance, and since I have an Audigy 48/16 is my max recording limit, so i wouldn't be loosing out on any sample rate recording capability by switching to 3534f for my Music Production driver.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, of course!

EDIT:

BTW, I'm using 2.66 ms latency. I have 2 soundfont instruments (kx Synth), DR-008 (with 4 Slicy Drummer and 4 Fill In drummer), and Edirol Orchestral (playing 2 instruments), on a P4 1.3 GHz PC!!! It's usable for me to record and palyback without bad pops and clicks. I'm so impressed!

Russ · Mar 15, 2006, 01:18 AM

RE: PluginQL
The kX Addon interface is only in 3538 and up.

Lex Nahumury · Mar 15, 2006, 02:09 AM

The real 'loss' of course, is that 3534 does not support the newer card models.
So, for the sake of progress, lets hope Eugene can find some free time to fix this issue.

Quote:

It would be a bummer to lose the improved ProFX release, so I'm asking you Lex to make the ProFX available for 3534f?

No problem.
(btw, now you can also use Max's UFX again.)

thomasabarnes · Mar 15, 2006, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lex Nahumury

(btw, now you can also use Max's UFX again.)

I have already installed UFX.

Looking for a compatible ProFX for 3534f.

Russ, that's some sad news.

And thank you both for the reply.

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lex Nahumury

The real 'loss' of course, is that 3534 does not support the newer card models.
So, for the sake of progress, lets hope Eugene can find some free time to fix this issue.

Yes, that's right. I overlooked that concern.

Lex Nahumury · Mar 15, 2006, 07:30 AM

FIY:
Note that in 3534 ( and 3535 iirc) AC97 signal at Prolog output is set to high
thereby forcing user to lower analog input signal.
(ProFx for 3534 will correct this)

/Lex.

Doug W · Mar 15, 2006, 08:27 AM

ProFx for 3534f would be great! I still have 3534f installed on one of my computers and have been missing them-thanks.
----------------------------
Based on this thread, I thought that I should test the pops and clicks problem.
I played back a song that has 6 audio tracks on it using nTrack as the sequencer and kX 3537. There were a couple of small pops during the playback. Then I uninstalled 3537 and reinstalled 3534f. 3534f sees the SB0350 as "kX Generic" which as far as I can tell won't affect me at all.

Anyway the popping that happened in 3537 is now gone using 3534f. Nice to get rid of that, I thought that it was maybe a tweak that came untweaked.

Lex Nahumury · Mar 15, 2006, 04:44 PM

On request;
ProFx v3.06 compiled for 3534..!!

http://members.home.nl/nahutec/ProFx/profx3x.htm

Well, those who asked for this 3534 release will find an updated ADC
and a prelimenary version of MX8.

ADC now has peak meters for each Codec making it
a bit easier to setup 2x2 = 4 analog inputs.

Note that because I use 3534f myself, this is my current
'experimental' version.
Some bug fixes/improvements, and perhaps some new bugs

.

Have fun,

/Lex.

PS: THIS WILL NOT WORK ON ANY 3538..!

Lex Nahumury · Mar 15, 2006, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug W

Based on this thread, I thought that I should test the pops and clicks problem.
...the popping that happened in 3537 is now gone using 3534f.

Yep..!

thomasabarnes · Mar 15, 2006, 05:30 PM

Fantastic Lex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MX8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But hey, the download link for ProFX 3.06 doesnt seem to work. It takes me to some German page with no download link for the actuall ProFX 2.06.

Is the problem on my end?

Doug W · Mar 15, 2006, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Well, those who asked for this 3534 release will find an updated ADC
and a prelimenary version of MX8.

Thanks for all your work!

The download is here at the bottom of the page, it worked for me.
http://members.home.nl/nahutec/ProFx/profx3x_3534.htm

Thomas, if your server is the problem, send me a PM and I will email it to you since it is 44kb

thomasabarnes · Mar 15, 2006, 08:39 PM

Doug W:

I have it now. Lex fixed the link.

Thanks for the offer.

Lex Nahumury · Mar 16, 2006, 03:09 AM

No big deal, but please do not re-distribute these downloads unless necessary.

I use a download/visit counter to estimate how many people
are possibly interested in these plugins.
If count turns out to be to low I will set my priorities accordingly.

I'm sure you guys understand.

/Lex.

thomasabarnes · Mar 16, 2006, 07:56 AM

I understand Lex.

Lex Nahumury · Mar 16, 2006, 11:17 AM

@thomas (and anyone else),

In case you didn't know, that KXDSP.EXE QuickLaunch thingy I published somewhere in the
main profx thread works with *all* driver versions.
So you can use it in 3534 too.

thomasabarnes · Mar 16, 2006, 02:04 PM

Ah, OK, I will use that QuickLaunch, then, thanks for the info.

Toadly_Ossum · Mar 16, 2006, 05:07 PM

Ive been with KX since around that time (3534/3535) Back then I mainly used my PC as a VSTi Sound Module. I think i started with 3534 and was really impressed with the speed and lack of clicks/pops.

Since then Ive slowly evolved to more homestudio recording (still heavy on VSTi) and have upgraded my PC (p4 3Ghz, 2gb ram, sata drives and such) and followed all the new kX versions. I feel like I had better results with my older setups. But maybe I just need to drop back to 3534 myself.

I usually run B42, Trillogy, Groove Agent, and record 2 vocal tracks and a guitar track @ 5.33ms. with this setup me and my guitar player write and record. But the pops and clicks frustrate me and disprupt the creative flow. I too will test my setup again with 3534f and report here.

Toad

Lex Nahumury · Mar 16, 2006, 05:13 PM

@Toad;
Note that you will have to turn off HT in your BIOS else your P4 will crash on 3534.
(i can't remember exaclty if a xp reinstall was needed. IIRC it wasn't)

Toadly_Ossum · Mar 16, 2006, 05:29 PM

Thanks for that note. BTW I have an Audigy1 and have the line in and mic in seperated into different recordable ASIO inputs. Seems that was very difficult to get set up on earlier versions. any tips there?

Toad

Edit

Ok I answered this myself, with 3538 profx I could use SCR pluggins to load Aux IN 2, Line 2/Mic2 (on live drive) and LineIn (on the back of the card) and Aux In 1 (beside the cd-in connector on card) ALL with seperate routes to ASIO>Cubase.

With 3534f you have to use the ADC to get LineIn and AuxIn to get seperate inputs

Toad

Lex Nahumury · Mar 17, 2006, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toadly_Ossum

..With 3534f you have to use the ADC to get LineIn and AuxIn to get seperate inputs.

Yes, but this goes for 3538 as well.
IIRC, all 3538 ProFx came with the ADC plug, with all AC97.1 inputs removed from the SRC plug.
LINE2/MIC2 etc. signals coming from LiveDrives are always carried by SRC plug
(or prolog ofcourse).

Toadly_Ossum · Mar 17, 2006, 09:18 PM

well in my previous setup with 3538 i used all SCRs for all 4 inputs. There was some kx command line thing i had to type in.

Toad

Lex Nahumury · Mar 18, 2006, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toadly_Ossum

well in my previous setup with 3538 i used all SCRs for all 4 inputs. There was some kx command line thing i had to type in.Toad

But I have never released a 'skinned ProFx' for 3538i.
You probably refer to the old (non-skinned) ones that come with the driver.
Nevermind though.

As for your Q about those analog inputs;
-The ADC plug handles all analog inputs that are *on* the card.
That is, AC97 inputs plus AC97.2(UDA) if present.

-Analog inputs coming from any LiveDrives are handled by SRC.

The ADC plug makes it very easy to split/handle those 2x2=4 analog On-Card inputs.
No command line switches are needed.
(unless perhaps you use some of the newer 'unsupported cards' I don't have access too)

Toadly_Ossum · Mar 18, 2006, 11:07 AM

Great, thanks for the clarification. Anyways all 4 inputs are setup and working in cubase and ill be testing with my "new" 3534f setup on tuesday night (weekly jam session)

Thanks again
Toad

**dj_stick** · Mar 18, 2006, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toadly_Ossum

well in my previous setup with 3538 i used all SCRs for all 4 inputs. There was some kx command line thing i had to type in.

Toad

the command line was required pre-ProFX and pre3538j
no need for it anymore

Toadly_Ossum · Mar 19, 2006, 10:27 AM

Ok its official for me, 3534f is superior to the new versions. I had a session last night with my brother (not my regular tues jam).

While running Trilogy, Groove Agent, and at least one or more of : Scarbee Wurlitzer EP running in Halion, The Grand (512mb sample set), B4; Also 3 audio tracks with a couple of Cubases Reverbs and Chorus running all at 5.33. We jammed for about 2 hours with no noticable auio glitches.

I feel really good about my set up now, when before i allways felt i wasnt getting the best out of my setup.

PC is Intel D865GBF with P4 3 Ghz (hyperthreading disabled), 2GB of ddr400 ram, Audigy1 with live drive. OS running on IDE80, recording and samples stored on 2 120 sata drives.

Toad

Lex Nahumury · Mar 19, 2006, 01:35 PM

Told you so,...

(although in this case i wouldn't mind being wrong)
Anyway, I'm confident that Eugene can and will bring back 3534 asio performance
in newer releases if time permits.

/Lex.

Zulus · Mar 25, 2006, 07:03 PM

This is great news guys! Good work.

surei01 · May 15, 2006, 10:03 AM

Hi all,

reading about superior asio-performance of the old 3534 driver, I would really like to try that version. Is it still available? I cannot find a download link.
If not, could somebody perhaps mail it to me?

Thanks a lot
Reiner