Please Help me with this

Alouf

Hi,

I have some pretty good experience with Kx Drivers on my Audigy1 (SB0092) sound card. I use the DSP windows constantly and i feel at ease with it.

Today, i decided to install another sound card, a soundBlaster Live CT4832, to add yet another input to my setup. I then proceeded to remove version 3532 and install the latest version 3533b. The card were detected and independently they are working great.

I then browsed this forum to see how i can "connect" the SBLive to my Audigy, when i came across several posts that indicated a web page with the pin layout of the AUD_EXT ( both my cards have the 40pins layout ). Good!

So i connected as indicated, pins 17-18 ( SPDIF_OUT_0 + GRND ) of the Live to the pins 15-16 (SPDIF_IN_1 + GRND ), making double sure that the pin are connected as following: 17->15 and 18->16

Now comes the problem. To test my setup, i set my Live card to be the default one seen by windows ( Control Panel / Sound and Audio ), i fire up winamp and start looping a song. The headphones pluged into the live ( front out ) were producing music. kewl. I tested the same with the default being the Audigy, there was sound as well on my other headphones plugged into it. I then switched back the Live to be the default.

I then tried and i tried at least 50 combinations of DSP and Mixer setup to get that sound playing on my Live to be "transfered" to my Audigy card, and to be able to listen to the same music playing on the Live, but on the other pair of heaphones plugged into my Audigy. No luck.
I tried nearly everything i can think of. Nothing seemed to work. I checked, double checked, triple checked the connection between the
AUD_EXT of both cards and they are exacty Live-17-> Audigy-15 AND Live-18->Audigy-16 Wich should work. But no go, i am starting to dispair. I looked everywhere on the forum but there wasn't a post that described how to configure Kx for that purpose. All the posts mention only the hardware connection between the 2 cards, but you're pretty much left on your own for the Kx configuration afterwards.


***Can anyone please help me with a step by step kind of a mini-tutorial on how to Setup KX after the initial Kx installation and hardware wiring in order to be able to "redirect" my Live digital out to my Audigy digital In and actually hear the music on my Audigy? (Assuming that all the values, DSP, routing, etc... are at their default values, meaning that it is a clean, fresh install of KX 3533)


Thanks a lot in advance for your time.

Eugene Gavrilov

there are two possible reasons: 1. incorrect connection 2. incorrect configuration

2) probably, you haven't enabled 'spdif in' on the 'ins and outs' page of the kX Mixer...

2) you may need to play with 'digital output only' setting, 'swap front & rear' and surrounder presets
(for instance, set all the above settings to 'off' and set surrounder to 'stere mix' mode)

1) btw, if the connection is correct you should see a splash icon 'SPDIF' as soon as audigy detects incoming digital signal (of course, only if you use hot plugging )

1) also, if you open 'I/O Status' (settings menu) for your audigy board (select it in the mixer) -- you should see SPDIF B 210xxx freq: 48000 etc.etc.. if the connection is O.K.

/Eugene

Alouf

Hi Eugene,

It is an honor to speak with you.

>>1) also, if you open 'I/O Status' (settings menu) for your audigy board (select it in the mixer) -- you should see SPDIF B 210xxx freq: 48000 etc.etc.. if the connection is O.K.


Here is the I/O Status for my 2 cards, with a fresh KX Drivers 3533b installation ( uninstalled before and cleaned registery )

Live (CT4832):
--------------------
SPDIF Inputs :
spdif : unused
spdif : unused

spdif : unused or same as B
R-Rate Locked; S Stream Locked; V -Valid Audio ]

SPDIF Outputs :

0:2109204 1 : 2109204 2 : 2109204 (@ 48000 Hz )


Audigy (SB0092):
----------------------
SPDIF Inputs :
spdif : unused
spdif : unused
spdif : unused or same as B
R-Rate Locked; S Stream Locked; V -Valid Audio ]


SPDIF Outputs :
0:2108504 1 : 2108504 2 : 2108504 (@ 48000 Hz )


Eugene, Is this normal with a fresh Kx install ( wires are still connected between the two cards )?

Eugene Gavrilov

>> Is this normal with a fresh Kx install (

no. all your spdif-ins are turned off ('unused')
make sure your connections are ok
btw, try using 'cd_digital' instead

/E

Alouf

Hi Eugene,

Thanks for your follow up.

Weird thing is happening.

I tried to plug in the output from Pins 17-18 on my Live to my CD_SPDIF on my Audigy. Same result, nothing is working. The I/O Status is still messed up, and showing all my connections as not active.

Then i decided to try pins 19-20 on my liveAUD_EXT, which is SPDIF_OUT_1 ( the 17-18 combo is SPDIF_0 ). I kept my WinXP running
and switched the wire to pins 19-20 on my Live. As soon as i pluged in the wire, a small icon "SPDIF" PopedUp above the system tray! Which mean that something got detected!

I then looked of the I/O Status of my Audigy, and guess what?
spdif A : 2109204 Freq : 48000 ; R; S; V

Kewl!

**BUT! I now have to re-arrange my setup to accomodate the new setup, becaus SPDIF_1 L and R are "Analog Rear Left" and "Analog Rear Right" on the prolog which is pretty weird, since my output is actually digital, not analog. So now, on my Live DSP config, i have the FXBus 0 and 1 Plugged into the Epilog "Analog Rear Left" and "Right" in order to hear the music on my Audigy. Which is a pretty weird setup.


Eugene, You think that the fact that pins 17-18 are not working is a driver bug?
And
Is there another way to make my "19-20" method work more straightforward for me?

Eugene Gavrilov

well, yes: that's a little problem I found right after releaseing 3533b:
in 'digital output only' mode there might be some problems with 'swap front & rear' option
that's why your 'spdif0' (supposed to be 'front') might get 'rear' signal instead etc etc

the 'analog rear' name is for 'digital rear', too (review IO assignment guide)

in order to fix this issue set 'swap front & rear' to 'off' and 'doo' to 'on'
then you may need to set the Surrounder into 'front=rear' mode, or re-connect its outputs to the 'rear' pins of the epilog

btw, the driver doesn't control the pins at all
the outputs are either functional or disabled
I've never tested the pins themselves -- only livedrives
perhaps, under certain circumstances they are turned off automatically (for instace, in 'analog' mode)

/Eugene

Alouf

Hi Eug,

Instead, I enabled the "Swap front & Rear" option. So now my SPDIF_OUT_1 ( pins 19-20 ), the combinations that works, is acting like
the pins 17-18, which is great

Btw, i noticed that if i directly plug, let's say, WAVE0+WAVE1 on my live directly to front output on the epilog, on my Audigy, the sound coming from my CD_SPDIF is great and loud. But if, on the live, i connect WAVE0+WAVE1 to the 'b2b' plugin, and then to the epilog_K1 spdif_3l&r ( the only output that produces any sound on the Audigy), the sound i get from my Audigy CD_SPDIF, is less 'juicy' and less loud.

What is the difference between these two methods of getting data from the 'slave' Live sound card?

Thanks a lot for your time Eugene

Doug W

Hello,

I am trying to accomplish the same thing with SPDIF. I have pretty much the same message that you had before:

SPDIF Inputs:
spdif A: unused
spdif B: unused
spdif C: unused or same as B
[R-Rate Locked; S-Stream Locked; V-Valid Audio]

SPDIF Outputs
O: 210204 1: 210204 2: 210204 (@48000 Hz)

So my question is: This SPDIF icon that appears by the system tray is an icon apart from the KX mixer, and when that shows up, you know that SPDIF is enabled?

Thanks,
Doug

Doug W

Turned out to be operator error. I need new glasses. Looked a little closer at my SPDIF cable. It was hooked up OUT to OUT. I changed things around and now I get;

SPDIF Inputs:
spdif A: unused
spdif B: 2109204 Freq; 47991; R; S;
spdif C: unused or same as B
[R-Rate Locked; S-Stream Locked; V-Valid Audio]

SPDIF Outputs
O: 210204 1: 210204 2: 210204 (@48000 Hz)

With W98 SE you apparently don't get the nifty little icon popping up though.

Doug

Doug W

Well maybe I am not there yet. Comparing the I/O of Alouf with mine, I don't have a "V" (Valid Audio). That can't be a good thing. Where can I buy a V? Do i need it? Do I have to do something in the mixer to get Valid Audio or is it hereditary?

Alouf's I/O
spdif A : 2109204 Freq : 48000 ; R; S; V


My I/O
spdif B: 2109204 Freq; 47991; R; S;

[R-Rate Locked; S-Stream Locked; V-Valid Audio]


Doug

Eugene Gavrilov

>> But if, on the live, i connect WAVE0+WAVE1 to the 'b2b' plugin, and then to the epilog_K1 spdif_3l&r

for Live, you don't need 'b2b' plugin (it is useless)
if you are using 'lite' versions of 'prolog' and 'epilog', you need a 'x4' plugin [which increases the volume]

>> 'V'alid audio flag

it is not available for certain 10k1-based boards, but should be present for all 10k2/audigy boards

/Eugene