CD audio question

peate

I just noticed something I'm curious about. After clearing the DSP window, I can still hear my DVD playing an audio CD in Winamp.

I presume it's coming through the PCI bus, but what about my digital connection on the Live card? I notice that the CD Spdif slider has no effect when the default DSP is loaded. What about when a DVD is playing, since I have it set to 5.1 Movie mode and I'm using Soundworks analog speakers, wouldn't it be preferable to use the digital input or is the PCIbus good enough?

Pierre

Daniel Drummond

Windows XP, by default, extracts the audio digitally from the cd, so you don't need the cable connected to the soundcard. You can use the cd input in the card for something else Are you using XP?

TravelRec.

Better you take AUX input for that, ´cause CD input has GND lifted so you´ll get additional noise.

Greetings!

TravelRec.

Daniel Drummond

TravelRec, even the digital cd input is affected by that or only the analog cd input?

peate

Thanks all,

I discovered something else, after going into device manager and ticking the box "enable digital CD audio for this device", the sliders on the main Kx mixer page no longer had any effect and were somehow moved to the inf position.

However, everything was working as before, wave, synth and CD. I didn't notice any difference in sound quality either.

I did manage to hear the Spdif CD using the good old Src/Epilog combo, but it sounded cheap somehow, maybe I'll try the analog input, or better still, leave it alone. After a little searching, it turns out it's the ide cable not the PCI slot that moves the sound across. It's all a little too technical for me tho.

I use Win 2k with SP4 btw.

Pierre

TravelRec.

No, only the analog - they have lifted these grounds to avoid loops with cd-rom drives connectred in the same chassis. Digital in(s) have the chassis ground as reference and are not affected by any analog thing .

Greetings!

TravelRec.

TravelRec.

So maybe you had a sound doubling with the SPDIF in and IDE (digital audio extracting) at the same time. IDE CD sound is coming over wave 0/1 - standard windows wave device. If you use SPDIF in too and it´s also routed to 0/1 then you have flanging effects and so on. For CD the IDE thing is the best way I think. Newer Media players have the possibility to switch the output device to a different than the standard, so you can route it in DSP to wherever you want. SPDIF in(s) you should reserve for external digital audio equipment or for expanding your card.

Greetings!

TravelRec.