# USB SoundCard - VISTA compatible



## brucek

I recently bought a new HP laptop 17" (dv9730) that uses VISTA as its operating system. (I have finally retired my old K6-350MHz system )

The on-board soundcard isn't suffice for the many requirements I have, so I needed an external USB soundcard that would serve multiple purposes.

The reasoning and required duties behind the purchase of this laptop are many. It will have a home in my HT systems' equipment rack, where it will be connected wireless to my back room office main computer for access to all my Pictures, MP3 Music and Documents. 

Origonally, I had envisioned an Xbox 360 or PS3 for this job, but a laptop simply does so much more. Fairly hard to run REW on an Xbox, or travel to a hotel room and use a PS3 to access your e-mail..........

Anyway, I require a digital optical connection to my processor for playing music (both CD and MP3) using stereo PCM. I also require Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS to be passed unaltered for the odd DVD movie I might stick in there before the disc finds a home in my jukebox. 
The video from this laptop is HDMI up to 1080p. It happens to have an HD DVD player in it, but I don't really want it for that purpose. If I want 1080p, I'll get a blu-ray player. (I did try an HD-DVD disk and it is extremely good).

I also want to use the laptop for REW duties on my HT system, so any external soundcard that I consider needs analog line-out and line-in ports, and the ability to work properly with VISTA (32 bit).

There are occasions where I may want to record some digital data, so the external soundcard also needs an optical SPDIF input port.

And of course, if I plan to travel anywhere, I want to be able to unplug the HT cables and take the laptop off the shelf, and use the on-board audio.

My minimum requirements for the external USB soundcard were:

Line-in and Line-out analog.
Line-in and Line-out optical digital.
Must pass DTS and Dolby Digital AC-3 out the digital port.
Vista supported drivers (32 bit).
Small footprint.
Under $100 (and not from e-bay).
Must run REW properly.
Minimum 16 bit / 48K sampling ADC/DAC. I know a lot of people will say, why not 24 bit. Well, most of these 24 bit systems are that in name only. I'd much rather a 16 bit system done properly than a crummy 24 bit system (which many are I'm afraid).

You'd think this was a fairly easy shopping list, but not so.

There are lots of soundcards that output analog and digital, but not so many that will input the same for under $100 that are VISTA compatible.

Recently, it appears the Sound Blaster Live 24 bit external may be working with VISTA (not confirmed as yet). I was indeed considering it, but it is rather dated and I wanted something a bit smaller in its footprint. 
The M-Audio Transit is nice, but it has a shared dual-purpose mic-in and line-in jack that has DC bias voltage present at all times, and this pegs the analog Radio Shack meter needle. I'm not fussed about having that DC there whenever I plug in a device, so I pass on that one.
The ADS RDX-150 seemed a possibility, but there were too many reports of low sound quality. I want good sound quality.
There were a few others that just didn't measure up for various reasons.

Anyway, the winner was the Turtle Beach - Audio Advantage SRM - USB external soundcard.

It meets all my requirements and works very well. It has a very small profile, great sound in analog and digital, great price, good web site support and works well with VISTA 32 bit. The PDF manual has sections for all the Windows operating system including VISTA. The VISTA driver loads and provides a nice control panel application that works very nicely with REW.

I made up a couple analog cables for it, using 3.5 mm stereo plugs with long audio cables feeding RCA plugs. The analog line-in and line-out jacks also accept (supplied) adapters that plug in and then accept digital optical cables. The adapters mate very well into the standard 3.5 mm jacks and the optical cable snaps in tightly.

Here's a picture of my new REW setup with the laptop and audio card plugged into it with the two line-in and line-out audio cables I made up. It shows the cards small size.










Here's a pic of the card and its profiles and plugs.










Loading the driver is typical. The software exe file is loaded _without_ the card plugged in, then it asks you to plug it in and you continue the load. When finished you have to reboot and then the card is recognized by VISTA. The cards control panel application is accessed from the system tray icon.

I didn't bother with the supplied CD (they're usually full of unwanted software), and more often than not, the device web site always seems to have newer version drivers, I just went directly to the site and downloaded the latest driver which also includes the control panel software. It was located here at the bottom of the FAQ page and was called srm_vist.exe

The laptop normally has its on-board soundcard (by Conexant) in digital and analog showing in the VISTA Playback and Record mixer screens. When the USB card is plugged in, two new additional soundcard analog and digital outputs are available and three new inputs are available (the USB card also has a on-board stereo mic) as shown below. When you unplug the USB, the normal laptop playback and record on-board soundcards selections remain and the USB card selections are gone. So, it's easy to switch between on-board and external soundcard.



Here's the VISTA playback mixer with the USB card plugged in and analog selected.










Here's the VISTA recording mixer with the USB card plugged in and analog selected.










REW recognizes the card and is selectable in the REW settings page. The control of the input and output levels in REW (as it has no access to Vista levels) is easily done either through the VISTA Playback and Record Devices properties levels or through the USB soundcards Control panel software (the latter being the easiest and preferred method as shown below).

Below I show the Audio Advantage SRM USB soundcard Control panel and the interaction with the VISTA mixer / properties settings. I placed them side by side for easy viewing.

Here's the Playback adjustments on the Mixer panel.
Note in the Playback panel, that the microphone and line-in are shut off (just like in XP) and the line-out output control level is shown as Master volume.










Here's the Record adjustments on the Mixer panel.
Note in the Record panel that you select analog Line-in with a pull down, then there is a standard line-in volume control. 
There's also a handy Pan control in case you are using the optional REW "Use Left Channel as Calibration Reference" and you want to balance the the two channels.










Here's what the REW settings panel looks like.
The card is selectable in the Settings Output and Input device pulldowns, and then you leave it in Default (as shown below) and adjust as I mention above.
Note that in the example below I'm using the optional "Use Left Channel as Calibration Reference" instead of the standard soundcard calibration file method, and so both the Input VU meters are operating. Alternatively, if the standard (and recommended) soundcard calibration file method is used, then only the right channel input VU meter will be operational. 










The Effects and Equalizer tabs have all the features disabled (of course) and on the Main screen tab (as shown below), the SPDIF digital output is shut off and stereo two speakers selected. 
The Master volume slider shown is a clone of the one on the Playback adjustments on the Mixer panel.










You can see at the top of the Control panel jpgs where it says REW setup. This is a nice feature where you can save multiple sets of Control panel setups, so you can just load that config file the next time you use it. Kinda convenient. I made one for REW use, another for analog music, and digital stereo music, digital movie 5.1 output, etc.

The soundcard also passes DTS and Dolby digital, so it can be hooked to your receiver for DVD's etc. It also has headphone output and will encode 7.1 analog surround output for external speaker systems (not that I want to use those features, but they are there). All the cables come with the soundcard to hook all this up (except of course for the line-in and line-out cables needed for REW  ).

I played with this soundcard in REW using the Left Channel calibrate and also the soundcard cal file method, and it performed fine (I prefer the soundcard cal file method myself as it offered a better signal to noise ratio and less cabling). The high frequency response (above 15KHz) isn't that great (although the low end response is amazing), but it's fine, especially for REW. (it's important to be sure the wireless on a laptop is turned off before doing a soundcard cal file creation).

Below is the soundcard cal file. You can see it's down about -3dB by about 17KHz and so doesn't do justice to the 20KHz region too well, but I have no problems with that since REW compensates to make the response flat, and also I will use the digital SPDIF output for listening to music etc. The analog connections will only serve REW.











OverClockers did a review when the card was first released and they thought it was pretty good. I mention this because they claim in their tests that the card was only down -3dB at 19KHz..... 

I have to agree with their conclusions, for the price, it's a pretty good soundcard that works with VISTA and REW. I paid $79.95

Anyway, I thought this might be useful info for those looking for VISTA compatible USB soundcards....

brucek


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## allredp

Hey BruceK,

Great write-up on the Turtle Beach card! 

I only wish I'd seen this before I ordered my SB Live! external card a week ago. As it is, I have opened but haven't used the SB Live! card and am now concerned that I won't be able to use it with my i-Mac (bootcamped) Vista laptop.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,
Phil


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## SRR

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/EMu-EMU-Tracker-Pre-USB-2.0?sku=705624

Why have a middle man, when this has better mic pre's then the the behringer mixer.

Just a thought.


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## HionHiFi

How does this compare the SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit External USB card?


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## brucek

I suppose since the SoundBlaster doesn't appear to work with Vista, the Audio Advantage would be a better bet.

For use with REW, most any soundcard will work, as long as it has a line-in and line-out..

brucek


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## zilbenz

brucek

I ran into trouble installing the Turtle Beach SRM sound card purchased on your recommendation. Please try to help. 

1. Installation: I downloaded the srm_vist.exe file at the TB website and used that instead of the supplied CD.

2. Sound Card Calibration: both channels L & R lit up whether I used the "Use the left channel as calibration" or the L channel loop. Is that normal? Does the REW Setting Screen picture you posted show the correct working (i.e., is it normal to see both L & R channels lit up with bars when the Use Left Channel as calibration box is checked)? 

2a. The REW setup screen looked like the one you posted with all the SC controls grayed out. And so it was impossible to increase the input or output level to match up the level within 3 dB as instructed because everything was maxed out. What should I do here?

2b. Even if I cheated on to the Check Level step, the seemed to be super low output. Example, with the Sound Blaster External on XP, this step means that my PRE/PRE volume was roughly 18; it was over 40 last night and the RS SPL still only registered 50 something decibles. There was simply no output at all. What did I do wrong here? Or is it the installation? 

I couldn't get past this step. And so tried to uninstall SRM SC driver. Reinstalled and got this messge "catatrophic failure" or the like. My Vista is 32-bit. 

Thank you in advance for your help.


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## brucek

> Does the REW Setting Screen picture you posted show the correct working (i.e., is it normal to see both L & R channels lit up with bars when the Use Left Channel as calibration box is checked)?


Yes, since there is a loopback cable always present on the left channel from line-out to line-in and the SPL meter is feeding the right channel line-in, receiving sound from the speakers fed from the right channel line-out.



> And so it was impossible to increase the input or output level to match up the level within 3 dB as instructed because everything was maxed out. What should I do here?


If you can't get a match between left and right channel (and it doesn't have to be that close really), simply use the balance control.
To tell you the truth, I don't really like to use "Use Left Channel as Reference" feature. It adds a bit of noise. I like to use the soundcard calibration file method. It's much easier and more efficient.




> What did I do wrong here?


Don't really know what you did wrong here. I have tons of level on mine - no problem. Hopefully you are actually using line-in and line-out jacks and not the mic-in and headphone-out jacks?

brucek


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## Ricci

I finally got REW up and running. I went with the TurtleBeach SRM card based on the recommendation here. I had a few troubles getting things set-up, but after fiddling with all of the available volume controls got the levels right. I'm happy to report that my FR measurement of the card is nearly identical to the one that Bruce posted. :R. This has the double good effect of confirming the card will work and that I somehow got things set-up right!


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## brucek

Looks good..................


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## allredp

Ricci said:


> I finally got REW up and running. I went with the TurtleBeach SRM card based on the recommendation here. I had a few troubles getting things set-up, but after fiddling with all of the available volume controls got the levels right. I'm happy to report that my FR measurement of the card is nearly identical to the one that Bruce posted. :R. This has the double good effect of confirming the card will work and that I somehow got things set-up right!
> 
> View attachment 8827


Good for you--I've really enjoyed using the Turtle Beach card and REW. My Ultra now sits in the best spot in the room and is happily munching away at my home's structural integrity--fascinatingly I'm grinning all along this destructive path... 

:hsd:

Enjoy and thanks Brucek!!!


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## Guest

Hello all,
I just got Behringer U-Control UCA202 from Amazon.com and hook it up to my Laptop with Vista Home Edition and I am happy to report that this USB device and REW work without a glitch.
No driver to install, plug-n-play out of the box.
The only thing I change is the output properties to "2 channel 16bit 48Khz" under Control Panel|Sound|Manage audio devices|Recording.

The Behringer has 2 RCA inputs and 2 RCA outputs so you don't need to use any RCA Y adapters.
The price is cheaper than other USB sound cards mentioned here.

Just want to share this to all of you.


Edit/Update: I meant to say the input properties is changed to "2 channel 16bit 48Khz" (not the output properties)
Cheers.


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## Ricci

Good news Vtroneg! Can you post the Behringer's FR?


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## akakillroy

I wish they supported Mac OS though. Anyone know of an external card that does?


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## akakillroy

I wonder if this would do the job?

http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=668&product=15913


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## Guest

The Behringer U-Control UCA202 should work also for Mac according to it's packaging box. I can't confirm that though since I don't have any Mac.

Here is the product link:
(It should have the info for Frequency Range I think.)

http://www.behringer.com/UCA202/index.cfm?lang=ENG


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## Guest

I just got a new PC running Windows Vista and was surprised to find that I can no longer record streaming audio from the Internet. At first I assumed this was due to an inferior sound card/software (Sigmatel HD, came with the motherboard). After reading some good reviews of the Turtle Beach SRM, I found the "USB SoundCard - VISTA compatible" post in this forum - a very nice report on the SRM. But this report apparently shows that not being able to record streaming audio is inherent to Vista. Even with the SRM, there is no "audio mixer" or "wav" input available for recording. These are available on my Windows XP PC, with an old Turtle Beach sound card and Voyetra software. 

A workaround for this problem might be to get the SRM, and while receiving streaming audio, have the SPDIF output of the builtin sound card connected to the SPDIF input of the SRM, and set the SRM to record that. 

I'm wondering if this has any chance of working - it might if it's possible to have both soundcards and associated software running at the same time. I'd appreciate any comments from you folks on this. If this doesn't work, I'll simply use the Windows XP PC for this purpose.

BTW, I am not interested in doing this as a way to illegally obtain music or any other audio content, but simply as a convenient way to time shift some radio programs. Besides, the audio quality would not be expected to be very good for any streaming content, even if the recoding system is high quality.


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## Guest

Ricci said:


> Good news Vtroneg! Can you post the Behringer's FR?


I could not create the soundcard cal file for some reason. I follow the instruction and still there is no data. The USB card works alright because I could see the EQ level lit up in REW for the left input channel when I did the measurement. The graph under the 'Scope' tab shown signal alright.
Could it be that's a bug in REW?

However I could simulate Behringer FR by connecting the input and output altogether (Left and Right channels) without any mic calibration (clear mic cal under mic/meter tab) and uncheck 'Use Left Channel as Calibration Reference' under the soundcard tab.

This is what I got for the Behringer UCA202 FR:


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## Ricci

Looks great to me. Very flat from 5hz to 20khz. Thanks for posting that up. Now people scouting around can see what they are getting with that card.


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## Rich Jura

*Re:Mac compatible*

I have a G4 power book and use an Edirol UA-25 with Fuzzmeasure, have not had any problems.

Later
Rich


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## thsmith

+1 for the TB SRM soundcard. Its everything Bruce says. I currently have it on a laptop with XP and wanted something I could move to Vista with later.

Thanks Bruce !


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## gychang

anyone know how the sound compares to the older plain TB microadvantage USB card?

gychang


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## Rodny Alvarez

I purchase the Behringer UCA202 soundcard and it works pretty good with my laptop (vista)


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## facesnorth

Getting towards the end of 2008, is this Turtle Beach SRM still considered the best available for notebooks running Vista? How about 64 bit?


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## brucek

We haven't had anyone find anything better for the price, but there are certainly higher priced (M-Audio, etc) external soundcards that are better.....

brucek


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## facesnorth

I checked out for myself whether or not this would work on Vista 64 bit, and according to http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/audio-advantage-srm/whatdoineed.aspx it will not.

Back to square 1 for those of us with 64 bit Vista. Ideas on next best?

Sorry I couldn't post the link cleanly because I'm new. Change the first 2 -'s and the last - to .'s. I'll edit this post to fix it after a few more posts.


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## facesnorth

brucek said:


> We haven't had anyone find anything better for the price, but there are certainly higher priced (M-Audio, etc) external soundcards that are better.....


I checked out M-audio's site and there's tons of models, but the one that seems comparable to the SRM is the "Transit" which a quick google search shows available for $68. It seems to fulfill all of your requirements except only a beta driver is available for Vista 32-bit (and no 64 bit either). Anyone with experience using this with Vista can say whether it works effectively? Being an m-audio product would this actually be a better device than the Turtle Beach SRM especially since it can be had a little cheaper?


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## brucek

> one that seems comparable to the SRM is the "Transit"


I'm afraid I give it the thumbs down.

I'll quote my original post:

_The M-Audio Transit is nice, but it has a shared dual-purpose mic-in and line-in jack that has DC bias voltage present at all times, and this pegs the analog Radio Shack meter needle. I'm not fussed about having that DC there whenever I plug in a device, so I pass on that one._

brucek


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## facesnorth

What about this Behringer UCA202? I need a solution for Vista 64 bit.

edit: No digital input would kill it for your listed requirements. Apparently no DTS or AC-3 passthrough, either. But it would still work for REW, no? What's the best option for someone with Vista 64bit that really just needs this for REW, no DVD playing.


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## brucek

Other members have had success with the UCA202....... I don't know if the specs say that it's OK with 64bit. You better check that out.......

brucek


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## facesnorth

Doesn't look like the UCA202 will work with Vista 64 bit. My new (and first) laptop arrived today so I'm anxious to get going with this. I've bought everything but the sound card.

Looks like there was a 64bit driver released for Turtle Beach SRM in October. And in the summer was a driver released for the 24 bit Live external. But I have my eyes on the X-Fi Xtreme notebook card which is an expresscard/54 card which would be nice since my laptop has that feature. It apparently has phones/optical out, and mic/line/optical in, as well as a speaker docking module. I also believe it handles dolby/dts just fine for movies.

Is there any reason I shouldn't go with this one because I'm all over it?

edit: it's just kind of odd that the line in shares the same jack with mic in and optical in. Can this do both analog and digital or is it just digital? Same with headphones out sharing the jack with optical out.

edit2: Found this thread and seems to show that it should work. Any reason why the Turtle Beach SRM is a better choice?


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## brucek

> it's just kind of odd that the line in shares the same jack with mic in and optical in. Can this do both analog and digital or is it just digital?


There's no problem with the analog and digital combination ports, since they use an adapter that plugs in to accept the optical connector for digital and then the adapter is removed when using the jack for analog. 

The problem lies in the fact that a mic/line-in jack will have a DC bias voltage on it for a computer style mic. This voltage pegs an SPL meters needle and so isn't a suitable choice when using SPL meters. 

You'll see in the first page of this review, that this is the reason I didn't choose the M-Audio Transit soundcard.

brucek


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## facesnorth

http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/rew-forum/9485-new-rew-looking-some-info.html

But in that thread you said if it could be toggled with software it would be OK. And the guy seemed to end up making it work after some initial problems that you guys helped him through. Is it possible to toggle this with software in this case?

I have no problems going the TB SRM route if that's gonna be the best way. I just want what's going to work best for Vista 64. And having the expresscard/54 seemed more elegant than an external USB.


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## brucek

> And the guy seemed to end up making it work after some initial problems


The DC bias voltage doesn't preclude the SPL meter from working, but it's murder on the meter movement. I highly doubt the bias is removed in software, but it's simple enough to find out by writing the company. That's how I found out the M-Audio Transit wasn't suitable.

brucek


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## facesnorth

I wrote creative technical support with the question. If I don't hear soon I may just go ahead and order the Turtle Beach SRM. Hopefully it works well with Vista 64 bit.

Just got the response: "It would not be possible to toggle the jack between mic in line in and cancel the DC bias voltage."

So I guess that means I'm going to buy the TB SRM. Now to look for the best price.

edit: I just bought it from J&R with 7% live.com cashback. Best would have been ebay with 30% but that's over with.


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## facesnorth

Last week when I bought this there was a beta 64 bit vista driver available on the turtle beach website. Now it says unavailable, check back in november 2008. What is that supposed to mean? What am I supposed to do now that I've bought and opened it, and can't use it?

See: http://support.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/533119436.asp


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## brucek

Contact the company by e-mail and see what they say.................


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## facesnorth

Suddenly it's back on the site and the link I posted no longer says check back in November 2008. That was really wierd.... OK I'm gonna give it a shot now. [excited to finally try REW for first time...]

OK this is TOO wierd.... When I go to http://support.turtlebeach.com/site/kb_ftp/533.asp with my desktop, the 64 bit driver is visible and available for download, and when I click on the info link for 64 bit drivers, it gives the message about the beta driver and the known issues. When I go there with my laptop it is not there, and when I click on the link for 64 bit driver info, it gives me the check back in Nov 2008 box.

I have to actually download it onto my desktop and then COPY it on to my laptop. This is insane. And I'm using Google chrome on both PC's, with vista 64 bit running on both systems, and I cleared the cache on the laptop as well....

edit: installed it and the device won't load (showing in device manager as cannot load). I guess I'll have to contact TB support. But I suspect I may have to return this thing. Is there ANY suitable sound card that is known to work with Vista 64 bit???

edit2: I uninstalled and reinstalled, rebooted, and now it detects....ok back to being excited again.


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## brucek

> And I'm using Google chrome on both PC's


Yeah, I've tried it on both my machines for a month and it sure ain't ready for prime time in my opinion....... I went back to IE7.

brucek


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## facesnorth

I just realized the TASCAM US-144 seems to work perfectly for Vista 64 bit (no listed issues), and it even has mic inputs with phantom power. I should have gotten that instead of both the TB SRM and the Xenyx 802. It's $125 at amazon with free shipping, which is exactly what I paid (or maybe even a few dollars less) than both the Xenyx 802 and the TB SRM.... Are there any reasons why this would not have been a better choice?

Factoring in all the cables and adapters, it definitely would be cheaper....

In fact it also has a MIDI adapter, so that would eliminate the cost of the midi to USB cable as well, even more cost savings....


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## brucek

It should be fine......


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## tpaxadpom

brucek said:


> The DC bias voltage doesn't preclude the SPL meter from working, but it's murder on the meter movement. I highly doubt the bias is removed in software, but it's simple enough to find out by writing the company. That's how I found out the M-Audio Transit wasn't suitable.
> 
> brucek


I've been using M-Audio transit sucessfully for a few years with my laptop running Vista 32-bit and RadioShack digital SPL.
No issues whatsoever. Vista 32-bit driver is only Beta and doesn't support AC3/DTS pass-through. 
It also works good as USB/SPDIF converter if you have an external DAC. It doesn't resample 44.1kHz to 48KkHz like some SoundBlaster cards and you get bit-perfect output.
M-audio is in the process of developing 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for this platform, but they claimed to be in the process for the last couple of years so go figure...

M-Audio released non public Beta driver for 64-bit platform that can be downloaded for free (free registration is required) http://forums.m-audio.com/forumdisplay.php?f=110


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## tpaxadpom

I just wanted to add that I've had some problems with M-Audio Transit Vista 64-bit driver on my 2 laptops. It also has bug where you can not boost the mic input (up to 26dB) that according to M-Audio represantative they currently working on it. I've had blue screen of death during power on process on PC after Transit driver installation. I had to boot into Safe mode to unistall the driver. I manged to get it to work after multiple install/uninstall tries. I've also noticed that M-audio device was showing up in the device manager after the driver was uninstalled. The sound card makes crackling sound when plugged in directly to my USB port (I've tried all 4 of them on both laptops). It does work fine with my active USB extender.


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## Sycraft

M-Audio makes good hardware, but their drivers are a little iffy. Their driver team seems to be rather slow on the releases, and they like to blame problems on other parties before finally fixing them. I had a Delta 1010 back when Windows 2000 came out and it had surperb sound quality and no end of driver troubles. Took them probably 9 months to get a driver that really worked, and even then there were problems with ACPI computers.

All in all I like M-Audio, but I would be hesitant to recommend them if you have a "latest greatest" kind of system.


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## tpaxadpom

Yes their driver support is pretty bad. M-audio Transit Vista 32bit driver was in beta state 2 years after Vistas release. No DTS/AC3 pass through... I hope they will get their act together. There are way too many disappointment users on their support forum.


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## allredp

*Vista 64-bit and TB SRM?*

Hey BruceK, 

I've got a new PC laptop and I've been loading the TB SRM onto it. I am running Vista Home Premium 64bit and loaded the most recent drivers from TB's site. After fussing with my connections I've got the following results. 

Does everything look ok? 

Thanks for the help--past and present!










Is this OK?

Here's basically the same result with the wireless adapter in my laptop off:


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## brucek

> Does everything look ok?


Yeah, it's oscillating a wee bit at the top end, but it's fine.

You can try running the routine a few times and play with the sweep level a bit and see if you can get it better, but it's fine. 

The vertical scale is large, so it looks bad when you have a little oscillation, but I wouldn't worry. The file will accomplish its task of calibrating the soundcard...

This soundcard drops off fairly rapidly at ~15KHz, so you wouldn't measure above that.

brucek


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## allredp

Excellent! Thanks for the validation. 

Now I get the fun of figuring out how to use the QSC DSP-30! I probably shouldn't have bought it considering my lack of tech-ability; however, I'm hoping to use all of its powers to tame my room and get the SubMersive as close to perfect as possible. This thing is incredible as it is... but, I'm committed to eeking out every last ounce of performance in reason... 

Best to you,

Phil


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## mswlogo

allredp said:


> Excellent! Thanks for the validation.
> 
> Now I get the fun of figuring out how to use the QSC DSP-30! I probably shouldn't have bought it considering my lack of tech-ability; however, I'm hoping to use all of its powers to tame my room and get the SubMersive as close to perfect as possible. This thing is incredible as it is... but, I'm committed to eeking out every last ounce of performance in reason...
> 
> Best to you,
> 
> Phil


I have tried the following on Vista

Sound Blaster X-fi music in a brand new T3500 Dell workstation and worked like cr$p.
TASCAM US-144 works fine
EMU 0404 USB works fine

I have since upgraded to Windows 7 and EMU works fine, have not tried TASCAM yet but will soon but I expect it will work fine. Drivers don't change for Windows 7.


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## ripan

Hi, the E-MU 0404 External USB 2.0 audio interface has excellent specs and comes with Vista x64 drivers:T.

regards /ripan


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## Dave Upton

The Behringer UCA202 works well for me in Windows 7.


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## pnkflyd

Hello guys .....I am unable to calibrate my UCA202 sound card on a vista laptop. Cant find the line in anywhere. So I tried to set my line in in the setting to microphone and on calibratingI have no bars in the input channel of UV meter. What am I doing wrong?


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## brucek

> Cant find the line in anywhere.


There is a left and right line-in and a left and right line-out. I'm confused by your statement...

Connect a loopback from right line-out to right line-in and run the soundcard calibration routine..










brucek


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## ripan

brucek said:


> There is a left and right line-in and a left and right line-out. I'm confused by your statement...





pnkflyd said:


> Cant find the line in anywhere.


Hi
I get the impression that the reference is to software settings... not HW!?.

After installing the drivers for your UCA202 you should be able to "use" it within REW by "selecting" it under the settings button, "Soundcard" tab of REW. Make sure to select it in both the "Output device" and appropriate "Output" as well "Input device" and appropriate "Input" of the options displayed. Your UCA202 device should be there, if it's not your drivers are not installed properly.

In the general settings of the PC sound you should also check the "Let applications take full control..." (something) over this function.

Lets see what happens or are we still missing out something in your problem?

regrads /ripan


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## brucek

> After installing the drivers for your UCA202





> both the "Output device" and appropriate "Output" as well "Input device" and appropriate "Input" of the options displayed


A couple of problem here.

The UCA202 doesn't have drivers, as it relies on the Windows (or Mac) standard internal drivers.

Since the OP is using Vista, there will be no control of devices through REW. The control comes from the Vista Playback and Recording Devices mixers that are accessed with a right mouse button on the speaker icon in the System Tray.

brucek


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## STORMINORMAN

1st POSTING! Just (Sunday) purchased a Sony _VAIO_ laptop, _VISTA_ 64-bit, with an InterVideo WinDVD BD for _VAIO_ Drive, Intel HD Graphics and Sound, and have a small problem. The HDMI output only delivers a two channel signal as it is passed through my Panasonic TH-42PZ80U's output via an optical digital cable to my much-loved Yamaha RX-V596... i.e., no HDMI passthrough for a Dolby Digital or DTS audio signal. Picture is fine.

Getting a ProLogic indication on the receiver, so it is getting a digital signal, but ProLogic really sounds terrible! Sony techs tried all day yesterday, to no avail, to get a Dolby Digital signal through, but no deal. Panasonic only sends multichannel info out from it's tuner.

The *Sound* section of the *Control Panel *shows two existant playback options, HDMI device & a Realtec HD device that only routes 5.1, 7.1, DTS, etc. through laptop or external speakers, which, apparantly MUST be plugged in to work. No doubt through a USB port.

2 questions, really: 1). Will I somehow lose the HDMI video signal that I'm running to my TV if I add the _*Audio Advantage SRM *_device & software, which is, according to the website, 64-bit _Vista_ compatible? 2). Will it just show as an additional device to enable when plugged in? I noticed in the original post a picture of the *Sound* screen and there were no other devices shown.


Three questions, really: will it work, still a HDMI video signal out to the TV and a digital passthrough via the optical digital output of the SRM? :help:

Thanks in advance for your kind consideration!


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## STORMINORMAN

I'll respond to my own post: THESE THINGS REALLY WORK!

I picked up an _AUDIO ADVANTAGE __*Amigo*_ and, as advised, went to the web site and downloaded the most current driver/exe package for _Vista_ 64-bit to my desktop. Installation was a snap. The new sound device shows in addition to the two that were installed by Sony. Plug the unit into a USB port, select the device through Control Panel-Sounds as the default device. Attach the optical digital cable adapter and a S/PDIF TOSLINK cable to one of the optical inputs on my older Yamaha, run the HDMI to the HD TV and, _voila_!!! Dolby Digital & DTS passed through to the Yamaha's decoder.

I even loaded it on the old Toshiba, whose InterVideo WinDVD program states that it is only two channel, which allowed me to set up (within the WinDVD program) a S/PDIF audio output that worked as well: Dolby Digital 5.1 passed through on the optical connection from the _*Amigo*_!:T

This is the best "Jackson" I've ever spent on a piece of computer hardware. It does exactly what they claim! No real need to screw around with a new HDMI receiver at who know$ how much!

I'm a big believer in Turtle Beach!

Cheers!


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## brucek

Stormin, sorry I missed your original post, or I would have told you that it should definitely work, at least with the SRM anyway - but it appears it's fine with the Amigo also....

brucek


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## STORMINORMAN

brucek: With almost 7K posts it is not surprizing you would miss my 1st one!

Not to intentionally GUSH, but this device blows me away. I don't know how many hours I spent trying to get a Dolby Digital/DTS level signal out of the HDMI connector fron the_ VAIO_, including a trip to FRY's where I hooked up the HDMI output to THREE different receivers (two ONKYO and a Yamaha) only to get NO audio passthrough at all. I don't know if this is endemic to Sony (Only), but a couple of their salesmen sure seemed to think it was, citing many previous examples of brand-to-brand incompatibility. They all seemed to think it would work with a higher level Sony HDMI receiver (i.e., one which included, for example, Dolby TruHD, DTS HD, etc.). I guess if I was in the market for that I'd look at an ES-Series, but I think I would rather choose Onkyo or Yamaha than be forced into a $500 Sony... 

But the GREAT NEWS is that for $20 the optical digital audio connection could be accomplished, a feature that ought to be included on any laptop spendy enough to have a Blu-ray player, IM(very)HO!

Now, on to my 1st Blu-ray disc to see how that concept flys.

Cheers!


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## Nick

Please delete msg.onder:


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## Nick

Hi Bruce,

I'm hoping you can help me with a problem I can't seem to solve. After calibrating the SRM soundcard I began to do a 'check level' test. When I try to check the level the output volume, wave volume and input volume all reset to zero and the VU meters for left and right go blank and read -99db. I still appear to have control over the scroll function that sets the level for each function, but it won't move. I rebooted the software and then the levels were working again and I set them where I needed them. Then I tried to check the level again and it all zeroed out again.

Could the soundcard be damaged while I was calibrating? I'm stumped by this one...

Thank you,
Nick


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## Nick

Bruce, sorry for all the posts...I decided to delete all the settings and exit the software. When I rebooted I had control over the levels again. I need to make sure I have calibrated the SPL correctly, but I have measurements now. Interestingly, they look very similar to the plots I have done using test tones. I am looking forward to figuring out how to do something about the results.

Thanks,
Nick


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## onebadmonte

I just got a UCA202 and there is no line level input option in the recoding devices tab through windows. I had the same troubles with a UCA200 sound card. I'm using Windows Vista and recently upgraded to SP2 in hopes of getting my UCA200 to show me a line level option. No luck so I got the UCA202. When I plugged the UCA202 in the description in the speakers & recording tab were identical to the ones for the UCA200.  Have users been able to get the line level option using the UCA202? Is there a special driver? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks


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## jmcomp124

onebadmonte said:


> I just got a UCA202 and there is no line level input option in the recoding devices tab through windows. I had the same troubles with a UCA200 sound card. I'm using Windows Vista and recently upgraded to SP2 in hopes of getting my UCA200 to show me a line level option. No luck so I got the UCA202. When I plugged the UCA202 in the description in the speakers & recording tab were identical to the ones for the UCA200.  Have users been able to get the line level option using the UCA202? Is there a special driver? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks


It looks like the Turtle Beach - Audio Advantage SRM is no longer available (shows out of stock). Is there a replacement newer version of this unit that would work just as well as the Advantage SRM?
I was thinking of the UCA202, but if there is no dedicated driver and the OS does not provide a way of accessing the Line in, you probably can't adjust the levels and get REW to work with this right? Is this a problem with only Vista/Win7 and it works fine in XP/Pro?
Thanks,
-Jai


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## keyboard

Hi,
Anyone try a Vantec (NBA-200U) adapter ? Cheap at under $30.0 Does the quality of measurements depend on the sound card? Or as someone said , just for the line in and line outs. it supports 48/44.1 Khz sampling.
Thanks.


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## JohnM

The Vantec looks like it should be OK but I have no experience of it. All REW needs is a stereo line in and a stereo line or headphone out.


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## BandidoAzul

Would this work also: PPA International 1455


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