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PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:31 am 

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:02 am
Posts: 18
Hello,

the standalone version deosn't seem to work for me. My sound card is an RME HDSPe AIO. Every time I run Stereo Tool standalone, I get the message: "Timeout detected: Sound card input or output did not respond." which then goes on. I'd like to use it on my normal output, to affect the sound from every source, like watching a movie in a browser.

In a forum I've read something about the program Virtual Audio Cable and I decided to try if I can get it to work with that. However, that didn't work as well, but in addition, the trial reminder from Virtual Audio Cable, which is a female voice that repeats the word "trial" every few seconds, was "catched" by Stereo Tool somehow. As long as Stereo Tool runs, the trial voice is playing. Quitting VAC didn't help. I've searched for any VAC related process in task manager, but nothing was running. Even restarting the PC didn't stop it. As long as Stereo Tool standalone runs, the trial voice plays.

Then I've uninstalled VAC which has stopped the voice , but now Stereo Tool gives me an additional error:
"Cannot open input: BAD DEVICE ID. Please select a valid sound card or restart Thimeo Stereo Tool".
Didn't had that error before installing VAC.
The input/output settings are still the same as before. It's named "Analog 1 & 2" which is the normal stereo output of the sound card.

Has anyone an idea what's going on?


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2016 9:48 pm 
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Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:56 pm
Posts: 4151
First of all that is normal for VAC. You have trail version and you hear voice. You cant hear without ST because you are not listening VAC directly.
What you need is registered VAC, or VB Cable witch is free. http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/

Just be sure that your ALL sample rates in windows are same for all cables and soundcard and ST.

_________________
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2016 11:10 am 
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2014 9:32 am
Posts: 231
Location: Poland
Quote:
First of all that is normal for VAC. You have trail version and you hear voice. You cant hear without ST because you are not listening VAC directly.
What you need is registered VAC, or VB Cable witch is free. http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/

Just be sure that your ALL sample rates in windows are same for all cables and soundcard and ST.
On top of that - be sure to check internal samplerate in vbcable itself, because by default it is set to 96000 and introduces artifacts on samplerate mismatch. So you have 2 places to check - in your windows audio devices manager and vbcable - separately.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:52 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:02 am
Posts: 18
Just installed version 8.14, still no idea how to get the standalone version to work.
It should work directly on the soundcard output, just like DFX Audio Enhancer for example, or am I wrong?
DFX works without any problem on my pc. (it's not installed at the moment)
I also don't have any virtual cables installed anymore. (it was meant as a workaround - but I shouldn't need it in the first place)

Am I doing it right:
I want to use it on any audio, so I need to select "Microsoft Soundmapper" as Input in Stereo Tool,
and my regular output (the same that is selected in windows) as Output in Stereo Tool. Is that correct?
But it doesn't work, it doesn't affect the sound in any way. (the Winamp plugin version works like a charm)

Can somebody help me to identify the problem?
My pc:
OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 up-to-date
Motherboard: Gigabyte X79-UP4
CPU: Intel Core i7 3930K
RAM: Kingston Hyper X DDR3 32 GB
PCI-E 1: nVidia GeForce GTX Titan
PCI-E 2: RME HDSPe AIO (sound card)

Tell me if you need any kind of system info or log.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2016 3:19 am 
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Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:40 am
Posts: 11185
You do need VAC or VB Cable. Otherwise you'll create a loop (audio that goes out through sound card is processed and outputted again).

In fact, based on your description, it worked fine before (when you heard the "trial" voice): the audio was received by Stereo Tool and played to the sound card. But, you do need to make sure that all other programs send their audio to VAC instead of to the normal sound card.

The error when you removed VAC also makes sense: the sound card that you selected earlier suddenly didn't exist anymore.

If you want to run everything through VAC or VB Cable, set it as the default sound card. Then in Stereo Tool select the virtual cable as input, and the actual sound card as output. That's all.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2016 3:19 am 
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Does DFX do this without installing some sound card driver like VAC???


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:25 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:02 am
Posts: 18
Quote:
You do need VAC or VB Cable. Otherwise you'll create a loop (audio that goes out through sound card is processed and outputted again).

In fact, based on your description, it worked fine before (when you heard the "trial" voice): the audio was received by Stereo Tool and played to the sound card. But, you do need to make sure that all other programs send their audio to VAC instead of to the normal sound card.

The error when you removed VAC also makes sense: the sound card that you selected earlier suddenly didn't exist anymore.

If you want to run everything through VAC or VB Cable, set it as the default sound card. Then in Stereo Tool select the virtual cable as input, and the actual sound card as output. That's all.
No, that also didn't work. I've selected "Microsoft Soundmapper" in VAC as input and "Cable 1" as output. In Stereo Tool I've seleted "Cable 1" as Input and my sound card output as output.
But Stereo Tool just didn't do anything. There was nothing to see in the audio visualization panel at the bottom. No function changed anything. As if it's bypassed. I've checked it several times - no difference when active/bypassed. It just didn't process anything. I know how it should sound, because I'm using it sucessfully as WinAMP plugin.


Last edited by toniostarcevic on Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:32 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:02 am
Posts: 18
Quote:
Does DFX do this without installing some sound card driver like VAC???
Absolutely! You just install DFX and it works. It's placed directly before the sound card output. Everything goes through it. You can access its settings from system tray. But the sound quality and features are no comparison to Stereo Tool. I absolutely want Stereo Tool's awesome features when watching movies in browser, (Netflix, Youtube, etc.) or with my BluRay player-software. Especially AGC. The extreme volume differences in some movies make them impossible to watch at night. Some movie sound engineers seriously have issues. Of course you want an action scene to appear louder, but not the freaking 30-fold! Jesus. Nobody owns a cinema, where you can watch movies like that. Movies generally should have 2 audio edits - cinema & home. This should be standard since ages....
Either you can't hear the silent parts, or the loud parts will throw your neighbours out of bed. Or you keep your finger on the volume control all the time. Most people should know very well what I mean.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 5:34 pm 

Joined: Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:02 am
Posts: 18
I finally managed to get all sound through Stereo Tool with Virtual Audio Cable. I've just re-installed the demo version of VAC and tried just any possible configuration, no matter if it makes sense or not.
And the solution indeed doesn't make much sense.
Settings:

VAC:
In: Microsoft Soundmapper
Out: Virtual Cable 1

Stereo Tool:
In: Virtual Cable 1
Out: sound card out

Windows playback device: Virtual Cable 1

Any other config doesn't work, or doesn't work properly.
Having a pc with an ASIO supported sound card makes things like this a nightmare...

All programs, in which ASIO is selected as out, go through the sound card's mixer app RME Total Mix. (and can't be controlled via the Windows Volume Mixer) Any non-ASIO audio goes through the Windows Volume Mixer.
Example: if I'm playing music in Youtube and at the same time in my DAW (ASIO), the volume +/- keys on my keyboard only affect Youtube. The DAW ignores any Windows volume change and can be controlled only through the RME Total Mix app.

What leads to my next problem - the buffer size. Using Stereo Tool on all sound requires zero latency.
Using ASIO would be much better of course, but I can't get the PC to play all sound through ASIO.

So far I had no buffer underruns with a buffer size of 0, despite not using ASIO. I hope it remains like this. Couldn't test it for more than 30 minutes, cause VAC's trial voice makes me crazy. Seriously, what's wrong with this programmer? Such a frequency makes sense in a virtual instrument, where you need to make shure that nobody can easily sample/steal the sounds. But for a driver, you don't need to repeat it every 10 (!) secounds. I've seen some stressful demos, but nothing compares to this. I don't have a problem to pay 50$ for a driver, but I don't like to give money to such a person.
Are there any good alternatives to VAC?


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:23 pm 
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Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:40 am
Posts: 11185
VB Cable, as mentioned above.

I don't understand what you're setting in VAC? Just the output for the player (VAC 1) and input for Stereo Tool (VAC 1), plus output to the sound card, should be sufficient.


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