Stereo Tool

While ST can't yet have two instances feeding one sound card like BBP (eg ST1 to Julia L output, ST2 to Julia R Output), as an interim workaround I thought I'd use two sound cards (ST1 to Julia, ST2 to MAudio 192).

Turns out much trickier than I thought.

An I5/I7 is really needed to comfortably support two instances with declipper&MPX, so the PC is a I7-2700, Intel Desktop motherboard with Z68 chipset and Win 7-64. With <35% CPU, lots of serious glitching. One Julia card by itself seems ok (listening for 10 mins), but both cards operating is a mess.

Google reveals there are well documented serious issues with the Ix series CPU's running pro PCI sound cards. PCIe is apparently ok. http://forums.m-audio.com/showthread.ph ... LEASE-READ Disabled all the BIOS features and devices as suggested in the M-Audio forums.

Has anyone got a Julia and Maudio192 working ok on a Z68 based I7? non-PCI cards may be the only real interim option. In looking for a solid and cost effective HQ (nearly) DC straight 192 KHz card good for FM MPX, using Julia Xte PCIe cards would be a solution, but the catch is that you can only put one Julia Xte in a pc, so that would work for two BBP instances but not two ST instances in current version.

Any thoughts welcome. Cheers Aaron

First is, that whatever you do, you can forget ASIO. You just simple cannot use 2 soundcards with same ASIO (IF source/input is same sooundcard). And i think it's important to use ASIO for FM.

And why you would need independet processing FM outputs? Is input source same? If it's not then you can use ASIO but not on new modern boards (what you figured out yourself). All good soundcards are still PCI. So you'll be lucky if you can find modern/new board with 2xPCI. And if you find it one will be usually sharing IRQ with PCEex, which is bad.
I don't get this. What would work with 2xBBP with one Juli@ and not with 2xST ?

Also please explain what you exactly want to do with two ST's.

Input source would be different between the two ST instances. Input source is the Axia AoIP multichannel driver. Purpose is to process two separate FM stations on the one pc, both with MPX output. ie. Axia AoIP Ch1/2 > ST1 > Sound card. ie. AoIP Ch3/4 > ST2 > Sound card. Does not have to be ASIO - delay/latency not an issue.

Reason why I think the Julia Xte would work with BBP is if I bought the new Julia Xte PCIe card (not standard julia PCI). BBP allows two separate instances to use one channel output on a shared 192 kHz sound card. i.e. Axia AoiP 1/2 > BBP1 > Julia Xte Left output channel MPX, Axia AoiP 3/4 > BBP2 > Julia Xte Right output channel MPX. As that would be using a single PCIe card, that should avoid the PCI issues with Sandy Bridge Chipsets. Current version of ST does not allow two instances sharing a card, although I know Hans has this on the to do list!

I was hoping for a solution using an I7, as I ideally need that power for two ST instances. With current ST I'd need two non-PCI cards - but not many cost effective options around, something like a Julia Xte + Marian Seraph 8 etc. Getting very expensive with two HQ PCIe sound cards!

Am I missing any good options? Cheers AJ.

Exactly same you can do with ST, with small problem.
You need to copy and paste ST instalation folder. Also rename 2nd exe like "StereoTool2.exe" so separate ini file can be created.

But true, you need one more thing which currently is not possible, and that is selection of what output FM channel you will use, since you cannot use ASIO, and with ASIO you can do that now.

Im recommending you to ask Hans to add that. I think it's very simple to add.

Not as easy as you might think, because the Windows API (non-ASIO) that I'm using doesn't allow picking only a single channel. As you can see in the sound card selection menu for the Juli@, you can choose between 1+2 (analog) or 3+4 (digital), but there's no way to just select 1 or 2....

Hi Hans, I don't know how the windows API works, but is it possible that two BBP instances (configured to share a sound card) are both opening and sharing the same stereo output channel, but each BBP instances is simply sending silence in the opposite channel ? eg BBP1 Left silence, Right MPX. BBP2 Left MPX, Right Silence. I guess there might sync/clock issues with that approach?

All three BBP output sound systems interfaces allow the L or Right MPX option - Wave, DS & KS. When selecting the output channel in BBP, it offers this description of the channel options;

1 - Output Sound As One Channel. Only the first output jack (stereo) will actually be used, all others will be silent.
2 - Open Sound Card as 2 channels (standard stereo)
2(L) - Open Sound Card as 3 channels. Only the first ouput jack (stereo) will actually be used, all others will be silent.
2(R) - Open Sound Card as 4 channels. Only the first ouput jack (stereo) will actually be used, all others will be silent.

In our example we'd select 2L on BBP1 and 2R on BBP2. Hope this helps.

I know, and this may work, but it depends (strongly) on what Windows does with it. Will have to test this. And it will definitely cause problems if you set different sample rates.

ok thanks Hans. Re sample rate, we set both ST instances to 192 kHz. Input of both instances would be from same Axia AoIP sound device (different channels), so assume input sample rate/clock would be same. I guess the unknown is what happens with output sync. However, even if this was an issue with a single Julia card, it may not be a problem with a Marian Alpha (if it works as a PCI card with I7 chipset), as it has a 'multi client' driver, designed to allow multiple applications to share the card. And there's an option of a single Julia Xte PCIe card. Will be interesting if it works!

Marian Trace Alpha will work (i think). You can route signal in many ways. Also separate set balance for every internal route.
You must have it to check and play with Marian's "mixer(s)".