Important Hints to the Seraph 8 driver version 4.12 for Windows™
1.
System Requirements
2.
New Installation
3. Driver
Update
4. Driver Uninstall
5. Uninstalling an older driver for Windows™ 7 in Windows™ 8.x
6. What's new?
7. Operation in Windows™ Vista, Windows™ 7, Windows™ 8.x, Windows™ 10
8. MME, WDM-Audio and DirectSound
- Windows™ 7, Windows™ 8.x, Windows™ 10 and related server systems; each
64 bit or 32 bit
2.1 Windows™ 7, Windows™ 8.x, Windows™ 10
- Windows™ 7/8/10 does not start the installation of new found
hardware automatically. Thus, you have to start the installation by use of
the Windows™ Device Manager. You can open the Device Manager with right
click "Computer", then "Manage | Device Manager".
- There, right-click at "Other Devices | Multimedia Controller"
and choose "Update Driver Software".
- In the following dialog click on "Browse my computer for
driver software".
- Now choose the folder of your CD or the folder where you have unpacked the driver
update package and click on "Next".
- If you get a message which asks you to trust software of "MARIAN GmbH",
acknowledge that message and actÃvate the option "Always trust software of
MARIAN GmbH" in order to get that message never again.
- The drivers are now installed. Windows
now copies the driver files. When
you are asked to overwrite newer files answer with "No" to
keep the newer version of that file.
- Finally, another dialog will
tell you the end of the installation process. Click on "Close" here.
- In some cases, the installer has to change some windows
settings which need a restart. Please restart windows, if the installer
requests it.
- Attention with Windows 10: Directly after the installation, Windows 10 executes
extensive audio tests with each audio device / channel pair of the installed audio interface. During this time
almost every audio functionality with this audio interface is blocked by Windows 10. Thus, we recommend to start
working with the audio interface and every related software first when these audio tests have been finished.
It take appr. 1-2 minutes but takes place just once directly after the driver installation.
- Unzip the driver update package ("sph8-win-412.zip") with the
included subdirectory structure to any folder.
- Uninstall the driver software like described in "Driver
Uninstall".
- Restart Windows™
3.1 Windows™ 7, Windows™ 8.x and Windows™ 10
- You have to start the installation by use of the Windoows
Device Manager. You can open the Device Manager with right click
"Computer", then "Manage | Device Manager".
- There, right-click at "Other Devices | Multimedia Controller"
and choose "Update Driver Software".
- In the following dialog click on "Browse my computer for
driver software".
- Now choose the folder where you have unpacked the driver
update package and click on "Next".
- If you get a message which asks you to trust software of "MARIAN GmbH",
acknowledge that message and actÃvate the option "Always trust software of
MARIAN GmbH" in order to get that message never again.
- The drivers are now installed.Windows
now copies the driver files. When
you are asked to overwrite newer files answer with "No" to
keep the newer version of that file.
- Finally, another dialog will
tell you the end of the installation process. Click on "Close" here.
- After these steps it might be necessary to update the firmware
of the Seraph 8. It can only be determined after the installation of the
new driver if a firmware update is needed. If that is the case, the update
will then be performed automatically. In order to get the new firmware in effect,
you have to SWITCH OFF and to SWITCH ON the computer.
- Attention with Windows 10: Directly after the installation, Windows 10 executes
extensive audio tests with each audio device / channel pair of the installed audio interface. During this time
almost every audio functionality with this audio interface is blocked by Windows 10. Thus, we recommend to start
working with the audio interface and every related software first when these audio tests have been finished.
It take appr. 1-2 minutes but takes place just once directly after the driver installation.
- First uninstall the driver software using the Windows™ Device
Manager. You can start it right away with a right-click on "Computer" in
the start menu. Then choose "Manage" and acknowledge the question of the
User Account Control with "Continue".
- In the Device Manager under "Sound, Video and Game Controller"
right-click on "MARIAN Seraph 8" and choose "Uninstall".
- Windows™ Vista/7/8/10: In the next dialog activate the option "Delete the driver
software for this device" and start the uninstall with "Ok".
- After the Uninstaller has finished, you only have to restart
Windows™ if you want to install another driver.
5. Uninstalling an older driver for Windows™ 7 in Windows™ 8
Beginning from driver version v2.50 the MARIAN driver software is compatible
with Windows™ 8. Earlier driver version are intended for Windows™ XP to Windows™ 7.
In case you tried to install an older Windows™ 7 driver in Windows™ 8, the
installation now is incomplete and faulty. Please follow these steps to
uninstall the older driver using a special way in order to be able to install
the most recent driver afterwards:
- Computer Management | Device Manager | "Other devices" or "Sound, Video and
Game controllers" | "Multimedia Controller" -> right click | Uninstall; if
available also activate "including driver software"
- Close the Computer Management
- Delete the old Coinstaller DLL "sph8ci.dll" in the folder
"c:\windows\system32"
- Perhaps in the directory "c:\windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository"
you can find another folder called "seraph8.inf_<xxx>". (<xxx> means: any
characters) Please delete this folder if it exists.
- Restart Windows™ 8 and start the installation of the new driver software like
described above.
6. What's new?
Version 4.12:
-
GUI: The function "Reopen Windows at Startup" now works like expected.
-
GUI: When using more than 3 Seraph 8 within one system, the graphics resources are limited now in order to prevent that Windows limits are exceeded. You may open a maximum of 3 mixer windows, 3 routing windows and 3 status windows simultaneously. Of course you can use these windows for all of maximum 8 installed Seraph 8.
Version 4.11:
Version 4.10:
-
Support for Clara's Flash Type
Version 4.09:
-
Fixed: wrong samplerate after wakeup from sleep or hybernate mode
Version 4.08:
-
New: with the HotKey Editor in the settings, you can now assign system-wide key combinations, for example to open the mixer, the routing or the status window
-
GUI: various improvements in content display on high dpi systems, especially 4K monitors
-
GUI: fixes a display problem in settings dialog when ALT key was pressed
-
Under the hood: various performance enhancements and reduction of resource consumption
Version 4.07:
-
This version removes a bug which could occur during driver's initialization on 32 bit systems.
Version 4.06:
-
Improved error reporting by the Seraph 8 managing software in case of very early initialization failures of hardware or driver software.
Version 4.05:
-
Manager | Settings: WDM Audio extended. You can now set the sample format for all WDM Audio devices of a card at this central place without having to do this for each device separately using the Windows sound device properties. Thus, the use of the MARIAN-Tool "MaDevPropW7+" is obsolete now.
No Windows restart is necessary anymore to get any of the WDM Audio settings in effect - just click "Apply" and the settings are used immediately.
-
Manager | Settings: MIDI Filters removed.
-
Bugfixing: Beginning from v4.04 the initialization of some ASIO applications could fail and result in a BSOD. Solved.
-
Bugfixing: If the WDM Audio multichannel device were set as Windows default device, beginning from v4.04 volume changes in the PreDsp could lead to a BSOD. Volume changes may initiated by Windows multimedia keys, Windows volume control or ASIO Direct Monitoring. Solved.
Version 4.04:
-
The clock and synchronization settings you made in driver's settings panel can now be used within your ASIO application too. As default setting you find the entry "Seraph Manager Clock Setup" in "Clocksource" of your ASIO application. If this option is active, the ASIO driver does not control the clock setup anymore -
instead it relies on the clock settings you made in driver's settings panel. Please take care on a proper clock setup
especially if you use multiple Seraph Sound Systems within one computer using the SyncBus for synchronization.
Choose a certain clock source in your ASIO application to give back the control to the ASIO driver. It will ensure proper synchronizaton of all installed Seraphs using the SyncBus.
-
Settings panel: "ASIO Initiale Clocksource" removed. Obsolete because of this new functionality.
-
Settings panel: visualization of clock/sync settings redesigned.
Version 4.03:
-
New options to adjust the PCIe performance. See "Settings | Latency | PCIe Performance".
For best results, we recommend the "compatible" option, if the PCIe slot used is connected with the CPU directly. (e.g. 16x slots or small mainboards with just one or two PCIe slots)
We recommend the "boost" option for all other, standard cases, where the PCIe slot is connected with a PCIe host controller.
-
This driver software comes with a new firmware. The update is applied automatically after the driver installation.
Version 4.02:
-
New: WDM Audio Multichannel input and output devices. Together with the standard stereo devices you may assign the available channels to these devices in a very flexible way. As default setting we choosed eight stereo recording and playback devices, one 16-channel recording device and one 16-channel playback device. But you may change this at any time in "Settings | WDM Audio".
-
Redesign of the routing matrix ("Beast Aside Routing"). Additionally you may set the output volume now directly from there.
-
ASIO Direct Monitoring: now, the correct output level is restored, when you switch from input monitoring to playback monitoring.
-
When operating a Seraph 8 within a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server, problems occured on restart of this virtual machine. Solved.
Version 4.01:
Version 3.09:
Version 3.08:
-
The ASIO driver now uses unique channel names in order to solve potential problems with ASIO applications who solely rely on
channels names for channel identification.
-
New option for WDM/MME/DirectSound applications:
Background: Beginning with Windows 7 the samplerate for playback and recording devices is a property of such a device.
(see Control Panel Hardware and Sound | Sound | | Properties | Advanced). The Windows system will use always this samplerate
even if the application requests a different samplerate. In such a case a resampling takes place.
The driver software is unable to set the samplerate requested by Windows in these situations:
- The Seraph 8 is synchronized by an external clock which's samplerate is different from the requested samplerate.
- The Seraph 8 is already used by other applications with a different samplerate.
Up to now te driver software protected the user against accidentally, erroneous recordings/playbacks due to wrong samplerates by denying the
according operation. This in turn could lead a mistakable behaviour of some applications.
Beginning from this version the driver software allows recordings/playbacks with deviating, wrong samplerates.
You can deactivate the according option in the driver settings to go back to the previous behaviour.
Tip: We recommend to use our free-of-charge tool "MaDevPropW7+". With this tool you can set the sample properties
of all or selected MARIAN audio devices in one simple step. You can download "MaDevPropW7+" here: http://drivers.marian.de/madevpropw7+.zip.
-
New: It's not necessary anymore to shut down the Windows system after a firmware update.
Directly after a firmware update, the Seraph 8 hardware and its driver software reinitializes
and your Seraph 8 is ready to work immediately. This way, managing audio systems at remote places
is much easier than before.
Version 3.07:
Version 3.06:
Version 3.05:
-
When using different Seraphs within one system, mixer, routing and TDM SyncBus settings may not initialized correctly
on system start. Solved.
-
The height of the routing window was not set correctly, when DAW inputs became visible again via "Snapshots". Solved.
-
The menu of Seraph's taskbar icon could be incomplete when the operation mode of the Seraph changed. Solved.
Version 3.03:
-
Supports the Windows Power Management Functions Hibernate, Suspend and Quickstart (Windows 8/10)
-
ASIO: improved robustness against system conditions which prevent a continous audio data transfer.
-
Windows 8/10: improved control characteristic for Windows Volume Control
-
Installation: the installation process now increases certain limits of Windows system ressources when insufficient
for operation of the driver software.
-
Fixed: the Microsoft Management Console could crash after the user opened the property dialog of a
MARIAN audio device within the Windows Device Manager.
Version 3.02:
Version 3.01:
-
First official release for Windows™ 10.
-
The grafical user interface now uses significant less Windows resources. Thus, you may work with multiple mixer/routing windows simultaneously when you installed more than two Seraph 8.
-
Now you can show/hide DAW input channels in the routing window using the button "Parts".
-
Many improvements in detail. Beside others, now you can determine whether you want to reopen actually opened mixer/routing/status windows when you login the next time. See taskbar icon menu.
-
Possible initialization problems with output volume, mute and routing solved.
Version 2.87:
-
For compatibility with older Windows Vista/7 versions, the driver files are now digitally signed
with a SHA-1 certificate instead of a SHA-2 certificate.
-
In rare cases an ASIO initialization problem could occur with 64 bit ASIO applications. Solved.
Version 2.85:
-
Depending on the system configuration, playing back the test tone was not possible. Fixed.
-
Problems loading setup files solved.
Version 2.84:
-
Visual improvements of the status panel.
-
Possible problems when storing the audio settings of the Beast Mixer/Router fixed.
-
New: the Seraph 8 can now be used within one of multiple, separated TDM SyncBus connections.
In such a case, there are no checks whether a certain TDM signal channels is already occupied.
-
New: supports the Seraph 8+ with new, improved AD/DA convertes and status display via LED:
- LED off - hardware defective.
- LED yellow - hardware active, driver software not active.
- LED red - driver software detected an error.
- LED green - hardware active, driver sofware detected no errors.
Version 2.80:
-
New: ASIO Sample Format Emulation. Some ASIO applications are not fully compatible with the sample formats required by the
ASIO 2.2 standard. Thus, you may get empty recordings or playbacks of silence.
In your ASIO application you can open driver's ASIO settings. There we introduce a new option called
"Sample Format Handling: Emulate 32-Bit Integer for incompatible ASIO applications". Enable this option if you
encounter such kind of problems. Please note: only if this option is not active you experience the full performance
of the ASIO-in-Hardware feature of the Trace and Seraph series.
Version 2.70:
-
Products of the Seraph series now support ASIO 2.2 Direct Monitoring. Thus, ASIO applications can
switch the outputs of the card directly onto the inputs in order to listen/monitor the input signals there.
Additionally they also can control the monitoring volume. This functionality works with the Pre-DSP
of the card - therefore completely in hardware without adding latencies and without payloading the CPU
of your computer.
Version 2.69:
Version 2.68:
Version 2.67:
-
NEW: The brand new routing matrix enables you to connect each output channel with any input channel. This either immediately or
only if a recording at the input channel runs. (Exception: ASIO).
You find the routing matrix in the menu of the management application "Beast Aside Routing".
-
Supports then new revision of the firmware flash memory
Version 2.66:
-
Another firmware update improves the compatibility with several mainboards. After installation of the new driver, the firmware update starts automatically.
Please note the remarks of version 2.63!
-
MIDI devices are now shown only, if the WC/MIDI extender MWX2 is connected.
Version 2.65:
-
After changing the operation mode, manager's system menu now gets restored completely
-
The function "Play test tone" now uses the correct playback device 1-2. No erroneous error messages anymore.
Version 2.64:
-
The level settings for Windows recording devices are now connected with the DSP/the gain controller of the card.
Thus, changes of the recording level are now made in hardware. This also affects programs like Audacity which use
the volume/level settings of Windows for their own purposes.
-
Problem solved: possible, permanent output level attenuation by -3 dB when Windows™ mixer is used.
Version 2.63:
-
Seraph Series: New firmware improves compatibility with several mainboards. After installation of the new driver, the firmware update starts automatically.
Please follow the instructions during the update.
Attention: Please do not install this new driver version right away on a system with compatibility issues, because the firmware update
may fail.
Please follow these steps:
- Uninstall the driver software from the destination system like described in 4. Driver Uninstall.
- Remove the Seraph 8 hardware from the destination system.
- Install the Seraph 8 hardware in a system without mainboard compatibility issues.
- There, install this new driver software and execute the automatic firmware update when prompted.
- Afterwards, install the Seraph 8 hardware in the destination system again and install this new driver software.
If you do not have a working system for the firmware update, please contact our support department via support@marian.de.
We will exchange your Seraph 8 free of charge.
Version 2.62:
- Possible problems with playback/recording via MME and DirectSound in multi-channel operation removed.
Version 2.61:
- First official release for Windows™ 8
- One driver package for all supported Windows™ versions (see System
Requirements)
- Possible problems with playback/recording via MME and DirectSound with earlier
versions of the 64 bit driver removed.
7. Operation in Windows™ Vista / Windows™ 7 / Windows™ 8.x / Windows™ 10
On Windows™ Vista / Windows™ 7 / Windows™ 8.x / Windows™ 10 audio applications, who do not
use ASIO or WASAPI in exclusive mode, are not able to set a certain samplerate or sample
format. Instead, sample rate and sample format is set in the advanced
settings of an audio device in the Windows™ control panel or in the driver settings "WDM Audio". This leads to the
following:
- If the desired samplerate of an audio application is not
equal to the current set samplerate, a samplerate conversion with
possibly an audible loss of quality will be the result!
Audio applications, who do not use ASIO or direct WDM-Audio,
now communicate with Microsoft MME or Microsoft WDM Audio drivers instead
of communicate with the MARIAN drivers directly. The Microsoft drivers in
turn communicate with the MARIAN drivers.
For audio applications, who use these Microsoft drivers, apply:
- They can playback simultaneously using one playback device.
The Microsoft Kernel Mixer mixes the playback signals of the applications
into one stereo stream and routes it to one physical output device. If
playback takes place with different samplerate, the Microsoft Kernel Mixer
converts the samplerate of the playback streams to the highest samperate
required.
Hint: You can improve the quality of this conversion! (See Control
Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices | Audio | Sound Playback | Advanced |
System Performance)
- The described simultaneous playback of
different applications fails, if the output device is already in use by
ASIO or direct WDM-Audio.
- The number of the available recording and playback devices is
limited. With Windows™ XP/Vista/7 to 32 devices each (64 channels)
This limitation applies to the number of all audio devices installed
in the system.
You can use ASIO to walk around this limitation.
- The
minimum possible latency is limited to app. 20..30ms through the Microsoft
Kernel Mixer architecture.
Use ASIO to walk around this limitation.
- Some audio applications show additional audio devices with
theirs names appended by "(3+4)" or "(5+6)". This is caused by an anomaly
of the Microsoft MME/DirectSound system. Please ignore these devices and
do not use them.
(c)
MARIAN GmbH Digital Audio Electronics, Leipzig 07/30/2020