# Important Hints for Clara E driver version 4.73 for Windows™

1. System Requirements
2. Installation
3. Updating the firmware (Clara E/Emin only)
4. Uninstallation
5. What's new?
6. Samplerate Considerations

## 1. System Requirements

- Windows™ 10 (each 64 bit or 32 bit), Windows™ 11 and related server systems.

## 2. Installation

- Unzip the driver package for Windows 10/11 "mabs_w10_4733.zip" including the contained subdirectories into any folder.
- From this folder, run "setup.exe" and follow the instructions of the installation program.
- If the firmware of the card needs to be updated, you will receive a corresponding message. Carry out the update procedure and ensure that this process is not interrupted.
- Immediately after the installation, Windows performs extensive audio tests of each individual audio device/channel pair of the audio interface. During this time, Windows blocks most audio functions. We therefore recommend to start using the audio interface and all associated software once these tests have been completed. This may take 1-2 minutes. The progress of these tests can be observed in the driver settings | WDM Audio. This process takes place only once, directly after installing the driver or after assigning a new sample format for an audio device in the driver settings | WDM Audio.

## 3. Updating the firmware (Clara E, Clara Emin, Clara E/D only)

- If the card's firmware needs to be updated, you will receive a message after installation. Then perform the update as follows and ensure that this process is not interrupted.
- After the driver prompts you to update, or manually via "Settings | Firmware", start the update process by clicking on the "Start Dante Firmware Update Manager now" button.
- Next, you must allow this program to run via the Windows User Account Control (UAC).
- Allow "Dante Firmware Update Manager" to access your network when prompted by Windows Firewall. If your network is classified as a "public network", allow access for public networks as well. "Dante Firmware Update Manager" uses FTP to update the firmware.
- Then follow the instructions of the Audinate Dante Updater program and select the correct firmware file for your Clara E or Clara Emin.
- The process is completed by clicking on "Execute Manual Restart now." The sound system is ready for use immediately after the message "Clara E successfully reinitialized" appears. If this message does not appear, restart the computer manually.
- Audinate's Dante Updater older than version 2.8.4 cannot be used to update the firmware of the Clara E series!

## 4. Uninstallation

- Uninstalling the driver software is usually not necessary as the driver software installation program automatically uninstalls other driver versions. If an uninstallation is necessary, run the installation program "setup.exe" in the installation directory of the driver software. Under "Details | Options" activate the option "Only remove the driver software" and start the uninstallation process with a click on "Proceed".

## 5. What's new?

### Version 4.73:

- New: Support for Clara E/D - the PCIe audio interface offering 512/512 I/O Dante channels, plus 8/8 I/O AES/EBU channels.
- New: Firmware Rev.0B for Clara E and Rev.05 for Clara Emin. Required for the features listed below. Use "Settings | Firmware" to update the firmware (see above). After the update is complete, restart Windows to activate the mixer DSP.
- New: Firmware update to Dante Version 4.2.2.2 - fixes an issue with AES67 compatibility.
- New: The BEAST for Clara E and Clara E/D - a 64-channel mixer featuring 4-band parametric EQ per channel, up to 8 summing busses and connection to the 1.104/1.104 routing matrix via 64/64 I/O channels.
- New: Configure the number of mixer sums according to your needs. See "Settings | Mixer".

### Version 4.71:

- New: Firmware Update to Dante Version 4.2.1.1 fixes problems with manual IP address assignment.
- Manager | Settings: misalignments in graphical representation fixed.

### Version 4.70:

- New: Firmware Update to Dante Version 4.2.1.5 providing new features (PTP V2, AES67 enabled within Dante Domain manager, SMPT2110, Multicast Streams with 16/32/64 channels and fixes (Redundancy, Multicast Streams)
- New: Routing Matrix (Clara E only) for redirecting and distributing all audio signals that enter and leave the Clara E sound system.
- New: 24bit MSB-aligned audio transfer. Developer info: ASIO sample format changed from ASIOSTInt32LSB24 to ASIOSTInt32LSB.
- Fixed: MIDI implementation for MWX2 extender (Clara E only)

### Version 4.61:

- New: Due to internal changes when saving driver settings in multi-card mode, the driver settings of the previous driver version cannot be transferred to the new driver version. Instead, the settings are set to default values. Please check and, if necessary, change your settings in the Manager application under "Settings".
- With driver version 4.54, we have introduced a problem with playback via MME/WDM/WASAPI. Playback errors could occur during stop/pause/restart transitions. Solved.

### Version 4.60:

- Clara Emin: when recording with sample rates > 48 kHz, audio signals may not have arrived in the DAW. Fixed
- Clara E/min: If an incompatible firmware is detected, you will be informed of this after logging in to your user account. If you decide to update the firmware immediately, you will also receive all the necessary information for the update and the option to restart the hardware.
- After opening the sync settings, the active clock source is now displayed correctly.
- Settings | WDM Audio: If values were used in the channel configuration of the multi-channel device that cannot be realized by hardware and driver, the automatically adjusted values were not correctly transferred to the device configuration. This led to endless waiting for consistency in the Windows audio device list. Fixed.
  Please note: automatically adjusted values can be recognized by a yellowish background of the corresponding input fields.
- Sometimes the manager application (Mixer/Routing/States/Settings) could not be started automatically. Fixed.
- Settings | WDM Audio: We have added a new function that allows you to cancel the check and reset to default settings during the Windows Audio device list consistency check. You should only use this function if the check takes an abnormally long time. Please note: Windows takes a very long time to set up and check newly added audio devices, especially if the total number of audio devices is very high. The consistency check is only an observer that tells you when all the desired audio devices are available.

### Version 4.54:

- ASIO: improved startup time
- ASIO: When an application does not determines a samplerate, the current one is used for this application. Solves some samplerate isses with certain applications.
- Silence is streamed to the outputs in some additional situations. This avoids "beeps" at the outputs, if such situations occur.

### Version 4.53:

- New: supports "Clara Emin"
- ASIO engine optimized to handle 32-Sample-ASIO buffers @48 kHz with 128 I/O channels. That equals to a latency of 666µs. Stable with high-end, optimized Windows systems.
- ASIO Setup Dialog can be opened just once.

### Version 4.43:

- Support for firmware revision 7 ("clara_e_rev07_build04221902.dnt") which comes with a highly optimized DMA machine with great latency and stability effects to ASIO.

### Version 4.42:

- Support for firmware revision 6 which comes with an optimized DMA machine.

### Version 4.41:

- The driver package comes with firmware version Rev 5.
  Fixed issues:
  - Dante Core doesn't start at some systems.
  - Unable to activate redundancy at secondary port.
- GUI: New firmware page in driver settings. Follow the steps described there to install the new firmware..
- Settings | WDM Audio: number of maximum Windows Wave Devices increased to 256 stereo inputs and 256 stereo outputs.
  Attention: Windows is quite busy during registration/deregistration of such an amount of Wave Devices. And also with changes of the sample format. Please wait with the start of any audio application until the WDM Audio Page of Driver Settings signals, that all changes are commited to the Windows Audio System. Alternativly you may restart Windows after you made huge changes at the Wdm Audio Configuraton. Your changes are processed during the next start of Windows. Also this takes some time and may lead in a delayed start of the Windows Audio Service. Stay patient ...
- Settings | Performance | DMA Buffersize: the red area to be avoided is now outside 0.5-50ms.
- Settings | Performance | DMA Buffersize: the maximum value can now be changed. This makes it easier to set buffer sizes in the lower range.
- Settings | WDM Audio: After making changes to the settings, the settings page waits until your changes have reached the Windows audio system. Further changes are only possible afterwards. Depending on the number of Windows Wave Devices used, this process can take up to several minutes.
- ASIO: Stopping/discarding an ASIO instance by an ASIO application is now synchronized with the execution of the ASIO processing of the ASIO application. This prevents a possible crash of some ASIO applications.
- Kernel WDM Audio: Optimizations for Windows Wave Devices registration/unregistration.
- The driver package and its installation now follows Microsoft's Driver Encapsulation Policy. The driver package now consists of two parts. The base package and the software component package. The base package provides only the audio functionality (ASIO, WDM audio). The software component package provides all other part (service, manager application, firmware, documentations).
  This does not change the installation process.
  In the Windows Device Manager you will also find the entry "MARIAN Clara E Control Software" under "Software Components". This stands for the components of the software component package.
  If, for example, you only want to install the basic package for server installations, please contact support@marian.de, who will provide you with the basic package.
  The driver package files are installed by Windows in the following locations:
  Base package: \Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\mabase.inf_[amd64|x86]_xxxxxxxxxxxx
  Software package: \Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\mabase_comp.inf_[amd64|x86]_xxxxxxxxxxxx

### Version 4.39:

- First official release for Clara E - the PCIe Audio Interface for Dante™ Networks.

## 6. Samplerate Considerations

On recent versions of Windows™, audio applications are able to set a certain sample format only, if using ASIO or WASAPI in exclusive mode. In all other cases Windows handles the audio devices in a so called "Shared Mode" and the sample format is set via the advanced settings of an audio device (Windows™ control panel) or via the driver settings "WDM Audio". If the desired sample format of an audio application is not equal to the current sample format of an audio device, this will result in a sample format conversion with possible audible audio degradation!

(c) MARIAN GmbH Digital Audio Electronics, Leipzig 11/10/2025