Important Hints to the Marc 2 driver version 3.06 for Windows 2000/XP
1. System Requirements
2. New Installation
3. Driver Update
4. What's new
5. MME, WDM-Audio, DirectSound and "Classic MME"
6. Software Sampler and Synthesizers
- Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3 or Windows XP
- Microsoft DirectX 9
- Start your PC after installing your hardware.
- Log in using administrator privileges.
- Windows automatically recognizes at startup the newly installed device and starts the Hardware Wizard.
- During the start of Windows the Hardware Wizard searches for new drivers. Click "Next" to start the
search.
- Enable the “Search for the best driver for your device” option and confirm by clicking "Next".
- Insert the supplied CD in your CD-ROM drive.
- Confirm the next dialog with „Next“
- Confirm the next window also with „Next“
- Ignore the message „Digital signature not found“ and continue the installation with „Yes“
- Windows copies the driver files and installs the MARC 2.
- After finishing the installation click "Finish”.
- Start your PC after installing your hardware.
- Log in using administrator privileges.
- Insert the supplied CD in your CD-ROM drive.
- Windows automatically recognizes at startup the newly installed device and starts the Hardware Wizard.
- Enable the option „Install Software automatically“ and confirm by clicking „Next“.
- Ignore the next message and click „Continue“
- Windows copies the driver files and installs the MARC 2.
- After finishing the installation the MARC 2 is ready to be operated without having to restart the
system.
- Ensure you are logged on with administrator privileges
- Unzip the driver update package ("m2-nt5-en-306.zip") to any folder.
- Uninstall the driver software by using the program "m2_nt5_ui.exe". You can find the current version of this program in
the driver setup folder or in "\windows\system32".
- Restart Windows
- Logon with administrator privileges again.
- Now, the Windows Hardware Wizard starts with a "New hardware found" dialog.
- Do NOT use the option "Install software automatically". Use the option "Install from list a specified location"
- Click "Next" and choose the folder where you have unzipped the driver update package.
- Follow the instructions of the Windows Hardware Wizard until the end of the installation process. When the Hardware Wizard
states "... has not passed the Windows Logo testing" then click „Continue Anyway“
- After the driver installation a restart could be necessary.
Version 3.06:
- New option in the audio settings: "ASIO: Initial Clock Source". Some ASIO applications do not allow to
determine the clock source for an audio setup. In that case you can set the desired clock source here before you start such
kind of application. With respect on the multi client capabilities of the Marc 2 driver it is not possible to change the clock
source here for running ASIO applications.
- Generally, the clock source "SyncBus" can now be used explicitly. This allows to set another MARIAN
sound system as clock master without being involved with the ASIO/GSIF Audio Device Setup.
- With some ASIO application the project samplerate was not set correctly immediate after application
start, if the sample rate differed from 44.1 kHz. Solved.
Version 2.13:
- v2.07: When using more than one Marc 2 in one computer, an error message appeared when one of the Marc 2 Manager windows
are opened. Solved.
- Now, the analog input level can be set by the standard windows mixer. Anyway, to be able to do that in an exact way, we
recommend to use the Marc 2 Manager Analog Input Window instead!
- The GSIF settings now contain an option to determine the clock source for GigaStudio. See Marc 2 Manager | Settings |
Audio Options. Additionally, the best latency achievable could be improved.
- Audio Device Names are now shown correctly within GigaStudio 3.
- Windows 2000: Stopping audio cd playback via DirectSound or Standard MME with WinAmp could cause a Blue Screen. Fixed.
- When terminating a recording process via Windows Task Manager during recording via DirectSound or Standard MME a Blue
Screen occurred. Fixed.
Version 2.09:
Version 2.08:
- When using MME via WDM or DirectSound, playback or recording could hang when the driver was not supplied with
audio buffers. Observed mainly with Windows Media Player and the Windows System Sounds. When occurred with Windows System
Sounds the involved audio device could not be used by any other audio applications afterwards.
Solved.
Version 2.07:
- System requirements changed
- Windows 2000 service pack 3 solves some problems with the Microsoft Kernel
Mixer
- DirectX 9 ensures that DirectSound devices are not shown as "emulated"
- Driver's setup procedure cleans some audio related registry keys. Thus, it
prevents/solves some effects of a Windows Installer anomaly, which may cause
some problems with audio/midi devices
- No IRQ usage anymore
- The IRQ number still can be found in the windows device manager but it is
not used by the hardware or driver.
- The hardware IRQ can be used exclusively by other system components.
- IRQ incompatibilities with any other system cannot appear anymore
- Support of WDM-Audio Kernel Streaming
Thus, "real" WDM-Audio applications like Cakewalk Sonar are able to work with
extremely low latencies.
More details you can find at
MME, DirectSound and "Classic MME"
- Support of DirectSound
- Support of Windows Volume Control (Windows Mixer Device)
- Support of Tascam GSIF
You can use additional settings within the Marc 2 Manager software to setup
the GSIF latency manually.
- CPU load during recording/playback reduced once again
- ASIO Error Messages reviewed/changed
- Marc 2 Manager
- New: The main window, which were used to open the inputs and outputs windows, is now replaced by a menu. Just
right click the manager icon in the taskbar to open this menu.
- New: Option to control the sample rate when no audio application (including the Windows system) is using the
Marc 2. Now you
can choose whether the card should keep the last used sample rate (default) or it should switch to a standard sample rate.
Please see the appropriate settings in the manager software at "Synchronization".
- New: Input and
Output Level now can be set by dB edit fields (see "Analog Input" and "Analog Output"). These edit field are also used to
display the currently set value in dB.
- New: You can double click a fader to set it to 0 dB.
- New:
The automatic monitoring (see "Analog Input" and "Digital Input") now can use both outputs as monitor output.
- New:
In the "Digital Input" window an active input routing knob shows also whether or not a valid input signal is detected. ("Lock"
or "No Lock")
- When changing the preferred device in the recording and playback device lists of the Windows control panel, in some cases
the manager loses it's connection to the driver. Thus, the input and output windows could not be opened anymore. Solved.
Version 1.14:
- Non-Audio digital format added in "Marc 2 Manager | Digital Output". (useful e.g. for streaming AC3 audio to an external
AC3 decoder)
- Unistaller program included
Version 1.13:
- ASIO: performance improved when using less than all playback devices of one card
- ASIO: When using an ASIO application, the driver overrides user's clock and start/stop synchronization settings with
appropriate values. (these user settings are applicable for MME applications only). Now, the driver restores the user
settings again, when the last ASIO application has finished.
- Marc 2 Manager Software now uses the registry branch "HKCU" to store it's settings. This solves the problem with the
error message "Could not write to marc2mix.ini" that appeared on some systems during shutdown.
- More audio clients allowed for the driver. This prevents some cases where error messages report "Unsufficient
System Ressources" Or "No Memory".
Version 1.10:
- This version is compatible to Windows XP
Version 1.01:
- Start/Stop Synchronization of record and playback assured
- MME: synchronous buffer return improved
- Bug fixed: input/output volumes restored after windows restart
- Checked: automatic monitoring with Samplitude v6.03
Version 1.0 to NT4 Version 1.03
- "Plug and Play" Support
- Support of the Windows 2000 computer configurations:
- ACPI Multiprozessor PC
- ACPI PC
- ACPI
Uniprozessor PC
- MPS Multiprozessor PC
- MPS Uniprozessor PC
- Standard PC
- ASIO 2.0 Support
NT4 Version 1.03:
- DAT Marker Support
- Samplesrates down to 8kHz for Analog I/O
- 32 Bit Audio Data Transfer Format for MME applications
5.1 MME und DirectSound:
Audio applications, who do not use ASIO, GSIF or Direct WDM-Audio (Cakewalk Sonar), now communicate with Microsoft MME (MME via
WDM-Audio) or Microsoft DirectSound drivers instead of communicate with the MARIAN drivers directly. The Microsoft drivers in turn
communicate with the MARIAN WDM-Audio 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 sample
rates, the Microsoft Kernel Mixer converts the sample rate of the playback streams to the highest sample rate 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, GSIF,
"Classic MME" or Direct WDM-Audio.
- The number of the available recording and playback devices is limited:
- under Windows 2000 to 10 devices each (20 channels)
- under Windows XP to 32 devices each (64 channels)
This limitation applies to the number of all audio devices installed in the system.
You can use "Classic MME" or ASIO to walk around this limitation.
- The minimum possible latency is limited to app. 30ms through the Microsoft Kernel Mixer architecture.
Use ASIO or GSIF to walk around this limitation.
- Some audio applications show additional audio devices with theirs names appended by "(3+4)", "(5+6)" or "(7+8)". This is
caused by an anomaly of the Microsoft MME/DirectSound system. Please ignore these devices and do not use them.
- The Microsoft DirectSound or the Microsoft MME devices do not work with the Driver Settings for Start/Stop Synchronization
"Synchronous" and "SyncBus". Activate these settings only if you are sure that you work with ASIO, GSIF or
"Classic MME" only! Otherwise, the entire Microsoft WDM-Audio System could freeze. This
circumstance cannot be influenced by the driver.
Attention: The Windows System Sounds are working with DirectSound or MME via WDM-Audio if you do not set a classic MME device
as standard playback device!
- Some audio applications require the MARIAN driver because of its additional hardware support functions:
- Hardware Punch In Monitoring
- Hardware Pitch Support
- Hardware Audio Signal Routing
- Hardware Audio Signal Level Measurement
These functions are not supported by the Microsoft drivers. Please supply this audio applications with the "Classic MME"
devices.
The MARIAN driver enables you to use the MME driver interface of the previous driver versions in addition to all other driver
interfaces. From now, we call this interface "Classic MME". You can activate "Classic MME" within the Marc 8 Midi Manager
settings. If this driver interface is active, then you get additional recording and playback devices with the appropriate device
lists. These devices have the name suffix "(MME)".
The "Classic MME" device have these advantages:
- The number of the recording and playback devices available is NOT limited (see above)
- These devices support the MARIAN hardware support functions (see above)
- These devices work much faster and have better latency values than the MME via WDM-Audio devices
- These devices ensure correct start/stop synchronization. This is not possible with DirectSound or MME via WDM-Audio!
Software samplers and synthesizers normally supply MIDI output devices for
other audio applications who want to use the software sampler as an instrument.
If such an application starts, then normally this application opens the MIDI
output devices and this in turn causes the software sampler to initialize its
audio engine with the configured audio outputs.
THIS OCCURS EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT STARTED THE SOFTWARE SAMPLER APPLICATION.
In the described situation the software sampler and the other audio application
may conflict, if they use the same audio output. You can use the Marc 2 with
different audio applications at the same time but never the same output device
simultaneously.
Therefore this hint:
- First start the software sampler/synthesizer and setup an audio output
device which will NOT be used by the other audio application. Start the audio
application (sequencer) afterwards.
- If you start an ASIO or GSIF application the first time, then it will use
the device "Marc 2 Analog" for recording and playback.
The Windows Multimedia System also supplies a software synthesizer called
"Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth". This synthesizer has also a MIDI output port
with the same name. Since there is no explicit setup for the output device, the
"Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" always uses the standard playback device
configured in "Control Panel | Sounds and Multimedia | Audio".
(c) MARIAN Digital Audio Electronics, Leipzig
09-11-2006