Soundforge VST Plugins, ASIO or DirectSound ?

[ACrowley]

Hi

I try to use some VST Plugins in Sony Soundforge 10 Pro
My Soundcard is a Soundblaster Xfi Titanium PCI_E which supports ASIO (in AudioCreationMode)

In Soundforge i can select ASIO or Directsound Surround Mapper. Both are working fine so far.
I simply process the VTS Plugins (offline=no realtime) on .wav Files on my Harddisk and export it to wave again. So i use no Hardware in /out, only Wave Fils "in my Computer"

Is there a Quality Difference or something Else between both Audio Interfaces ?
I cant hear a Difference when i compare the exported output, but im still unsure which Audio Interface i should use ?
I think the Question relevant when you record Audio from Hardwaredevices via Midi etc ?

[shon3i]

AISO have direct comunication to sound card (via drivers ofc) while Direct sound (at least in windows vista/7) doesn't have, and use some emulation which definitely have impact on the quality.

[ACrowley]

AISO have direct comunication to sound card (via drivers ofc) while Direct sound (at least in windows vista/7) doesn't have, and use some emulation which definitely have impact on the quality.

Ah ok thank you

So the Quality should be better when i use Creative Asio instead of Directsound to process uncompressed Audio (wave,w64,flac) Files trough VTS Plugins (stereo to 5.1 via Neural Upmix by dts) ?
So my PC Speaker Setup isnt good enough to hear the Difference...however, then i will use Creative Asio

[Blue_MiSfit]

AFAIK, the main point of ASIO is to reduce latency, and ensure that samples are unmolested. I think the new DirectSound in Vista / 7 does a lot better then other versions in this regard.

There's also WASAPI on Windows 7.. so yeah :)

Derek

[ACrowley]

AFAIK, the main point of ASIO is to reduce latency, and ensure that samples are unmolested. I think the new DirectSound in Vista / 7 does a lot better then other versions in this regard.

There's also WASAPI on Windows 7.. so yeah :)

Derek

thank you
as i say i thought the Audio Device Question is important for Playback and recording but not so relevat to process PCM trough VST Plugs in Soundforge/Nuendo or Plogue Bidule

[Jeff Flowerday]

Absolutely go ASIO, ASIO was invented by Steinberg(makers of Nuendo) for the sole purpose of low latency unmolested audio in DAW software.

[ACrowley]

Absolutely go ASIO, ASIO was invented by Steinberg(makers of Nuendo) for the sole purpose of low latency unmolested audio in DAW software.

yes i do..
Thanks

[Ghitulescu]

Indeed, ASIO was created to reduce latency. Latency which was created when Microsoft decided to "abstractize" the hardware layer. However, today, the latency is anyway low (for consumer use) even with directx drivers, so to most people* ASIO's secondary function became the most important one (ie bypassing the kmixer**).

* I'm referring here to normal consumer use, with no real time applications
** the mandatory resampling was introduced with PC98 specs and I hardly believe they dropped this in W7/Vista.

PS: Creative was one of the most fervent supporters of PC98, so supportive that they "killed" the E10k processor for the semipro and pro users. I don't think either that the drivers coming with Creative are the best, try the alternatives.

PS2: The easiest way of checking for kmixer and/or any audio processing (ie not "bit-perfect") is to use the card in the digital pass-through mode with a compressed audio (dolby, dts, preferably at 44100Hz) and a DD/DTS-enable amplifier.

[ACrowley]

can anybody tell mew wich "interface" Plogue Bidule use ?
To simply use one VST Effect i select the Audioplayer-VST Plugin-Audio Recorder.

I think Bidule use Asio by default ?

[Ghitulescu]

They have a forum for this with some hundreds of hits ;).