ST AUDIO DSP2000 C-Port
Background services
Some software vendors recommend their users to change the processor scheduling option from
Programs to Background services, e.g. Steinberg. We noticed that especially Cubase VST and
Nuendo from Steinberg but also other programs are working better when you use small buffer
settings (low-latency). Interestingly, some articles about Windows 2000 / XP audio tuning claim
that this tweak does not help at all and even reduces the performance of your system. Our
recomendation: try it, but if you use ASIO based software by Steinberg, your system will run
better with this tweak. Under Windows 2000 (not XP), goto Control Panel > System > Advanced
> Performance Options and select Background services. Under Windows XP, goto Control Panel
> System > Advanced > Settings > Advanced > Processor scheduling and select Background
services.
Default playback device / Microsoft GS Synthesizer
Windows 2000 and XP both contain the so-called Microsoft GS Synthesizer. This software
synthesizer emulates a simple Roland GS sound module. The sound quality is not excellent but
OK to listen to GM/GS MIDI files. Sadly, also the latency of the Microsoft GS Synthesizer is too
high to use it for music creation inside a sequencer software. The offset / delay to other tracks is
simply too big. Even worse: the software synthesizer is not only unusable for music production, it
also can cause potential trouble.
The Microsoft GS Synthesizer always uses the default playback device that has been selected
under Control Panel > Sounds/Multimedia > Audio > Prefered Playback Device. If you select
ADSP24 Ext. Audio Device 1/2 as default device (output 1/2 of the external box), the Microsoft
GS Synthesizer will have a conflict with the ASIO driver of your DSP24 PCI-card. Because of
that, we strongly recommend to use the Internal Mixer audio device instead: please select ADSP24
Int. Audio Device as prefered playback device when you work with ASIO applications that also
use MIDI.
To avoid conflicts with the Microsoft GS Synthesizer, you can also make sure that your audio
application does not use the corresponding MIDI output device. For example, if you use Cubase
VST by Steinberg, disable the MIDI device in the Setup MME software that is accessable from
your Startmenu (you need to use at least v5.1 of Cubase VST if you are running Windows XP).
Hardware detection and IRQ assignment
The DSP24 PCI-card is using a modern busmaster I/O interface. This allows you to record and
playback multiple channels of audio with extremly low CPU load and ultra low latency. This
however means that conflicts with other busmaster devices and PCI cards need to be avoided or
you may get drop-outs when you record or playback audio signals with low latency.
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