ASIO v.s. WDM - Differet Readings on Spectral Analyzer...

[Arys Chien]

Dear All,

I'm using RME Digiface with my PCs, XP system. Both DAWs.

I played one song (wav format, 16bit/44.1khz) with Windows Media Player and Samplitude V8 Professional, and used RME Digicheck's spectral analyzing function to check the overall frequency status of the song. I got different readings with the two playback software.

Digicheck was showing more dB around 16~20khz when playbacked with Windows Media Player than with Samplitude. Yet to my ears they didn't sound that different, if not identically, in the high end.

I then switched between WDM and ASIO mode in Samplitude and tried again. The readings were again different. More highs in WDM mode.

Then I tried Nuendo in ASIO mode. Same with Samplitude in ASIO mode. Digicheck showing much less high.

I tried many different songs, all in wav format, 16bit/44.1khz. Same problem.

If judging by ears, I'd say that the reading with WDM is right. There was definitely not that much decay in the high end as showed by Digicheck with playback software in ASIO mode.

I don't think it's the problem with my system, since I have two DAWs, both using RME Digiface interface, and both have the same reading difference between WDM and ASIO with Digicheck.

Have you guys heard this problem before? The \"ASIO v.s. WDM\" battle never really bothered me, but now I'm a bit concerned.

 

[T-Dogg]

Have you tried doing a comparison between different WDM hosts? Like Window's Media vs. Winamp or iTunes? They're not coded to be true professional audiophile apps, so it's likely any file passed through it is redithered regardless of it's native format, etc, just to make it more flexible as a all-in-one player... It's possible that any of those players are not providing a bit for bit copy of the source... Who's to say that when the EQ or spatial processing on Media player is off, it's truly off... Is it really playing back without additional gain, or other processing without rounding errors? Could also be a particular playback codec the host is using, or a plugin...

I dunno -- I'd trust ASIO, at a driver level it shouldn't rewrite any of your audio stream. But to be sure, I'd be curious to see if you get consistent results in Digicheck among all the different WDM players...

 

[T-Dogg]

oops... Sorry, just re-read and saw you tried ASIO vs WDM in Samplitude and Nuendo. That is wierd.

Could there be settings in Windows Control Panel\\Sounds and Multimedia that are affecting playback preferences with WDM? Does RME code the WDM driver, or is it a generic Window's one? Maybe the audio codecs installed under System\\Hardware\\Hardware Devices\\Sounds, video and Game controllers?

 

[imdrecordings]

What do you have your \"Pan\" set at?
-4.5, -3, -12 or -6... is one set to \"0\"
Is there a sound diffrence in the same Host app, when switching between drivers?

 

[Fundy]

Remember different hosts may use a different sound engine, perhaps internal upsampling and you may find in your Audio Hardware options you have dynamic resampling enabled (Samplitude 8). Bare in mind I might talking crap so feel free to ignore me.

 

[Arys Chien]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

With my DAWs I turn off the system sound and make sure that everything is as pure as only needed for pro audio works.

Also, the readings with WDM are the same between Windows Media Player and Samplitude in WDM mode. The readings with ASIO are also the same between Nuendo and Samplitude and ASIO mode. Therefore I believe we can rule out the host difference.

I'm not sure why the pan law matters, since I was playing songs instead of individual mono tracks.

About resampling, I'm quite sure that it never happen during the test, since it's been 44.1khz all the way and with all hardwares/softwares.

My friend suggested that I use a mic to point at the speakers to see if there's a \"realworld audiable difference\" between the two. If not, then it should be that RME Digicheck functions differently with different driver, which is strange.

 

[imdrecordings]

sorry bud..
For some reason, I thought you were mixing and not just listening to a stereo file..
my bad.. :roll:

 

[Fundy]

My bad too. I should have kept pianotissamo.

 

[imdrecordings]

Arys,

You got me thinking. Sense you are \"seeing\" a difference, are you hearing any? I wonder if the quality of driver affects the quality of audio.

I have seen posts where paople say they like the sound of their stuff running with a Mac compared to a PC, because the drivers were developed better for MAC or vica versa...

Chime in...

 

[Arys Chien]

Hey guys, I appreciate all the replies, cause they all mean well. :wink: Thanks.

I've heard people talking about \"hearing difference between ASIO and WDM\", but honestly, as hard as I can hear, there's not that much difference that makes me \"wow!\"

Also, the difference in the readings show an around 5dB difference @ 16~20khz. If it's really there, it's impossible not to hear it.

To varify my listening ability, I boost with eq to make the ASIO reading look like WDM. The result is more audiable high end in ASIO than WDM. So now I'm pretty much sure that it's Digicheck function differently with different drivers. I just don't know why.

 

[Fundy]

Maybe because WDM drivers are kernel-level drivers the resuts are different however I wouldn't think so.