Hey guys! Recently I did the jump from a YAMAHA AG06 MKII to a STEINBERG IXO22 since the driver was behaving pretty well and I liked the experience of using it a lot. The upgrade made a lot of sense to me for the much lower output impedance, the better dynamic range, the great driver and the cubase license.
However, I am facing audio desyncon the playback side with certain programs while using ASIO or WASAPI exclusive through the driver. Ironically, if I use the audio interface without the driver, WASAPI exclusive doesn’t have the issue at all… What is going on here?
The programs I use are compatible with 44.1khz and 48khz, only having issues with 44.1khz. I know using 48khz is a hotfix for this but this renders 44.1khz useless for me, and I don’t want that to happen as I use it from time to time.
At first I thought this would be user error, but no. I’ve tried powering the unit with a PD plug (which did nothing as the issue just happens with the driver installed), I’ve also tried the Motu M2 from a friend of mine, a Truthear Shio and the AG06 MKII (which doesn’t have this issue even though it uses the exact same driver).
What can be done to fix the issue? I’ve tried all buffer sizes, latencies and reinstalled the driver too, for clarification.
No I did not resolve this. It’s a shame because the specs are just spot on, not the best, but good where they should be. The driver seems to have an issue, I don’t know if it’s the chip downsample to 24 bits or what, but it’s still there
After many hours of testing, I can confidently say this audio interface is useless for 44.1Khz if you plan to use it with the driver installed. No matter what you use, WASAPI Shared/Exclusive or even ASIO, in all of them, the driver has some sort of timing error that causes the audio to go a bit faster than entended. I’ve tried all of the buffer sizes and latency modes with little to no change.
AFAIK, the issue doesn’t seem to be present with the rest of the sample rates, and if it’s still there, it’s small enough for me not to notice it.
If you plan to use this audio interface on anything other than 44.1khz, it seems to be perfectly fine. And if you plan to use this audio interface without the driver (like livestreaming, gaming or video conferences), then you’ll have no issues, as the issue isn’t present without the driver.
I’ve tested some recordings at 44.1khz and then changed the interface to 48khz, just to notice how the 44.1khz recording goes a bit faster. If you record everything at 44.1khz, all of the recordings will be affected so everything will match, but as soon as you use some sample sounds or anything not recorded with the audio interface, the audio speed isn’t in sync anymore. This situation is far from ideal because the driver allows you to have the best audio latency and without it, only tools like Steinberg’s built-in ASIO driver will help you use your DAW at the cost of big buffers and latency.
This is particularly bad with rhythm games, as the song will desync from the notes at some point. Many games use 44.1khz only, so the issue will be present in no time. Uninstalling the driver fixes this issue here.
As long as you don’t do recordings or play rhythm games, I don’t think you’ll ever notice the issue with the driver installed
Edit: if the issue ever gets fixed, I’ll update this post and mark it as solved