Why do I need 2 sound cards and 2 sets of speakers?

Cubase
#1

Hello,
I just upgraded from Cubase LE5 to Cubase 8 Artist (in fact it was a full install) and found a serious drawback since it grabs the sound card and other programs like Itunes, Youtube, etc. will not be able to access it . I checked the “Release Sound Card when in background” and the result is, that it never find it back upon returning in Cubase. From Youtube in the tutorial back to Cubase, I lost my output!

The sound card in the Windows Control Panel is set to “No Sound” for Windows Scheme.

This issue prevents me from going from a Cubase project to the Tutorial since it uses Youtube. I found a work around, since I have an other Realtech sound card that came with the computer, I was able to isolate my Akai USB interface for Cubase use only, and since I had an other set of speakers I was able to make it work. However, this is not acceptable because when my headphones are in the Akai interface and I switch to the tutorial I can’t get the sound in my headphones!

Furthermore, with the “Release Soundcard when in background” checked, the playback stops the moment I focus on an other program like MS-Word for instance, which is not helping upon recording a voice and reading lyrics in an MS-Word!

If this cannot be fixed, in my opinion makes the all upgrade to 8 a fiasco. :cry:

#2

Hi there

Sorry but we’d at least need to know Info about your system. If you are using a decent audio interface Cubase Wil use the ASIO driver and Windows programs can use the WDM driver, generally speaking at the same time, always been that way for me anyway

Best Regards

Dave

#3

In my opinion most soundcard ASIO drivers are tuned to perform ASIO as a single duty, if your card is one of these then better be prepared to live with it (troublesome live). If you’re lucky your driver and hardware supports dual actions thus making your situation more unstable vs the prior soundcard asio mode.

Then again you didn’t give any details, so it could be you’re using a onboard soundcard…

Main advise: use cubase what it is intended for…not intended to run side by side with other audio producing programs!

#4

Conputer ASUS - AMD 8 - Running WIndows 8.1 - Inside there is a Realtech sound card and outside I use a Akai EIE Professional USB Interface, which is recommended to run on ASIO4ALL. The Realtech sound card I now use for everything else but Cubase, which runs on the EIE USB interface.

#5

I can see three problems here -

1 - Recommended audio driver for Cubase 8 Pro is ASIO not ASIO4ALL.

2 - The AKAI EIE Professional interface wouldn’t be found in a professional studio. ASIO4ALL isn’t known for its low latency.

3 - Totally amazed at how many recording “life threatening” issues or fiascos as you call them have nothing to do with Cubase.

You would think with all the information on the net it wouldn’t come to this…

#6

Switch the Cubase driver from ASIO4ALL to the AKAI EIE ASIO Driver. ASIO4ALL is not able to share audio output with other programs. However, a proper, dedicated ASIO driver such as the one provided to you by AKAI won’t have that problem.

Who recommended you to use the ASIO4ALL driver? If the factory driver causes problems, then you could try to use it temporarily while you get done with the tutorial videos, then switch back to ASIO4ALL.

ASIO4ALL is an ASIO driver.

Irrelevant.

#7

Thank you for the reply, I did not get much from Steinberg support on this issue, why wouldn’t they provide me with such basic info? Why should I start to search the web for solutions from people unqualified for support when I have direct access to Steinberg,why should I rely on anyone on the web with the risk of making everything worse? I don’t want to make this thread a complain about the Steinberg support, but they even connected to my computer and didn’t find the problem! The Asio driver you are referring to, does it comes with Cubase? Reading through my mails from Steinberg, they even suggested to use Asio4all…

#8

Akai eie asio driver is ASIO4ALL and this is the one I am using.

#9

ASIO4ALL is generally only used if a sound card doesn’t have its own ASIO driver, such as on board sound. If yours uses
ASIO4ALL by default I would ditch it and buy a one that has an ASIO driver and a WDM wave driver. I believe all EMU sound cards do but you should do some research.

#10

The ASIO driver should come with the Akai interface, Steinberg can’t provide drivers for every interface out there.

If it didn’t come with a disk with the drivers then I see there’s a download for it on the Akai site. (Search ASIO driver Akai EIE Professional USB Interface).

And if the provided driver really is just ASIO4ALL then I too would recommend a different sound card…

As an aside, with Cubase as much other software, the best support in my experience, very often comes from user’s forums such as this where you’re asking questions of people who actually use the Software and want to help.

#11

Asio4all doesn’t allow for this kind of operation because its not a real Asiodriver. It still communicates with the WDM Driver of Windows. so its not possible to run 2 Applications simultaneously.

http://www.akaipro.com/index.php/product/eiepro#downloads

here you find the latest drivers for your Interface. This is a real Asiodriver wich should fix your problem.

#12

The Asio driver on the Akai disk is ASIO4ALL. No other driver was provided,they have an other driver for the EIE Pro but according to my serial number my interface is a EIE, no Pro,even though it says Professional on the box, which means nothing!

#13

Thanks Novikthewise, I will try that.

#14

While it’s nice that ASIO4ALL exists, it’s not the best practise for a “pro” environment. Try to get a real “pro” card with dedicated ASIO 2.0 drivers. ASIO 2.0 means that the hardware must have certain hardware functions regarding monitoring and low latency, so in fact the driver model and the hardware model forms the ASIO 2.0 specification which means troublefree operation in theory.

ASIO4ALL is for con sumer cards which do not have low latency potential or even direct monitoring capabilities, please stay away from this driver if serious multitrack recordings are made.

#15

Akai USB ASIO driver Installation failed. Will contact the manufacturer… :frowning:

#16

I have also an onboard soundcard on my system, I have it disabled so my Steinberg UR824 is the only sounddevice on my system. This way I avoid that Cubase can fallback on the internal soundcard. Keep it simple is my motto :slight_smile:

#17

Alright, now I have more problems than before… The EIE USB interface I purchased is NOT the EIE Pro, it looks the same, it says AKAI Professional on top, however, the back does not have the words EIE Pro and it’s only EIE. So the path that Novikthewise had given me so kindly was on the Pro driver and I could never get it installed because my unit is a regular EIE, which is made to work with ASIO4ALL!!
Here is the interface (16 bit instead of 24 for the Pro!):

http://www.akaipro.com/product/eie

Now I am screwed, because no matter what I do, I will never get this to work properly. So I re-installed the ASIO4ALL driver, as the manufacturer AKAI suggest, mapped my devices in Cubase and I opened a project, which had all outputs before, with none of the VST instrument tracks going to the output! I see the sound bars moving on the tracks, but no sound. All audio tracks are working fine… :frowning:

#18

Hummm! Why would they have a Steinberg Hub directing the tutorials to Youtube then??? :wink:

#19

Depends on your sound device and the complexity of the control panel. I have it running but with focusrite cards (earlier versions say 2004-2008) I had weird issue’s, things like device is locked or unavailable when swiching to other applications.

The “release in background” setting works but when you’re a starter I recommend to keep it simple.

#20

ASIO4ALL is an ASIO driver as you stated.

1 - It seems while disagreeing with my opinion you have contradicted yourself. You have gone on about changing the driver which is what I was implying. While you say ASIO4ALL is an ASIO driver obviously by your own admission it is not the ASIO driver that will be needed to run multiple audio task applications at the same time with Cubase 8 Pro.

2 - The AKAI isn’t a professional interface even though it states it in its name and therefore the owner is having issues with the ASIO4ALL generic driver that wouldn’t be an issue if using a professional audio interface with great drivers. So I do think the statement of mine is relevant.

3 - The owner stated that the Cubase 8 Pro upgrade was a fiasco if he continued to have issues with Cubase and other audio tasks simultaniously which implies that he thought it was a Cubase issue which it isn’t. I felt that this needed to be clarified although you never even broached the subject. Maybe you should as you felt impelled to go head to head with me on my two other statements.