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Echo GINA 24 Owner'S Manual Download Page 108

 

108

 

Mia and MiaMIDI - Hardware 

 

 

Host Interface: PCI bus card 

 

PCI bus master interface 

 

Two balanced ¼” analog inputs with precision 24-bit 64x oversampling analog-

to-digital converters 

 

Two balanced ¼” analog outputs with high performance 24-bit 128x 

oversampling digital-to-analog converters 

 

S/PDIF digital I/O with up to 24-bit resolution 

 

On-board 24-bit Motorola DSP 

 

24-bit data resolution maintained throughout entire signal path 

 

Multiple sample rates from 8kHz to 96kHz 

 

MIDI in/out 

(MiaMIDI only) 

 

Summary of Contents for GINA 24

Page 1: ...LAYLA 24 LAYLA LapTop GINA 24 MIA MIAMIDI Owner s Manual Version 3 1 1 for Windows ...

Page 2: ...ut the type of power at your location contact your local power company 8 Grounding Does not apply to Gina24 Mia or MiaMIDI Precautions should be taken so that the grounding capabilities of the unit are not undermined This equipment is provided with a cord with an equipment grounding conductor and grounding plug This plug must be plugged into an outlet that is properly installed and grounded in acc...

Page 3: ...nician when any of the following occur a Objects have fallen or liquid has spilled into the unit b The product has been exposed to rain or water c The product does not operate normally or when a marked change in performance is noticed d The product has been dropped or damaged in any way ...

Page 4: ...therwise authorized in advance by the Echo Service Department Unauthorized service repair or modification will void this warranty To obtain factory service Contact Echo Digital Audio Corporation at 805 684 4593 9AM to 4PM Monday through Friday Pacific Time If necessary you will be given a return authorization number Products returned without an RA number will be refused Echo may at its option requ...

Page 5: ...nteria CA 93013 Echo Layla 24 Layla LapTop Gina 24 Mia and MiaMIDI are trademarks of Echo Digital Audio Corporation ADAT is a registered trademark of Alesis Corporation Windows Windows 98 Windows Me Windows XP and Windows 2000 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Inc ...

Page 6: ...NNECTING TO MIA 25 CONNECTING TO MIAMIDI 27 USING AUDIO SOFTWARE 29 GINA24 AND LAYLA24 29 MIA AND MIAMIDI 32 VIRTUAL OUTPUTS MIA AND MIAMIDI 33 CONSOLE3 WDM 34 RUNNING THE CONSOLE 34 CONSOLE WINDOW 34 BUS SELECT 36 MASTER OUTPUT BUS CONTROL 36 ANALOG INPUTS 37 DIGITAL INPUTS 38 PLAYBACK STRIPS 38 ADJUSTING PLAYBACK VOLUME 39 CLOCK AND DIGITAL MODE SETTINGS 39 SYNCHRONIZING MULTIPLE DEVICES 40 CONS...

Page 7: ... CONTROLS 67 ADJUSTING MONITOR AND PLAYBACK LEVELS 67 SETTING CLOCK SOURCES AND OUTPUT CONTROLS 68 SYNCHRONIZING MULTIPLE DEVICES 68 THE FILE MENU 70 THE PREFERENCES PAGE 71 DIGITAL I O SELECTING THE S PDIF OUTPUT FORMAT 71 DIGITAL I O DITHER INPUT 72 GENERAL SYNC WAVE DEVICES 72 SAMPLE RATE LOCK 73 ADDITIONAL CONFIGURATION SETTINGS VXD DRIVERS 74 SHOW CONSOLE ON TASKBAR 75 MONITOR DURING PLAYBACK...

Page 8: ...APPENDIX D WDM WINDOWS DRIVER MODEL FAQ 93 APPENDIX E AN INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL RECORDING 97 APPENDIX F SPECIFICATIONS 103 ...

Page 9: ...ts Introduction Thank you for choosing Echo Digital Audio We think you ll find your Echo product to be an extremely flexible high performance tool for your computer based hard disk recording system 9 Introduction all products ...

Page 10: ... Please note The cable included with the Gina24 system is a shielded audio cable that has been custom manufactured to exacting standards Use of any other cable such as a computer printer cable will substantially reduce the system s overall audio quality A power cable Layla24 only An Esync cable Gina24 only A MIDI S PDIF breakout cable MiaMIDI only A CD ROM containing Windows 98 Me 2000 XP Drivers ...

Page 11: ... fast high capacity IDE or SCSI hard disk drive Windows 98 Me 2000 XP Peripheral audio equipment such as a mixer microphones studio monitors musical instruments etc In order to use Layla24 LapTop you ll need the following A laptop computer with a Type II CardBus Slot A minimum 128Mb of RAM 256Mb highly recommended A fast high capacity IDE or SCSI hard disk drive Windows 98 Me 2000 XP Peripheral au...

Page 12: ...ontrol Panel which can be found under Settings from the Start button On the control panel you will find an icon titled Sounds or Sounds and Multimedia After double clicking on this icon you will see a window labeled Schemes near the bottom of the screen Click on the small down arrow to the right of the combo box and select the No Sounds option Then click on the Ok button VxD vs WDM Deciding Which ...

Page 13: ...elect Install Windows Drivers and follow the on screen directions 2 Once you have installed the appropriate driver for your version of Windows turn your computer off IMPORTANT Unplug your computer and detach all peripherals before proceeding with the following steps 3 Remove your computer s cover This operation differs from computer to computer Refer to your computer s manual for a further explana...

Page 14: ...ep An Esync cable comes with Gina24 and can be used to daisy chain several 24 bit Echo cards together Esync is a proprietary form of super clock that allows you to sync together multiple 24 bit Echo products Simply attach the Esync cable to the two prong Esync Out connector on the Layla24 Gina24 PCI card and attach the other end to the Esync In connector on your Gina24 PCI card 9 Replace the compu...

Page 15: ... pin DIN connector labeled MIDI S PDIF at the bottom of the PCI card bracket 12 You can now attach external audio devices to the connectors Information on attaching external devices to your particular interface may be found in the following sections 13 Layla24 only Turn on your Layla24 audio interface box 14 Turn on your computer Once Windows starts it should find new hardware and begin to install...

Page 16: ...k If you will not be mounting the box in a rack remove the backing from the four rubber feet and place one in each bottom corner of the interface unit Then be sure to locate the rack mount box in a secure location 4 Connect the cable Before installing the card into the computer connect the cable between the card and the rack mount chassis Make sure the cable is fully inserted into the card and tha...

Page 17: ...he screen While it is possible to hot dock the card by inserting it with the laptop powered up it is recommended the card only be inserted or removed with the power off If you have to remove the card with your computer turned on the card must first be disabled To do this click on the PCCard icon in the tray and tell Windows to stop the card You will get a message when it is safe to remove it Failu...

Page 18: ...rs Analog Inputs and Outputs Layla24 has eight analog inputs and eight analog outputs on the rear panel The input and output connections can accept unbalanced or balanced signals via connectors By default the inputs and outputs are set to receive or send a 4 dBu signal You can also select 10 dBV for each individual input and output see the description of the console below Layla24 s front panel has...

Page 19: ...e a replacement cable from Echo ADAT S PDIF Optical I O Next to the COMPUTER connector is a pair of connectors labeled OPTICAL IN and OUT These connectors are used to transmit digital audio data among via an optical signal You can use this port for ADAT 8 channels or for optical S PDIF stereo I O Note Layla24 is only capable of transmitting or receiving one type of digital signal at a time You mus...

Page 20: ... 75 ohm coaxial RG59 video cables are recommended Word Clock Next to the S PDIF ports are the Word Clock connectors These connectors allow you to synchronize one Layla24 to another Layla24 Layla or to other digital audio devices The Word Clock I O uses a BNC connector As with the S PDIF I O a shielded 75 ohm RG 59 coaxial video cable should be used BNC connectors are widely used in the electronics...

Page 21: ...ace is for MIDI The MIDI ports can be used for receiving MIDI time code MTC or sending and receiving MIDI signals between your digital audio MIDI sequencing software and external sound modules etc MIDI cabling is highly standardized and widely available 21 Audio connections Layla24 ...

Page 22: ... The input and output connections can accept balanced or unbalanced jacks via connectors By default the inputs and outputs are set to receive or send a 4 dBu signal You can also select 10 dBV for each individual input and output see the description of the console below Gina24 s front panel also has a headphone output jack with a corresponding volume knob which monitors analog outputs 1 and 2 The C...

Page 23: ...ector is a pair of connectors labeled OPTICAL IN and OUT These connectors are used to transmit digital audio data via an optical signal You can use this port for ADAT 8 channels or for optical S PDIF stereo I O Note Gina24 is only capable of transmitting or receiving one type of digital signal at a time You must choose either ADAT optical or S PDIF optical or RCA you cannot use both simultaneously...

Page 24: ... audio data between digital audio devices via an electrical signal S PDIF data can use the full 24 bit sample width used internally on Gina24 When connecting devices to the S PDIF jacks on Gina24 the use of standard analog RCA audio cables is not recommended For reliable S PDIF operation 75ohm coaxial RG59 video cables are recommended 24 Audio connections Gina24 ...

Page 25: ...optimum performance it is recommended that you use balanced signals when connecting to Mia s analog connectors Mia uses TRS connectors tip ring sleeve for connecting balanced line level signals The three sections of a TRS connector are used to transmit the three components of a balanced signal T plus R minus S ground Mia will also accommodate the two conductor unbalanced style connector S PDIF Dig...

Page 26: ...Mia When connecting devices to the S PDIF jacks on Mia the use of standard analog RCA audio cables is not recommended For reliable S PDIF operation 75ohm coaxial RG59 video cables are recommended 26 Audio Connections Mia ...

Page 27: ...o receive or send a 4 dBu signal You can also select 10 dBV for each individual input and output see the description of the console below For optimum performance it is recommended that you use balanced signals when connecting to Mia s analog connectors Mia uses TRS connectors tip ring sleeve for connecting balanced line level signals The three sections of a TRS connector are used to transmit the t...

Page 28: ...m of the PCI card bracket The S PDIF connectors are used to transmit digital audio data via an electrical signal S PDIF data can use the full 24 bit sample width used internally on MiaMIDI When connecting devices to the S PDIF jacks on MiaMIDI the use of standard analog RCA audio cables is not recommended For reliable S PDIF operation 75ohm coaxial RG59 video cables are recommended The MIDI ports ...

Page 29: ...4 the list for Gina24 will be similar For playback devices you should see Win98 WinMe VxD WinMe 2000 WinXP WDM Layla24 1 2 Analog Playback Layla24 1 2 Analog Out Layla24 3 4 Analog Playback Layla24 3 4 Analog Out Layla24 5 6 Analog Playback Layla24 5 6 Analog Out Layla24 7 8 Analog Playback Layla24 7 8 Analog Out Layla24 S PDIF Playback Layla24 1 2 Digital Out Layla24 1 2 ADAT Playback Layla24 3 4...

Page 30: ... 1 2 ADAT Record Layla24 3 4 Digital In Layla24 3 4 ADAT Record Layla24 5 6 Digital In Layla24 5 6 ADAT Record Layla24 7 8 Digital In Layla24 7 8 ADAT Record Please refer to the documentation for your audio software to find out how to assign inputs and outputs Even though they are listed separately with the VxD drivers you cannot use the S PDIF and ADAT devices at the same time please refer to the...

Page 31: ... not used not used ADAT 3 4 Layla24 5 6 Digital not used not used ADAT 5 6 Layla24 7 8 Digital not used not used ADAT 7 8 In other words if you want to play or record using S PDIF set the hardware to either S PDIF RCA or S PDIF optical and configure your software to use Layla24 1 2 Digital Since S PDIF is stereo two channels digital channels 3 8 are not used If you want to play or record using ADA...

Page 32: ...rtual Out Mia 7 8 Virtual Out Win98 WinMe VxD Win2000 WinXP WDM Mia 1 2 Analog Record Mia 1 2 Analog In Mia S PDIF Record Mia 1 2 Digital In You ll find these same input and output options available when using your audio record editing software with the devices assignable on a per track basis See your software owner s manual for details on how to make these device assignments If you are using the ...

Page 33: ... appear to software as if they have eight separate outputs These are mixed together with Mia MiaMIDI s on board DSP to produce the actual or physical outputs that connect to external equipment without any CPU intervention Any virtual output can be sent to any actual output along with any combination of other virtual outputs The levels and routing of the virtual outputs is fully controllable with M...

Page 34: ... running the console Show all Console3 windows and Start the tray icon If you select Start the tray icon a red Echo icon will be placed on your system tray This is called the launcher Double clicking the launcher icon will display a console window for each Echo card in your system If you only want to open a console window for one of your Echo cards right clicking the launcher icon will display a m...

Page 35: ...bus Audio played through the selected channels by an application any analog input and any digital input may be mixed to an output bus Screenshot of Layla24 Console3 main window other Echo hardware will work similarly WDM console all products ...

Page 36: ... At the bottom is the label Analog out 1 2 This indicates you are currently controlling everything mixed to analog outputs 1 and 2 These channels correspond to the currently selected button on the bus select panel The two buttons labeled 4 are the nominal level select buttons Since they both read 4 this indicates these outputs are sending a 4 dBu professional level signal To send a 10 dBV consumer...

Page 37: ... input to 10 dBV mode This button will affect the level of what you record as well as the monitor level Below the nominal level button is the peak meter for this channel labeled in decibels Under the peak meter is the monitor pan slider this pans the input channel between the two channels of the output bus Holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on a pan slider will set the slider to the center pos...

Page 38: ... in either S PDIF mode the S PDIF inputs will come in digital inputs 1 and 2 If you are in ADAT mode the console expands to display the eight ADAT digital inputs Playback Strips The controls for the level of audio being played by an application out the currently selected output bus are outlined in orange and have the label playback at the bottom Notice you cannot pan or otherwise redirect here Mia...

Page 39: ...vel you can achieve the full 24 bit dynamic range of the system Clock and digital mode settings The area within the yellow outline on the upper right lets you select your sync source and digital mode If a given clock is detected the indicator next to the clock button will turn green You will only be allowed to select clocks that have been detected In order for a digital clock to be detected the co...

Page 40: ...dividual pieces of equipment will act independently of each other This scenario may be fine for some musical applications however it is not appropriate for situations where sample accurate synchronization is required or that will be affected by clock drift Let s take a brief look at the various synchronization types Word Clock This is a synchronization signal that connects to the BNC connector lab...

Page 41: ...aneous channels of digital audio data over fiber optic cables Unlike wire cables fiber optic cables do not add noise or interference Layla24 and Gina24 can send out or master ADAT clock as well slave to it If you want the interface to slave to an ADAT clock just set the input clock to the ADAT setting Layla24 Gina24 can only sync to ADAT clock if the master device is set to a sample rate between 4...

Page 42: ...ou have two Layla24s connected Simply set Layla24 1 to Internal for its input clock Now connect the first Layla24 to the second one via a BNC cable running from Word Clock Out on Layla24 1 to Word Clock In on Layla24 2 Now select Word for Layla24 2 s input sync The second Layla24 will slave to the first one and your Layla24s will now operate in unison No matter how many devices you are synchronizi...

Page 43: ...e Settings dialog gives you five different tabs to choose from Driver Console Digital I O GSIF and About Driver Here you can do two things lock the sample rate and tell the driver whether or not to synchronize wave devices For information regarding the Advanced button please refer to the readme file that comes with the driver WDM console all products ...

Page 44: ...lity and consume a great deal of CPU power Locking the sample rate forces Windows to only use the hardware at the locked rate In general we recommend you set the sample rate first in your audio application Then lock that same rate within the console Locking the sample rate is not really necessary for applications that do not use the legacy wave MME interface such as SONAR Cubase etc Synchronize wa...

Page 45: ...ecently opened session file with the current settings By default a directory with your card name is created and all sessions for that card are saved to it Sessions are not cross compatible between different types of hardware that is a Mia session cannot be used with a Layla24 session All console settings are saved including Volume and pan sliders Mute gang and nominal level settings Digital mode I...

Page 46: ...f a digital copy The S PDIF output defaults to the Professional format If you are recording from your Echo hardware into a consumer DAT deck CD recorder or Mini Disc recorder the device may not be able to recognize the signal until you switch the output to Consumer Select the appropriate format for your DAT CD recorder or Mini Disc recorder if you don t know which one to use and are having difficu...

Page 47: ... all products 47 GSIF This window allows you to set the latency of GigaStudio in terms of samples Select the value here that provides the best tradeoff between performance and reliability WDM console all products ...

Page 48: ...WDM console all products 48 About This displays the console version and driver version numbers We feel that this is the single most exciting feature on the new console WDM console all products ...

Page 49: ...sy to use location From the console you can mix the virtual outputs control the output levels select clocks and adjust input monitoring Note While this portion of the manual primarily refers to Layla24 the concepts will be similar for Gina24 Mia MiaMIDI s console will be explained in the next section The Console software was automatically installed at the same time that you installed the VxD drive...

Page 50: ...er monitors directly below the inputs that are being monitored and outputs on the right hand side The controls for a particular function stereo pair are then further grouped into a box that contains selection buttons faders and other controls and displays as determined by the function VxD console Gina24 and Layla24 ...

Page 51: ...nitor control pair directly below it on the console At the top of each monitor pair are radio buttons that allow you to selectively mute M or solo S each channel In the middle you will find a pair of faders that will allow you to set the levels of the monitor signals At the bottom of the control area there is a radio button that allows you to gang G the faders Ganging the faders ties them together...

Page 52: ... set the level at which input pair 1 2 is monitored for each of the four stereo analog output pairs on Layla24 You would first find the monitor control that corresponds to inputs 1 2 the control on the far left directly below the input control for channels 1 2 Clicking on the button within this box labeled 1 causes the control box to display the currently selected levels at which inputs 1 2 are be...

Page 53: ... switches that switch between professional 4 dBu and consumer 10 dBV levels This allows you to connect either professional or consumer gear to each output You will also find level meters in the middle area instead of the numbered buttons Just like the monitor controls the output faders can be reset to default by pressing the Ctrl button and left clicking on the fader Adjusting Monitor and Playback...

Page 54: ...automatically disable those that are unavailable Depending on what external devices you have connected you may have as many as four out of five options available Layla24 Input clocks Digital Mode Switch View ADAT Ctrls are at the bottom of the Console If you are unsure which clock synchronization selections are appropriate for your installation be sure to read the next section which deals with the...

Page 55: ...cefully coexist with audio equipment from other manufacturers but be aware that operating alongside another product is not the same as operating with it In order for accurate synchronization to occur the other audio product s in your system must support a synchronization mode that is compatible with your particular Echo hardware Without such synchronization the individual pieces of equipment will ...

Page 56: ...es or RCA cables Echo products will utilize the synchronization clock that is embedded in the S PDIF while it decodes the bitstream Your Echo digital audio system can only sync to S PDIF clock if the master device is set to a sample rate between 30kHz and 50kHz Otherwise you will get noise and or loss of sync Note When recording from a S PDIF port you must select S PDIF as the input clock For grea...

Page 57: ... Suppose that Layla24 is the only audio device used in your system Since you have no other devices to synchronize with simply select Internal for Layla24 s input clock Layla24 will then use its own clock to control its operation Now a little more complicated set up You have two Layla24s connected Simply set Layla24 1 to Internal for its input clock Now connect the first Layla24 to the second one v...

Page 58: ...ch closes the Console window You can reopen the Console by clicking on the appropriate colored letter in the bottom left of the Windows taskbar The third option under the File menu is Exit which closes the current instance of the Console This will not only close the Console window but also shut down the Console application and remove it from the system tray Don t worry if you want to bring the Con...

Page 59: ... or consumer The primary difference between the two is in the implementation of the SCMS copy protection bit which in the Consumer format prevents the user from making digital copies of a digital copy The S PDIF output defaults to the Professional format If you are recording from your Echo hardware into a consumer DAT deck the deck may not be able to recognize the signal until you switch the digit...

Page 60: ...l see a pair of check boxes in an area labeled S PDIF Out Format one box is labeled Consumer and the other Professional Select the appropriate format for your DAT if you don t know which one to use and are having difficulties simply try the one that is not currently checked No Echo hardware transmits the SCMS bit regardless of which format is selected VxD console Gina24 and Layla24 ...

Page 61: ... you should leave this switch on If you have a program that is telling you that our hardware isn t full duplex chances are you can fix this by either disabling this switch or enabling Multi client audio see below Sample Rate Lock These controls allow you to enable or disable the Sample Rate Lock feature as well as set the sample rate you want to lock to While the sample rate is locked all sample r...

Page 62: ... and clocking functions of Mia MiaMIDI and it brings these controls to a single easy to use location From the console you can mix the virtual outputs control the output levels select clocks and adjust input monitoring The Console software was automatically installed at the same time that you installed the Mia MiaMIDI driver for Windows 98 Me If installation was successful you should see a blue cap...

Page 63: ... the left virtual output mixing controls in the middle and outputs on the right hand side The controls for a particular function stereo pair are then further grouped into a box that contains selection buttons faders and other controls and displays as determined by the function VxD console Mia and MiaMIDI ...

Page 64: ...op of each monitor pair are radio buttons that allow you to selectively mute M or solo S each channel In the middle you will find a pair of faders that will allow you to set the levels of the monitor signals At the bottom of the control area there is a radio button that allows you to gang G the faders Ganging the faders ties them together so that they will maintain their relative placement with re...

Page 65: ...nitored Selection of the input is really just a matter of using the correct monitor control box A monitor setting will always affect the input pair that is directly above it To set the monitor for the analog inputs for example simply go to the monitor control directly below the analog inputs and click on one of the buttons found in the center of the control Let s say you want to set the level at w...

Page 66: ...xing virtual outputs 1 2 and 3 4 to the analog outputs are shown above Just like the monitor controls there are duplicate controls for mixing to the digital outputs that are not shown To view these controls select the Digital output controls button at the bottom of the console All virtual output sliders default to 0 dB when the console is first installed Since multiple outputs are being added toge...

Page 67: ...ween the two levels Just like the monitor controls the output faders can be reset to default by pressing the Ctrl button and left clicking on the fader Adjusting Monitor and Playback Levels Mia MiaMIDI s output volume adjustments are made in the digital domain When you lower a volume slider you are actually decreasing the number of available bits thereby taking away from the potential dynamic rang...

Page 68: ...rols for the digital outputs are shown Clock Source and Output Control buttons are at the bottom of the Console Synchronizing Multiple Devices Mia and MiaMIDI are designed to work alongside other audio equipment If you are planning on using Mia or MiaMIDI with other audio equipment please note the following The Mia MiaMIDI Windows drivers included in this package support multiple Mias and MiaMIDIs...

Page 69: ...r skips be sure that you have selected Digital as your input clock Now let s take a look at some possible configurations and how you might set them up from a synchronization standpoint Let s start simple Suppose that Mia is the only audio device used in your system Since you have no other devices to synchronize with simply select Internal for Mia s input clock Mia will then use its own clock to co...

Page 70: ... which closes the Console window You can reopen the Console by clicking on the blue M in the bottom left of the Windows taskbar The third option under the File menu is Exit which closes the current instance of the Console This will not only close the Console window but also shut down the Console application and remove it from the system tray Don t worry if you want to bring the Console back you ca...

Page 71: ... consumer The primary difference between the two is in the implementation of the SCMS copy protection bit which in the Consumer format prevents the user from making digital copies of a digital copy Mia MiaMIDI s S PDIF output defaults to the Professional format If you are recording from Mia MiaMIDI into a consumer DAT deck the deck may not be able to recognize the signal until you switch Mia MiaMI...

Page 72: ...ws you to enable or disable dithering on the digital inputs It is off by default Most of the time you will want to leave this setting disabled The only time you will want to use dithering is when you are receiving a 24 bit signal over the digital inputs but you want to record it as a 16 bit wave file In this case dithering will improve the audio quality General Sync Wave Devices This is mainly for...

Page 73: ...tions will be ignored and the hardware will remain at that sample rate no matter what This feature is most useful in Multi client audio mode see below Suppose you have locked the sample rate to 44100 If you are recording a project at 44100 and another sound tries to play at say 22050 the sample rate won t change Sample rate locking only applies while Mia MiaMIDI is set to Internal clock This setti...

Page 74: ...en Control Panel In the Control Panel window locate the icon for System and double click on it Click on the tab titled Device Manager Now locate the line titled Sound video and game controllers Finally locate the line titled Layla24 Gina24 Mia MiaMIDI by Echo and double click This will bring up the Echo Properties window which we saw briefly in the Installing the VxD Software Drivers section of th...

Page 75: ...rd is enabled In the Echo Properties window that appears you ll see a checkbox labeled Monitor during playback Uncheck the box to disable input monitoring during playback recheck it to enable input monitoring during playback The Monitoring controls are found in the Console see above SAW compatibility mode When using Gina24 Mia or MiaMIDI with earlier versions of the Software Audio Workshop SAW pro...

Page 76: ...se you own both Cubase VST multitrack audio and Reality software synthesizer You can now set Cubase VST to play out through outputs 1 through 6 and set Reality to play out through outputs 7 and 8 The default setting for Multi client audio is disabled Although this feature is very useful it can also be difficult to use properly We highly recommend that you read the appendix entitled Multi client au...

Page 77: ...your Echo product with the Gigasampler or Gigastudio software samplers Conversely when GSIF is enabled you will not be able to use the Echo DirectSound driver The first checkbox is called Enable DirectSound for analog outputs This allows you to enable or disable the DirectSound driver for the analog outputs only The second checkbox is called Enable DirectSound for digital outputs This allows you t...

Page 78: ...ound output that was missing before The third checkbox is labeled Lock DirectSound format This allows you to force the DirectSound driver to playback files at a certain sample rate and bit depth It also allows you to lock it to stereo or mono This setting only applies if you are using software that uses multiple DirectSound outputs simultaneously such as the applications offered by Stage Research ...

Page 79: ... form This form will be sent to our technical support staff and they will respond to you quickly Please fill out the form completely The best way to get the help you need is by giving us plenty of detailed information about your computer system your audio software and the problem you are having We do ask you to please read through this manual and the support area of our website before contacting u...

Page 80: ...ing the installation process you moved an existing card from one slot to another Windows keeps track of installed devices not only by peripheral type but also by physical location In moving a card from one slot to another Windows will no longer recognize the card as one for which a driver is installed You must re install the driver for the card that was moved Problem You installed multiple Echo ca...

Page 81: ... Select Preferences under the File menu In the window that appears you ll see a pair of check boxes in an area labeled S PDIF Out Format one box is labeled Consumer and the other Professional Select the appropriate format for your DAT if you don t know which one to use simply select the one that is not currently checked Now click the OK button and again try recording to your DAT Note Your Echo car...

Page 82: ...u hear a high pitched squealing sound or your S PDIF signal has gone crazy Solution Reset the sample rate Windows always sets the sample rate to 11kHz at startup Because S PDIF doesn t support this rate you will have problems syncing until you reset your Echo hardware s sample rate to one within spec like 44 1 or 48kHZ You can do this by playing a wave file of the appropriate sample rate through E...

Page 83: ...at is an Interrupt A computer has two ways of telling when a device such as an audio card is ready to exchange data with a program One way is to have the computer periodically ask or poll the device to see if it s ready to transfer new data Since it is important to do the transfer as soon as it is ready the program must poll the card quite often which wastes the computer s resources The other meth...

Page 84: ...Play card has built into it a list of what resources it requires including how many interrupts it needs and which ones it can use The BIOS will then configure each card and if needed assign an appropriate interrupt It does this for both ISA and PCI Plug and Play cards Windows 98 Me will also check for and configure Plug and Play cards possibly changing some of the settings to suit its needs Legacy...

Page 85: ...ll not be assigned by Plug and Play to another card Or if you have a PCI card that doesn t like to share you may be able to reassign it to a different IRQ The first thing to do if you think you have an interrupt conflict is to determine which interrupt and which card is causing the problem To do this right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and select Properties or go to Start Settings ...

Page 86: ...ard has been identified you have a few different options One option is to simply remove the card from your system However you ve likely got the card in there for a reason so unless it s an old sound card you don t care about keeping you ll probably want to use an approach to remedying the problem that allows the card to remain in the system If the offending card is a legacy ISA card another option...

Page 87: ...est during the boot up routine Once you re in the BIOS control panel check to see if you are given the option of manually configuring your interrupts Some BIOS s such as those from Award allow you to choose between Plug and Play and legacy ISA for each interrupt If you select legacy ISA for the interrupt that is being used by your legacy card the BIOS will know not to assign that interrupt to a Pl...

Page 88: ...4 Select the tab labeled Reserve Resources and make sure that Interrupt Request is selected 5 Click on the Add button and enter the IRQ that is being used by your legacy card 6 Windows may prompt you that the IRQ is currently in use by another device Click on Details to see which device Windows currently thinks is using this IRQ It should be your Echo card or whatever device is currently conflicti...

Page 89: ...his resource setting cannot be modified If you are allowed to change the IRQ a window will appear that lets you choose from several different values Scroll through the different values until you find one that says No devices are conflicting Choose that one and keep selecting OK until Device Manager is closed then restart Windows If you are unable to reconfigure the IRQ and you have a free PCI slot...

Page 90: ...plication all running at the same time It s very flexible If you want to use multi client audio you need to enable it in the main driver properties page See the section entitled Additional Configuration Settings in this manual Note Multiclient audio is always enabled with the WDM driver Q So what s the catch The catch is this all the apps using the Echo card at the same time must be set at the sam...

Page 91: ...ces only Q What are the rules that I should follow if I want to use multiple audio applications at the same time Set all your applications to the same sample rate You can also use the sample rate lock feature in the Console to help with this Turn off your system sounds Figure out ahead of time which inputs and outputs each application is going to use Inputs and outputs cannot be shared between app...

Page 92: ...ogram all at the same time Sure If you don t understand the question don t worry about it Q What s the downside to all this The main downside is that your computer may very well have a hard time keeping up If you fire up three different audio apps at once your computer is probably going to struggle unless you have a really hot machine The key here is memory more memory and a fast CPU ...

Page 93: ...ut WDM and our hardware if you meet any of the following criteria You are running Windows 2000 or Windows XP You are running SONAR or some other audio application that talks directly to WDM drivers If you are running Windows 95 98 98SE or Me and are using the VxD drivers there probably isn t a compelling reason to switch to WDM unless you really really like the new console or unless you have an au...

Page 94: ...er This means it was natively developed for Windows 2000 that is it s not a legacy driver running on a newer OS However WDM drivers work differently again this is simplified Audio application Microsoft s WDMAUD wave driver Microsoft s kernel mode audio mixer a k a the kmixer Echo WDM driver PCI card So you can see that there are now several layers of software interposed between our driver and the ...

Page 95: ... WDM driver now incorporates PureWave mode which provides 24 bit support for applications that don t work with WDM drivers For more information please refer to the readme file that installed with the drivers ...

Page 96: ...hy don t you guys support WDM on Windows 98 or 98SE One of the problems we have with running a WDM driver is we are largely at the mercy of the WDM audio subsystem in Windows WDM audio in Windows 98 is more or less broken Windows 98SE is better but still has a significant number of problems It s not worthwhile for us to try and support something like that There is a patch for Windows 98SE which co...

Page 97: ... of numbers is played back through a digital to analog converter or DAC which converts the numbers back into an analog signal This signal can then be sent to an amplifier and speakers for listening In computers binary numbers are used to store the values that make up the samples Only two characters 1 and 0 are used The value of a character depends on its place in the number just as in the familiar...

Page 98: ...vailable also determines the potential dynamic range of the device Moving a binary number one space to the left multiplies the value by two so each additional bit doubles the number of possible values that may be represented Each doubling of the number of values provides 6dB of additional dynamic range see decibel section below So a 24 bit system can theoretically provide 144dB of dynamic range 6d...

Page 99: ...audio signals are represented by binary data each bit of audio information represents 6dB A 16 bit number can represent a total range of 96dB and a 24 bit number can represent a total range of 144dB 6 times the number of bits It s much easier to say that one signal is 72dB less than another instead of saying it is 1 4096 the size of the other one It also more accurately represents the way we hear ...

Page 100: ...o see with professional studio equipment such as mixers or with consumer equipment such as home stereos and CD players A 4 dBu signal has a voltage level of 1 23 volts and a 10 dBV signal has a voltage level of 316 volts The above nominal levels represent typical or average levels that are often exceeded when recording loud signals such as drum beats The difference between the nominal level and th...

Page 101: ... common mode noise will still make it through although at a much reduced level How well an input amplifier rejects this common mode noise is called the common mode rejection ratio abbreviated as CMRR and is expressed in dB Balanced signals connect with either XLR connectors or TRS tip ring sleeve connectors Your Echo card uses TRS connectors for connecting balanced line level signals The three sec...

Page 102: ... small as 137 dBu 7dBu 144dBu or approximately 10 nano volts That s 10 one billionths of a volt Transistors and resistors produce noise in this range just by having electrons moving around due to heat Even if the converters could be perfectly designed to read these levels the low noise requirements of the surrounding circuitry such as power supplies and amplifiers would be so stringent that they w...

Page 103: ...Dynamic Range 108dB A weighted THD n 0 001 20Hz 22kHz A weighted Nominal Input Level 4 dBu Maximum Input Level 18dBu Input Impedance 10K Analog Outputs x8 balanced TRS Frequency Response 10Hz 22kHz 0 25dB Dynamic Range 110dB A weighted THD n 0 002 20Hz 22kHz A weighted Nominal Output Level 4 dBu Maximum Output Level 18dBu ...

Page 104: ... balanced analog outputs with high performance 24 bit 128x oversampling digital to analog converters S PDIF digital I O with up to 24 bit resolution ADAT optical digital I O Headphone output with volume control On board 24 bit Motorola DSP 24 bit data resolution maintained throughout entire signal path Multiple sample rates from 8kHz to 96kHz Esync clock I O ...

Page 105: ...e 110dB A weighted THD n 0 001 20Hz 22kHz A weighted Nominal Input Level 4 dBu Maximum Input Level 22dBu Input Impedance 10K Analog Outputs x8 balanced TRS Frequency Response 10Hz 22kHz 0 25dB Dynamic Range 115dB A weighted THD n 0 002 20Hz 22kHz A weighted Nominal Output Level 4 dBu Maximum Output Level 22dBu ...

Page 106: ... outputs with high performance 24 bit 128x oversampling digital to analog converters S PDIF digital I O with up to 24 bit resolution ADAT optical digital I O Headphone output with volume control On board 24 bit Motorola DSP 24 bit data resolution maintained throughout entire signal path Multiple sample rates from 8kHz to 96kHz MIDI In Out Thru Word clock I O Esync clock Output ...

Page 107: ...dB Dynamic Range 106dB A weighted THD n 0 001 20Hz 22kHz Nominal Input Level 4 dBu Maximum Input Level 18dBu Input Impedance 10K Analog Outputs x2 balanced TRS Frequency Response 10Hz 22kHz 0 5dB Dynamic Range 106dB A weighted THD n 0 002 20Hz 22kHz Nominal Output Level 4 dBu Maximum Output Level 18dBu ...

Page 108: ...ling analog to digital converters Two balanced analog outputs with high performance 24 bit 128x oversampling digital to analog converters S PDIF digital I O with up to 24 bit resolution On board 24 bit Motorola DSP 24 bit data resolution maintained throughout entire signal path Multiple sample rates from 8kHz to 96kHz MIDI in out MiaMIDI only ...

Page 109: ...e 102 E Echo Console 34 62 Echo Console controls 51 64 Esync 41 57 G GSIF 77 H hardware installation 13 I input controls 64 input meters 51 install multiple Layla24s 80 interface box installing 18 22 interface cable 10 interrupt conflicts 80 84 85 L Layla24 installation 12 legacy 88 legacy cards 83 84 85 87 legacy ISA 86 M MIDI 21 MIDI time code 21 28 monitor controls 51 64 Monitor During Playback...

Page 110: ...te 97 sample rate lock 61 73 SAW compatibility mode 75 SCMS copy protection 59 71 81 selecting a slot 13 settings 74 software synthesizer 91 specifications 103 static electricity discharging 13 synchronization 40 55 68 81 synchronizing multiple devices40 55 68 system sounds 12 91 T technical support 79 troubleshooting guide 80 TRS 25 27 101 U unbalanced 100 V virtual output controls 66 Virtual Out...

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