Need Help Recording with multiple Soundcards!

[Well_I'm_Lost]

Hi All!

First off, thank you so much for the help in advance. So my current issue is I am having trouble setting up reaper to record with multiple soundcards. My current setup is three microphones all going to a USB splitter via Aux-USB soundcards. I am using Windows 10 and the ASIO4ALL driver, the below image shows what I am looking at.

https://ibb.co/sCvdktp

Does anyone have any idea how I can get all three inputs to work simulataneously? It seems only one microphone will really work, while the others don't input any. If I switch around which mic is connected first that one works, so I do not believe it is a hardware issue.

Best,
Well_I'm_Lost

[DVDdoug]

I don't know... That's SUPPOSED to be possible but a lot of people have trouble with it. It's probably not worth the hassle. (It might be easier on a Mac.)

And, it's generally a bad idea because each device has it's own separate clock and no clock is perfect. (Pros can use a master clock along with interfaces that have a master-clock input.)

Audio interfaces with 4 (or more) mic inputs are very common and not terribly expensive.

[solger]

Just in case: is the input range (first to last input) selected correctly in Reaper's preferences (in your screenshot you have currently Roccat Juke 1 - Roccat Juke 2 selected as input range) - so all enabled ASIO4ALL inputs are available for selection as Track input?

In addition, maybe also double-check the Input Channel Mapping: https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php#Hh04XZqFsic


General info about troubleshooting ASIO4ALL can be found here: https://www.image-line.com/support/F...s_asio4all.htm

[Fabian]

It is possible to use ASIO4ALL to drive several devices at the same time, and with USB there is typically a common clock from the motherboard, so drift will probably not be an issue. It has not been for me.

But I do not really understand your setup. Do you connect the mics to a USB-hub? Maybe that is the problem. Try connecting each mic to its own USB port directly to the computer. I woudl try this first.

Or it could be a problem for ASIO4ALL to tell the devices apart, as it seems that they are all named exactly the same. If this is the problem I have no idea how to fix it, or if it is even possible. Is it always the mic connected to the same USB-port that is functional? If so, this might hint at this issue.

Final idea... try WASAPI instead of ASIO.

[serr]

Originally Posted by Well_I'm_Lost

Hi All!

First off, thank you so much for the help in advance. So my current issue is I am having trouble setting up reaper to record with multiple soundcards. My current setup is three microphones all going to a USB splitter via Aux-USB soundcards. I am using Windows 10 and the ASIO4ALL driver, the below image shows what I am looking at.

https://ibb.co/sCvdktp

Does anyone have any idea how I can get all three inputs to work simulataneously? It seems only one microphone will really work, while the others don't input any. If I switch around which mic is connected first that one works, so I do not believe it is a hardware issue.

Best,
Well_I'm_Lost

First, a few words about terms and things:

Audio interface - any device that connects to the computer and provides analog or digital audio connections in or out.
This can be
- a soundcard (a pci connecting card with the audio connections)
- USB connecting interface
- firewire connecting interface
- thunderbolt connecting interface
- integrated (built into the logic board of the computer itself)

Second:
Understand that a "USB mic" is actually a combo device with a little audio interface built into the body of the mic. The analog output of the mic itself is internal. It's wired into a mic preamp, then an AD converter, then to the internal USB interface.


What you need to do here is use multiple audio interfaces together.
Disclaimer right up front: These are budget devices and as such don't have a complete compliment of ports and connections.

Aside: More "pro" audio interfaces include a word clock port to allow you to sync to the device of your choice. In digital audio, multiple devices must run off the same sample rate clock. The word clock port is used to accomplish that. A "second choice" is to send clock over a digital audio connection. This can be as robust as a word clock connection at best but can present limitations.
"Last choice" is to try sync over a data connection (USB/firewire/thunderbolt). This has the most limitations. It nearly never works for HD sample rates. You can run into partial operation with SD sample rates (44.1k & 48k) where it may run for a time but get occasional dropouts or static.

Your USB mics are combo devices (mic, preamp, AD converter, USB interface).
The only choice you have for sync is over the data connection and this might be a show stopper.

Here's how you'd connect all this:
Make an aggregate device with your OS audio utility app. An aggregate device lets you "combine" multiple audio interfaces into one virtual "device". You select the aggregate device in the Reaper preferences/Audio/Device page instead of one of the individual interfaces.

In this scenario with 3 USB mics, you need an aggregate device of 4 devices!
- USB mic 1
- USB mic 2
- USB mic 3
- Your output device of choice

Your output device could be an external audio interface or the built-in interface that is literally part of your computer logic board.

You will need to check the "resample" or "resync" or "Drift correction" box next to all but one of the devices when you create the aggregate device. (It's labeled either "Resample" or "Drift correction" in OSX Audio MIDI Setup depending on the version of OSX. Not sure how this is labeled in the Windows versions of these control panel apps.)

That's the SOP there.

Don't be too shocked if there are troubles though! You really have the worst case scenario here. These are all budget interface devices and none of them have the more "pro" feature sets that let you make aggregate device connections with ease.

Try it. Try different combinations of the master device clock and "Drift correction" on the others. (In OSX, the first device you click to add to the aggregate when you create an aggregate device becomes the first device in the aggregate. Also not sure how the Windows version of this looks.)

Those USB mics may be locked to a single sample rate setting (probably either 44.1k or 48k in such a case). Take note of that and make sure you try to run the entire system at that sample rate.

You also mentioned using a USB hub. This might present another obstacle. Some cheaper USB hubs have limited data throughput and may have trouble with supporting an audio stream that can't be interrupted over USB. If you're using a laptop with only 2 USB ports for example, you don't have a choice.

So you have the deck stacked against you here! I hear that even pro gear can have trouble with Windows OS with aggregate device configurations too. I don't know if that's accurate or if it's simply common to not catch the part about clock settings and all those reports are operator error. (The clock part is not exactly intuitive if you haven't been informed!)

But try it!
Mess with the order of devices and the "Drift correction" selection.
Mess with control of system sample rate. (Try control from Reaper preferences page first. Disable that control - untick the box next to sample rate - and try your OS audio control panel second.)

[kfj452]

Originally Posted by Fabian

It is possible to use ASIO4ALL to drive several devices at the same time, and with USB there is typically a common clock from the motherboard, so drift will probably not be an issue. It has not been for me.

It depends on the device. USB Audio devices that operate in "synchronous" or "adaptive" mode adjust their audio clocks to track the rate of frames or data from the USB, so they should not drift relative to each other and don't need "drift correction" / sample rate conversion.

Devices that use "asynchronous" mode run on their own clock and ignore the computer's, which is theoretically better for quality, but allows them to drift relative to each other, so they need "drift correction" enabled in macOS Aggregate Devices.

ASIO4ALL allows for recording from multiple devices, but I haven't been able to figure out if it provides sample rate conversion / drift correction like this.

[Fabian]

Originally Posted by kfj452

<snip>

ASIO4ALL allows for recording from multiple devices, but I haven't been able to figure out if it provides sample rate conversion / drift correction like this.

It does not.
From the manual:

Multi-device-setups require that all the devices involved are running from the same clock source. You can achieve this by daisy-chaining devices via S/PDIF etc. Fortunately, most USB devices will automatically synchronize themselves for as long as the host controllers they are connected to have a common clock source, which is trivially true for the USB host controllers embedded in the south bridge on any mainboard.

I use A4A all the time, as it gives me better performance (lower buffer size and less jitter) compared to the native Lexicon Lambda drivers. And I sometimes run two different USB devices simultaneously, and it works for me.