Use USB soundcard for input, and PCI soundcard for output in Cubase, Win 7 PC

[Chrisblob]

Hi all, as per the subject line I'm trying to figure out if it is possible to input audio into Cubase via a USB interface, but output via a PCI soundcard. I'm wanting to do this as inputting to my PCI soundcard analog inputs is causing annoying and persistent ground loop noise - nothing I've tried, including using isolators, has removed the noise to my satisfaction, so I decided to input via a USB bus powered device. I bought a used Tascam US-2x2, and it solves the ground loop noise issue - now I have completely noise free and low latency input for my basses and guitars, but....

...using the Tascam as the input/output I'm getting high output latency. My PCI Infrasonic Quartet soundcard sits happy at a wonderful and glitch free 1.4ms output latency, but the US-2x2 needs to have the buffer set quite high to give error free output - to prevent glitches it needs 20-30ms of latency unfortunately, which my brain cannot cope with trying to record bass and guitar lines.

I tried using asio4all (output latency drops to a workable 12ms), and set the Tascam as input and the Quartet as output - that lets me record in Cubase, but I get no sound over the output - it appears Cubase cannot output on a different bus to the input, even when the asio4all control panel shows thats how its setup, and the VST connections setup shows the same.

Does anyone have any pointers that might help me here? I'm impressed how clean the US-2x2 input is, but not impressed that it isn't seemingly possible for Cubase to have 2 soundcards handling in and out separately.

Cheers,

Chris W, NZ

[acYm]

that's the one shortcoming of using windows for audio: impossible to use more than one interface in asio mode at once.

[planetearth]

I suggest removing the PCIe soundcard (and completely uninstalling its drivers, along with removing it from Device Manager). Also, make sure your on-board "soundcard" is disabled in your computer's BIOS--not simply "disabled" in Device Manager.

(You may also want to try to move your PCIe card to another slot, just to see if that fixes the ground-loop issue. It's unlikely, but it's worth a shot, as long as you're in there. )

Once these are removed, check the Tascam again, using the latest version of its drivers. If you're still having problems, we can look at fixing Tascam's latency issues, but you'll need to completely remove any other audio interfaces on the system first, since they can cause latency (and other) issues.

Windows systems can only use one ASIO audio interface at a time, and ASIO4All, isn't an ASIO driver; it's merely a wrapper for Windows' own drivers, in most cases.

Steve

[Logga]

You can use more than one ASIO device at the same time, just not in the same program.
I believe some manufacturers like RME also let you aggregate different devices into one ASIO driver natively.

For OP, you could try to aggregate them with VoiceMeeter.
I never actually used it for that purpose, but I did use it once to make an ASIO device multi-client. It added some extra latency, but still OK.

[planetearth]

You can use more than one ASIO device at the same time, just not in the same program.
I believe some manufacturers like RME also let you aggregate different devices into one ASIO driver natively.

Yes, I should have made that more clear. I was only thinking of one program at the time, but yes, you can use two ASIO drivers/devices in two different programs. I do that myself, with my DAW using one, and SoundForge using the other.

Steve