• Registered: 2024-03-18
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Topic: Use of 2 HDSPe Soundcards at once for 11-speaker setup

How can I best configure two HDSPe Soundcards to use them at once for an 11-speaker setup?

We are using the following Hardware / Software in our Research group:
two HDSP9632 Soundcards
two AO4S-192 AIO Expansion Boards
Windows PC with Intel i7 9700k CPU
RME Hammerfall DSP Driver version 4.46 (07/13/2023)

We are writing our own software to access each speaker via matlab, and would like to use 11 channels from both soundcards simultaneously.
Could somebody please provide details on how to best configure each soundcard and how to adapt the settings within the driver, so that they can be used and accessed simultaneously? Only one speaker needs to be active at one time.

So far we tried the following settings: clock source = Internal, and SPDIF In = Internal for Soundcard 1 ("Master"), and clock source = SPDIF In, and SPDIF IN = Internal for Soundcard 2 ("Slave") but they are never playing at the same time if soundcard 1 or 2 are selected as output device in windows.

If anybody has any advice what exactly should be selected as output device and how to set things up best it would be much appreciated! 

Thank you!

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2024-03-18 14:03:27)

  • ramses
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Re: Use of 2 HDSPe Soundcards at once for 11-speaker setup

You seem to use the wrong approach to use the Windows default sound device.
By this it is clear that you can only access one sound device.

1st of all ...
If your application supports ASIO, then use the ASIO driver.
Then you can access each port individually and you bypass the Windows Sound system.

If your application does not support ASIO, then you need Windows compatible WDM drivers.
These you can configure in the RME driver settings as explained in the manual.

One card is master (clock source = "internal") the other one is slave, thats correct.
But clock synchronization has nothing to do with topics like
- which kind of drivers are supported by my applications or
- how do I create windows compatible WDM drivers (if windows and application do not support ASIO)

See manual ch 6.2 how to use internal ports for clock sync if you would rather not use external TOSLINK cables.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

3 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2024-03-18 14:32:05)

  • ramses
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Re: Use of 2 HDSPe Soundcards at once for 11-speaker setup

Furthermore, do not forget

- to use TM FX to route audio to the outputs as needed
- to use the same ASIO buffer size for both cards; otherwise you might get little offsets in terms of timing

The two cards are internally not connected from driver perspective.

If you want to route and input or SW playback channel of one card to an output on the other card,
this is not so easy possible inside of TM FX.

Two workarounds / solutions for that
a) you route in the DAW/application
b) you make TOSLINK connections between those cards and have to route a few channels over ADAT,
with the usual limitations, that the number of channels depends on the sample rate being in use.
  8ch @singlespeed, 4ch @doublespeed, 2ch @quadspeed

Also note that the application has access to the two cards by the same ASIO driver.
Or by the windows compatible WDM drivers ... see above the other posting.

Also, do not forget to configure the proper routing.
Each card needs to be configured individually in TM FX.

Operation of the two cards can be done in TM FX in two ways
a) by selecting in TM FX the one or other card to stay in one TM FX window or
b) alternatively, open a new TM FX window and select the other card therein.

You can also move and resize the two TM FX windows on the screen and resize them according to your taste / demand.
Then save the workplace, which also contains window sizes and placement, not only the routing.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

4 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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Re: Use of 2 HDSPe Soundcards at once for 11-speaker setup

Matlab can be used with ASIO.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

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