• From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Topic: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

After literally two years of smooth sailing with my ADI-2 FS DAC (up to today) - I have gotten into a scenario that defies description.

Scenario - found myself using my usual J.River Media Center v30 media player to audition and add some new music to the FLAC library.

ADI-2 FS was working beautifully throughout but as it I began to click on different tracks with different sample rates - which went on for say 30 minutes - all of a sudden - the album that I was playing seemed to have a mind of it's own - it's playing away - but there are no controls in J.River Media Center - saying that it is playing.

The STOP button did not work, the pause button did not work - nothing worked. So I had to hard kill JRMC to get it to stop and then restarted the machine.

AFTER a reboot - I reenter JRMC and choose one of the new albums I am wanting to add - and JRMC throws up its usual scary dialog that this track cannot be played at 44/16. Something up with the driver. So, I visit the area where you set the audio device driver and the usual MADIFACE USB ASIO driver is nowhere to be found. I have experienced this once before and solved it my uninstalling the RME drivers, restarting and then installing the newest driver.

Did that moments ago - and while the ASIO driver has now returned - as soon as I select it IN J.River Media Center and try to play a track - the little MADIFACE tray icon that is in the lower right of a typical Windows install - the sample rate somehow decides it wants to be 48K instead of 44K. After this - any album that I select in JRMC immediately gives me the "Cannot play this track because your hardware cannot handle the sample rate" message.

I go into the Control Panel/Sounds area and check the devices - and sure enough - the one RME device listed there - is locked in at 48K and cannot be changed to anything else.

I cannot for the life of my figure out what is wrong here. I have uninstalled the driver 4 times now and also did a super deep clean of my driver store, registry and anywhere else that any RME files can be stored.

This machine is as clean as a new install of Windows would be and I simply cannot play any track that is a standard 44.1/16khz in J.River Media Center when using the ASIO Madiface USB.  And any attempt to play with the ASIO driver and switch to something else (like WASAPI or Direct Sound) suddenly throws the same errors about the hardware not being able to handle the file it's trying to play.

The only thing I have not done is dump JRMC and reinstall it. And that's next.

Suffice to say - this is annoying to the max. If anyone has any idea on what I am missing here - would love to hear it.

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

2 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2024-02-19 09:05:28)

  • KaiS
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Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

Things to check:

• 1st: try a different, short USB-cable, and USB port.


• Uninstall the current Madiface driver.

Important: doing so, select “delete driver files“, or Windows will reinstall the driver on next start when it detects ADI-2.

Then install the older, known working driver you had the years before.


• If this doesn’t help, something is screwed in J-River or your Windows configuration.

Sometimes Windows power saving temporarily switches off USB-ports e.g.

KaiS's Website

  • ramses
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Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

You can cross-check using MusicBee player, supports FLAC and sample rate changes well.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • From: Southern Sweden
  • Registered: 2022-03-28
  • Posts: 30

Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

In JRiver, go to Tools - Options - Audio Device and choose ASIO Madiface.
Then press OK (down at the right bottom).
This works for me every time I may have disconnected the USB cable from the laptop and used the default audio device (for example Direct Sound).

5 Reply by Vocalpoint (edited by Vocalpoint 2024-02-19 15:15:40)

  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

ramses wrote:

You can cross-check using MusicBee player, supports FLAC and sample rate changes well.

Without changing anything in J.River or the installed ADI-2 driver based on everyone's suggestions - my first move was to install MusicBee portable and see what happens.

I did the portable install for this test and it was instant - then selected a specific folder of FLAC files that I know have super wide variety of sample rates from 44.1 all the way to 192K and made sure to select the ADI-2 ASIO driver in the MB (Player) area - MB played any track I selected correctly and with ease.

Also monitored the "MADIface Series Settings" dialog in the task tray and as I switched tracks - in sometimes very wide swings (44.1K to 192K) the ADI-2 handled everything like butter.

So - my first takeaway is that this issue is squarely with J.River Media Center - which is very odd since I have used it for 10 years+ now with zero issues - but I suppose anything is possible if one waits enough time.

Another takeaway was just how "exclusive" this ASIO driver really is. In all my time with J.River and ASIO in general - I had never really taken the time to examine what Windows 10 looks like (specifically it's "sound" areas) when this ASIO driver is active.

In this short test - the first thing that was a bit of a shocker was that task tray area (The speaker icon) is completely cut off. If I load up a 96K track in MusicBee with ASIO inline - and click on the speaker icon - I get the usual big blue slider labelled "Analog 1+2 (RME ADI-2 DAC)" and a slider volume value (71 at this time) - but the slider does nothing to the volume.

Same deal in the Settings-System->Sound. Seems there are now 4 "devices" in there (ALL labelled "Analog 1+2 (RME ADI-2 DAC)") and they are not part of any sound activity. No meters etc.

Same deal in Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Manage Audio Devices - where Windows and this ADI-2 device are totally off the rails. Right now (in the Playback Tab) I see at least 4 instances of "Analog 1+2 (RME ADI-2 DAC)" - with just one of them tagged as Default. If I right click on any of them and choose Properties -> Advanced -> Default Format - all are set to bizarre values like 2 channel, 24bit, 176400khz and so on.

Where are all of these things coming from and what is the point? What are they used for?

In all my prior builds of Windows that I can remember - I always disable ANY onboard sound devices (motherboard) and use only the primary device (RME ADI-2 DAC) in this case for all things sound. This would usually result in just a single default sound device appearing in Control Panel and that was all I ever needed.

This device would react to all sound sources, switch sample rates in JRMC and even my standard keyboard shortcuts for volume would work and was easy to use.

Now it seems that whatever the hell is going on here - Windows is "creating" tons of sound "devices" on the fly, for every possible sample rate combo and adding them to this sound dialog with no rhyme or reason.

And a final question - what is the ideal driver selection for day to day use when using web audio, MS Teams audio, audio from my USB Jabra speaker and so on - in addition to music playback from J.River/MusicBee?

Seems it should probably be one of the WASAPI (shared) selections (and NOT ASIO).

This has become a bees nest of confusion in short order and I would love to know how to get this back to normal (ONE driver selection and device for all scenarios) and then document how I got there.

Appreciate any additional suggestions.

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

Another update.

I decided to uninstall the most recent driver and return to 0.9831. In JRMC - I wandered through all the driver choices and ASIO was still misbehaving. Changed to the WASAPI choices and had no luck either. Then I tried DirectSound - which plays every fine - but it not bitperfect with JRMC. No biggie - but I wanted to explore more.

I then returned to ASIO and as usual - it gave the error when trying to play a 44K file. Could see the MADIFace Series was reporting 48K and the error was anticipated.

Then - in JRMC if I go to Options->Audio Device - I have two options - the driver to use (ASIO Madiface USB) in my case. And there is another area called Device Settings. Now - JRMC will display different things in this dialog - dependant on the driver selected.

When the ASIO Madiface USB driver is in play - this dialog displays 4 main areas (Device, Volume, Buffering and Output). Under Device - there is an option called Channel Offset - which I never ever gave much thought.

The definition in this reads:

"Channel offset determines which outputs to use on the selected device. Try different values (0, 2,4, etc.) until the audio is routed to the desired output"

The value displayed in this field (when I came in here) was 8. Since there is no way I can see to detemine what outputs "8" relates to - I changed this value to "0" and tried playback again.

Low and behold - we are all good. Any track at any sample rate suddenly plays normally. My keyboard volume controls work - everything appears to be good.

Have to be honest - this is the first time I have ever acknowledged or changed this value and I can state without question if this channel offset was 8 when I came in here today - it was 8 yesterday and probably 8 for months and months prior to this issue.

So it remains a mystery as to why a change to 0 now is suddenly a solution.

I need to research this a bit more to find out exactly what this does and how JRMC determines what "outputs" it sees vs what I can see - which is exactly one set of outputs (labelled Analog 1+2 (RME ADI-2 DAC) in the Windows Sound setting area.

I also did a quick search on "ASIO Channel Offset + J.River" and a few bits of info that came back - did in fact say to keep this offset at 0. News to me and some great learning here.

I have not yet returned to the latest ADI-2 FS drivers (0.9833) but that will be for another day.

Also - one more question - what is best practice for updating RME drivers? Do you completely uninstall any prior set before installing new ones? Or install right overtop of any old ones that were there?

Cheers

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

7 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2024-02-19 19:04:43)

  • KaiS
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Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

Vocalpoint wrote:

Also - one more question - what is best practice for updating RME drivers? Do you completely uninstall any prior set before installing new ones? Or install right overtop of any old ones that were there?

RME recommendation is installing over the old driver.
Test this at first.

Sometimes it might be better to remove the old driver before.

I just had an ASIO issue (device not listed) that was solved when I:
• removed ALL Madiface entries in the Device manager,
• in the process checked delete driver files,
• unplugged ADI-2,
• then after reboot
• installed the latest driver,
• finally replugged ADI-2

Installing over the old driver might have done it too, but I just spend the few extra minutes for cleanup.

KaiS's Website

8 Reply by Vocalpoint (edited by Vocalpoint 2024-02-19 19:56:23)

  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

KaiS wrote:

Sometimes it might be better to remove the old driver before.

I just had an ASIO issue (device not listed) that was solved when I:
• removed ALL Madiface entries in the Device manager,
• in the process checked delete driver files,
• unplugged ADI-2,
• then after reboot
• installed the latest driver,
• finally replugged ADI-2

Thanks for the update - this was very helpful - especially your specific "order" when a problem arises.

You would think that RME would be a bit more specific (and accurate) in their "recommended" process for updating a driver.

While I know that Windows "should" be able to handle driver after driver being installed in succession - like I see with my UCX-II - this specific device seems to have a truckload of oddball problems with "non-DAW" scenarios - like just using the ADI-2 as a standard USB sound card.

One more question - why does the ADI-2 driver kit ship with Totalmix yet TM is never started, no icons - no nothing?

Is TM supposed to be used with this device or not?

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

9 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2024-02-19 21:22:26)

  • KaiS
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Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

Vocalpoint wrote:

You would think that RME would be a bit more specific (and accurate) in their "recommended" process for updating a driver.

They as specific as necessary if the advice is simple:
Smash the new driver over the old one.
It‘s a one-click process (+ reboot).

This works for the absolute majority of cases, and that I did it different just results from me suspecting another problem and wanted to be sure.

RME, and specially ADI-2, has the one of the most comprehensive and specific manuals I‘ve ever seen.

Vocalpoint wrote:

One more question - why does the ADI-2 driver kit ship with Totalmix yet TM is never started, no icons - no nothing?

Is TM supposed to be used with this device or not?

No, ADI-2 doesn‘t use TotalMix.

The driver is a universal one for a multitude of devices, and some of them do.

KaiS's Website

  • ramses
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Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

Its very confusing if the products are not named with a proper name.
ADI-2 (the very old AD/DA converter) - has no USB, does not need any driver
ADI-2 FS the successor of it without USB - has no USB, does not need any driver
ADI-2 DAC FS - the "HiFi" version of the Pro - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows
ADI-2 Pro FS R BE - the Pro version - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows

And this is now really the ADI-2 FS and not the ADI-2 DAC FS?
Please post a picture of your device.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

ramses wrote:

Its very confusing if the products are not named with a proper name.
ADI-2 (the very old AD/DA converter) - has no USB, does not need any driver
ADI-2 FS the successor of it without USB - has no USB, does not need any driver
ADI-2 DAC FS - the "HiFi" version of the Pro - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows
ADI-2 Pro FS R BE - the Pro version - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows

And this is now really the ADI-2 FS and not the ADI-2 DAC FS?
Please post a picture of your device.

My device is:

ADI-2 DAC FS - the "HiFi" version of the Pro - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows

I mentioned this in the first post but reversed the naming convention slightly - I labelled it as ADI-2 FS DAC - rather than ADI-2 DAC FS.

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

  • ramses
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Re: Latest drivers (0.9833) are a disaster on Windows 10 with ADi-2 DAC

Vocalpoint wrote:
ramses wrote:

Its very confusing if the products are not named with a proper name.
ADI-2 (the very old AD/DA converter) - has no USB, does not need any driver
ADI-2 FS the successor of it without USB - has no USB, does not need any driver
ADI-2 DAC FS - the "HiFi" version of the Pro - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows
ADI-2 Pro FS R BE - the Pro version - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows

And this is now really the ADI-2 FS and not the ADI-2 DAC FS?
Please post a picture of your device.

My device is:

ADI-2 DAC FS - the "HiFi" version of the Pro - has USB, can be used with or without MADIface driver under Windows

I mentioned this in the first post but reversed the naming convention slightly - I labelled it as ADI-2 FS DAC - rather than ADI-2 DAC FS.

VP

Yep, the only problem is that most people refer to such devices simply as DAC, sometimes also wrong (even if the ADI-2 FS has no USB), so it is at the end difficult.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14