Does this:
"Improved compatibility to Windows 7 FW driver"
mean New or Legacy 1394 Bus Drivers?

Exactly the same here... but both were working fine... one had new settings, the other had old (my) settings.

I guess this happened because my comp didn't reboot successfully the first time 3.012 were installed. Had to press reset button and after successful reboot, I got 2 totalmix icons in taskbar.

When I check the registry there were double entries for "fireface.exe" and "firefacemix.exe".

I deleted double entries and everything works fine now (XP sp3)... except for DigiCheck, but I already downloaded updated exe file, so it should be fine now...

BTW: I like new layout so much more! Thank you!

    b.

No luck here under win7 x64. I tried many things like to install using both FW drivers sets, but I can't get them to work.

rw

I think these drivers need some explanations.

They use the same Windows sample rate handling as the drivers of the UC, which makes it all more compatible to home theater and games, or multimedia in general, but slightly confusing for users that know the former FF drivers. As you can read in the web on different places with Vista MS removed the capability to change the WDM sample rate from the application side. MS thinks this is not necessary anyway, the WDM kernel will sample rate convert in realtime so what. The sample rate should be set to 48 kHz, so you can play back DVDs without any digital surround sound problems (AC-3 via SPDIF).

Just in case you want to change the hardware sample rate you have to enter the properties dialog of all (!) stereo devices of your audio interface and set them to the same sample rate (imagine this with a MADI card!).

Obviously this is total BS, and therefore all (I think) interface manufacturers include a workaround in their drivers: the sample rate is set from one place, like the card's settings dialog, then all devices are unloaded and reloaded while telling Windows that the current sample rate is the only one supported. This way they are all set to the same sample rate with just one mouse click.

There are two problems with this approach:

- unloading and reloading the driver/devices causes a high system CPU load for at least 5 seconds, sometimes up to 30 seconds. As WDM and ASIO should work fully multiclient their sample rates are synchronized. Using ASIO alone and switching to a different sample rate will still cause the same to WDM, thus adding this load for a short time.

- unloading and reloading the driver/devices takes some time. You can open the sound control panel and see how they get deleted and added again. Usually this is done in under a second, but sometimes the same happens in slow motion (20 s).

It should now also be clear that you will not be able to change the hardware's sample rate while a WDM (multimedia) playback is active. The application will loose its audio outputs and either stop or no longer respond. Exit it first, change the sample rate, then start it again.

While this all might sound horrible, in real-world working with this scheme is no problem for most users, they don't even notice the CPU load effects etc. We never got complains about this from any Fireface UC user, and there are a few thousands already.

This scheme will not be added to the HDSP(e) series driver for several reasons. We (everyone) are now waiting for Microsoft to deliver what they promised. After getting beaten by nearly any manufacturer of audio interfaces they added a new way of changing the WDM sample rate to Win 7, that no longer requires to unload/reload the driver/devices. Unfortunately we (and others) think this new scheme is buggy and does not yet work correctly. Let's wait for a fix...

One thing: I tried to use Digicheck (5.23), and my ff400 is detected as;
Asio drivers: Hammerfall DSP
Device: HDSP Madi

rw

Oh yes, Digicheck has his own forum.
That one works fine!
Thanks

The basic principle in Vista/7 is not to change the hardware sample rate for WDM and let the kernel resample everything. You could start with the highest sample rate, so you don't loose quality. If you decide to change the hardware sample rate all the time - yes, this is not as easy as before, see above.

If you don't need more than 2GB of RAM (if you don't use huge sound libraries, for example), then why not go back to XP Pro and a fast Intel Core2 Duo or i-core?  Newer isn't necessarily better, at least in Microsoft's case.

Ira

I did not tried all available combinations but using drivers 2.9992 (FF400), I have no problem to run and play Cubase via Asio at 44100 using adat 5/6 for main out, and to use WDM on adat 7/8 to play files at 16 or 24bit, 44100 or 48000, using foobar & media player, and all of these apps in same time.
With the latest 3.012 it works fine at 44100, but as soon that I try to use 48000 from FF, I'm getting no sounds from foobar and Mediaplayer. So I have to look at this problem to try to find if that is possible.

rw