1 Topic by Burtan (edited by Burtan 2011-07-21 19:12:18)

  • Registered: 2011-01-11
  • Posts: 71

Topic: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

Hi,

while I'm using Win 7 Pro for audio applications, I run Ubuntu for personal use. For some programs I run Win XP in Virtual Box as well. Now I've tried to use the Babyface in this VirtualBox. It works, but not without crackles. I think this is due to the slow usb implementation, so very high buffer sizes could help.
Is there a way to use mme or direct sound instead of asio? If yes, how?

Thank you very much!
BurtaN

OSCAR for Android and iOS with TotalMixFX templates: http://www.oscar-app.de
  • Whagi
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  • Registered: 2011-04-30
  • Posts: 59

Re: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

I had similar issues when running the Babyface through a virtualised Win 7 64bit machine in Parallels 6. To be honest, I was impressed that it works so well.

I'm sure the guys on here will have more technical answers and help though.

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

Problem with VMs is that usually their "isochronous" USB implementation is rather bad or plain broken. Parallels works halfway. Often you are left with using the virtual audio device that comes with the VM and then route this to your RME interface on the host system (that the VM runs on).

  • From: New Milford , CT USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-01
  • Posts: 347

Re: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

Hi Burtan,
Pro audio interfaces RME or otherwise do not work well with VMs. You can only get things to work by assigning your default audio out in the Host OS to your RME card.
The virtual Sound Blaster driver that most VMs use will pass audio though the RME fine this way but you will be limited to 16 bit 44.1/48k. There is no ASIO in possible in a VM. I believe this is  because of ASIO's need to communicate directly with at the hardware level.

You could Run Win 7/XP as the Main OS and use Ubuntu as the VM. You can also do a dual boot. I'm not sure if Ubuntu supports booting as a VM directly off it's partition while your booted into windows. I think there is a term for this but I forge what it is. smile

Chris

Chris Ludwig | ADK Pro Audio
www.adkproaudio.com
https://www.facebook.com/adkmg

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5 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur 2011-07-23 09:18:09)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

ASIO4ALL works and USB interfaces can be made to work, too (tested with Parallels). The latter is hit & miss though. I'm in contact with the Parallels team for quite some time and keep trying to make them improve isochronous transfer, but understandably it's not high on their list.

I predict that the VM's own audio devices will get 24 bit (and higher sample-rates) in a foreseeable future. No idea who suggested that. :-°

Midi works quite well, by the way. I once tested sending a Midi clock from virtual Windows (MidiOX inside a Parallels VM) to OS X.

  • From: New Milford , CT USA
  • Registered: 2007-05-01
  • Posts: 347

Re: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

Hi Timur,
Ah good to see ASIO4All works. Yes I've had customers use Older Finale versions and IPMIDI in a VM XP setup that seemed to work well for them.
Chris

Chris Ludwig | ADK Pro Audio
www.adkproaudio.com
https://www.facebook.com/adkmg

ChrisADK's Website

  • Registered: 2011-01-11
  • Posts: 71

Re: Use Babyface in VirtualBox for multimedia reasons

Thank you very much for your replies so far. Of course I could do a dual boot (in fact that would be a tripple boot as I'm already using Win7 for music production), which would result in a network boot of Win 7 as my SSD is quite full big_smile. PXE is definitely interesting to learn but I'm still keen on trying some high latency driver in Virtual Box like MME or DirectSound, if there is a way to activate them.

Best regards,
BurtaN

OSCAR for Android and iOS with TotalMixFX templates: http://www.oscar-app.de