1 (edited by christianwn 2018-02-09 18:08:37)

Topic: Using loopback for audio routing, improvement, feature request...?

Hi, using loopback for audio routing between different programs is the only way of efficiently dividing processing among system cores. If you did not know this, it is because the DSP chip on the audio interface will do the synchronisation and offload this specific task from the main cpu cores. This will have a huge impact the more cores that are involved. Example, synchronising 8 daws running on 8 cores, sending audio between them, not using the DSP will eat up most cpu resources for sync'ing only. Try using jackd and do this, and see you cpu cores hit the roof before you are sync'ing 4 cores. Usage can be for heavy vst processing and final mixing. This will lead to lots of loopback devices used only for internal routing purposes.
I don't know how different the various DSP's on RME cards/interfaces are, I see they have different options in Totalmix...
For example the card I use now HDSP 5632, will only show the extra 4 in and out if these expansions boards are connected. But I do think these connections could be used for loopbacks even if not connected.
So getting to my point. Could it be possible to add some more loopback/internal routing only channels to the the RME system?
Looking at the DSP meter of the UCX it was obvious not using all available resources.
Using up lots of channels for loopback only is a waste of resources also...

Yes I am considering using the HDSPA Raydat and use 2(8x2) of it's adat connections for loopback only. Then again I get a usable mixer for 650€...
How do I connect a headphone to an adat interface, perhaps a headphone amp of some sort...

2

Re: Using loopback for audio routing, improvement, feature request...?

Isn't ASIO Link a solution then?

https://o-deus-audio.com.au/ASIOLinkPro

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Using loopback for audio routing, improvement, feature request...?

Hi, thanks for your suggestion. I will indeed try it out and see how well this software works. But if this is working something like jackd, that can route from anything to anything, it is still done by cpu computation, not DSP. Hence you get the same problem any software solution have, even internal DAW sync'ing. Syncing from different cores gives to much overhead, the more cores you route between, the worse it gets. This is an unsolved problem, except by loopback using the audio interface DSP.

http://jackaudio.org/faq/jack_on_windows.html

Re: Using loopback for audio routing, improvement, feature request...?

Developer of AsioLink died. Not possble to buy right now.

5

Re: Using loopback for audio routing, improvement, feature request...?

That is unfortunate. But it should have worked. I see no difference between the internal loopback (which sends the playback data back to the host via ASIO input = driver) to this solution, which dos not even need additional buffering, but reads the playback data  then sends it to the host via ASIO input = driver.

You might try Vincent Burrel's tools like the Voicemeeter Banana, which provides similar capabilities as ASIOLink.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME