Windows 7 Wits end W/ W7 & Sound

[Kylekoch0121896]

Hello everyone. I am out of ideas for this and am about to trash windows 7 all together and go back to windows XP.

My problem is one that I can no longer ignore. The new windows 7 audio API is great when you are the average PC user who watches movies and listens to music. But for those of us out there that create music and movies that wish to be able to record in the highest of quality and stream on the web, the new Sound API in windows 7 sucks!

Here is a list of programs that I use on a regular basis that do not function properly & Description of problem.

1: Teamspeak - Choppy Mic Input
2: Ventrillo - Choppy of muffled Mic input
3: FL Studio - Random glitches with latching sound card
4: Fraps - Cannot Latch sound device
5: Camstudio - Cannot Latch sound device
6: VeeDub - Cannot Latch sound device
7: Shoutcast - Cannot loopback audio: Does not work like it did in windows XP

There are more programs but ill save that since this is the gist of it. The problem seems to be how the new sound API system works and does not allow for certain calls to be made or just completely ignores them all together.

I have done everything recomended by microsoft, users, "professionals", and various forum threads. I have updated drivers, reverted drivers, used multiple sound cards and usb audio devices.

If One cannot explain to me how to get the windows7 sound API's to work more like XP's API's then I will most definately have to install windowsXP once more.

I do like windows 7 for its efficiency and would love to keep it but for the sake of what I do, Windows 7 just does not support it.

Any feedback that has any ideas of how i can work around this would be most apreciated.

Kyle

 

[TorrentG]

Hi and welcome.

I very much disagree with what you say about Windows 7. I put my MOTU Traveler 24 bit 192 khz professional firewire interface to excellent use with Cubase 5 amongst tons of other professional apps. I'm basically an uber nerd when it comes to music. More so than even pcs.

If you are having a choppy problem anywhere, that is due to your bios and/or cpu throttling. Sometimes, utilities that start with Windows from the mobo manufacturer cause the throttling. Look into this and disable it. Also, set high performance power options.

You may have talked with so-called professionals, but you haven't talked with me. I will have you running 100%. (You came to the right place.)

Let's start with a simple question: Which audio interface are you running?

 

[Saltgrass]

Well, I am not that much of a sound geek, but two things that might be done. Have you tried downloading an audio driver for your system? Sometimes legacy devices are enabled that helps in some situations. Also, do you show any type of recording device that has an icon like a sound card. This is necessary for "Record what you hear" type operations. You can right click the speaker icon and select recording. Right click again in the window and make sure "Show disabled Devices" is checked.

 

[Kylekoch0121896]

@TorrentG:

I am an audiophyle too. The only programs the I have choppy audio on are my VOIP programs. And its not due to any throttling of the motherboard or iNet issues. Take ventrillo for example. Connect one time and I can hear perfectly; but if I try to talk people on the other end tell me I sound like I am either under water or talking through a fan. If I close the program and re-open it (which may take up to 10 times) then it works fine.

As for what hardware I am using: Audigy 2 ZS with front panel extension. The card and its ASIO capabilities are powerful enough to handle everything I have thrown at it with out even a single underrun.

@Saltgrass
All recording and output devices are enabled and working.

One other interesting thing I remembered: In the windows 7 audio panel, when I change the default recording device it does not immediately take effect. I have to launch a program that querries the audio to get windows to update what is and is not active.

 

[TorrentG]

Creative are notorious for shoddy drivers. Try finding the latest Daniel K. revision drivers and install.

The hardware is decent but I wouldn't have a driver of theirs on my machine for anything.

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Sounds like your apps aren't getting the right priority with respect to QoS.

You'll want to type services.msc in the start menu the press enter. Set the Quality Windows Audio Video Experience service to be automatic and start it too.

It is responsible for "Quality Windows Audio Video Experience (qWave) is a networking platform for Audio Video (AV) streaming applications on IP home networks. qWave enhances AV streaming performance and reliability by ensuring network quality-of-service (QoS) for AV applications. It provides mechanisms for admission control, run time monitoring and enforcement, application feedback, and traffic prioritization."

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Other than that, I would make sure that UPnP Device host service is enabled and that UPnP is enabled within your router settings.

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Update network and chipset drivers from the mobo manufacturer's site.

 

[Kylekoch0121896]

Ok it took me a while to find those drivers but i did get them. I am about to install them. However while reading through his patch notes i discovered something else that explains the muddled microphone input. I am running windows 7 64 bit and I have 4gb of ram. There is some bug in windows 7 that causes this to happen. I downloaded the registry tweak and once I have the drivers installed I will be able to test.