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I recently purchased Fender Mustang amp and Audio-Technica ATR2500 USB microphone to record my guitar and voice. I thought it would be an affordable choice without the need of an audio interface with other gears

My laptop has Realtek HD(For ASUS U43JC-X1), and I use Ableton Live 8.2.5.

What I wanted to do was to have the backtrack playing in windows media player with the two ASIO devices also plugged in on Ableton for recording, and have it all be audible from Realtek HD stereo mix. I am doing this in order to do a session via internet calling.

But whenever I have ASIO selected in Ableton, I can't get any sound except for ASIO devices. I know ASIO is supposedly programmed to be that way, but I want to know how I can have ASIO and sounds from windows media player(and everything) playing through Realtek HD output to stereo mix.

I can do it without ASIO, but the downside is that I get about 3ms latency, so it becomes out of sync.

Is such a method possible? I'd like to know how. Thanks

Comments

hueseph Wed, 03/21/2012 - 23:54

Without ASIO, you're probably getting more than 3ms. That is a very tolerable latency. You CAN'T use ASIO and WDM drivers at the same time. Download Asio4All. That will allow you to use all of the available inputs. I'm not a fan of Asio4all though. I find it clunky and the latency isn't as good as you might think.

gliese Thu, 03/22/2012 - 08:27

hueseph, post: 386839 wrote: Without ASIO, you're probably getting more than 3ms. That is a very tolerable latency. You CAN'T use ASIO and WDM drivers at the same time. Download Asio4All. That will allow you to use all of the available inputs. I'm not a fan of Asio4all though. I find it clunky and the latency isn't as good as you might think.

No, without ASIO I get 2.67ms for the ATR2500, and 5.33ms for the Fender Mustang. I have ASIO4ALL installed already, and it gives 0 latency.

Is there another way to use ASIO and WDM driver simultaneously?

gliese Thu, 03/22/2012 - 11:58

hueseph, post: 386858 wrote: Well you know it already, so why are you asking? I'm sure you have asio4all selected as the driver in Live! Right?

I think I have not described the problem clearly. As I said earlier, I need the WDM stereo mix to be recording ASIO devices, in order to set stereo mix as the mic input for Skype. I just can't find a way to do that. If I have my desktop that would be no problem since I have the gears to do so, but I am currently off road with just my recording amp, guitar, and a laptop.

djmukilteo Thu, 03/22/2012 - 12:37

Just from my own experience with ASIO and WDM....you cannot run two different audio drivers like ASIO and WDM at the same time. Windows doesn't have anyway to do that. There's no way "WDM is recording ASIO" either. Those are two different hardware drivers that process audio and I think your confused there.
I always have to close Cubase (ASIO) to play my media player (WDM).
Both of those programs use my RME FF800 interface to playback but each uses a different audio driver and only one can be running at a time.
What you need to do is take a copy of your MP3 (or wav) song and import it into your DAW (Ableton?) and then use ASIO and Ableton or whatever DAW program your using...then you can playback that track while your recording another track and mix them...if that's what I think your trying to do....the latency is what it is....it's based on your gear.
Most people can't hear even 10ms so if your getting 5ms your doing better than most people get...you can always shift the overdub forward as an edit if it sounds off. If you can't handle some latency with overdubbing then you need to be recording live analog because all digital has latency...
Hope that helps!

gliese Thu, 03/22/2012 - 15:14

djmukilteo, post: 386871 wrote: Just from my own experience with ASIO and WDM....you cannot run two different audio drivers like ASIO and WDM at the same time. Windows doesn't have anyway to do that. There's no way "WDM is recording ASIO" either. Those are two different hardware drivers that process audio and I think your confused there.
I always have to close Cubase (ASIO) to play my media player (WDM).
Both of those programs use my RME FF800 interface to playback but each uses a different audio driver and only one can be running at a time.
What you need to do is take a copy of your MP3 (or wav) song and import it into your DAW (Ableton?) and then use ASIO and Ableton or whatever DAW program your using...then you can playback that track while your recording another track and mix them...if that's what I think your trying to do....the latency is what it is....it's based on your gear.
Most people can't hear even 10ms so if your getting 5ms your doing better than most people get...you can always shift the overdub forward as an edit if it sounds off. If you can't handle some latency with overdubbing then you need to be recording live analog because all digital has latency...
Hope that helps!

Thank you for the clarification. What I intended to do was to play the backtrack and have my ASIO guitar input on Skype calling as stereo mix. I eventually found a way to have WDM stereo mix and ASIO devices functioning simultaneously(have ASIO panel on with WDM turned off, play any songs from WDM, then turn on WDM stereo mix on ASIO panel. Then you have WDM playing through ASIO output and WDM output. I think it is a bug but it works), but I just can't find a way to have both WDM sounds and ASIO devices be tied into on stereo mix to have that selected as the input on Skype.

Well I guess I just have to get rid of my USB mic and bring an audio interface next time. thanks for the help everyone

RemyRAD Thu, 03/22/2012 - 21:34

This is why God created analog mixers to begin with. Everything moves at the speed of light and the only latency is in how fast you move. So if you don't have a DSP powered software mixer, you need an analog one instead. But even if you are off road, if you are near a Radio Shaft, Guitar Center, you might be able accomplish this with a passive volume control only mixer? You might be able to even pad it down to microphone level than simply glom the microphone and the output of the mixer together? Nasty, I know but when you're a broadcaster, and you have to get on the air now, you start figuring things out real quick. It might not be nice but it might be better than nothing? And that requires virtually no money that must be invested. So it's a cheap hack. But I'm still not really clear on exactly what you are attempting to do? You are trying to do an overdub session via Skype, is that it? You know that's not going to work? There will be so much latency with the Internet and Skype, nothing will remain in sync to be able to overdub effectively. So this really isn't making too much sense to me? The Internet and our computers are not quite up to the task of live real-time tracking, overdubs, over the Internet. Heck, even the delay from hardwire Cross country telephone lines will have a unnegotiable delay, even if you are utilizing ISDN, MP3 real-time coders such as the TELOS ZEPHYR, your computer acting as a real-time device, one cannot do overdubs. You can transfer files back and forth and work on them. But you're not going to record say a vocalist in California trying to keep sync with your tracks and your real-time guitar, etc.. You might be able to accomplish this feat? Though I don't think so? If this was practical, everybody would be already doing it worldwide. Unfortunately, it's not. We are in the real-time communication age but we are not in the real-time music production age. Not yet and perhaps not never because we just can't make the electrons move faster than light.

Analog is lightspeed!
Mx. Remy Ann David

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