Solved Streaming from one Sound Card to Another?

SoundGuy

New Member
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I'm about to buy a Windows 8.1 touchscreen laptop to control a digital mixer from the Front-of-House position. I often find it useful as a FOH engineer to use a "talkback" mic to communicate with the people on stage and to use the PFL/Solo function to figure out exactly who it is that's being annoying or wonderful so I can adjust them accordingly.

For this particular application, I'll have a USB sound card connected to the mixer's Aux input and Headphone output and made available to the laptop via VirtualHere or similar USB sharing software. So my question is:

How can I stream my TB mic to the remote sound card's line-out, and likewise the remote line-in to my headphones?
I don't need any processing, just a raw, continuous stream in both directions with preferably low latency.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
I can't answer your questions. But, Windows will only allow one sound device, in every case I've seen personally or from user comments, only one will work.

I have a recording studio and am a musician. Everything I do is done with a recording interface unit (Roland Octa-Capture) and not the PC's sound card.

I was on the Heartland (KC) Steel Guitar Club's show back in August. The sound engineer was using a new $5000 Midas digital mixer on the front. Everything on the stage was miked, with talkback.

I'll be following this interesting thread to see where it goes.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i7 6700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero
    Memory
    16 Gb G Skill TridentZ DDR4 3400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel (i7 CPU)
    Sound Card
    RealTek Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    27" Dell SE2717HR
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    500GB Samsung 850 SSD, 3TB for backups
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 750 G2
    Case
    BeQuiet Silent Base 600
    Cooling
    Deepcool Captain 120EX
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Cable - 100MB Downlink
    Browser
    Edge/Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft
    Other Info
    Sonar Platinum 64 bit recording studio software with MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid recording interface unit.
I don't have the laptop yet to experiment with, but I think I might have found something:
JACK Audio Connection Kit|Using JACK on Windows

That, combined with ASIO drivers (ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver) promises to provide the same functionality on Windows as the original Jack does on Linux/Mac, which is a virtual patchbay from any set of inputs to any set of outputs, whether physical interfaces or software endpoints. So we'll see what that does.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
Be careful with ASIO4ALL, its a crap shoot. Works for some and screws up things for others. On the recording forums, its mostly "don't do it".
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i7 6700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero
    Memory
    16 Gb G Skill TridentZ DDR4 3400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel (i7 CPU)
    Sound Card
    RealTek Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    27" Dell SE2717HR
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    500GB Samsung 850 SSD, 3TB for backups
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 750 G2
    Case
    BeQuiet Silent Base 600
    Cooling
    Deepcool Captain 120EX
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Cable - 100MB Downlink
    Browser
    Edge/Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft
    Other Info
    Sonar Platinum 64 bit recording studio software with MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid recording interface unit.
I don't know what happened, but I did NOT put the link under the word "drivers" in my last post, or this one. I did not follow it to Update Windows Drivers to see what it was.

As for ASIO4ALL, I've done a little bit with it before, on Windows XP, and only met success. I may have been lucky though, with my small sample size. Anyway, this is not for recording, just a talkback mic and headphones that may only be needed for a minute or two total over an entire show, and then only as a matter of convenience to the sound guy. It's not the end of the world if they drop out. But just so I know what to expect, what kind of issues are there?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
ASIO4ALL emulates ASIO for a WDM device.
I tried it on my recording studio PC one time (on Vista or early Win 7 - don't remember). I had a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 recording interface device but wanted to do some testing with my PC's internal (Realtek) sound card. The Realtek did not have ASIO and I installed ASIO4ALL and it corrupted my Saffire Pro 40 installation to the point I had to do a forced uninstall and a complete new install.

I've seen posts on recording forums from users that have tried to use it and one reported they had to do a complete reinstall. But, others used it and it was working. As I noted the general consensus is not to use it, but if you do create a System Restore and maybe even a backup system image in case things go south.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i7 6700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero
    Memory
    16 Gb G Skill TridentZ DDR4 3400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel (i7 CPU)
    Sound Card
    RealTek Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    27" Dell SE2717HR
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    500GB Samsung 850 SSD, 3TB for backups
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 750 G2
    Case
    BeQuiet Silent Base 600
    Cooling
    Deepcool Captain 120EX
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Cable - 100MB Downlink
    Browser
    Edge/Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft
    Other Info
    Sonar Platinum 64 bit recording studio software with MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid recording interface unit.
Wow! I never expected it would do that, but I guess if you're messing with low-level drivers and trying to be universal, then there's always that possibility.

I've used Linux dd a few times from a LiveCD to backup the entire hard drive before installing from the same CD to dual-boot. So I think I'll do that again before ASIO. Thanks for the tip.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
Okay, it's not a Windows 8 solution, but I figured I'd at least close the thread:

I found a command-line utility for streaming audio called TRX that's only available as source code for Linux (trx: Realtime audio over IP), and all of my other apps work on both Windows and Linux. So I switched the laptop to Lubuntu Linux, installed some battery savers and the other apps, and compiled TRX.

For the remote end, I had a Raspberry Pi for a while and then switched to a Banana Pi because of its native battery backup*, SATA, and WiFi without fighting for bandwidth on a single USB 2.0 port and onboard hub. I started with a specialized Lubuntu image for that board, set it up as a WiFi hotspot, installed a VNC server and a better audio player for the backing tracks, set up automated recording to a dedicated hard drive, and compiled TRX again.

Tie it all together with a set of scripts on both ends that run on startup, and we have a complete, snakeless sound system with the sound guy in the audience! Core components on stage are a Behringer XR18 digital sound board and connects with both USB (18-track audio for recording) and WiFi (for control) to a Banana Pi Pro that also has a Behringer UCA202 USB sound card for streaming the Solo headphones and Talkback mic. The sound guy has the Linux laptop and of course the headset and mic.



* It has all the hardware for a battery backup except for the actual battery. There are surface-mount pads to solder the pigtail that comes with a battery holder of your choice. It takes a single-cell lithium-ion. Software is also up to you to google, though it looks like it could be done with a script that reads a status file every so often and issues the shutdown command when appropriate.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
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