to clarify one last time, do you REQUIRE ASIO drivers to mix 5.1 in vegas?
 

true or false? you REQUIRE @least a 5.1 soundcard WITH ASIO drivers to mix 5.1 projects in vegas.

i got the sound blaster live! with 5.1 output but it doesn't come with asio drivers. unless i install hacked drivers with ASIO (like kmix) then it is impossible for me to mix 5.1, true or false?

I think this is false for at least Vegas 4. I will run some tests tonight!

If you want to mix in 5.1 surround without rendering, get yourself a proper soundcard with 6 discrete outputs that you can connect to a 5.1 amplifier. I bought the M-Audio Delta 410 soundcard and it works great. I'm not sure if it's drivers are ASIO drivers, haven't looked at it.
I use a NAD surround receiver and a Mirage 5.1 speakerset. Well, this sounds really great while mixing.

Peter Sieben

No you dont, but it helps..

the SBLive uses mini phon jacks, 3 of em, one for each channel.

ASIO is native 48khz, so its perfect for DV and DVD, as well as realtime Wave mixing

Ive put up a huge explaination on a thread abot the very same thing.. jsut do a forum search on ASIO

peter,

i have the sblive. if you look on creative's support site there are no OFFICIAL driver support for ASIO for SBLive cards even though it can playback consumer DVDs in 5.1 analog output. the drivers that i currently have are from creative's site and there no ASIO options under my audio device in preferences. in fact i tried all 3, MS mapper, direct sound mapper, windows classic wave driver they all won't let me choose default stereo/front playback devices. and yesh under my sound and audio devices i have speaker settings on 5.1 and all 5.1 analog output is connected. when i play a regular DVD it works or when i play divx w/ac3 filter it all works perfectly.

as of right now when i try to mix 5.1 i never see the center channel mixer light up.

have you tried to raise the center speaker volume in the mixer window of a track? I remember that it's almost closed or something. Push the slider (on the bottom) to the right, it might open up the volume.

as you can see from this screencap:
http://fongunlimited.com/genmay/mixer.gif

my dv project was recorded in stereo and when i played it back under "5.1" settings none of the other channels had any sound no matter what adjustments i made up or down.

Strange, when I insert a stereo audio sound in a 5.1 DV project and position the sound with it's channel 5.1 mixer in the middle, all channels will playback that sound, except for the subwoofer.
Duplicate that audiotrack to another track and change it to a subwoofer track, then you will hear and see that one also play back in surround.
On your screendump I notice it's a 192 khz 24 bit project. Is the 192 khz correct? Most 5.1 projects I have seen in Vegas and on dvd have an higher frequency setting. I'm not sure if that's causing the problem.

I'm not an expert, but I hope this info is of any help to you.

Peter Sieben

DV & DVD both are 48 kHz 16 bit.

DV 4 channel is 32 kHz 12 bit.

If your sound card exposes three standard Windows audio driver outputs, one each for l/r, rear l/r, and center/sub, then no you don't need ASIO. The SB Audigy2, which is what I use, does not expose them, so you need to use ASIO.

You could also buy three stereo sound cards and hook them up to the 5.1 amp and then you wouldn't need ASIO.

oops, you're right i'm going to try this when i get home. i'm a bit insane sometimes, thinking everything should be the most high quality no matter what.

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Sieben :
On your screendump I notice it's a 192 khz 24 bit project. Is the 192 khz correct? Most 5.1 projects I have seen in Vegas and on dvd have an higher frequency setting. I'm not sure if that's causing the problem.
Peter Sieben -->>>

it is exposed in the window drivers. i don't ahve a stereo sound card. sblive is 5.1 already... it just ain't compatible with 5.1 mixing i think. sooner or later i'll be getting the m-audio rev 7.1 with the via 24HT chip.

<<<-- Originally posted by Peter Moore : If your sound card exposes three standard Windows audio driver outputs, one each for l/r, rear l/r, and center/sub, then no you don't need ASIO. The SB Audigy2, which is what I use, does not expose them, so you need to use ASIO.
-->>>

i have just tried it using 48k-16bit. still doesn't work. only stereo. my red dot is in the CENTER channel and nothing coming out of center.

yeah i think i have to get a ASIO-compatible sound card to author 5.1 mixes. i did find a CTASIO.dll file and used regsvr32.exe to activate it. when i opened vegas4, a dialog popped up from creative's ASIO drivers and the dialog stated that there are NO ASIO-compatible device found in my computer. so i guess your drivers at least MUST support ASIO or else you won't be able to mix 5.1.


hence you not only need 5.1 soundcards you need 5.1 soundcards that are ASIO-capable to author 5.1 projects.