I have an M-Audio Firewire 410 and Allocator Lite. I have read on this forum that the FW410 can be internally routed (spdif out to spdif in) but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to do it. M-Audio support states that it isn't possible. My intention is to use foobar, Allocator Lite and the FW410 to send 4-way signals to my amps. The only way I've been able to achieve this is by using a Trends Audio UD-10 (USB to digital transport) to get the signal to the FW410 spdif in, where Allocator Lite can then access it. If anyone knows how to eliminate the UD-10 from the signal path, I would appreciate some guidance. I'm willing to buy Console or Virtual Audio Cable, if that's what it's gonna' take to make this work. Thanks.

I don't own a FW410 but from what I have seen, there is a digital patch bay app that comes with the driver. It has aux routing that can be returned back into the patch bay inputs.
You should be able to send a stream to spdif out from foobar then create aux sends on that channel of the patch bay that would return to spdif input or some other available input . That input would then be used as source for Allocator light. The owners of FW410 can correct me if that's not how it works.
Presto has posted a method of using ASIO4All and Virtual Audio Cable that routed sound stream from playback apps to VST Shell.
Just lookup his posts for a very detailed description.

Jan

I just purchased this card. Unfortunately it seems that you cannot set the input sources in the control panel. For example, you cannot set SPDIF in to "record" from SPDIF out internally.

I was under the impression that you could do internal routing and not have to fuss with VAC and such to get output. I've stumbled upon various forums saying people have done it before. I'd ultimately like to keep my system resources free (and not have a dozen programs trying to process audio). So in this case less is more.

I can get winamp to send to the SPDIF out connection, but no matter what I try, it seems that i cannot get sound to come back in. Perhaps someone can chime in who has setup this card without any additional programs.


I do think, however, that i can get sound using VAC, as that would act as the audio transport from winamp to allocator/console. Then ASIO out from there to the 8 channels. I'd prefer this as a last resort.

this is from M-audio's web site:

You really should be able to use the digital patchbay to mix in some software streams with analog inputs. As long as there is nothing on those inputs you should be listening to software playback only.

Right, but it seems that only means you can take a specific return and have it output to any of the 4 channel pairs or SPDIF. You cannot, however, take a return and have it output back over software.

For example, you can take the software routing for channels 1/2 and make them output sound to the hardware 1/2, as well as any of the other channels, like 5/6 or spdif.

On the other side of things, if you wanted to take allocator and listen in on the spdif in, it will only listen in on the physical port, as the source of output is playing to the spdif out, not to spdif in.

From what I understand, most sound cards have a recording interface and a playback interface. The internal routing only deals with the playback part, so there really isnt any hope of grabbing signal with a program like allocator since the program listens in on the recording side of things.

I do think, however, that you can probably listen in on one of the analog channels and have things work. the disadvantage is that you lose a pair of channels.

The folks at m-audio said they would forward the idea over to their feature manager, but i probably wouldnt hold my breath for it to come out any time soon.

OK, why don't you assign software playback to 7+8, use Aux1 for left, Aux2 for right and send them to SPDIF out, loop the cable back into SPDIF in and set Allocator to listen to SPDIF input. Then you can use analog outs 1-6 for a 3 way speaker or two way plus sub. I know you are losing a pair of outputs this way.

In the manual (p. 24) they are talking about using this type of setup for recording with an external effects processor in the SPDIF loop. You would just have the cable in the loop as opposed to a processor.

Or, you could maybe send the playback straight to SPDIF out and loop a cable back into SPDIF input. It should sync up.

I think that may be the only way to get SPDIF to work. Im pretty sure i can get spdif to output just fine, as there is a selection for "fw 410 SPDIF" and the output LED does light up when selected. I was just trying to avoid running another dongle as all of this has to eventually make its way in the car.

Losing a set of output channels probably wouldnt work well for me as im using a 3 way setup plus a rear "surround" and a subwoofer. It turns out that i can achieve this by dedicating 1-6 to my front speakers, 7 is subwoofer output (mono), 8 is rear effects(mono).

I do notice a bit of static and fuzz sometimes while playing back music with the way i have it setup now (VAC, audio repeater, etc), somewhat sounding like distortion/clipping, but the clip indicators arent anywhere near the red at any point. So i may be running into some sort of buffer issue or something, as i can play the same track after restarting the computer just fine.

Hi,

I´m using a M-Audio Delta 1010 which comes probably with a similar driver as FireWire 410. The manual shows the way:





My Delta 1010 solution with internal routing of DirectSound (DS) from foobar to Frequency Allocator works with following settings:







M-Audio Delta 1010 driver version 5.10.0.5065

Good luck!

Ruediger

the 1010 is a totally different beast.

ive spoken with someone from m-audio and they claim internal SPDIF routing is not available on firewire devices. so it looks like we are stuck.

the FW 410 does not have those selection boxes on the "output" screen.

The Delta 1010 is quite an old sound card compared to FW 410. I have sent a request to German M-Audio support to check whether there is an opportunity to use FW 410 for internal routing tasks like Delta 1010.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar04/articles/maudio410.htm?print=yes
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan00/articles/midiman1010.htm

Ruediger

The last i heard from M-audio was that they would forward my request to the feature manager, and it may be added in a future driver release. I dont think I will hold my breath waiting for it though.

After discussion with German M-Audio support internal routing with FireWire 410 is not possible because FW 410 lacks the feature of recording mixer, which acts as a conjunction between foobar and Allocator.

There is a work around, which regarded under audiophile aspects delivers a certain sound impairment because the signal will be changed unnecessarily digital to analog and then analog to digital:
foobar uses output 7/8 --> analog cable loop input 1/2 --> Allocator uses input 1/2 and exports to output 1..6

For avoiding cable loop a test with Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) should be done to combine foobar with Allocator.
foobar uses VAC output --> Allocator uses VAC input and exports to output 1..6

A good alternative to FW 410 is Delta 1010 which owns recording mixer to connect foobar with Allocator. Used Delta 1010 are low prized to get on ebay.

Ruediger

i suppose that is what i was trying to describe.. the lack of the recording mixer.

I think the cable loop will probably prove more efficient and fool proof than using any combination of VAC and supporting programs. Hopefully the recording interface gets added to the drivers soon, then things should work well.

Thanks for that update though!

Is it still the case that the firewire 410 does not allow internal routing? I'm looking at firewire interfaces and this one seemed like it might be a good option since I may also want to use it with Soundeasy. Maybe Jack can solve the problem as Thuneau laid out in another thread, but I'd like to try to get something that works without extra applications or external loopback.
Dan

I contacted M-audio tech support to find out if the ProFire 610 can do internal routing. Here was their response:



So it sounds like this means either external loopback or running something like Jack to route signals from wdm to asio. It also sounds implies that the 410 has not been updated to do internal routing either.
Dan