OT: USB audio interface, speakers, and Export Audio
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 24 May 03:47PM |
I have had my main computer for over 10 years. It runs Windows 7 these days. I will replace it at some point with something that will run Windows 10 without complaint. When I got it, I put in an MAudio Delta Audiophile card, installed the drivers (ASIO), and attached my speakers (M-Audio AV40s) to the card.
My sound requirements are not great, everything worked fine so that is what I have been using. I kind of hate that the Audiophile hangs up sometimes and I have to reboot to clear it, but it is not high on my priorities to deal with it.
A while ago, the speakers developed a fierce buzz. Looking into the problem it appears I would have to take them apart and replace some capacitors and I was not about to do that. So I plugged a pair of USB speakers I had around into a USB port and I have sound again. Not great sound, but sound. I set them up in Windows as the default playback device, and if I look in Properties in the Control Panel, it says it is using "Generic USB audio".
In Sibelius, I appear to be able to export to audio, and it plays back through the speakers. So I did not worry about it too much. But then I wondered what Sibelius was using to play through and I looked in Play in the Audio Engine options and it is using "Speakers (Logitech USB speakers) (DS)". I see there are also MME and WSAPI options.
So while I am using thse speakers, for which "not very good" is probably an overstatement, would one of these options likely be better than the other? Would installing ASIO4All be at all useful? Would these speakers use that driver?
When I export audio in Sibelius it is not actually going through the speakers, but I assume it is using the driver. What would be the best of the choices I have available?
I am now possibly changing something else.
Recently I have had the need to record a guitar into my computer so I was looking at a USB audio interface (something not too expensive, like a FocusRite Scarlett 2i2 or a Steinberg UR22MKII). For some time people have recommended using such an audio interface as a replacement for a soundcard. I can see that such a device has a driver, probably an ASIO driver which is likely what one would use in Sibelius.
If you were to use such a device as a soundcard, is is safe to assume you choose its driver in Audio Engine Options?
Would you use it to drive the speakers? If so, how do you attach speakers to such a device? They have Line Out jacks, but they appear to be 1/4" jacks. Do you get connectors that go from 1/4" jacks to RCA/phono jacks, and then to the speakers, or am I misunderstanding this altogether?
Or do you just use the driver in Sibelius in Audio Engine Options and not involve the hardware at all? If so, is the hardware actually involved in playback at all? And if so, where do you hook up the speakers? (In my case I have USB speakers so I could still use them. But if the AV40s still worked what would I hook them up to?) I would like to dump the Audiophile card so the only connectors in the machine would be from the motherboard internal audio device. Would I connect them there?
So I suppose the actual question I have is: if I buy one of these USB audio interfaces, and dump my Audiophile card, where do the speakers go?
Thanks for any possible clarifications!
--
Bob
An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 7 Pro SP 1 64 bit, 8 G RAM. Year 2016. |
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