Why am I getting mono sound when I use an ASIO driver?

[LanderdFM]

Hi there,
We've set up our proppfrexx system pretty nicely now, and are running some tests.
We've encountered a big problem, namely that, when our DJ's speak into the microphone and listen to the output of proppfrexx, the sound is heavily delayed by possibly half a second.
In our setup, the DJ's actually listen to the music automation's sound output, so that they can hear the overrides from the news. We can't rewire that (our music automation is in another room, and we can't just rewire the whole thing).

We were still using the regular Windows WDM drivers for this, and these seemed to cause the delay.
I've learned that switching to ASIO4ALL drivers should fix this problem, and it did!
The only problem is: when I use ASIO4ALL on proppfrexx, I only hear one channel, not stereo.
We've tried switching soundcards, switched from motherboard sound to a ESI Maya 44 USB+ that has ASIO support, but the same effect there. (The maya also has signal indicators and it's indicating there's no sound coming on the second channel).
When using the soundcard for other purposes in ASIO mode, we get a stereo signal again.

There must be something we're doing wrong, something that's set up wrongly, but we cannot find it anymore.
Anyone here have any idea?

I've attached an image with our settings (apologies for the low quality, I had to take it with my cellphone as we didn't have a USB stick or internet connection where we tested this).

Kind regards,
Martijn

[radio42]

Windows WDM drivers aren't low latency drivers, so that is why you are experience the latency.
ProppFrexx can not do anything about it, as the latency is introduced by the WDM driver buffer settings.
You might control the WDM latency a bit by adjusting the playback buffer settings in the general settings, section Audio/General - but you normally never get below 200ms, which is still to high for live monitoring.
So using ASIO is the correct option!

Regarding your ASIO/mono issue:
The mixer output channels are ALWAYS stereo, so there is nothing you have to change!
The mixer input channel is typically the issue. A connected MIC is typically recording in mono and thus only delivers a mono signal, e.g. on the left channel only to your soundcard. So all depends about your soundcard input signal!
But, there are several options in ProppFrexx to control the behavior of different mono devices - so you might need to try both of them to find the appropriate one for your soundcard/attached microphone:
a) 'Mono' option of your Mixer Input Channel (this uses only 1 ASIO channel for recording):

Mixer Input Channel Settings

MixerInputSettings.jpg (62.51 KiB) Viewed 10503 times

b) Input Channel Processing Option (right-click on the mixer channel name):

Input Channel Processing Option

InputChannelProcessing.jpg (58.93 KiB) Viewed 10503 times

The 'Standard Mono', 'Left Mono' and 'Right Mono' option might convert a mono input signal to a stereo output signal when forwarded to an output - so try which one fits your device/microphone.

[LanderdFM]

Thanks for the quick reply already, it's commendable!

However, I'm not talking about the input channels here.
We are actually using a line-in, because the input for proppfrexx is our studio mixer (can be microphone or music or anything coming from the studio), but that's not the point.

The point is, when playing out music from proppfrexx itself (COMP) the output is also mono. Our music, news, advertising, played out by proppfrexx is outputted as mono, which is a really weird thing.

[radio42]

OKay,
but ... ProppFrexx never outputs something in mono
Mixer Output Channels are always created by two joined ASIO channels (as you can even see in your image you posted "HD Audio output 1 + HD Audio output 2"). As such, mixer output channels are always stereo.
There was so far also no customer having a similar issue, that's why I assume, it must have something to do with your configuration/setup?

How do you test things and assume, that the output is mono.
Is your soundcard output connect via analog cables? Have you checked those cables?
Maybe you did something wrong in the Asio4All setup?
Maybe your soundcard is not working properly with Asio4All?

[Ervine]

I had the same problem with the sound coming out as mono. I upgraded my sound card and now it works fine.