Important Hints to the Trace D4 driver version 1.07 for Windows 2000/XP

1. System Requirements
2. New Installation
3. Driver Update
4. What's new
5. MME, DirectSound and "Classic MME"
6. Software Sampler and Synthesizers

1. System Requirements

Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3 or Windows XP
Microsoft DirectX 9

2. New Driver Installation

2.1 Windows 2000

Start your PC after installing your hardware.
Log in using administrator privileges.
Windows automatically recognizes at startup the newly installed device and starts the Hardware Wizard.
During the start of Windows the Hardware Wizard searches for new drivers. Click "Next" to start the search.
Enable the “Search for the best driver for your device” option and confirm by clicking "Next".
Insert the supplied CD in your CD-ROM drive.
Confirm the next dialog with „Next“
Confirm the next window also with „Next“
Ignore the message „Digital signature not found“ and continue the installation with „Yes“
Windows copies the driver files and installs the Trace D4.
After finishing the installation click "Finish”.

2.2 Windows XP

Start your PC after installing your hardware.
Log in using administrator privileges.
Insert the supplied CD in your CD-ROM drive.
Windows automatically recognizes at startup the newly installed device and starts the Hardware Wizard.
Enable the option „Install Software automatically“ and confirm by clicking „Next“.
Ignore the next message and click „Continue“
Windows copies the driver files and installs the Trace D4.
After finishing the installation the Trace D4 is ready to be operated without having to restart the system.

3. Driver Update

Ensure you are logged on with administrator privileges
Unzip the driver update package ("d4-nt5-en-107.zip") to any folder.
Uninstall the driver software by using the program "traced4ui.exe". You can find the current version of this program in the driver setup folder or in "\windows\system32".
Restart Windows
Logon with administrator privileges again.
Now, the Windows Hardware Wizard starts with a "New hardware found" dialog.
Do NOT use the option "Install software automatically". Use the option "Install from list a specified location"
Click "Next" and choose the folder where you have unzipped the driver update package.
Follow the instructions of the Windows Hardware Wizard until the end of the installation process. When the Hardware Wizard states "... has not passed the Windows Logo testing" then click „Continue Anyway“
After the driver installation a restart could be necessary.
If a firmware update is necessary, then you will get an appropriate message. In this case:
- Process with the firmware update process and take care that no interruption of this process takes place.
- After the firmware update you computer has to be restarted.
- After that restart you will be requested to install the driver again.
- Just choose the option "Install software automatically" and click "Next".
- Now Windows installs the updated driver automatically.
Afterwards, the driver and the firmware of your TRACE D4 is up to date.

4. What's new

Version 1.07:

On some systems you are asked to upgrade the card's firmware when the system lost its power. Solved.

Version 1.06:

Some sample values of the first 16 Playback/Record Samples were not correct. Solved.
Manager | Settings | Firmware | Version: now shows the firmware version of all installed cards.

Version 1.03

DSP Timeslot Regime changes to avoid rare cases of double input signals on the master sum.

Version 1.02

The word clock input now supports also super clock as well as different word clock / super clock modes. These modes can be set in "Settings | Synchronization | Clocksource | WC/SC Input". The TRACE D4 State Panel show the current mode and the input frequency the sample rate is based on.
DAT Marker Support: The recording of DAT Markers now can be activated/deactivated for each AES/EBU input separately by use of "Settings | Audio Options ".

Version 1.01:

Precision of Internal Clock increased
Channel State of AES/EBU Output 1-2, Channel A now correctly
Automatic Firmware Version Detection and Update

Version 1.00:

First public release

5. MME, DirectSound and "Classic MME"

5.1 MME und DirectSound:

Audio applications, who do not use ASIO, GSIF or direct WDM-Audio, now communicate with Microsoft MME or Microsoft DirectSound drivers instead of communicate with the MARIAN drivers directly. The Microsoft drivers in turn communicate with the MARIAN drivers.
For audio applications, who use these Microsoft drivers, apply:

They can playback simultaneously using one playback device. The Microsoft Kernel Mixer mixes the playback signals of the applications into one stereo stream and routes it to one physical output device. If playback takes place with different samplerate, the Microsoft Kernel Mixer converts the samplerate of the playback streams to the highest samperate required.
Hint: You can improve the quality of this conversion! (See Control Panel | Sounds and Audio Devices | Audio | Sound Playback | Advanced | System Performance)
The described simultaneous playback of different applications fails, if the output device is already in use by ASIO, GSIF, "Classic MME" or direct WDM-Audio.
The number of the available recording and playback devices is limited:
- under Windows 2000 to 10 devices each (20 channels)
- under Windows XP to 32 devices each (64 channels)
This limitation applies to the number of all audio devices installed in the system.
You can use "Classic MME" or ASIO to walk around this limitation.
The minimum possible latency is limited to app.. 30ms through the Microsoft Kernel Mixer architecture.
Use ASIO or GSIF to walk around this limitation.
Microsoft DirectSound or Microsoft MME devices (MME via WDM-Audio) does not work with the driver's options for start/stop synchronization. Activate the options "Synchron" and "SyncBus Synchron" only, if you use ASIO, GSIF or classic MME devices. Else the entire WDM-Audio system may "freeze". This issue can not be compensated by our software.
Attention: The Windows System Sounds use MME via WDM-Audio in case you have not chosen a classic MME device.
Some audio applications show additional audio devices with theirs names appended by "(3+4)" or "(5+6)". This is caused by an anomaly of the Microsoft MME/DirectSound system. Please ignore these devices and do not use them.
Some audio applications require the MARIAN driver because of its additional hardware support functions:
- Hardware Punch In Monitoring
- Hardware Pitch Support
- Hardware Audio Signal Routing
- Hardware Audio Signal Level Measurement

These functions are not supported by the Microsoft drivers. Please supply this audio applications with the "Classic MME" devices.

5.2 "Classic MME"

The MARIAN driver enables you to use the MME driver interface of the previous driver versions in addition to all other driver interfaces. From now, we call this interface "Classic MME". You can activate "Classic MME" within the Trace D4 Manager "Settings | Audio Options". If this driver interface is active, then you get additional recording and playback devices with the appropriate device lists. These devices have the name suffix "(MME)".
The "Classic MME" device have these advantages:

The number of the recording and playback devices available is NOT limited (see above)
These devices support the MARIAN hardware support functions (see above)
These devices are working much faster and you achieve better latency values
These devices guarantee exact start/stop synchrony. This can never be made with DirectSound or WDM-Audio devices

6. Software Sampler and Synthesizers

Software samplers and synthesizers normally supply MIDI output devices for other audio applications who want to use the software sampler as an instrument. If such an application starts, then normally this application opens the MIDI output devices and this in turn causes the software sampler to initialize its audio engine with the configured audio outputs.
THIS OCCURS EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT STARTED THE SOFTWARE SAMPLER APPLICATION.

In the described situation the software sampler and the other audio application may conflict, if they use the same audio output. You can use the Trace D4 with different audio applications at the same time but never the same output device simultaneously.

Therefore this hint:

First start the software sampler/synthesizer and setup an audio output device which will NOT be used by the other audio application. Start the audio application (sequencer) afterwards.
If you start an ASIO or GSIF application the first time, then it will use the device "Trace D4 Analog 1-2" for recording and playback.

The Windows Multimedia System also supplies a software synthesizer called "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth". This synthesizer has also a MIDI output port with the same name. Since there is no explicit setup for the output device, the "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" always uses the standard playback device configured in "Control Panel | Sounds and Multimedia | Audio".