0404 Owner's Manual - Creative

6 - Working with ASIO
ASIO
ASIO stands for Audio Stream In/Out and is a standard communication protocol
between audio software and a piece of audio hardware. The low latency made possible
by ASIO, for example, allows you to sing into a microphone and hear your voice going
through software and hardware effects with virtually no delay in the signal. The effects
of a low-latency ASIO driver make it ideal for use with Virtual Studio Technology (VST)
instruments, plug-ins, and all other software-based synthesizers.
IMPORTANT -> Activating ASIO
It is important to understand that ASIO inputs do not appear in Cubasis or other host
applications until they are CREATED in PatchMix DSP. This allows you to dynamically
assign the 32 available ASIO channels according to your specific needs.
For Example:
1. Create a new strip from a physical source such as PCI Card S/PDIF L/R.
2. Next, right-click on the new strip’s insert chain and select the Insert Send option.
3. Choose an available host ASIO input.
4. This S/PDIF L/R input should now be available to record in your ASIO application.
ASIO Channels are STEREO!
ASIO channels are stereo, period. Even when you are recording a mono source such as a
microphone, the ASIO stream is stereo (with the mono signal on both channels). To
record a mono input, you simply set up the Cubasis track as a mono track and use either
the left or right ASIO channel from PatchMix as the input for the track.
To Set Up a Stereo Recording Session:
It’s best to combine the PCI Card Left and Right inputs into an ASIO pair using one of
the Aux buses. Because the panning network comes BEFORE the Aux Sends you can pan
the two signals left and right then combine them into a ASIO stereo pair using the Aux 1
summing bus. We have provided a special PatchMix DSP Session Template for this
purpose entitled, 44.1 Mono-Stereo Session. You can simply open this Template and
use it for either mono or stereo recordings. Here’s how it works for Stereo:
1. Create Pre-Fader PatchMix strips for the PCI Card In L and PCI Card In R.
2. Create a Host ASIO Output Source PatchMix strip. (ASIO OUT 31/32 is used in the
factory template.) This channel will used to monitor the output from Cubasis
3. Pan PCI Card In L full Left and PCI Card In R full Right.
4. Set the Aux Send 1 Amount to 0.0 on PCI Card In L and R channel strips.
5. Set the Aux 1 Bus Send Amount to 0.0 in the Aux 1 Bus. (Sending to ASIO 5/6 HOST
for example.)
6. Place an Insert Send (Output to ASIO) into the Aux 1 Bus.
7. Set the Aux 1 Bus Return Amount to -132.0 in the Aux 1 Bus. (So it won’t feed the
main bus.)
8. Mute the Faders on the two strips because you will monitor through Cubasis.
6 - Working with ASIO
ASIO
f If the Insert Send
comes after an effect, the
effect will be recorded.
See Recording &
Monitoring with Effects.
E-MU Digital Audio System 53