RME HDSPe MADI [18/72] Operation and usage

User's Guide HDSPe MADI © RME

12. Operation and Usage

12.1 Playback

The HDSP system can play back audio data in supported formats only (sample rate, bit resolu-

tion). Otherwise an error message appears (for example at 22 kHz and 8 bit).

In the audio application being used, HDSP must be selected as output device. This can often be

found in the Options, Preferences or Settings menus under Playback Device, Audio Devices,

Audio etc.

We strongly recommend switching off all system sounds (via >Control Panel /Sounds<). Also

HDSPe should not be the Preferred Device for playback, as this could cause loss of synchroni-

zation and unwanted noises. If you feel you cannot do without system sounds, you should use

on-board sound or any cheap sound card and select this one as Preferred Device in >Control

Panel /Multimedia /Audio< or >Control Panel /Sound /Playback<.

The screenshot to the

right shows a typical

configuration dialog as

displayed by a (stereo)

wave editor. After

selecting one of the 32

playback devices,

audio data is sent to the

according audio chan-

nels.

Increasing the number

and/or size of audio

buffers may prevent the

audio signal from

breaking up, but also

increases latency i.e.

output is delayed. For

synchronized playback

of audio and MIDI (or

similar), be sure to activate the checkbox ‘Get position from audio driver’.

The HDSPe MADI allows sample rates of up to 192 kHz via MADI. In this mode, only channels

1 to 16 are available.

Note on Windows Vista/7

Since Vista the audio application can no longer control the sample rate under WDM. Instead the

user has to work himself through numerous settings (up to 32 with a MADI card!), and to set the

sample rate to the exact same value per stereo device.

Therefore the driver of the HDSPe MADI includes a workaround: the sample rate can be set

globally for all WDM devices within the Settings dialog, see chapter 11.1.