True-Multichannel-Sound-Device-Setup.pdf

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True Multichannel Sound Device Setup
"Perhaps you had better start from the beginning..."
Primary Goal:
Setup Maven3D Pro and Windows to use a single multichannel device driver for sound
output.
Secondary Goal:
Learn enough about sound drivers to effectively troubleshoot problems quickly.
This tutorial will help you setup both Maven3D Pro and Windows for true multichannel
audio. It is also available as a PDF download. Right-click and choose Save as: True
Multichannel Sound Device Setup.
If you're having trouble getting the right sound out of Maven3D Pro, first check the
manual (pages 220~223) and online tutorial "Configuring audio devices in Maven3D
Professional". If that fails, continue here for a guide on how to choose the right audio
devices for true multichannel sound.
Along the way, you'll learn enough to troubleshoot devices in software and hardware.
Time to Complete:
5 minutes to 1 hour (download and/or installation times not included)
Assumptions:
1) You have installed and configured a sound card and speakers
2) You have read the user manual (pages 220~223)
3) You have viewed the online video tutorial
4) You have tried to configure Maven through at least one of "Wave out using extensible
wave format", "Custom settings", and/or "ASIO" in the Audio Device Settings dialog
5) You should have checked your hardware configuration
6) You are not getting the expected sound output from Maven
Requirements & Preparation:
1) Maven3D Pro v1.32 full or trial version installed
2) Windows 98SE or higher, Windows XP recommended (As a best practice, you should
have already installed all the latest security and OS updates)
3) DirectX 8.0a or higher, 9.0 is recommended (8.0a optionally installed by Maven3D
Pro installer)
4) Windows Media Components (Installed by default by Maven3D Pro)
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5) Windows Media Encoder 9 (An update to the encoder installed by Maven3D Pro is
available at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp
or http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx
6) Installed sound card, drivers, and possibly a management utility included with the card
(some sort of a user interface to access advanced features on the card)
7) Windows Media Player 9 (WMP)
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Sound Cards, Drivers, Driver Models, and
Multichannel Audio:
The Channels
Headphones always have a single cord that contains two wires, one for the left ear and
one for the right. 'Regular' audio streams (PCM, RIFF, WAV, whatever...) carry a
maximum of 2 channels, i.e. either a mono, dual mono, or stereo signal. Multichannel
audio streams carry more than 2 channels, e.g. 5.1 surround sound, with different
multichannel formats supporting 5.1, 48, or theoretically unlimited channels. (e.g. Dolby
Digital AC3 files can carry 5.1 channels. MPEG2 AAC files can carry up to 48 channels.
Extensible wave format files are (theoretically) not limited.)
* Note:
The '.1' in 5.1 represents a single discrete channel for Low Frequency Effects
(LFE) that are played back through a woofer or subwoofer (W). LFE and W can be
considered to be essentially equivalent and are most often used interchangeably. AC3 and
WMA files are true 5.1 files where the '.1' channel only carries LFE data and nothing else,
while 5.1 AAC and 5.1 extensible wave files are not. 5.1 AAC and WAV files are
actually 6 full frequency bandwidth channels, but 1 of them is used to carry LFE audio
data.
The Cards and Drivers
Sound cards used to use Virtual Device Drivers (VxD). VxD drivers cannot playback
multichannel sound through a single driver – multiple device drivers are needed. Now,
virtually all sound cards use Windows Driver Model (WDM) drivers. WDM drivers can
playback multichannel sound through a single device driver. You can verify the type of a
driver either through the manufacturer's documentation or through the DirectX Diagnostic
Tool (see below).
If you have an old sound card that uses VxD drivers, you cannot select a single device
and get multichannel output. You must select at least 3 drivers.
The newer model (WDM) affords you more flexibility. You can either select multiple
drivers (the old way to do things) or a single true multichannel driver.
There are other drivers and things in the mix, like ASIO 2.0, GSIF, etc., but we're not
going to bog ourselves down with those here. Suffice it to say that ASIO is multichannel.
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Driver Model
VxD
WDM
ASIO 2.0
Possible Multichannel Sound Drivers
3 “stereo pair” drivers
Yes
Yes
No
1 multichannel driver
No
Yes
Yes
[ Table 1 – Possible Driver Situations ]
More graphically, that would look like this:
Software connecting to 3 drivers
Stereo Pair
Driver 1
L
R
Stereo Pair
Driver 2
C
W
Stereo Pair
Driver 3
Ls
Rs
[ Figure 1 – 3 Stereo Pair Drivers Connect Software to Speaker Output ]
Software connecting to 1 driver
Multichannel Driver 1
L
R
C
W
Ls
Rs
[ Figure 2 – 3 Multichannel Driver Connects Software to Speaker Output ]
The Examples
Many consumer level 5.1 sound cards only have a single multichannel driver. Higher end
and professional cards often include both “stereo pair” (sometimes refered to as 'legacy'
drivers) and multichannel drivers.
Multiple “stereo pair” ( a left and a right channel) sound card device drivers can be used
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to emulate true multichannel audio. You do this by using several stereo pairs. e.g. For 5.1
Surround Sound you need 3 stereo pairs – 3 drivers * 2 channels per driver = 6 channels.
The pairs are often setup as follows:
Pair 1) Front Left and Front Right
Pair 2) Center and Woofer
Pair 3) Rear Left and Rear Right
(For more information on common output routing formats, check pages 221~222 of the
Maven3D Pro manual. It is available in PDF format on the download page.)
WDM drivers are only supported on Windows 98SE and later. Consider the following
screen shot of a Windows XP machine with 3 sound cards (two 5.1 PCI cards and one
stereo from the motherboard) and 8 device drivers:
[ Figure 3 – Device Drivers ]
The first listed (6-Waveterminal 192M Multi-10 ch) is a true multichannel device driver,
as is the second last (C-Media Wave Device).
The second through the fourth (1~4-Waveterminal 192M #,#) and the last (C-Media
Wave Device (2)) device drivers are all for stereo pairs.
The 6
th
listed driver (5-Waveterminal 192M SPDIF-AC3 O) is for digital output through
coaxial or optical outputs.
Physical Device
Driver
1-Waveterminal 192M 1,2
2-Waveterminal 192M 3,4
Waveterminal 192M
3-Waveterminal 192M 5,6
4-Waveterminal 192M 7,8
5-Waveterminal 192M SPDIF-AC3 O
6-Waveterminal 192M Multi-10 ch
Generic 5.1 Sound Card
Motherboard
C-Media Wave Device
C-Media Wave Device (2)
Driver Spec.
2 channels
2 channels
2 channels
2 channels
Digital output
Multichannel output
Multichannel output
2 channels
[ Table 2 – Physical to Virtual (driver) Mapping ]
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