Win 7 Soundcard Management

[W8CCW]

I need to set up different soundcards for different applications. It
is very cumbersome to do this manually in Win 7. Is a a script or a
program that I might run to change from one setting to another?

It was available lin XP but that app will not run in '7.

It would be very useful to be able to run multiple soundcard apps at
the same time but that seems to be too much for windows 7!

 

[Paul]

I need to set up different soundcards for different applications. It
is very cumbersome to do this manually in Win 7. Is a a script or a
program that I might run to change from one setting to another?

It was available lin XP but that app will not run in '7.

It would be very useful to be able to run multiple soundcard apps at
the same time but that seems to be too much for windows 7!

All of the ingredients are there. You just have to discover
how to access them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_legacy_audio_components

"Also, there are many ways to bypass KMixer without the need
of an extra plugin to access ASIO, Direct Kernel Streaming or WASAPI.

In Windows XP, for example, the usage of DirectSound with hardware
mixer (which Winamp uses by default) is a way to bypass KMixer.[4]

KMixer was removed in Windows Vista. It is replaced by the Audio Engine
which is part of the revamped audio architecture. But there is still
a mixer in Vista/Seven, and a way to avoid the called 'shared mode'
of DirectSound in these OSes, and thus bypass the mixer, is using
OpenAL, as this API still has direct access to the hardware."

Seeing as Winamp figures prominently in these kinds of discussions,
it would be the closest thing to an example of an application that
uses sound architecture capabilities to the fullest. (I.e. Finding
a bypass, if one is available). Maybe you can find a solution to
whatever you're doing, by looking in WinAmp forums or similar.

My purposes in seeking "direct hardware access", is on the premise
that such a method will bypass any "selection" method offered in
Windows. But for this to work, ideally the application itself
should offer to send output to card 1 or card 2. If the program
instead only offers to send the output to whatever Windows is
currently using for output, then you'll be stuck with the sounds
all mixed and coming from the one sound card.

Paul

 

[W8CCW]

All of the ingredients are there. You just have to discover
how to access them.

Thank you! I will check it out.
My need is with amateur radio.

 

[Paul]

Thank you! I will check it out.
My need is with amateur radio.

Your topic is kinda specialized, and it's hard to say what forum
would be the best place to look.

On the one hand, you have the WinAmp folks who redirect sound
to more than one place.

People who work with recording studio software, do things that
span more than one sound card, but they're most likely
to be using ASIO and expensive cards with proper drivers.
(None of my sound cards here support ASIO.)

Since you're doing an amateur radio thing, it's possible
another person like yourself has also used more than one
sound card. Maybe even the forum that supports your
radio application, has had that question asked before.

The available information is, "it's possible", but I
have no way to predict how difficult it will be. How
good are you at programming ?

Paul

 

[W8CCW]

Thanks for the response, my reply is embedded in the response...

Your topic is kinda specialized, and it's hard to say what forum
would be the best place to look.

Yes, I agree. The amateur radio community is splintered in many
directions due to the many opportunities presented by current
technology. If I find a solution to this particular question, I will
certainly share it.

On the one hand, you have the WinAmp folks who redirect sound
to more than one place.

Good lead, I will check it out!

People who work with recording studio software, do things that
span more than one sound card, but they're most likely
to be using ASIO and expensive cards with proper drivers.
(None of my sound cards here support ASIO.)

I have an M-Audio Delta Sound card but it is not involved in this
project. Most folks that use that hardware are focused on music.

Since you're doing an amateur radio thing, it's possible
another person like yourself has also used more than one
sound card. Maybe even the forum that supports your
radio application, has had that question asked before.

Nearly all of the programs in the whole spectrum are written with the
mindset that they have exclusive use of the resources. Seldom is any
thought about playing nice with others. That leads to rigid and
unneccessary limitations.

The available information is, "it's possible", but I
have no way to predict how difficult it will be. How
good are you at programming ?

Not good enough. I have two catagories of projects in my backlog: To
Do and Not Yet.

The Not Yets are dormant until I learn some more!

I was hoping for a batch or script to allow the sound card setup to be
executed without all the window swapping,manual intervention of the
keyboard driven setup. One of my "Not Yet" projects involves a program
to manipulate the Sound Card / Windows interface directly. It will
probably be a DLL. Several loose ends will have to be learned before
that happens.

In the mean while I think I will move this whole operation back to a
fresh XP PRO system and let someone else pursue this Win 7 issue.
There are so many more interesting things to do!

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the response, my reply is embedded in the response...


Yes, I agree. The amateur radio community is splintered in many
directions due to the many opportunities presented by current
technology. If I find a solution to this particular question, I will
certainly share it.

Good lead, I will check it out!


I have an M-Audio Delta Sound card but it is not involved in this
project. Most folks that use that hardware are focused on music.


Nearly all of the programs in the whole spectrum are written with the
mindset that they have exclusive use of the resources. Seldom is any
thought about playing nice with others. That leads to rigid and
unneccessary limitations.


Not good enough. I have two catagories of projects in my backlog: To
Do and Not Yet.

The Not Yets are dormant until I learn some more!

I was hoping for a batch or script to allow the sound card setup to be
executed without all the window swapping,manual intervention of the
keyboard driven setup. One of my "Not Yet" projects involves a program
to manipulate the Sound Card / Windows interface directly. It will
probably be a DLL. Several loose ends will have to be learned before
that happens.

In the mean while I think I will move this whole operation back to a
fresh XP PRO system and let someone else pursue this Win 7 issue.
There are so many more interesting things to do!

In terms of script support to change the default sound card,
there is a tool here.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

nircmd.exe setdefaultsounddevice

and some variant of that, allows changing the default output device.
But I'm not sure that's what you're after.

If the standard setup in Windows, is to use some sort of mixer, then
doing something like "setdefaultsounddevice" simply changes the
immediate output, like this.

App_#1 ---- Mixer ----- Default_Output_Device,#A
App_#2 ----

The output device might change, without the applications being aware.
Or, the application might receive a callback, informing it of the
change, and interrupting the function of the program.

You want some way to guarantee, for the duration of the execution of
the application, that

App_#1 ----------------- #A
App_#2 ----------------- #B

The available info says the latter is possible via OpenAL.

I can't test this, as all I've got Windows 7 on is a laptop with
no expansion port. So I've only got one sound device under
Windows 7.

Paul

 

[W8CCW]

Thank you, I will check it out..

In terms of script support to change the default sound card,
there is a tool here.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

nircmd.exe setdefaultsounddevice

and some variant of that, allows changing the default output device.
But I'm not sure that's what you're after.

If the standard setup in Windows, is to use some sort of mixer, then
doing something like "setdefaultsounddevice" simply changes the
immediate output, like this.

App_#1 ---- Mixer ----- Default_Output_Device,#A
App_#2 ----

The output device might change, without the applications being aware.
Or, the application might receive a callback, informing it of the
change, and interrupting the function of the program.

You want some way to guarantee, for the duration of the execution of
the application, that

App_#1 ----------------- #A
App_#2 ----------------- #B

The available info says the latter is possible via OpenAL.

I can't test this, as all I've got Windows 7 on is a laptop with
no expansion port. So I've only got one sound device under
Windows 7.

Paul

 

[Dominique]

I need to set up different soundcards for different applications. It
is very cumbersome to do this manually in Win 7. Is a a script or a
program that I might run to change from one setting to another?

It was available lin XP but that app will not run in '7.

It would be very useful to be able to run multiple soundcard apps at
the same time but that seems to be too much for windows 7!

All decent music making applications do it by giving access directly to the
hardware "so to speak" you go to audio options and you select which
soundcard you want to use, it's also possible to access multiple soundcards
within the same application in multitrack recording scenario.

I think your problem is at the application level. I'm not sure what you
want to do but some software Digital Audio Workstation usually used in
music or film production include some programming language and could be
able to achieve your goal maybe even without programming because those
softwares work in realtime.

HTH

 

[W8CCW]

Thank you,
I will search in that direction...

All decent music making applications do it by giving access directly to the
hardware "so to speak" you go to audio options and you select which
soundcard you want to use, it's also possible to access multiple soundcards
within the same application in multitrack recording scenario.

I think your problem is at the application level. I'm not sure what you
want to do but some software Digital Audio Workstation usually used in
music or film production include some programming language and could be
able to achieve your goal maybe even without programming because those
softwares work in realtime.

HTH