RX2 and VAC2

USB headsets to digital audio workstation software...
wa2cop
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2021 9:17 pm

RX2 and VAC2

Postby wa2cop » Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:52 pm

I am pulling my hairs being able pump VAC2 for RX2 into my audio device through voicemeter banana. I have been using VoiceMeter Banana for some time now with success for my MAIN. Now that I have that fully configured and working wonderfully I am having a hell of a time to get it working for VAC2. Any advice for either Thetis or VM Banana?

See screen shots.
VAC1.png
VAC1.png (52.95 KiB) Viewed 3323 times

vac2.png
vac2.png (45.74 KiB) Viewed 3323 times
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w-u-2-o
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Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:47 pm

Re: RX2 and VAC2

Postby w-u-2-o » Tue Jan 11, 2022 8:07 pm

Your approach is spot-on: using a separate virtual channel in Voicemeeter for VAC1 and VAC2, then mix them together.

However...Thetis only allows one instance of ASIO. You need to select a different driver for VAC2. I recommend Windows WDM-KS. It is the next fastest, only a few milliseconds behind ASIO. You can prove this by putting RX1 and RX2 on the same signal and listening to both feeds. Make sure both RX have exactly the same settings, though (e.g. don't have NR2 on RX1 but not RX2, etc.)

Moving this to the virtual audio sub-forum...
wa2cop
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2021 9:17 pm

Re: RX2 and VAC2

Postby wa2cop » Wed Jan 12, 2022 1:36 am

Thanks.. got it all working with your suggestions.

However the only way I could sync the audio (ie remove the echo) was to add a a fair amount of latency to vac1 (adjusting the various parameters)

Any other suggestions?

w-u-2-o wrote:Your approach is spot-on: using a separate virtual channel in Voicemeeter for VAC1 and VAC2, then mix them together.

However...Thetis only allows one instance of ASIO. You need to select a different driver for VAC2. I recommend Windows WDM-KS. It is the next fastest, only a few milliseconds behind ASIO. You can prove this by putting RX1 and RX2 on the same signal and listening to both feeds. Make sure both RX have exactly the same settings, though (e.g. don't have NR2 on RX1 but not RX2, etc.)

Moving this to the virtual audio sub-forum...
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w-u-2-o
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Re: RX2 and VAC2

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:12 pm

There are not really any good solutions at this time. You could run both VAC1 and VAC2 with WDM-KS, but then you don't get the low latency advantages of ASIO. And those advantages are quite significant. Out of morbid curiosity, I just went through an exercise of optimizing my VAC2 configuration (VAC1 was already optimized) and compared the two using an oscilloscope by putting the same signal on both RX and having RX1 output on the left audio channel and RX2 output on the right channel. The result was that ASIO beat WDM by approx. 78ms!

Here are my current, as optimized as I can make them, settings for VAC1 and VAC2. Obviously YMMV, every system is different, you can't just blindly copy what I did, you have to find the minimum settings that provide unambiguously stable audio for you.

Capture.JPG
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Capture2.JPG
Capture2.JPG (120.12 KiB) Viewed 3239 times
W4WMT
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Re: RX2 and VAC2

Postby W4WMT » Wed Jan 12, 2022 6:22 pm

VM Banana offers only one virtual ASIO driver?
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w-u-2-o
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Re: RX2 and VAC2

Postby w-u-2-o » Wed Jan 12, 2022 6:53 pm

W4WMT wrote:VM Banana offers only one virtual ASIO driver?
No, never said that...

w-u-2-o wrote:However...Thetis only allows one instance of ASIO.
I know you know this, Bryan, with all the fantastic work you've done on the PowerSDR and Thetis audio systems?
wa2cop
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2021 9:17 pm

Re: RX2 and VAC2

Postby wa2cop » Wed Jan 12, 2022 7:08 pm

Thanks for investigating. I played around and here is the best I could get from VAC2. My VAC1 is VERY lower latency as you can see (MOTU Audio device is fantastic!)... T0 equalize voice I would need to raise VAC1 Buffer to 2048 AND increase some of the other latency settings. :lol:
Unfortunately without sacrificing VAC1 nothing I could do to get rid of the echo.
VAC1.png
VAC1.png (52.95 KiB) Viewed 3216 times

vac2.png
vac2.png (45.87 KiB) Viewed 3216 times



w-u-2-o wrote:There are not really any good solutions at this time. You could run both VAC1 and VAC2 with WDM-KS, but then you don't get the low latency advantages of ASIO. And those advantages are quite significant. Out of morbid curiosity, I just went through an exercise of optimizing my VAC2 configuration (VAC1 was already optimized) and compared the two using an oscilloscope by putting the same signal on both RX and having RX1 output on the left audio channel and RX2 output on the right channel. The result was that ASIO beat WDM by approx. 78ms!

Here are my current, as optimized as I can make them, settings for VAC1 and VAC2. Obviously YMMV, every system is different, you can't just blindly copy what I did, you have to find the minimum settings that provide unambiguously stable audio for you.

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