Potato adds a third virtual channel so that we will be able to mix VAC1 (RX1) and VAC2 (RX2) audio together. Or be able to mix and route to two different digi mode programs independently. Or whatever!
There are a bunch of other new features as well, but those are mostly of interest to podcasters. Personally, I would have preferred a fourth virtual channel over more hardware inputs, but I don't write the code!
I'm waiting for the final release before migrating from Banana
Yes, running it here now! It is much improved over Banana. The new drivers are VERY fast. I put VAC1 with ASIO on VAIO3 and VAC2 with WDM/KS on AUX. Then I tuned in the same station on RX1 and RX2. There is now only the tiniest perceptible delay between the two.
With both VAC1 and VAC2 simultaneously into VMP (<--Voicemeeter Potato ) I can now more easily utilize RX1 and RX2.
I connect all my digi mode software to the VAIO channel (I hate the channel names) and can easily route audio to/from either RX1 or RX2. It's great! And of course I have my mic and speakers attached with ASIO to hardware input and output A1.
I'm also using VBAN to send audio to my phone and tablet so I can listen when I'm not in the studio. Sometimes I do this with Chromecast, too.
My Ryzen based PC does not seem to like potato at all ( a bit Ironic since I'm Irish) . Computer froze and even blue screened at one point. Back to voicemeeter banana for this cowboy for now.
They are indeed responsive Scott thanks for the suggestion . I'll stay with banana for now , I'm sure if its a ryzen issue someone else that needs potato will let them know.
I just installed Potato yesterday. A few observations:
It will only run in PowerSDR at 96000. I’m usong a UMC202HD. I’m going through hardware input 1 using WDM for UMC202HD. Have radio vac1 set for 96000 and 512 buffers. Using UMC ASIO for A1 output. All ok, except that after maybe an hour or to input one stops working. Resetting engine starts it ok as well as reselecting WDM in the drop down menu for input one. Any ideas? I’m still waiting to be approved on the VB forum
Frank, W2SDR
Scott you mentioned on the mail list that potato drivers are better than banana , I wonder in what way are they better ? I'd appreciate if you could share your observations please.
There's not a lot of technical data available from VB. Mostly you have to follow their Facebook page to pick up nuggets of information. From a post back in Nov.:
VAIO Internal Sample Rate will be automatically set by Voicemeeter to fit the main stream sample rate. It will allow getting signal without any sample rate conversion (so will always get the best quality and less CPU load, because SRC takes notable CPU resources).
VAIO Internal buffer size could be adjusted by the user on the fly, without having to reboot and without having to restart audio engine… Then it will be faster and easier to find a better latency on Virtual I/O.
But the crucial point is in the Audio Streaming Communication between Voicemeeter and the new Virtual I/O driver that will be direct! It means it won’t take any system resource (no IOCTL functions usage) and cannot be disturbed (no DPC pending).
From their latest press release:
This Voicemeeter release (version 3.0.0.7 / 2.0.4.7 / 1.0.6.7) offers new virtual audio drivers for the entire series (also to Voicemeeter Standard and Voicemeeter Banana) made to be more reliable, with optimal CPU load, better audio quality and fully compatible with all Windows versions (XP, VISTA, WIN7, 8, 8.1, WIN10 32 or 64 bits and Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016 32 or 64 bits). Voicemeeter also installs virtual ASIO drivers (4 clients per ASIO driver) to connect 32 and 64 bits DAW’s and a Virtual ASIO insert driver made to connect a VST HOST to process any pre-fader inputs with any VST Plug-ins.
As I mentioned above, the biggest indication that the drivers have improved is that the speed differential between ASIO and WDM-KS is now quite minimal. Still audible, but it's not an obvious echo any more, just the tiniest bit of delay. For those who want to use RX1 and RX2 for diversity operations the very slight degradation in latency to go to WDM-KS on both VAC1 and VAC2 to keep audio synchronized would be definitely worth it IMHO.
Have you got it to work on your PC yet? Did you do the recommended reboots after deinstall and install?
W2SDR wrote:Why isn’t ASIO selectable in the hardware input drop down?
Two reasons:
1. If you have no devices that have ASIO drivers installed then you will not see any ASIO options for them in the hardware input drop down.
2. If you have a device that does have an ASIO driver installed and the driver will only accept a single connection, after you've used it once it will not appear on any subsequent Hardware Input drop down lists.
What does the menu for hardware output A1 look like? If there is no UMC ASIO selection there I can only suggest that you need to reinstall your Behringer drivers.
I have now configured the program for my Behringer ASIO hardware input. I re-initialized Potato in the menu and then selected the UMC ASIO Driver for the output in A1. Automatically the ASIO driver was then selected for hardware input in Channel 1. The key is to select Hardware OUT first!!
W2SDR wrote: The key is to select Hardware OUT first!!
Yes, perhaps you missed my post yesterday at 5:13PM where I wrote "Try selecting it as Hardware OUTPUT A1 first, then see if it shows up on the Hardware Input A1 list."
Reading is fun-duh-mental!
Glad you got it working. Voicemeeter is a fabulous tool
I did read your post Scott and I posted what I did but I guess I wasn't totally clear about what has to be done. If on a new install of Potato if you had selected a hardware input driver BEFORE you select the ASIO driver in the hardware out section you cannot get the automatic ASIO selection in the hardware input section no matter what you do in the hardware out section after the fact. What has to be done is to re-initialize Potato in the MENU section, then select the hardware output first.
Frank, W2SDR
That's an interesting observation, Frank. I recommend you report that behavior straight to the developer, Vincent Burel. I have found him to be quite receptive to bug reports.
I have not been able to either manually select UMC ASIO Driver for hardware input 1 or have it automatically selected. There is no ASIO choice on input even though there is an ASIO: UMC ASIO Driver as a hardware output choice. This is with all audio devices are configured with a 48K sample rate and 256 buffer on a Windows 10 computer.
I Have a UMC202HD installed but with nothing connected to it except the USB cable.
Voicemeeter, VM Banana and VM Potato act exactly the same; no ASIO option for Hardware Input.
I was trying to follow Scott's procedure for "Using an ASIO Audio Interface" Rev 3 14 Jun 2015 but failed on step 1 of configuring Voicemeeter Banana.
I did follow the instruction to FIRST select the Hardware Output but nothing was automatically selected as the Hardware Input. The list has lots of choices but no ASIO ones.
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Part II - after re-reading the above thread where someone mentioned it needed to be at 96K sample rate
I changed the UMC202HD sample rate to 96K with 512 buffer size.
The Voicemeeter software then DID automatically set ASIO for the Hardware Output but Banana and Potato DID NOT neither automatically or with a manual choice. Is there another trick to this setting?
Sample rate should not matter. It sounds like you have some malfunctioning drivers. My recommendation is to completely uninstall both the UMC drivers, and Voicemeeter, reboot, reinstall both, reboot, then try again.
Unfortunately, I had already followed those steps twice before posting.
But I did it again today. Uninstall Voicemeeter and UMC202HD, reboot, install, reboot and the end result is the same: no ASIO choice for Hardware Input. There are other choices including the UMC202HD drivers as WDM and MME but not ASIO.
Yes, that has been the first thing I did upon opening Voicemeeter (or Banana or Potato).
If I watch the UMC control panel while making that Hardware Output selection in Voicemeeter the ASIO driver status goes to Active so I know it is not being ignored.
The Behringer UMC202HD driver is 4.59.0 by the way.
) I can now more easily utilize RX1 and RX2.
