VB Audio Matrix

It uses a manufacturer’s driver and routes at zero latency.

Sure, I get that, but the question is whether the manufacturer’s driver performs as well at low latency when ASIO Link Pro is in the equation. Typically, what kind of buffer settings are you achieving?
Thanks for bringing this into the discussion.

Yes it does, according to my tests. Incredible piece of software.
I usually operate with 44.1 kHz and 128 buffer.

Hi @JCollins,

are you aware of any guide on the net about how to configure it? I have installed it on my desktop PC and I can use it without problems with a single app but I have not found a way to send audio from Cantabile to Cakewalk. I activated MultiClient mode and checked “Route to ASIO IN” in the AsioLink window associated to Cantabile but I did not manage to get audio into Cakewalk. However, I can hear audio from both Cantabile and Cakewalk going to my soundcard (so multiclient mode works). The audio from Cantabile, however, does not show up in the Cakewalk AsioLink window (maybe I am wrong in expecting it to show up there?).

Moreover, I often got pops and clicks on the left channel when using both Cakewalk and Cantabile at the same time.

Any help appreciated (expecially if you could point me to a walkthrough).

Gabriel

I have re-installed Voicemeeter and I managed to use it to send audio from Cantabile to Cakewalk without clicks and pops! I found that you can actually use the same ASIO driver for both Cantabile and Cakewalk and this automatically (i.e. without having to use send buttons in Voicemeeter like B1, B2 etc) makes Cakewalk access Cantabile’s audio! I always assumed that you had to use different ASIO drivers for different programs (e.g. AUX Virtual in Cakewalk and Virtual in Cantabile)!

I am not sure if I had read this somewhere or if it was just an assumption on my side. Anyway, using the same ASIO driver, it seems to work and it does just what I want, with reasonably low latency at 512 samples 44.1kHz. I can record in Cakewalk the output from Cantabile. Now I have to test if it is reproducible (maybe it works just once in a lifetime!), what is the actual latency, etc.

Gabriel

After a bit of search, I found this Gig Performer | How to use a single-client ASIO driver with multiple applications on Windows

It seems that all solutions are listed there, including ASIO Link Pro and VB Audio Matrix. ASIO Link Pro lacks the quality documentation… I stopped using it when I bought an RME interface.

Thank you so much!!

I have read the page and it seems that what I was missing is to set up something similar to what they do in the “Wiring view” of Gig Performer. I thought I had to do something in the ASIO Link window, but this seems not to be the case.

Gabriel

HI Gabriel,
Under ‘normal’ circumstances, where you address your apps directly with the appropriate ASIO driver, what kind of buffer settings would you reliably achieve in typical use?

In Cantabile, using the Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO driver, I must use at least 512 samples to be safe (single buffered). Below this value, I start getting clicks and pops, at least on my desktop PC, expecially when playing the most demanding plugins (e.g. Cherry’s Elka Syntex).

Gabriel

There is no doubt that a good ASIO driver is an efficient ASIO driver. The same computer is capable of vastly different results depending on what’s running on it. We see our CPU meters barely breaking a sweat but the time load will struggle. How much it struggles is almost certainly down to the ASIO driver in some measure. I can’t work comfortably with 512 but some situations, such as Voicemeeter plus Cantabile plus Cubase plus OBS have sometimes required the buffer to go up but… on some days… it works way better and I get away with 256. I have not had the patience to analyze what can result in the same setup deteriorating in those circumstances.
That’s why I’m interested to see how these various interapp utilities impact buffer size, and whether Jack’s suggestion is vastly different from Matrix, or Voicemeeter for that matter.

I’ve now renconfig’d my OBS setup with Matrix. Voicemeeter would regularly jump sample rate and bring the whole interconnection crashing to a halt, usually with nasty buzz saws accompanying the breakdown. Sometimes, CPU load would randomly jump, requiring buffer adjustment for loads which had previously been behaving.
I’ve seen nothing like that on Matrix, and I have been running it solidly all day, at lower latency, and even though this setup does stress the time load of my system, that is not manifesting as clicks or pops.
At this point, I would say VBMatrix is a more solid performer than Voicemeeter. I’m just looking for a way to remote the monitor channels. Voiceemeeter has a cool ‘hook’ thing which allows the jogwheel of my Logitech keyboard to control the designated monitor fader. There are no actual faders in Matrix, but there is gain control at each junction of the matrix itself, and it looks like some kind of MIDI control is available. Need to get into that.

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The preset management is not obvious until you know how, and Vincent has a post on his forum which demystifies. Basically, you select points and then add them to the preset of your choice.
Once you have defined a present, you get MIDI control of its gain, mute status and phase. The gain works very smoothly.
There is bidirectional MIDI control too, although I haven’t bothered to set that up.
I have a fader assigned to the gain of the monitor outputs. Just waiting to hear whether windows devices, such as keyboards with jog wheels, can be used as with Voicemeeter’s 'hook; function.
One thing to look out for is that there are several dialogues to save components of Matrix’s functions, such as routing, setup, MIDI mapping and preset. All of these are xml files. You need to watch your naming conventions and/or save locations, so that you can differentiate the data.
Still no sample rate issues.

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I suspect you’ve seen the post in the Cakewalk forum about the probable root cause of the Cakewalk crash with Matrix Trying to use Cakewalk and VB-Audio Matrix - Cakewalk by BandLab - Cakewalk Discuss | The Official Cakewalk by BandLab Forum

“VB Audio Matrix registers 4 different Virtual ASIO drivers in the registry… Open up regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO and delete all of the VB-Matrix entries but VB-Matrix VASIO-128… Cakewalk will now load and the VB-Matrix VASIO-128 can be selected as your ASIO driver”

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Hi @Hume,

thanks for pointing me to that thread. I hadn’t seen it.
ATM, I have uninstalled VB-audio matrix on both my windows11 and my windows10 machine. I wanted the same setup on both so I went back to VoiceMeeter.
As soon as I have some spare time, I will try the proposed solution and check if it solves my problem with Cakewalk (on windows 10, since on windows11 I had no crash).

Thanks again,
Gabriel