12. Operation and Usage
12.1 Playback
The HDSP system can play back audio data only in supported modes (channels, PCM) and formats (sample rate, bit resolution). Otherwise an error message appears (for example at 22 kHz and 8 bit).
In the audio application being used, HDSP must be selected as output device. This can often be found in the Options, Preferences or Settings menus under Playback Device, Audio Devices, Audio etc.
We strongly recommend switching off all system sounds (via >Control Panel /Sounds<). Also HDSP should not be the Preferred Device for playback, as this could cause loss of synchroniza- tion and unwanted noises. If you feel you cannot do without system sounds, you should con- sider buying a cheap Blaster clone and select this as Preferred Device in >Control Panel /Multimedia /Audio<.
The screenshot to the right shows a typical configuration dialog as displayed by a (ste- reo) wave editor. After selecting one of the 32
playback devices, audio data is sent to the according audio channels.
Increasing the number and/or size of audio buffers may prevent the audio signal from breaking up, but also increases latency i.e. output is delayed. For synchronized play- back of audio and MIDI (or similar), be
sure to activate the checkbox ‘Get position from audio driver’.
The HDSP MADI allows sample rates of up to 96 kHz via MADI. In this mode, only channels 1 to 32 are available.
18 | User's Guide HDSP MADI © RME |