A7N8X-E Deluxe Sound question

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Rivergoat

I tried accessing the ASUS tech site, but it isn't fully working for
some reason.

At any rate, this question pertains to the on board NVIDIA sound for
this mobo. When trying to use the older Syntrillium "Cool Edit Pro"
audio editing software, or the new version branded by Adobe as
"Audition" I find that the idle state of the software (no audio input)
shows excessive audio readout on the VU meters for the right channel;
additionally the recording reflects the erroneous state.

When switching to a Creative PCI sound card this problem does not
exist.

I am wondering if anyone has seen a compatibilty issue with the on
board audio such as I am describing. Nothing else about the NVIDIA on
board audio seems a problem. I need to use the audio editing software
and will be forced apparently to use a peripheral PCI sound card.

I've tried updated NVIDIA drivers to no difference, and the mobo was
just flashed from BIOS 1008 to 1013.

Any thoughts appreciated.
 
Rivergoat said:
I tried accessing the ASUS tech site, but it isn't fully working for
some reason.

At any rate, this question pertains to the on board NVIDIA sound for
this mobo. When trying to use the older Syntrillium "Cool Edit Pro"
audio editing software, or the new version branded by Adobe as
"Audition" I find that the idle state of the software (no audio input)
shows excessive audio readout on the VU meters for the right channel;
additionally the recording reflects the erroneous state.

When switching to a Creative PCI sound card this problem does not
exist.

I am wondering if anyone has seen a compatibilty issue with the on
board audio such as I am describing. Nothing else about the NVIDIA on
board audio seems a problem. I need to use the audio editing software
and will be forced apparently to use a peripheral PCI sound card.

I've tried updated NVIDIA drivers to no difference, and the mobo was
just flashed from BIOS 1008 to 1013.

Any thoughts appreciated.
Click to expand...

Motherboard sound chips don't generally have a good noise floor,
and what you are seeing could be electrical interference from
other digital circuits on the motherboard, onto the sound input.

I noticed, when examining my A7N8X-E, that there are digital
signals routed next to analog signals, and long parallel runs
of signals like that is a bad thing. There is no practical way
to fix this, so a separate sound device for input could be
the right answer. (In theory, you could reroute the analog
wiring of the sound chip, with wires on the top of the
motherboard, but the required modifications would void
the warranty, and the Asus warranty is something you want
to keep.)

Try recording the background noise level, then play it
back and listen to all the chirps and noises. One user
claims that any time an Ethernet packet is sent, the
electrical activity seems to be picked up by the sound
chip. Other people find using the mouse can causes more
noise. When a circuit is that badly designed, you are
better off just using another sound input device.

Paul
 
Thanks for the follow up, yes I think you may be right. I'm certainly
aware of what induction can do to circuits; and digital stuff can be
very picky I imagine. I don't intend on hacking the mobo, at least
right now.

Since last evening I have been testing a Creative PCI512 Soundblaster
that I had on the shelf. Fine audio, no weird jumps during Media
Player 9 audio like the Creative PCI128 was giving me, and both Cool
Edit Pro and my demo of Adobe Audition recorded excellently via the
PCI512.

For now I'm going to keep that sound card on line and keep on board
audio disabled.

Oh, another odd thing I saw. The PCI128 could not engage its game
port, no resources available (even if I disabled the on board game
port). I'm not using the game port for anything, but thought that odd.
With the PCI512 card, however, the game port activates just fine. I
wonder if there's a compatibility issue with the 128 card or if it has
a flaw...? Always nice to have spare cards lying around for testing,
the 512 is doing OK right now.
 
The game port issue is a known "feature" of that MB. You must disable the
PCI card's game port and just use the onboard one instead. Weird, but
that's the only way to make it work (if you need a game port.)
 
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