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The drivers (Windows operating system).
The PHASE 28 audio interface features a range of drivers for a variety of applications. All
drivers support every bitrate between 8 and 32 bit with all common sampling rates
between 8 and 96 kHz, and even 192 kHz (with the exception of the digital input). As a
rule, the sample rates are not "interpolated". In other words, the system always automati-
cally sets itself to the sample rate with which an application is recording or playing back.
This prevents quality losses due to internal sample rate conversions. There are excep-
tions, however, which we will be covering below.
But now to the individual drivers.
The Wave driver.
In most Windows programs, you will encounter drivers with the designation "PHASE 28
Wave" for recording and playback. The device structure corresponds to the format
defined by Microsoft for WDM audio devices. If the PHASE 28 system is selected as the
standard output device (e.g. Windows: Sounds and Multimedia Properties; MAC OS X:
System Settings -> Sound) audio is output via channels 1/2 and parallel via the digital
output.
In order to directly address all five stereo outputs (four analog and one digital), there is a
numbering system within the corresponding audio applications (e.g. Cubase or
WaveLab), which corresponds to the five output pairs: 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8, as well as
9/10 for the digital output.
If you have multiple cascading audio interfaces, (see Ü page 32), the operating system,
as a rule, numbers the driver names from 1 to 4. "As a rule" means, in plain English, that
there can be exceptions over which we (unfortunately) have no influence.
Additionally, and depending on the application software, the driver names are appended
to include other information that refers to the operating system's proprietary audio
architecture: MME, WDM or DirectSound (see below for more information).
The ASIO driver.
Programs that make use of Steinbergs ASIO interface are indicated in the corresponding
dialogs of the PHASE 28's ASIO drivers. With ASIO, programs achieve extremely short
delays (latency) during audio recording and playback. Therefore, a latency of significantly
less than 10ms should be targeted. For fast, well organized systems, even latencies of
less than 2 ms are possible at sampling rates of higher than 88.2kHz!
The ASIO driver is listed in compatible programs under "ASIO for PHASE 28". The inputs
and outputs (usually "buses") available in the programs are called "PHASE (n) Out",
where n is used to distinguish between multiple PHASE interfaces (1 to 4, see
22
PHASE 28 (English)
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