kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 MacOS has a non switchable 48khz 24-bit playback sample rate but windows 10 only has 16 bit 44.1 and 96. Is this for real? My ears must not be that good, I actually prefer the playback quality for itunes on the 16-bit/96 compared to other DAW interfaces at 24/96. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Im not sure where Helix lines up with this, but Id say get a Mac ;) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Im not sure where Helix lines up with this, but Id say get a Mac ;) After plugging in my other interface to windows 10 I'd have to agree with you there. Even it won't show all the supported formats. This is obviously a Windows issue and not a Line6 one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steevo1977 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 MacOS has a non switchable 48khz 24-bit playback sample rate but windows 10 only has 16 bit 44.1 and 96. Is this for real? My ears must not be that good, I actually prefer the playback quality for itunes on the 16-bit/96 compared to other DAW interfaces at 24/96. Firstly where are you reading these values from? I'm on Win10 and I record via the Helix 24/48. Also itunes isn't a DAW so I'm wondering what you are on about regarding this. What DAW are you using? What other gear are you using in your setup? Cheers S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steevo1977 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 You have installed the Helix drivers right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Yes - and I confirm the playback sample rate in Windows by going to control panel - sound - right click on the helix and select properties - select advanced - the dropdown only shows 16-bit rates. However I have recently discovered it is doing this to my other interfaces as well. So maybe theres a new windows update that has broken something. Well IDK what your workflow is like but I do like to preview my stuff through my stuff. Itunes for playback is nice for that. So itunes is on my DAW's to facilitate that workflow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jroseberry Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 There's nothing at all wrong/broken/sub-par with running a DAW under Windows 10. I've been running custom PC DAWs for well over 20 years... and have rock-star clients doing the same. All down to who's driving the bus... Don't confuse the WDM (Windows audio) component of your audio interface's driver with the ASIO side (used for all major DAW/Video applications). ;) Using ASIO, you're not limited to 16Bit resolution... and you're not limited to 44.1/48k sample-rate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 There's nothing at all wrong/broken/sub-par with running a DAW under Windows 10. I've been running custom PC DAWs for well over 20 years... and have rock-star clients doing the same. All down to who's driving the bus... Don't confuse the WDM (Windows audio) component of your audio interface's driver with the ASIO side (used for all major DAW/Video applications). ;) Using ASIO, you're not limited to 16Bit resolution... and you're not limited to 44.1/48k sample-rate. There's no confusion - I'm talking about the playback ability (since the beginning)- using the interface as a soundcard part. Also I'm no fanboy - I use many platforms and as long as it doesn't get in my way it's not a problem no matter what platform it is. Check for yourselves. edit: On a whim I changed my search criteria to WDM 24/bit windows 10 and it looks like every single interface model has a thread about something similar to this. So I guess that's a case closed. It's Windows 10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 There's no confusion - I'm talking about the playback ability (since the beginning)- using the interface as a soundcard part. Also I'm no fanboy - I use many platforms and as long as it doesn't get in my way it's not a problem no matter what platform it is. Check for yourselves. edit: On a whim I changed my search criteria to WDM 24/bit windows 10 and it looks like every single interface model has a thread about something similar to this. So I guess that's a case closed. It's Windows 10. I'm on Windows 10 and I just checked the properties on the playback device which in my case is the POD HDProX. Under advanced properties it shows options of 24 bit 44100 and 24 bit 48000. These options should be based on what your playback device supports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Is your windows 10 on the latest update? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
talwilkins Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 There's no confusion - I'm talking about the playback ability (since the beginning)- using the interface as a soundcard part. Also I'm no fanboy - I use many platforms and as long as it doesn't get in my way it's not a problem no matter what platform it is. Check for yourselves. edit: On a whim I changed my search criteria to WDM 24/bit windows 10 and it looks like every single interface model has a thread about something similar to this. So I guess that's a case closed. It's Windows 10. Not so sure if it's really a Windows 10 thing. Windows clearly supports these formats (and higher): but doesn't show them on the Helix driver: So maybe it's something for Line6 to resolve? Case maybe not so closed? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I'm absolutely positive it has nothing to do with Windows 10. Windows has nothing to do with the capabilities of a driver. It simply routes requests to the driver through the WDM interface (in the case of the using Windows native playback faculties) to the driver software provided by the vendor. In the Helix case they apparently provide an ASIO driver and a WDM driver. So my guess would be the WDM driver provided by L6 only supports those two formats...which I think is a pretty good guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jroseberry Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 I'm absolutely positive it has nothing to do with Windows 10. Windows has nothing to do with the capabilities of a driver. It simply routes requests to the driver through the WDM interface (in the case of the using Windows native playback faculties) to the driver software provided by the vendor. In the Helix case they apparently provide an ASIO driver and a WDM driver. So my guess would be the WDM driver provided by L6 only supports those two formats...which I think is a pretty good guess. Exactly... The RME Fireface UFX lists 24Bit 44.1k and 48k for its WDM component (Win10 Pro - latest updates). It's fully capable of 24Bit/192k record/playback. Note: With some audio interfaces, if you try to play "Web audio" when set to higher sample-rates (above 48k), you may not hear audio. All down to the driver... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ka5par Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Use the ASIO driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunedinDragon Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Use the ASIO driver. The ASIO driver, by definition, isn't available in the native Windows playback system as native Windows uses a WDM interface. That's the whole problem here. Two completely different audio interfaces and architectures. DAWs can use the ASIO because they bypass the native Windows interface and directly use the ASIO interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 What I had surmised after googling for about 5 minutes was that there is some kind of software technique being used for interfaces that is different than before. If you go to recording tab on sound the helix and other interfaces appear differently than in earlier versions of 10. Maybe it's a compromise for latency purposes would be my guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexLefty65 Posted January 3, 2017 Share Posted January 3, 2017 Interesting - I never noticed this with my Helix on Windows 10, but I see the same 2 options only as well for 16 bit at 44100 or 96000Hz only. I do see 16 bit and 24 bit 44.1k and 48k options for other audio interfaces (including a few older Line 6 USB devices). But... I actually wonder if any of the common Windows apps (iTunes, Win Media Player, Groove Music, browser playback, etc.) are even utilizing 24 bit for playback. My guess is that these apps are just operating at 16 bit anyway, and possibly also just at 44,100 Hz via sample rate conversion regardless what your source music files actually are. (And in most cases, the source music files are likely 16 bit 44,100 Hz anyway if they are ripped from CD or MP3s, correct? Unless you are playing your own recorded music that was saved at higher rate WAV files.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelco Posted January 3, 2017 Author Share Posted January 3, 2017 Interesting - I never noticed this with my Helix on Windows 10, but I see the same 2 options only as well for 16 bit at 44100 or 96000Hz only. I do see 16 bit and 24 bit 44.1k and 48k options for other audio interfaces (including a few older Line 6 USB devices). But... I actually wonder if any of the common Windows apps (iTunes, Win Media Player, Groove Music, browser playback, etc.) are even utilizing 24 bit for playback. My guess is that these apps are just operating at 16 bit anyway, and possibly also just at 44,100 Hz via sample rate conversion regardless what your source music files actually are. (And in most cases, the source music files are likely 16 bit 44,100 Hz anyway if they are ripped from CD or MP3s, correct? Unless you are playing your own recorded music that was saved at higher rate WAV files.) Right - it sounds really good. I only checked to make sure it lined up for playback - not because I was like "Omg 16bit gain structure is killing my ears!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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