WaveWarp 2.0 Component
      
Input Soundcards:
Functional Description
Represents any Windows-compatible soundcard with a stereo WAVE driver
for use as a stereo input device for feeding a live stereo audio signal into
WaveWarp. This component has a single stereo output connector which delivers
a single stereo signal.
When this component is dragged onto the DrawingBoard, a
selection dialog box
opens
from which the specific physical hardware input device can be selected.
The bit-resolution of the device (e.g. 8-, 16-, 18-, 20-, or 24-bit)
and the index assignment can be adjusted via the WaveWarp Soundcard
Manager Interface (see the relevant sections of the
WaveWarp Users' Guide for more information).
The selection dialog box lists all available devices i.e. those which have not
yet been used on the current DrawingBoard or which have not been explicitly
excluded for use by WaveWarp.
In addition to listing the available soundcards
actually installed on the computer, the selection dialog box includes a
"New" template option which represents an unavailable (or non-existent)
soundcard. This place-holder device can be selected and connected up,
in preparation for eventual use on a computer with multiple soundcards
(or multichannel soundcards), even if the computer used when building the
DrawingBoard does not have multiple
soundcards (or multichannel soundcards) with a sufficient total number of
channels installed. An arbitrary number of placer-holder devices can be used.
When the DrawingBoard is loaded on a computer with the required number
of devices, the original place-holder devices will be automatically replaced by
the actual devices present, in the order determined by the I/O mapper within the
WaveWarp Soundcard Manager Interface.
This soundcard component can be connected up with any sample rate supported by the
underlying device. When WaveWarp is initialised (or after pressing
the
Scan System for all installed Drivers and Options
button located in the WaveWarp Soundcard Manager Interface window)
WaveWarp queries the sample rates supported by each device and
publishes the results
of this query under the Sample Rates
heading in the Input Soundcards category of the Component Library
(and also in the WaveWarp Soundcard Manager Interface window).
These reported sample rates are supposedly the ones available to the device.
However, owing to an incompleteness in the Windows WAVE reporting mechansim,
even if a desired sample rate
is not listed for a given device
it is worth trying anyway since some devices
seem to support more sample rates than reported by Windows.
In the worst case, the DrawingBoard will not play
until a valid sample rate is used.
When the DrawingBoard is played, the audio data coming from a given soundcard is
converted from the integer representation corresponding to the bit-resolution of
the device (8-, 16-, 18-, 20-, 24-bit etc) into
WaveWarp's internal floating-point representation (over the range -1 to +1).
It is important to ensure that the
signal levels of the input audio source and of the soundcard are set such that the
input signal is not distorted. Note that the soundcard input level controls
cannot be adjusted from within WaveWarp. They must be
adjusted via the Windows audio mixer or the software mixer application which
comes with the soundcard (and is usually installed at the same time
when the drivers are installed). Consult your soundcard documentation for
more information.
Important note: owing to the data buffering inherent to Window's communication
protocol with the soundcard, there will be an unavoidable latency associated with the
processing of live audio inputs. The latency can be reduced by adjusting the buffer
settings of the soundcard via the WaveWarp Soundcard Manager Interface window.
Consult the relevant sections of the
WaveWarp Users' Guide
for more information on this subject.
Algorithm
n/a
Signal Implementations
Related components:
Example DrawingBoards illustrating usage:
|
