[WriteLog] multiple sound boards

[W. Wright, W5XD]

During SS SSB I was running the "continuous recording" option but found a
couple of features lacking. The recording doesn't include what I
transmitted, and trying to playback recorded audio with WL running is a
problem because it has one channel or the other muted and the playback gets
sent to the rig's mic input so you have turn off the VOX to listen.

I thought I could fix both the problems by adding a second sound card to my
computer. I went out and bought a SoundBlaster Live! because it was the
cheapest one that advertised "content creation". I found a couple of issue
with WL software not properly supporting two cards, but once I fixed those
(will be in version 10.22--probably in December), I discovered I still could
not make the recorded audio include my transmitted audio. The problem is
that the sound board apparently has only a one-of-many multiplexer for its
recording side even though it has a real mixer for its output side. WL uses
that mixer output to support the "echo microphone" feature and I think just
about all boards have that.

After fixing the WL issues, I ended up with a configuration that would allow
listening to recorded audio without interrupting the recording (or
transmission) in progress. This configuration has the station microphone and
receiver audio going into one sound board's mic and line-in inputs, and that
same sound board's line-out going to the rig microphone (or phone patch)
inputs. The corresponding writelog.ini entry is

[configuration]
SoundBoardIndex=1

Then I setup WL's AudioReview feature to playback on the other sound board:

[AudioReview]
SoundboardIndex=0

(These settings only work properly in 10.22)

As an added bonus, the Windows sounds can be turned back on and configured
to playback in the system's primary sound board. The system sounds as well
as AudioReview playback then go to a dedicated set of speakers.

Now my question. The disappointment was that the "high end" sound card had
no mixers on its recording input--it is capable of recording what it hears
on line in or mic (or any one of about a dozen inputs!) but it is incapable
of mixing any of them together. I'm wonding if anyone has a sound card that
has such a mixer. The way you would identify it is this way:

1. Run the Windows Volume Control accessory. (usually in
Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment or something like that)
2. In its Options menu, click on the Properties selection
3. in the dialog that comes up, click on the "Recording" button
4. In the lower half of that same box, turn ON all the check boxes.
5. Click OK, and you go back to the main window, but it reconfigures itself
to show the "Recording" controls instead of playback ones.
6. If the check boxes lined up across the bottom of the pane are labeled
"Select", there is no mixer, just a one-of-many multiplexer. Confirm this by
clicking on any of the Select buttons. The other ones turn themselves off,
right?
7. If the check boxes lined up across the bottom of the pane have some other
label, then maybe you have mixer! Can you turn more than one of them ON at
the same time? If so, what kind of sound card do you have? I want one!

Its not a major hardware project to build a hardware mixer to solve the
problem, but it seems silly to do so when I now have two silly sound boards
and neither one does it. By the way, my "primary" sound board calls itself a
"Crystal SoundFusion" and is built into the motherboard on the Dell PC I
run.

Thanks,
Wayne, W5XD



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