Echo Darla, Owner'S Manual

Page 1: ...1 DARLA by Owner s Manual Version 1 6 for PC Darla is designed and manufactured in the U S by Echo Corporation ...

Page 2: ...btain factory service Contact Echo Corporation at 805 684 4593 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday Pacific Time If necessary you will be given a return authorization number Products returned without an RA number will be refused Echo may at its option require proof of the original date of purchase in the form of a dated copy of the original authorized dealer s invoice or sales receipt Pack the product...

Page 3: ...enu 19 The Session Menu 20 The Monitors Menu 21 Console Controls 21 Monitor Controls 21 Output Controls 23 Adjusting Record and Playback Levels 23 Synchronizing Multiple Devices 23 Console Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts 24 Additional Configuration Settings 25 The Monitor During Playback Control 26 SAW Compatibility Mode 26 Show Echo Console on the Taskbar 26 ASIO Driver Installation 27 Installing Co...

Page 4: ...Appendix A The Reporter Troubleshooting Guide 34 Appendix B General Troubleshooting Guide 36 Appendix C Resolving Interrupt Conflicts 37 Appendix D Introduction to Digital Recording 42 Appendix E Specifications 46 Index 47 ...

Page 5: ...alysis software Syntrillium Software s Cool Edit Pro Special Edition multitrack recording and editing software and demo versions of digital audio recording editing and processing software from a variety of manufacturers The Darla Owner s Manual System Requirements In order to use Darla you ll need the following An IBM PC or compatible computer with PCI architecture expansion slots version 2 1 PCI ...

Page 6: ...The only way to be sure is to install the card in your system and see if it works Please note that we only support Intel CPUs and motherboards with an Intel chipset Your system may or may not work with other CPUs or chipsets Be sure to run the program before attempting to install Darla as it can help you avoid installation problems down the road To run the Reporter simply double click on Install R...

Page 7: ...t resolution Times are expressed in Hours Minutes Seconds Change the Number of Tracks field to 2 and you ll see the maximum length available for a stereo track Change the field to 8 and you ll see the maximum length you ll have for an eight track opus Naturally these multitrack readouts presume uninterrupted linear tracks Your music is likely to contain numerous snippets of data e g the background...

Page 8: ...ultaneous Tracks heading At the basic level these two fields show you how many simultaneous tracks of playback and recording your system will support For example if the readout was 15 for the Playback field and 8 for the Record field that means your system is capable of playing back 15 tracks while simultaneously recording 8 tracks Note however that the Playback and Record fields are interrelated ...

Page 9: ...rter tells you your system seems a bit on the weak side Use your audio application in real world conditions then make the determination if your system can keep up with your needs Conversely if the Reporter tells you things look really bad don t waste your time trying to do any serious work If your hard disk is too slow or too small you ll save yourself a lot of frustration by upgrading to a big fa...

Page 10: ...ers before adding your Darla If you are uncertain as to whether any of these cards have ever previously been installed in your computer it might be wise to go ahead and perform the remainder of this step anyway It will not harm any of your existing system files and doing so will ensure that you are performing a clean installation On the CD that accompanied your Darla is a program called ECHODEL EX...

Page 11: ... Because most system sounds are sampled at very low sample rates typically 8 to 11 KHz each time they are played it will cause the sample rate clock on Darla to reset to the slower speed To turn off the system sounds first go to the Windows Control Panel which can be found under Settings from the Start button On the control panel you will find an icon titled Sounds After double clicking on this ic...

Page 12: ...he expansion slot where you would like to install Darla Place the screw in a safe place as you will need it later to complete installation 3 Insure that you have fully discharged all static electricity from your body before handling the Darla card This can be done through the use of a grounding strap or more simply by touching your bare hand to the metal casing of the computer s power supply For t...

Page 13: ...nerate eight independent analog output signals All of the analog inputs and outputs on Darla are simultaneously active allowing you to record up to two channels of audio while playing back eight channels Installing the Darla Software Drivers Now that you have completed the hardware installation you need to install the software drivers that allow Darla to interact properly with Windows 95 98 and yo...

Page 14: ... Copying Files window Within the window is a field labeled Copy Files From into which you ll need to enter the path name for the Darla drivers Type in the letter name of your CD ROM drive followed by for example D Click on OK and Windows will complete the driver installation routine Now turn to page 15 If you are using Windows 98 After you have inserted the Darla CD ROM disc and clicked next you l...

Page 15: ...for is a message that if everything is in working order should now appear on your screen In the center of the Darla Properties window will be a section called Device Status Look for a message that reads This device is working properly If you see it give yourself a hearty pat on the back for a job well done Proper installation of the Darla drivers will result in the message The device is working pr...

Page 16: ...tput Devices The Darla driver installs into your computer as a series of stereo WAV devices Pulling down the Preferred Device menu in the Control Panels Multimedia Audio Playback section will reveal the available Darla devices You will be able to select from Darla 1 2 Analog Playback Darla 3 4 Analog Playback Darla 5 6 Analog Playback Darla 7 8 Analog Playback In the Recording section the followin...

Page 17: ... using your audio record editing software with the devices assignable on a per track basis See your software owner s manual for details on how to make these device assignments Instructions for making these assignments in Cool Edit Pro Special Edition can be found on page 29 of this manual This completes the installation of the Darla hardware and software ...

Page 18: ...installed at the same time that you installed the Darla drivers for Windows 95 98 If installation was successful you should see a capital letter D in your Windows 95 98 taskbar typically in the bottom right hand corner of your screen Clicking on the D will activate the console program It should look like this The console functions are grouped into three areas inputs in the upper left corner monito...

Page 19: ...ance option first on the Edit menu lets you customize the look of your console You can change the color of each of the console elements change the fonts used or choose to abbreviate labels You may even want to produce multiple color schemes to help recognize the device that is being controlled A number of preset color schemes are included The second option on the Edit menu is Input Levels This opt...

Page 20: ...Session menu lets you delete any session The Select Default Settings option fifth on the Session menu lets you change to default session settings This is not the same as opening the default session Rather it is a set of pre defined settings The Auto Save Default Session option sixth on the Session menu automatically saves any changes made to the default session whenever the console is closed or a ...

Page 21: ...center of each input control is a pair of level meters Above the meters at the top of each input control is the LED which is a button as well It is used to enable green or disable yellow the level meter for this channel pair Monitor Controls Below the input channels are the input monitor controls The input monitor controls allow you to monitor the record input signal via any of the available outpu...

Page 22: ...tly above it To set the monitor for inputs 1 2 for example simply go to the monitor control directly below inputs 1 2 and click on one of the four buttons found in the center of the control Let s say you want to set the level at which input pair 1 2 is monitored for each of the four stereo analog output pairs on Darla You would first find the monitor control that corresponds to inputs 1 2 the cont...

Page 23: ... the output sliders set to their maximum positions and perform any necessary attenuation on your external mixer When the Darla playback volume controls are set to maximum and the input signal approaches the maximum pre clipping level you can achieve the full 20 bit dynamic range of the system Synchronizing Multiple Devices Darla is designed to work alongside other audio equipment within a complete...

Page 24: ...eft right 10 4 buttons Ctrl G Select the Gang button Enter Toggles the state of any selected control To control volume sliders Right mouse click Allows user to type in the desired level Ctrl left mouse click Set volume level to zero Ctrl Raise volume of selected control about 5 dB Raise volume of selected control about 1 dB Ctrl Alt Raise volume of selected control about 0 004 dB Ctrl Lower volume...

Page 25: ...ick This will bring up the Darla Properties window which we saw briefly at the conclusion of Darla installation We have previously seen the General screen so let s move on to the Settings screen by clicking on the tab labeled Settings The Settings panel is where you turn Monitoring During Playback on or off set the SAW Compatibility Mode on or off and enable disable the console on the taskbar The ...

Page 26: ...at must be accommodated by the Darla driver SAW expects an equal number of inputs and outputs on Darla For SAW compatibility the driver creates a non functional mirror of input channels 1 and 2 making an equal number of ins and outs To insure that Darla will operate properly with SAW check the box labeled SAW Compatibility Mode Note This option should only be checked when Darla is being used with ...

Page 27: ...econds using an 8k buffer This may be changed in the dialog box found in menu Audio System then select the ASIO Control panel button Choose a buffer size between 1K and 64K The smaller the buffer the lower the latency At 1K the latency is 25 milliseconds 8 You can change the data and buffer sizes in the ASIO Control panel without leaving VST provided you respond consistently to the dialog boxes In...

Page 28: ...hey do not support external synchronization 10 When running VST selecting menu Options Reset Devices followed by pressing the Play button results in no sound Simply press the Stop button twice to reset the position pointer to the beginning of the buffer Then press Play and sound will resume ...

Page 29: ... drive On the CD ROM is a folder called Syntrillium double click on this directory to open it Now locate the file in the Syntrillium directory called SETUP EXE Select this program and run it The SETUP program will copy all of the necessary files to your hard drive It will also add a program group called Cool Edit Pro Special Edition to the Program listings available from the Start button menu Cool...

Page 30: ...ssignments however you ll need to set up the Preferred Multitrack Devices To do this click on either of the small numeral 1s at the far left of the track display doing so will bring up the Playback Device window Click on the Device List button you ll see a list of Preferred Multitrack Devices In the Playback fields assign Darla analog playback devices 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 8 into the 1st 2nd 3rd and 4...

Page 31: ...the Mix Gauge seems reasonably complete the meter is beyond of the way filled try reducing the Playback Buffer Size and raising the Background Mixing Priority Level higher values reduce the priority level Conversely if you notice dropouts and see that the Mix Gauge is hovering around the bottom empty try increasing the Playback Buffer Size and lowering the Background Mixing Priority Level The goal...

Page 32: ...ch Darla channel pair This additional mixing demands more processing power from your computer resulting in longer mix times and possible skipping during playback If your system is performing sluggishly you can temporarily assign all tracks to a single channel pair while monitoring to speed things up When doing so it is recommended that you check 32 bit Pre mixes mode in the Settings Multitrack scr...

Page 33: ...mpletely We will not respond to you unless you fill out the form in its entirety We cannot help you unless you give us the required information We do ask you to please read through this manual and the support area of our website before contacting us You may find an answer to your problem using the Appendices in the Darla owner s manual and or Cool Edit Pro s on screen help Thank you for buying Dar...

Page 34: ...not have an operational PCI Bios Upgrade to a PCI computer with BIOS version 2 1 or higher The Echo line of sound cards require PCI version 2 1 or later To alleviate this problem please purchase a PCI system version 2 1 or later Your computer has a PCI BIOS but it is version 2 0 or earlier Upgrade to a PCI BIOS version 2 1 or higher The Echo Reporter has determined that your system has no free int...

Page 35: ...ther solution is to add a faster hard disk to your system The Echo Reporter has found that your system may not be equipped with a Pentium or faster processor The algorithm we are using for processor detection is known to return faulty values for many of the AMD Cyrix and other non Intel chips so be sure to double check this warning against processor identification that your machine displays each t...

Page 36: ...dicates that it has found new hardware and wants you to install a driver for it This hardware was working perfectly well before you installed Darla and the driver for this hardware was already installed Solution It is possible that during the installation process you moved an existing card from one slot to another Windows keeps track of installed devices not only by peripheral type but also by phy...

Page 37: ...errupt conflicts Hopefully we ll be able to help you solve your problem without too much trouble What is an Interrupt A computer has two ways of telling when a device such as an audio card is ready to exchange data with a program One way is to have the computer periodically ask or poll the device to see if it s ready to transfer new data Since it is important to do the transfer as soon as it is re...

Page 38: ... with an ISA card Plug and Play and Interrupts When your computer first starts up the BIOS will check each connector slot to see if a Plug and Play card is installed Each Plug and Play card has built into it a list of what resources it requires including how many interrupts it needs and which ones it can use The BIOS will then configure each card and if needed assign an appropriate interrupt It do...

Page 39: ...rst thing to do if you think you have an interrupt conflict is to determine which interrupt and which legacy card is causing the problem To do this run the Reporter software that came with your Darla card For now you can skip over the hard disk performance test since it has nothing to do with interrupts Once the Reporter has finished the diagnostic routine it will provide you with a list of all of...

Page 40: ...blem at hand the next time you add another new Plug and Play card you may wind up with another conflict If you choose this option it is still a good idea to reserve the IRQ as described below Reserving an IRQ within the BIOS Other than removing the offending legacy card the next most effective method is to reserve the IRQ for legacy use within your BIOS To do this you will need to enter the BIOS c...

Page 41: ... Select the tab labeled Reserve Resources and make sure that Interrupt Request is selected 5 Click on the Add button and enter the IRQ that is being used by your legacy card 6 Windows may prompt you that the IRQ is currently in use by another device Click on Details to see which device Windows currently thinks is using this IRQ It should be Darla or whatever device is currently conflicting with yo...

Page 42: ...le rate On playback the process happens in reverse The series of numbers is played back through a digital to analog converter or DAC which converts the numbers back into an analog signal This signal can then be sent to an amplifier and speakers for listening In computers binary numbers are used to store the values that make up the samples Only two characters 1 and 0 are used The value of a charact...

Page 43: ...se 20 bit ADCs which means that the incoming signal can be represented by any of 1 048 576 possible values The output DACs are also 20 bit again 1 048 576 values are possible Darla processes signals internally with 24 bit resolution to insure that there is no degradation to the audio signal as it is processed through the system The number of bits available also determines the potential dynamic ran...

Page 44: ... lower than the frequency you are trying to record entire cycles of the waveform will be missed and the result will not resemble the proper waveform When the sample rate is too low the resulting sound has diminished high frequency content Figure C Increased sample rates yield a more accurate reproduction of the source signal By the way the circuits that generate the sample rate must be exceedingly...

Page 45: ...ng systems record the data directly to the computer s hard disk Today s hard disks are capable of storing large amounts of data though the performance of hard drives can vary substantially The Echo Reporter program included on the Darla CD ROM will give you a general idea what the capabilities of your hard disk are and how much information it can successfully store and retrieve The speed and size ...

Page 46: ... Two RCA analog inputs with precision 20 bit 128x oversampling analog to digital converters Eight RCA analog outputs with high performance 20 bit 128x oversampling digital to analog converters On board 24 bit Motorola 56301 DSP 66 MIPS 24 bit data resolution maintained throughout internal signal path Support for 11025Hz 22050Hz 32000Hz 44100Hz and 48000Hz sample rates ...

Page 47: ...la installation 6 digital to analog converter 42 driver installation 13 E Echo Console 18 Echo Console controls 21 Echo Reporter 5 6 34 35 45 ECHODEL EXE 10 12 H hardware installation 12 I input controls 21 interrupt conflicts 36 37 38 39 L legacy 41 legacy cards 38 39 40 M mixer device command 19 monitor controls 21 Monitor During Playback 26 N new console command 19 O output controls 23 P PCI ca...

Page 48: ...s 34 resolving interrupt conflicts 37 S sample rate 42 44 sample size 43 SAW compatibility mode 26 selecting a slot 12 software Installation 13 static electricity discharging 12 summary screen 9 system requirements 5 T troubleshooting guide 34 36 ...