tekHedd – the blog

WARNING: Do not install the Win98/95 drivers in Windows XP.

Q. Where are the downloads?
A. Somewhere on this site.

Q. I can only see the first pair of channels. Why can’t I see the S/PDIF or my Expander channels?
A. You are probably using software that uses the MME interface. You must use a native WDM-KS application or ASIO to access channels other than 1 and 2.

S/PDIF will be channels 9/10 in the multichannel interface.

Q. When I use [ASIO program] I get no playback and processor time is very high.
A. The version of the BYTE HEAVEN Audio Shim supplied with the V5.10.3501 release has a bug where it goes into an endless loop when no audio devices are selected. Download V5.10.3502 or later (or follow the instructions below and be very patient). Or, use the asio4all (http://www.asio4all.com/) ASIO layer, which is really much better.

This problem is most visible in Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 4 and Steinberg Wavelab.

To set up the shim (V5.10.3501 only):

1. Open the Asio Control Panel
2. Select the Inputs tab
3. Select “Add”
4. Select an audio device
5. Select “Ok”
6. Repeat for the Outputs tab

Q. In the BHA Shim’s General page, what are the Additional Latency boxes all about?
A. The “additional latency” boxes let you specify additional latency from sources other than DMA buffers, in order that the timing of played and recorded audio is correct. This number is reported to Cubase (or any ASIO application).

Q. What platforms are supported?
A. This version officially supports windows XP, and is known to work with Service Pack 2. It should also work under Windows 2000, but this is not officially supported.

Q. In the 2.3.2 driver (Solo meter), there were various routings, such as “Converter” mode. How can I change the routing in the WDM driver?
A. You can’t, except by recompiling the driver. Sorry!

Q. Why can’t I use the Solo MIDI devices?
Version 5.10.3501 did not have MIDI support at all. Install version 5.10.3502 for MIDI support. The MIDI ports on many versions of the Solo are very static-sensitive, so it’s also possible that you might have “blown” an input or output.

Q. What does this version number mean?
A. The 5.10 part means that it is built for and compatible with Windows 2000. 3501 is the specific version number for the driver (ranges from 3500 to 9999). 3500 was never released.

Q. Can I record from the S/PDIF?
A. You can. The S/PDIF is channels 9 and 10 in the inputs and outputs.

Q. What beer is required for the installation procedure?
A. Actually, almost any beverage will work. However, soothing beverages such as beer or camomile tea are preferred, because they promote calmness when something goes wrong.

Q. When opening Solo-Meter, I get an error message: solo driver disabled, unusable or in use…
A. The Solometer (or Solo-o-meter) is not a part of the Seasound Solo WDM drivers, it was distributed with the Windows 9x drivers from Seasound. It does not work with the WDM drivers. There is no Solo-o-meter for the BYTE HEAVEN drivers. (A control panel is available from the tray applet, which will let you configure monitor levels and clock source.) If you have installed the win9x driver package on an XP system, windows will probably refuse to install the WDM drivers. It’s not fair! It’s not my fault! (I did everything the officially right way, and look what it got me.)

If you’ve installed the win9x drivers under XP, you may have to manually delete the win9x files from your system directories and from XP’s secret driver cache directories, or you can restore a previous system restore point.

Q. I can’t get any ASIO to work. it can’t open seasound.vxd
A. You probably need to select the BYTE HEAVEN Audio Shim as your ASIO device. The “ASIO Seasound” device is part of the Windows 95/98 driver set and will not work under WindowsXP.

Q. I see 10 or 12 channels. What are they?
A. These are all the channels in the DMA stream from the card. Not all are used. There\’s no performance hit from them being there (in fact there\’s a slight gain because it takes extra work to hide them). These channels are:

1. 1/2 – the solo mic and line inputs and the standard outputs.
2. 3-8 – the expander channels
3. 9/10 – S/PDIF
4. 11/12 – the “monitor mixer” loopback, not used, input only

Q. Where is this ASIO Control Panel you speak of?
A. In Cubase SX:

1. Pull down menu: Devices
2. Select: Device Setup
3. In the left pane choose: VST Multitrack
4. For ASIO Driver choose: ASIO Seasound Solo (or BYTE HEAVEN Audio Shim for V5.10.3501)
5. Push the ControlPanel button

Q. When I install the Cubasis VST software it says it requires Windows 95 or 98. What can I do?
A. This software does not support windows 2000 or XP. Your only option is to upgrade to a more recent Cubase version or purchase a different product.

Q. I have installed the drivers (more than once), by running the .exe. The problem is that the new hardware wizard will not “see” them. If you try to install solo-5_10_0_3503.exe from a CD, it doesn\’t work…
A. Sometimes two things happen with the solo. You may be experiencing one of these:

1 – Windows 95 drivers on the system.

If you ever installed the win95 drivers on your win2k box, and it will try to do this even though it doesn’t work, the stupid device manager sees the version numbers and thinks this is the correct driver.

The fix is to use the device manager and browse to c:/Program Files/BYTE HEAVEN/Seasound Solo/Driver Files Well, this might not be the exact directory, but it\’s very similar to that, and might not be on your c drive. Etc. I\’m doing this from memory you understand…

The actual driver files are there, so the manager should be able to find them.

Don’t let it choose for you, manually choose them. This also fixes problem 2.

2 – The solo card’s device ID keeps changing.

Some solo cards seem to forget their vendor IDs from time to time, either coming up with a new subvendor ID or the default for the ICE chip. However, if you use device manager and force it to use the solo drivers, it will work.

Other symptoms of this disease: every once in a while when you reboot, you are forced to reload the drivers. Sorry. Not my fault, I just did software.

Q. The level meter lights on my Expander / Solo EX do not work.

A. This is normal. They are software driven, and due to technical reasons  it’s more trouble than it’s worth to light them up. Well, it would take a programmer to explain it. But in any case, it’s normal.

Q. Is the PCI SOLO EX card the same card used with  the SS Soloist?

A. The Solo, Solo EX, and Soloist can all be used with any of the PCI cards.
The Solo EX PCI card has a header on it for use with the Expander.

You can not attach a Solo/EX/Soloist to the expander connector.

Q. Where can I find the driver for MacOSX?

A. Sorry, there is no driver for OSX. :(

Q. Any hope for Windows 7/8 support?

A. No. The drivers need a complete rewrite for that and I simply don’t have the time to do that. For that matter, it’s such a pain to do Win driver development, I’d probably look for excuses not to do it. :)

Win7 64-bit will definitely not work because these are 32-bit drivers.

Q. Is the Solo driver the same for the soloist? What’s the difference if any?

Q. How do I meter the inputs and without SeaSounds metering software?

Q. Do the VU meters work if your playing a CD off the computer?  Mine  don’t show any activity even when there is sound coming out of the soloist

Q. How do I adjust the ASIO drivers?