Windows ASIO/WDM Driver, no DirectX Inputs

[EdiParticipant]

I own a QU-SB and a SQ5. When I connect my Qu-SB to the windows computer, I have additional Direct-X input for the stereo channels 27-28, 29-30, 31-32. This is really helpful for applications which are not able to make usage of the ASIO driver. On my SQ5 I’m missing such inputs from the driver. It just registers a “SQ loudspeaker” (I think it’s the WDM part of the driver), which I’m not able to use without receiving an error. For example I switch the audio output on my Windows 10 machine from the Realtek driver to the SQ loudspeaker and playing back a video on YouTube shows an Audio Rendering Error.

With applications able to use ASIO (like for exmaple Show Cue Systems) it’s no problem, but with for example UltraMixer (used for playing music before the show begins) I’m not able to get it running with the current driver. Neither ASIO (which I’m also not able with my Qu-SB) nor with WDM/Direct-X (which I’m able with my Qu-SB).

Any recommendations or explainations why the windows driver between Qu and SQ is different?

Thanks in advance

[volounteerParticipant]

@Edi

Interesting question. I am guessing the hardware and firmware are different enough to require that driver difference.
Let’s see what AH say when they respond.

[EdiParticipant]

@volunteer

Probably I have been misunderstood what my primary question is. 😉 It’s not so much about the difference between both drivers, instead I would like to know how the SQ driver is thought to be used without ASIO.

[volounteerParticipant]

@Edi

I thought you had to have ASIO to use it.

And , to me, the question was explicit:
<< “Any recommendations or explainations why the windows driver between Qu and SQ is different?” >>
which is what I thought I had answered.

We will need AH to tell us what is what wrt the drivers.

[KeithJ A&HModerator]

Hi all,

The Qu and SQ drivers are actually very similar, and both have two parts to them. As it sounds like the ASIO side of things is understood in the OP (direct access to the device with software that supports it), I’ll concentrate on WDM.
WDM (Windows Driver Model) allows the USB audio interface to be used as a Windows system audio device, though it adds another layer to the device <-> software communication, which is why professional audio applications generally use ASIO (lower latency, more reliable etc…)

With Qu, there is no way to route the USB input locally, and so we built in extra ‘virtual’ devices to allow Windows users to choose to send from the system to any of the three stereo input channels.
With SQ, there is a single stereo send from the system to the desk (the SQ loudspeaker you mention), which appears at SQ USB input ‘sockets’ 1&2 and can then be freely routed.
By default, these are patched to input processing channels 47&48 which have been made a stereo pair and are labelled ‘USB’.

With WDM, you should be able to use this ‘SQ loudspeaker’ output in the same way as you’ve been using the output to Qu, so the fact that there is an error showing means there’s an issue with your setup.
Please follow the steps in this article (https://support.allen-heath.com/Knowledgebase/Article/View/troubleshooting-issues-with-the-sq-usb-b-interface) and if you’re still having problems, please contact us using support.allen-heath.com and we’ll figure out what’s going on 🙂

Cheers!
Keith.

[EdiParticipant]

Hi Keith,

Perfect explaination in every aspect. With this it didn’t take me more than 2 minutes to have everything working!
Really appreciate this support! In my opinion this would be worth to appear as sticky topic!

Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Dieter

[Author]

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