Rode podcaster and runtime error.

Question

hello, i hope someone can help me with this problem. i purchased adobe auditon 3.0 because i do podcasting and i needed a program that would support 2 usb microphones. well i have no problem getting one of my microphones to record (an MXL usb .006) but when i plug in my rode podcaster and try to use it (and this is with the MXL unplugged, so i havent even tried to use multiple usb mics yet) it gives me a error that reads "microsoft visual C++ runtime library" as the header, then it reads "runtime error! program:...rogram files (x86)\adobe\adobe audition3.0\audition.exe
this application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. please contact the application 's support team for more information."
the laptop is running windows vista, the 64 bit version.
so can anyone give me an idea what to do next?

Answer 1

>and i have no clue what you mean when you say use the wdm usb driver rather then the asio ones, so any advice there would be appreciated.
Well, this is the simplest explanation I can manage that explains the important principles:
WDM drivers are the ones that Microsoft intend to work with the OS (Windows Driver Model), and they allow for the use of multiple spund devices - wherever and however they are attached. But, these drivers have inevitably got a higher latency (delay introduced in processing signals), because they sit nearer to the top of the processing heirarchy in the OS. ASIO gets around the latency problem by short-cutting most of the OS, and allows software using its engine to talk more or less directly to your sound device - singular. To use any more than a singular device would require the arbitration that the OS would have to provide, thus destroying the point of doing this in the first place.
What ASIO4ALL does is to take the ASIO-based stream from Audition, or any other software using the same engine, and convert that back to a WDM-based internal protocol. It is bi-directional, so signals coming in (like from your USB mics) can be converted from their WDM format into ASIO for Audition, as well. As a consequence, ASIO4ALL can redirect a multi-channel stream to different devices, and can also take multiple input streams from them as well, combining them into a concurrent ASIO stream. There are several penalties to be paid though - the increased latency is one, and also you could
potentially run into sync problems, but not with the application you have in mind, I think.
There is one important bit in the ASIO4ALL FAQ that you should note, but a comment on it is needed:
>After some initial troubles with earlier revisions, the driver now appears to work just fine with numerous USB devices. one thing to not do, I mean: not ever! is to check the DMA box with USB devices. If you do not need all the additional software gizmos like EAX, EQ, Fake3D-Whatever... it is recommended that you _not_ install the drivers shipped with your USB audio interface. Windows has a built-in generic USB audio driver that works with most devices. Thus, if you want to have honest, no-nonsense, low-latency audio playback/recording with your USB audio interface - by all means: stick with the Windows driver! This is especially true for consumer grade stuff, where you can be assured that the drivers shipped with it are most likely 'consumer grade' as well.
One of the problems with USB mics is that you may well need to install at least the control applet for it, otherwise it
may not be usable sensibly at all. But, USB mics vary - so what you would need to do in any given situation, I can't comment on. In the past though, it's been pretty apparent that without the control applet, at least some of them have no sensible gain control or routing. But I would emphasise that this is very much a YMMV situation.
>i freely admit i need to do more research and reading on the software, but i have been told by people using multiple usb mics that this is what they used, or at least earlier versions of adobe audition.
That would be true. The earlier version referred to would probably be 1.5, which was the last version to use the built-in WDM system for recording, although all earlier versions could do this too, at least in principle. I believe, though, that there were other difficulties recording from USB sources with earlier versions, so all bets are off unless you've actually tried what you want to do with a specific hardware/software combination and actually
know it works.