**************************************************************************** Important Hints to the Marc 8 Midi driver version 1.12 for Windows 2000/XP **************************************************************************** 1. System Requirements 2. Installation 3. What's new 4. What's to do 5. Attention: Windows System Sounds ------------------------------------------ 1. System Requirements ------------------------------------------ * Windows 2000 SP1 or Windows XP ----------------------------------------- 2. Installation ----------------------------------------- * Ensure that you are logged on with administrator rights at Windows NT * Update: First remove an older Marc 8 Midi driver by use of the device manager of Windows 2000/XP. Then force the device manager to search for new hardware or restart your computer. In this case logon at Windows 2000/XP as an administrator again. * Follow the instructions of the Windows 2000/XP hardware assistant. Choose the folder where you have copied the driver before as path to the device drivers. * In some cases (update and installation of multiple cards) Windows 2000/XP requests you to restart your system. In this case - restart your system really. * After the installation the Marc 8 Midi Sound System is ready to operate. ------------------------------------------ 3. What's new ------------------------------------------ Version 1.13: * ASIO: performance improved when using less than all playback devices of one card * ASIO: When using an ASIO application, the driver overrides user's clock and start/stop synchronization settings with appropriate values. (these user settings are applicable for MME applications only). Now, the driver restores the user settings again, when the last ASIO application has finished. Version 1.12: * Marc 8 Midi Manager Software now uses the registry branch "HKCU" to store it's settings. This solves the problem with the error message "Could not write to arc8896mix.ini" that appeared on some systems during shutdown. Version 1.11: * Record CPU Load decreased by 25% * The samplerate that is used to capture input level data decreases depending on the number of cards installed down to a minimum 11.025 Hz. * More audio clients allowed for the driver. This prevents some cases where error messages report "Unsufficient System Ressources" Or "No Memory". Version 1.10: * This version is compatible to MS Windows XP * SyncBus: Start/Stop Synchronization improved Version 1.01: * Because of legal reasons the name "Siena" cannot be used anymore. The existing hardware and related drivers are now part of the product "Marc 8 Midi". * MME Interface: synchronous buffer return improved Version 1.0 to NT4 Version 2.12 * "Plug and Play" Support * Support of the Windows 2000 computer configurations: - ACPI Multiprozessor PC - ACPI PC - ACPI Uniprozessor PC - MPS Multiprozessor PC - MPS Uniprozessor PC - Standard PC * ASIO 2.0 Support NT4: Version 2.12 * Support of 32 Bit Audio Data Transfer for MME devices * Improved synchronous playback buffer return for MME applications * Gain/Volume conflicts between the Siena Manager and other comparable applications solved NT4: Version 2.10 * Some Users told us about the driver message "Card memory check failed" on Windows Start. (most of them are AMD-Users). This problem was caused by an incompatibility between the PnP BIOS and the Siena PCI Controller. In consequence the audio data couldn't read/write from/to the Siena RAM. This driver version is able to walk around this problem but at cost of the IRQ sharing. Therefore you may get the error message "IRQ could not be occupied" or another system component which uses the same IRQ like the Siena will not work. In this case change the IRQ of the Siena to another value which is not used by another system component. Do this by using the PnP BIOS. NT4: Version 2.08: * Full featured "BusSync" between multiple Siena's. This allows a Start/Stop and Clock Synchronzation. You need a BusSync cable for 2 or 3 or 4 cards which you can get from SEK'D. * Midi Input problem while running wave audio solved * Improved hardware functionality tests * Improved Midi Device Reset * Improved Midi In Performance * Developers Interest Only: - Call of several waveOut-fuction by DevId ------------------------------------------ 4. What's to do ------------------------------------------ * WDM Kernel implementation to support DirectSound and WDM based applications * ACPI power management functions ------------------------------------------ 5. Attention: Windows System Sounds ------------------------------------------ * After the first installtion of an audio device driver, Windows 2000/XP switchs on the Windows System Sounds per default. The system will playback these sound if a message box appears or a windows will be minimized or maxminized. The use of this system sounds may cause some problems in conjuction with running audio applications. * Per default the driver takes care of a synchron start and stop of all analog devices of the Marc 8 Midi. This is a really important feature for each multichannel harddiskrecording program but it may cause conflicts with the windows system sounds. If a running playback- or recording session will be interrupted by a system sound (because of a message box or window actions) the playback- or recording session will STOP too and the related audio application will hang (under specially circumstances) in a undefined state . You can solve this behavior by switching off the system sounds (Control Panel->System Sounds) or by deactivating the Start/Stop Synchronization Option of the Marc 8 Midi driver. (Taskbar->Marc 8 Midi Icon Doubleclick->Settings) . Leipzig 03-18-03