From deke@dekethegeek.com Thu Mar 27 04:59:06 2003
Subject:RE: How to use Quattro?

> I still have my Santa Cruz sound card in the computer, so I can
> listen to my mp3s and watch videos and DVD's.

Herein lies the problem. You must remove or disable all other sound devices
from the system. Any other card seems to interfere with the Quattro's
operation. In my case the "other" soundcard was the builtin el cheapo one on
my laptop, so it was no big loss. The only issue with the Quattro is the
fact that it doesn't support regular wave out. This means you can't use it
for Winamp, Windows Media Player, etc. I know this is a bummer, but I
suppose you could use Cakewalk (or something else that is ASIO compatible)
to play mp3's and such with. I guess it depends on how important it is to
you... it wasn't very important for me, so I haven't pursued other options.

> I just made a
> separate login for music purposes, like Deke said, on my Windows XP
> so I can turn off all unnecessary resources, and maybe that will
> work. But I really didn't expect to have to do all this.

Although I don't remember giving that advice, it is good nonetheless. There
is quite a bit of work involved in making XP a viable OS for music recording
/ performance. For some good tips, just search Google for "DAW XP tweaks".
DAW = Digital Audio Workstation... or a PC based recording studio. If you
think about it, those guys are shooting for a lot of the same things we
are... low latency audio, a streamlined OS, etc.

Keep in mind that XP is built with the average desktop user (surf the web,
read email, etc.) in mind. It is certainly capable of being a robust OS for
audio applications, you just need to do some fine tuning is all. I'm sure
you've mentioned it, but what are your system specs (CPU speed, RAM, hard
drive)? I'd be glad to help you get this thing rolling, and the info may
well prove useful for other members as well...

Deke The Geek