Help me get Windows XP to make my Digidesign M Box the default sound c Options

[treeninja]

I want to stop using my integrated audio on one of my PCs and instead use my M box (the 1st generation one) as the PC's default sound card. I found the following link, but since I am a technical idiot, I can't figure out if I need to install the ASIO, the WaveDriver, or both. If someone could provide me with some expert advice, I'd really appreciate it. I really just want to set things up so that it will work correctly with Windows Media Player 11.

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=...mp;itemid=23882

Keep in mind that I want to have this set up so that I get 44.1, 16 bit playback and processing (meaning, non-upsampling).

This post has been edited by treeninja: Feb 18 2007, 11:24

[KnobTwiddler]

Can you go into the control panel > sounds and audio devices >audio and select the Mbox as the default audio device?

[treeninja]

Can you go into the control panel > sounds and audio devices >audio and select the Mbox as the default audio device?

I just tried it and it did not work on a different computer that I have installed and used the Mbox before on to do some Protools LE stuff. That computer still has all of the necessary drivers and software on it to get the M box going in protools, so I guess that means that I'd have to keep tweeking to get it to work as the default audio, even on this older computer that has the protools still on it.

Please note though that I want to start over fresh on a different PC that does not have any protools or Mbox software installed on it yet, and I'm not interested in installing all of protools, I only want to install just whatever drivers and sotware I'd need to get the PC to recognize my M box as the default sound card.


If you take a look at my link from the first post of this thread, you can see what my options are... As said earlier, I'm just not sure which one I'd need to install to do what I want... maybe I'd even have to install both?

This post has been edited by treeninja: Feb 18 2007, 22:42

[treeninja]

bump

[gameplaya15143]

Can you go into the control panel > sounds and audio devices >audio and select the Mbox as the default audio device?

^^ this is correct

If it is not in the device list, then you need to install the drivers. It's that simple. Personally I would start with the wave driver and go from there.

How you go about installing the driver, I leave up to you

[KnobTwiddler]

I'm finding that not all applications will recognize the Mbox as a sound device - games in perticular. I'm not too worried about those since most of them use pretty low-res samples anyway. If it's a media player you may need to override its output since they seem to prefer DirectSound by default. I have to set Foobar to the Digidesign ASIO output manually. I don't usually bother but the old Mbox does make a better headphone amp than my Santa Cruz.

[treeninja]

I'm finding that not all applications will recognize the Mbox as a sound device - games in perticular. I'm not too worried about those since most of them use pretty low-res samples anyway. If it's a media player you may need to override its output since they seem to prefer DirectSound by default. I have to set Foobar to the Digidesign ASIO output manually. I don't usually bother but the old Mbox does make a better headphone amp than my Santa Cruz.

Yes, it sounds very good as a headphone amp. I got the m box successfully up and running today on my laptop (with windows XP) as the default soundcard. Nice! Why bother with getting an other soundcard if you already have an m box? Anyway, all I had to do to get it working was to install WaveDriver and then go into Control Panel and change the setting so that my m box will be the default soundcard. Sweet!

Oh and by the way, I did not have to install anything ProTools related to get this working. All it needed to get up and running was the WaveDriver found here:

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=...mp;itemid=23882

The m box is a damn good sounding piece of gear, so I would suggest that anyone who has one to try using it outside of just ProTools work. It may very well blow your other soundcards away.

[Omnicron]

I'm having the same trouble and the standalone drivers don't recognize my 003.

[treeninja]

I discovered some problems with using the m box on windows XP (I don't have vista, so I couldnot test to see if it works with that). For some reason, the audio started skipping during passages with lower volume. I decided to give up on usng my m box as a listening dac on my windows machine. Leave it to Microsoft to make audio settings in their OS more complicated and less reliable.
I have had great success, however, using the m box as a dac for listening with itunes on my intel mac mini. Install the drivers:
http://digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100...mp;itemid=24268

This install does not force you to have to install protools. It is just the drivers-- a very nice thing. And it sounds great and works flawlessly with this new setup.
Just make sure your system settings has your audio set to 44.1, and you're good to go on the mac.

This post has been edited by treeninja: Nov 2 2007, 05:03

[scientus]

I'm sure you're probably fond of WMP 11, but as KnobTwiddler mentioned, Foobar can easily be set up with ASIO support, and IMO does a better job of handling large media libraries than WMP 11. All that would be needed would be Foobar + ASIO plugin + and your well traveled friend, the M-Box...Don't give up!

[fuzznight]

thread is old, but I got my 1stgen mbox working with foobar 0.9.4 jim dandy. install the asio drivers from digidesigns website if not already installed - they should be if PT is installed. google foobar asio and you'll find the component. add the mbox in foobar, done. haven't gotten it to output sound in any other app though - damn vlc.