Thread: REAPER no sound
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Old 04-28-2014, 10:05 AM   #17
kjwmusic
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Miswest
Posts: 10
Default SOLVED; Layla20 soundcard outputs disapeard and swiched to digital, can't swich back.

Hello fellow Reaper addicts,
Well, I just feel a tad stupid. OK, maybe more than a tad. Under the Audio Settings, I had checked "Close audio device when stopped and application is inactive", in an attempt to multi-task with other audio apps, and forgot I did this. After clearing this checkmark, it solved the problem of the missing outputs and all is well in the land of gear and money. What a relief!


A little background on the situation:

While I was trouble shooting this issue, the one thing that threw me for a loop, was when I went into the Windows Device Manager and unchecked "Use audio features on this device" for my Frontier Designs Tranzport controller, this would in turn allow all of Layla's 10 outputs to be available in Reaper (sometimes that is... it worked for a moment, then it would jumble the available outputs, even during playback). This of coarse, led me to beleive there must be a conflict between Tranzport & Reaper. I even thought that my Event\Echo Layla 20 bit sound card may be fried, but alas, it was only operator error. So needless to say, it was a big waste of time and frustration uninstalling, reinstalling and updating my Layla drivers, Tranzport drivers, installing ASIO4all, and even Reaper itself.


Just a little side note on ASIO4all

These drivers are no where near as reliable as the "ECHO LAYLA ASIO WDM" drivers that came with my sound card. Just trying to play a few tracks without any FX gave me several pops, clicks and dropouts. Yet, while using the Layla ASIO WDM Drivers, I was able to play 29 full length tracks with 42 VST FX and two VSTi's all with automation on nearly everything, including FX, without a single hiccup. This is on an old HP XW6000 PC with Pentium 4 Dual Zeon 3.2Ghz processors & 4GB of RAM (4GB of RAM is the most Windows 2000 will allocate). So, I would definitely suggest using the default drivers if possible.


Why I love Reaper so much:

I started computer recording on PC's back in 1994, and I have tried nearly every single DAW software on the market, only to find myself becoming a computer tech, trying to make it work, instead of being an audio engineer. That was up until about 4 years ago, when I discoverd Reaper 2.0, and I never looked back. Finally, a piece of software that actually did what it claims to do. The only complaint I have with Reaper is its performance issues with Direct X plugins, but I found a Direct X to VST converter plugin, so all is good. Anyway, Sorry to get so long winded, I just thought there may be a few others out ther with a Echo Layla 20 bit card that may find this useful or at least interesting.


More inputs and outputs to come:

I am looking for a second Layla 20 card on ebay/craigslist for a decent price, and once I get one, I am going to install it on the same computer, giving me 16 TRS ballanced anolog ins, 20 TRS ballanced anolog outs, and 4 digital I/O's. I will let ya know how it works out. BTW, even though these cards say that they are 20 bit, they function as 24 bit and even 32 bit. This Layla20 soundcard is a rock solid combo with Reaper at the helm.


Why Layla20?

If you are wondering why I use an outdated Sound card on Windows 2000, well, first off, I have had the card since 1997, and it still keeps on perfoming perfectly. Secondly I have a nice Mixer with great preamps, plus all of the external FX and compressors I own can be inserted, thanks to all of the outputs on this sound card. Furthermore, since it has 10 outs, outputs 9 & 10 function as my Left and Right monitor outs for the control room, leaving me with 8 outputs for FX sends, or to route to the mixer to get a 8 bus mixdown, or to create 4 stereo/8 mono headphone mixes. Honestly, it seems to be one of the only sound cards that gives you 2 more outputs than inputs. Also, Windows 2000 uses considerably less resources than XP, Vista, 7 or 8. I considered upgrading to XP, just so I could upgrade the amount of RAM in my computer, but I have read too many horror stories about the Layla20 and WinXP. Besides, with Reaper, even with 29 tracks and 47 live FX, I was only using 42% of my RAM, all while recording an additional 5 tracks. Not to mention, running two 32" monitors to watch it in all its glory. Like many, I grew tired of upgrading all the time, only to find my software or hardware did not run on the new OS. Lastly, why fix what isn't broken? Window 2000 seems to run almost any audio software made that I would ever need. Also, Reaper doesn't seem to run as good on my XP machines or my windows 7 laptop, and I did not even bother to test it out on my Vista turd.


I hope this helps someone,
Happy music production....

Last edited by kjwmusic; 04-28-2014 at 10:21 AM. Reason: spelling
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