Precision Tools for Audio Professionals

Windows XP comes with full USB support, with drivers and Plug-and-Play hardware recognition installed by default during installation of the OS. Nevertheless, there are a few changes to the default settings that we'll need to take care of first, to make the system ready for use with USB Audio. The first is to keep the USB ports operating all the time. By default they turn off after a specific time if the computer thinks they are unused. This can happen while you're waiting for the show to start, or halfwat through a session Open the Control Panel Click on System Click on the Hardware tab, then Click on Device Manager Click the + on Universal Serial Bus Controllers Scroll down to USB Root Hub Click on this, then click on the Power Management tab. You'll see a box with a tick in it, marked Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. Click on the box to remove the tick then click on the OK button at the bottom of the window Repeat this process from stage 6 above for all the USB Root Hubs listed. This is a government mandated power saving move, to prevent excess energy use, which probably works well for data, but not for music! Next, the Windows default volume setting for USB Audio Devices is 50% of maximum. For our purposes this will be too low, inducing noise and hum as the gain following the USB-DI is increased We recommend increasing this volume setting to 100%. Here's how to fix it in Windows XP Once the USB-DI is connected and has been recognised, Click on Control Panel Click on Sounds and Audio Devices Click on USB Audio Device Click on the Volume tab, and move the slider to the right, to 100% This will give you the optimum signal to noise ratio and allow you to reduce the gain at the mixer. NOTE: This still needs to be done even if you are using the USB DI-VC model. The volume control on this model only affects the analog outputs, and you'll need to increase the digital volume first. NOTE 2: This will need to be done each time you plug the USB-DI in after removing it