[Mike Rivers]

Richard Crowley wrote:

Sorry if I'm not making myself clear. I think what you are asking for is
some method of taking conventional 2-channel audio sources and
making them come out of the 5.1 channels of speakers on a computer.

That may indeed be what the person who had posted the question on the
Mackie forum wants to do. I'm pulling his teeth slowly now. But I
thought I'd get a better understanding of how multiple audio outputs
could be used in Windows multimedia applications if I put it in the
context of something practical, in this case, playing a DVD with a
surround audio track.

If that is your question, I am saying I believe that is a function of the
*sound card and its drivers*. It is NOT a function of the source
(the media player, etc.) and it is NOT a function of the operating
system

But they're all related. The sound card driver must be capable of
telling the operating system that the insatlled audio hardware has six
outputs available. That's what drivers do. The operating system has to
be capable of making those outputs available to the application. That's
what operating systems do. And when the application knows that it has
six outputs available, it needs to know how to route each of six audio
channels to its appropriate output. That's what applications do.

My sense, from what Bob writes, is that the driver simply isn't letting
on that there are more than two outputs, so nothing else knows any
different. Maybe there are some drivers that do. I of course know that I
can use all the outputs with my "real" audio programs, at least those
that can use the ASIO drivers for my hardware. What I'm looking for is
what people who are playing movies with surround sound on their
computers are using, and how they're setting it up.

I have no problem with the answer: "Mackie never intended the Satellite
to be used with Windows multimedia applicatioons in the same way as a
consumer sound card. It's a professional device intended to be used with
professoinal applications. Only two channels are supported by the
Satellite WDM driver." But I don't want to say that unless I know it's
the whole story, and it's not easy, even for an accused semi-insider
like me, to get a direct answer from Mackie until I collar someone at an
AES or NAMM show.




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