Topic by dklein

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Topic: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

I am trying to equalize my output with a balancing program called Dirac Live, from Sweden, which has the power to make output filters for speakers (it can even time-delay outputs for phasing and distance from the speakers to the listeners, but that doesn't apply to my L+R setup for my Pianoteq-enabled keyboard).

What I need help with is my routing of the signal through ASIO, as the signal seems to be missing the Dirac Live Virtual Audio Device:

Ideally, the soundpath should be as follows:

(Keyboard MIDI) -> [Steinberg UR22mkII MIDI] -> Pianoteq -> [Dirac Virtual Audio Device filters] -> [Steinberg UR22mkII ASIO] -> Speakers

My issue is that Pianoteq does not recognize the Dirac Virtual Audio Device as an ASIO output.  It only "sees" ASIO4ALL, Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver, and the Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO.

Since it does recognize ASIO4ALL, I tried to put ASIO4ALL in the middle, with Pianoteq->[ASIO4ALL] -> [Dirac Virtual Audio Device] -> [Steinberg UR22mkII], with ASIO4ALL set up to have Steinberg UR22mkII as an input (ASIO4ALL doesn't allow Pianoteq as an input), and Dirac Virtual Audio Device as an output, but it doesn't appear to allow the Dirac to do any processing, as my path must be bypassing it.  Perhaps this is because in Pianoteq's player options, when ASIO4ALL is chosen for ASIO Output Device, it lists Active Output Channels as Steinberg UR22mkII -1 1 and 2 (as if even ASIO4ALL is going right out to the Steinberg's outflow circuit).

Can one of you guys who understands audio routing teach me how to set up my ASIO audio chain, so that Pianoteq's player outputs to the Dirac Virtual Audio Device which then gets routed through my Steinberg UR22mkII as a preamp on its way to my monitor speakers?

Thanks!

David

- David

Reply by Luc Henrion

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

Just as a test, does it work with a “WASAPI” configuration instead of ASIO? Latency “might” be acceptable too...

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Reply by dklein

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

Luc,

Pianoteq displays outputs in Windows Audio , Windows Audio (Exclusive), and Windows Audio (Low Latency Mode). - are any of these the same as WASAPI?

The Dirac Virtual Audio Driver does appear as a choice in these modes, but the latency is quite intolerable, and, for some reason, the volume decrease is so notable that I can't get it loud enough to even appreciate the Dirac filter's changes in the tone.

So, if I am understanding this correctly, even though the Dirac Virtual Audio Driver says that it works in the ASIO space, it may not 'play well'?  Or somehow Pianoteq can't find it -- ASIO4ALL can find it as an output, as it shows up as an output choice in the ASIO4ALL menu.

David

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Reply by Luc Henrion

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

Do you use Pianoteq on its own or as a VST plugin? Does your DAW (whatever it is) work with Dirac?

Edit: if you don't use a DAW yet, try Waveform Free (free!) or Reaper (free to test)

Last edited by Luc Henrion (01-03-2025 14:33)

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Reply by dklein

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

Luc,

I don't really use a DAW much, though Qexl has got me to the point of some "baby learning" with studio one. I can get the Dirac plug-in to work in studio one, as well as using Pianoteq in studio one, but I was hoping for a more elegant solution of just being able to start Pianoteq without going through the whole DAW thing just when I wanted to play some music in player mode.  "There must be a way" says my obstinate inner self...

- David

Reply by dklein

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

Actually, Luc, though I just fired-up StudioOne and got it going with the prior version of Pianoteq as a VST, and got DiracLive to open as a filter, I cannot hear any audio difference with Dirac clicked 'on' or 'off' in StudioOne, so I'm not sure where things are being dropped outside of the audio chain - I get a piano, modifiable by other StudioOne filters, such as ProEQ, but the Dirac filter doesn't appear to be doing anything.

- David

Reply by Coises

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

dklein wrote:

My issue is that Pianoteq does not recognize the Dirac Virtual Audio Device as an ASIO output.

I do not use Dirac. I might not know what I’m talking about. But judging from the manual and what I see from online searches...

I don’t think Dirac provides an ASIO target on the software side. Its output can be connected to the ASIO drivers of an audio interface, but it doesn’t appear to expose an ASIO point on its input side which programs like PianoTeq can use as an output.

I suspect this is a result of the limitations of ASIO. You can normally only have one ASIO device or driver active on a system at any given time.

I think, from the manual, that for an application where you need to have the software connect to ASIO, you would want to use the plugin version of Dirac in a DAW or other VST host; or, alternatively, I think there might be some sort of hardware that sits on the output side of your audio interface and thus wouldn’t interfere with software at all.

Reply by dklein

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Re: Using DIRAC (or other ASIO filters)

@Coises,

Thanks...certainly not what I was hoping to hear.  I have a support ticket submitted to Dirac as well.

Why I can't get it to work in Studio One, I don't know either, as the VST filter looks appropriate, and it's at the output stage of my Studio One chain.

I had really high hopes to make Dirac work, as it's a relatively easy-to-use conformable audio filter, kind of like Room Equalizer Wizard on steroids.  I was introduced to the company via my Emotiva Home Theater XMC-2 processor, which incorporates Dirac, which takes multiple speakers in all kind of configurations, creating a filter that balances volumes, equalization curves, and delays.  So I purchased the version that runs on a windows computer, hoping that it at least would be able to 'fix' my bright and weird-sounding monitor speakers, trying to bring me closer to my goal of making Pianoteq sound so real, that you shouldn't be able to tell if I'm playing my acoustic piano, or have the acoustic piano with the stop-bar engaged while it plays via Pianoteq.  Presuming I can get Dirac to work, then the real goal is the same type of processing, but to have it balance the outputs to the transducers that I afixed to my piano's soundboard, which I can't get to sound even close with manual work with StudioOne's ProEQ - I figured that Dirac would really help me here!

- David