When I record using the line input on this sound card, the result is distortion. The Audacity input bar shows -6db or less. Windows media player plays back fine. I am using a line level source. The port is apparently being overloaded. If I drop the line level, the maximum level I can get is -50db or so in Audacity.
I assumed when I bought this card I could use the line level input to record using Audacity, but it is not working out. Does anyone have experience using this card? Is it compatible with Audacity 2.0.1?
I don’t have one myself, but there was someone on the forum a year or so ago that used one successfully, so I think it should work.
Please describe your set up in minute detail, including exactly what you have connected where and how, and details of your Windows version and settings.
Win XP 3ghz cpu 2gb ram
Realtek on board audio disabled in bios. Drivers present
ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card with latest drivers
Onkyo A/V receiver
Technics SL 1300 turntable
Audacity 2.0.1
The turntable is plugged into the phono input on the Onkyo. Records play without distortion through speakers connected to Onkyo.
Tape Line Out on Onkyo connected to STX card Line input.
Powered speakers connected to STX card speaker outputs.
FM broadcast and records play through the powered speakers(though sound card) without distortion.
Windows media player also ok.
Audacity settings are default. Input meter shows -6. I record using any source(line input) through the sound
card and export as MP3 extreme. When I playback the MP3 using Win media player or through my media server, it is distorted-sounding as though something was overloaded during recording.
If I monitor the playback using Audacity, the level is -18 (indicating gain compression?).
So the problem is only during recording using the sound card. Before I added the STX, I had to attenuate the line level input signal to keep the Audacity input meter from jamming full right.
I do not have a block diagram of the sound card, so I don’t know the signal paths. I contacted ASUS and they gave me “useful” advice, like installing Win 7 drivers on my XP machine.
Lol.
Are you able to install the “Xonar Audio Center” in Windows XP?
If so, look at page 26 of the user manual and check the input settings. I see that the Xonar has a combined mic/line input - if that is set for a microphone it will distort like crazy even if you turn down the Audacity recording level.
Yes, it is present. I noticed today that if I select the Line input on the ASUS mixer screen, any time I open Audacity it is deselected (now in Mic input mode) and the Mixer input is selected. If I manual reselect the Line input, the Audacity input meter goes dead and receives no input. If I restart Audacity, the same thing reoccurs.
Also, any time I change an ASUS level slider, the Audacity level meter drops to about -18 from -6. I have to restart Audacity to restore the level meter. That may be normal… I think the Audacity/sound card interaction has changed (for the worse)
Audacity log:
09:30:35: Audacity 2.0.1
09:30:35: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘MainPanelFunc’ in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
09:30:37: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
09:30:37: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from default path, ‘C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavformat-52.dll’.
09:30:37: Looking up PATH environment variable…
09:30:37: PATH = ‘C:WINDOWSsystem32;C:WINDOWS;C:WINDOWSSystem32Wbem;c:Python22;C:WINDOWSsystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0;C:Program FilesATI TechnologiesATI.ACECore-Static;;C:PROGRA~1COMMON~1MUVEET~130625’
09:30:37: Checking that ‘C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacity’ is in PATH…
09:30:37: Warning: FFmpeg directory is not in PATH.
09:30:37: Temporarily appending ‘;C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacity’ to PATH…
09:30:37: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavformat-52.dll’.
09:30:37: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘avutil_version’ in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
09:30:37: avformat not monolithic
09:30:37: Loading avutil from ‘C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavutil-50.dll’.
09:30:37: Loading avcodec from ‘C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavcodec-52.dll’.
09:30:37: Loading avformat from ‘C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavformat-52.dll’.
09:30:37: Returning PATH to previous setting…
09:30:37: Actual avutil path C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavutil-50.dll
09:30:37: Actual avcodec path C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavcodec-52.dll
09:30:37: Actual avformat path C:Program FilesFfmpeg For Audacityavformat-52.dll
09:30:37: Importing symbols…
09:30:37: All symbols loaded successfully. Initializing the library.
09:30:37: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
09:30:37: AVCodec version 0x344802 - 52.72.2 (built against 0x344802 - 52.72.2)
09:30:37: AVFormat version 0x344002 - 52.64.2 (built against 0x344002 - 52.64.2)
09:30:37: AVUtil version 0x320f01 - 50.15.1 (built against 0x320f01 - 50.15.1)
09:30:37: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully.
I noticed an error “main panel function”
Would yo0u post the output from “Help > Audio device info”.
By the way, most of the log information is just Audacity looking for if/where/how ffmpeg is installed.
Audio Device:
==============================
Default capture device number: 1
Default playback device number: 3
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input
Host name: MME
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio
Host name: MME
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.200000
Low Output Latency: 0.200000
High Input Latency: 0.400000
High Output Latency: 0.400000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: Primary Sound Capture Driver
Host name: MME
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio
Host name: MME
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: Primary Sound Driver
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio
Host name: MME
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 2
Low Input Latency: 0.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.000000
High Output Latency: 0.000000
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Selected capture device: 5 - ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio
Selected playback device: 7 - ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio
Supported Rates:
8000
9600
11025
12000
15000
16000
22050
24000
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
192000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available capture sources:
0 - Stereo Mix
1 - Microphone
2 - Aux
3 - Line In
4 - Wave
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - Wave
1 - SW Synth
2 - CD Player
3 - Wave
==============================
Capture volume is native
Playback volume is native
Thanks, I’m starting to get the picture, but I don’t know what you mean by:
“if I select the Line input on the ASUS mixer screen, any time I open Audacity it is deselected (now in Mic input mode) and the Mixer input is selected.”
In the Xonar Audio Center, you click on the bottom arrow and it opens the volume sliders. You click on RECORD and you can select the input used with the small buttons at the bottom of each slider. There are a few sliders, two of which are Mic/Line and Mixer. If I select Line, then open Audacity, I hear a click on the STX card (relay) as it switches to Mic, and the Mixer slider is enabled. This happens only when Audacity is opened. Apparently it is causing the Mic/Line input to switch to Mic, which is overloaded by my line level input. I think that is why I am getting distorted recordings from the Line input. What Mixer does I haven’t figured out yet.
MME/ASUS Xonar Essence STX/ASUS Xonar Essence STX/2(stereo)Inp. When I click on the input device tool bar it shows five entries for ASUS Xonar Essence STX. Output device shows one. MS sound mapper shows on both also and no other devices than ASUS. The five entries seems odd (part of prob?). I wonder how I can clear all but one. They might be due to the ASUS driver install/uninstalls I did. Don’t know.
It seems strange that the drivers are not reporting what each of those inputs is.
What inputs are reported in the Windows Sound Control Panel?
For playback and record, it only shows ASUS STX. IN advanced the mixer panel with the level sliders shows Asus STX and they all work. Use default checked. The five STX entries in Audacity make sense, they may be normal.
Try setting Audacity to record from the “Sound Mapper” (using the Device Toolbar), then use the Xonar Audio Center to set the input to “Line”.
I did that. Now the Line input setting on the sound card stays where I set it when I open and close Audacity.
Good.
Bad-now I have no audio in Audacity or the sound card. I think I’ll shut everything down and try again tomorrow.
Here is what I did today:
Uninstalled latest ASUS STX drivers and installed drivers from install disc (older version). Probably not necessary. Audacity defaults to input driver “stereo mix” which selects the mic input not Line.
I expanded the Audacity tool bar for input, and now I see the full description of the drivers. I clicked on ASUS line in. It selected the sound card line input. I now get audio from the sound card line in to Audacity. The level is about -18 with the level sliders at max. I found out that some sound cards expect a “pro” line level of +4, not the standard level from most devices. I recorded a test MP3 file and it plays back without distortion. Then, I applied the AMPLIFY effect to bring the level up to -3, exported and played back. Louder but still ok.
SO…to sum up–you must select the correct driver in Audacity manually,the line level from the sound card is lower than expected, but can be fixed with AMPLIFY. I could JUST SCREAM!
I am going to make some test recordings from LPs to verify all is ok.
Anyway Steve, thanks so much for sticking with me on these problems. I appreciate your help.
Ah ha! I thought that it must say which was which somewhere - it was just a matter of finding it 
That’s a bit low,but you can probably get away with it.
Check the settings in both the Windows Sound Control Panel and in the Xonar Audio Center - you may find that you can tweak it up a little.
An ideal recording level is for a maximum peak level of about -6 dB (half the audio track height).
Just a few points:
As Steve alludes to, if you do that you are selling yourself short by failing to capture the resolution available on vinyl, which subsequent amplification can do nothing to recover. You really need to have the source at a minimum of -12dB and I am sure this is possible if you persist.
Secondly it is almost always the best policy to use the latest drivers. From my own experience I have the Asus D2 which as I understand it is very similar to the STX except there is no headphone amplifier, and recently put it into a newbuild PC without expecting any improvement. To my surprise I found a Windows 8 updated driver on the Asus site and there is no doubt that the card now performs significantly better in terms of stability; I am delighted. However, I should mention I have never had any problems getting line in levels right–have you tried fiddling with the monitor buttons in the Asus control panel?
Finally, there is a small chance that your problems may stem from an increasingly corrupted Windows XP installation if you have been running it for many years. The whole thing simply degrades due to the registry based architecture of Microsoft operating systems, and as such you might consider either a reinstall of XP or a move towards a more modern alternative, especially if this allows you to use the latest Asus driver. Windows 8 really isn’t anywhere near as bad as the mythology suggests.
I am using the latest ASUS stx driver for XP just before the current beta version. Tried that one too.
In the ASUS Xonar control panel, if I select MIX (mixer), the Line slider deselects and I get plenty of audio in Audacity, but it is distorted when recorded. The Line port gets switched to Mic, although the Mic slider does not show it is selected. If I select Line, I get the same level with the Line slider Monitor on or off.
When using the Line input on the sound card, what settings do you use in the Record/slider panel? You mentioned you had good luck. The computer is an HP 3ghz cpu 2gb ram with XP bought in 2006 and runs ok. But, programs have been added and removed over time, to what effect I don’t know.
In the ASUS STX mixer panel (Record) I just tried selecting the Mic slider and shutting Mic Boost off. The monitor audio is distorted with Boost on, ok off. Can I use a line input with the Mic selected this way? There probably is an impedance mismatch, but the level shown in Audacity is about -6 now. The Line and Mic share the same port.
I will try a test recording.