Komplete Audio 6 MK2 Low Input Audio When Installing Drivers
Hello all, wanted to ask how you all are working around the unusably low audio input once the drivers are installed. Without any drivers installed this device works great, however I've come across a couple of pieces of software that will not run at all anymore until the drivers are installed. However this has resulted in like a 90% reduction in gain from the XLR inputs making calls over any communication application that doesn't have auto gain adjustment that will boost the gain past 100% impossible as no one on the other end can hear me. I don't understand why they would do this as part of their driver. For a moment I thought this was a result of the XLR port itself dying like on my MK1 however this is 100% a software issue as uninstalling the drivers results in usable gain levels.
Best Answer
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@OccasionalAudio I've contacted you by email, one of our specialists will have to look in your system and can also provide more guidance.
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Answers
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@Jeremy_NI Is this the normal expected behavior?
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Can you give more details, like what is the source, what DAW are you using, what's your operating system? What drivers do you mean? Do you mean the ASIO driver or the plug & play WASAPI driver, or are you on Mac? On Mac it's alos plug & play and no drivers are needed.
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Did you try another sound driver ? Such as e.g. : Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver: information & download
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Not using any DAW. I'm on windows 10, the drivers that NI provides????? what other drivers would I be using???
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If you don't install the ASIO driver, the plug & play WASAPI driver controls the audio interface.
What driver have you chosen for the output of your Windows system and with what settings?
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Without installing the NI provided driver, various programs fail to load and audio in certain programs is not available. Installing them results in perfect audio playback however like a 90% drop in input volume.
The ability to pick and choose drivers as far as I know is not a possibility, uninstalling a driver from the device results in all the drivers being uninstalled, and installing does not provide any ability to select for what part of the device you wish to install for. The ideal scenario would be to either only use NI drivers for outputs and not inputs, or for NI to fix their drivers so input volume doesn't become unusable. (given that the inputs are to expectation prior to driver installation, this would be considered a bug that should be fixed)
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There is no explainable reason why one driver over another for a soundcard would cause a lower input.
To operate the soundcard will always use a driver, otherwise you would not get sound at all. So when you're not specifically using the ASIO driver we give here: Installing the ASIO Driver for KOMPLETE AUDIO 1 / 2 / 6 MK2 (Windows) You are using the WASAPI driver, automatically deployed by Windows.
So let's maybe focus on what is the actual issue. When using the ASIO driver you experience lower volume input. What DAW are you using? What are your audio settings?
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As previously stated I am not using a DAW. All settings in windows are set to 100% input and output.
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So please post screenshots of the audio settings, what audio driver is selected for your Windows system.
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@OccasionalAudio It would be helpful if you gave more detail on exactly how you're using the Audio 6…
So far you've said "certain programs", "various programs", "couple of pieces of software" and "communication application" but not actually stated what these apps are.
Making calls? What are you connecting to the XLR inputs? Make and model of device.
The more detail you provide, the better.
(if your use is not music production related then there'd be little need for ASIO drivers anyway)
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I don't see how the applications would be relevant as they would not be changing so wasapi would thus never be an option. Regarding the communication apps I practically use all the major ones for consulting work I do and they would vary depending on whatever the client company uses (zoom, teams, slack, wire, discord), and once again not really relevant because it's not an issue with the software that's being used, it is the same behavior across the system post driver installation, including the detected input volume in windows when navigating to the sound settings.
To put it very simply output audio does not work with wasapi while input audio works perfectly, and output audio works perfectly once NI drivers are installed but input volume drops to an unusable level.
Mic used is an AT2020, but swapping to other mics results in the exact same behavior because once again, this is a driver issue not a hardware or software issue.0 -
Once again, you do not have an option of selecting and swapping drivers at will on Windows, you either don't install the drivers and windows automatically assigns wasapi drivers to the hardware, or you install the NI provided drivers which would then permanently (unless uninstalled) overwrite the original wasapi drivers in favor of the NI asio drivers. My guess is that this confusion stems from the ability to change these within a DAW, but no such function exists on the OS level.
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Yes you do (or should) have an option to swap drivers on Windows. I know that from decades of experience.
I also know from experience that installing ASIO drivers doesn't "overwrite" WASAPI drivers.
If you're just using standard "video conferencing" software then I don't see why there'd be a need to use ASIO or even a pro interface, or why WASAPI would "never be an option" as many people use that type of software with just their laptop's built in mic and camera.
It seems to me you're over complicating things.
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If I was only using video conferencing software there would be no issue with just using the wasapi drivers, but as mentioned it prevents other applications from running, which is only resolved by installing the NI drivers despite asio still not being in use (according to the NI control panel), but as stated numerous times doing so reduces the input volume to an unusable state. In no world should it be acceptable that 1st party drivers make their hardware unusable. And there's nothing complicated about it as explained numerous times: no drivers = perfect inputs but no audio in applications or applications fail to load. NI Drivers = perfect output: unusable input gain.
That is what windows registers as the input volume with NI drivers installed. Without them its in the 80s
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