Add a selection for the SmartSDR default audio device

N5NHJ

I'm sure this has been discussed and submitted before but I couldn't find any about it.
It would be great to be able to select which audio device the main audio from SmartSDR will be routed to.
So far no selection is available and the audio is hard routed to the window Default device.
Thanks

Bill -VA3WTB

The default audio device is not on the radio side. It is on the computer side running SSDR. That is why you need to select the default audio device on the PC.

N5NHJ

Hi Bill,
That is what I'm talking about, indeed. Being able to select the audio device among all the devices available on the computer system, instead of just being stuck with the default device.

Bill -VA3WTB

You may have a good idea, I'm not sure, were would you add the device selection?

Larry Loen WO7R

We none of us want any Flex audio device to be the Windows default audio device.

Not unless you fancy random blather from Internet Advertisements and WIndows' error tones to be put out over your Flex radio in the middle of an SSB conversation or perhaps even a RTTY discussion.

Non-Flex software is entitled to assume it can use whatever the default audio device is.  Many do so.

N5NHJ

It is just about right clicking on the PC-AUDIO button (Top Right on SmartSDR) and select the audio device you want to send the audio to.

Bill -VA3WTB

Does it not make sense to port to the computer default audio device? What other audio device is widely used?
If your using your laptop for instance without running SSDR, what other audio device is connected to the internet for sound?

N5NHJ

What about having several audio cards, or different USB audio devices?
I have my Jabra conference speaker phone, my KOSS USB headset, a 7.2 Denon receiver, and a 2 channels Bose Companion.
On top of this, I use a software mixer (Voicemeeter Potato) to route inputs and outputs, but SmartSDR just goes to the default channel/device.

Martin AA6E

This is either a Flex or a Windows problem depending how you look at it.  The DAX driver creates audio input and output devices in Windows, which you can select and connect to the software of your choice.  But from the Flex point of view, there is only one DAX audio channel (per slice anyway). 

I would like more flexibility to hook up DAX input devices.  I have several possible digital audio sources - WSJT-X, FLdigi, and an Audacity-connected USB microphone that I'd like to easily switch between.  Right now, it seems that all these apps assume that they "own" the audio port that they are configured for.  If you fire up Audacity after you run (and terminate) WSJT-X, you may not get connected properly, and there is no error message.

So it would be handy for me if DAX could select different input channels depending on a profile setup. I.e., Flex should allow for maybe 4 DAX-connected audio input channels.  Perhaps the same for DAX output.

73 Martin AA6E

Dale - AE6DS

Or in my case, having software that can do AI based background noise elimination by processing the windows default mic and presenting the processed audio as a virtual mic. Works great for teleconferencing, cannot be used any any reasonable way with SmartSDR.

Bill -VA3WTB

I realise their are all kinds of rare configurations around, you can have 5 sound cards on your computer for what ever reason, or usb sound devices as long as one is selected in the computer as default.

N5NHJ

Martin, you can address your needs using the software mixer Voicemeeter potato or Banana I was mentioning previously.

Bill -VA3WTB

I may not understand your comment, but SSDR allows for several DAX connections at the same time. Many people run several instances of WSJT-X at the same time. All connected to the Flex DAX. In what ever software your using just give it a DAX channel, then set that channel up in SSDR.

Martin AA6E

DAX channels normally map onto multiple slices, but I only need 1 slice in most situations. But I agree that you can switch a single slice among multiple DAX channels, maybe using profile selections. But this only works for audio output. There is only the one TX input channel. I was asking for an easy way to select among multiple digital input sources. Yes, mixer software would work, but I'd rather not add yet another software widget. It would be "easy" to expand the DAX architecture a little bit. (I won't hold my breath.)

Dale - AE6DS

Of course, but there are also valid UI reasons why most audio apps allow you to override those defaults without digging into the OS and changing things for other apps. Given how complex SmartSDR and DAX have to be in other areas of audio handling, adding some flexibility to PC side audio transport rather than relying solely on global settings seems like an obvious future feature.