Installation and how to get started

Start the file peerSynth.exe and press the <loudspeaker> button. After confirming the ASIO or DirectX Setup and pressing the piano keys you'll hear your first peerSynth sound! 

If you like to uninstall peerSynth please start Uninstall.exe.

Sie können unter HELP | Interface Language auch ein Deutsches Interface wählen!

Diese Hilfe-Seiten sind aber leider nicht übersetzt.

By selecting the desired Setup Dialog the corresponding Engine is enabled. The selected Engine is shown in the I/O Level Window .

Please choose the desired Setup from the Synth menu. If you have sound hardware installed that supports ASIO you should use the ASIO Engine because of better performance and latency. 

If you have a soundcard that neither supports DirectX nor ASIO you should install the MME-ASIO Driver from Steinberg. To do this you can install a Demo-Version (e.g. Cubase) from http://www.steinberg.de. 

If you have an ASIO driver for your soundcard the application can talk directly to the soundcard via the ASIO driver like other professional programs (e.g. Cubase) do. This bypasses the slow Windows DirectX and MME-Functions!

Choose the desired ASIO Driver. You will see some Information about the driver in the info box. If there is an unsupported format shown, please report this to us. We will solve that problem!

If your system has enough power, choose the 44100Hz Sampling Rate option. 

PC 400MHz and above: 44100Hz
PC 400MHz and below: 22050Hz

If your ASIO Driver supports an Option Dialog you can open it by pressing the Option Button. Note: If the ASIO Driver doesn't support this Dialog nothing will happen if you press this button. If the selected ASIO Device has many channels it can be useful to select the first Input- or Output-Channel that should be occupied. Starting from that channel the ASIO-Engine tries to get the next 2 input channels and the next 10 output channels.

All settings in this dialog will be saved after closing and will reload next time you start the application.

Devices

Windows Mixer

Use the Mixer buttons on the right of the dialog to set up the Windows mixer. If you use more than one sound device, you will have to assign the desired mixer to the specified device (see Options in the Windows mixer menu). 

If you use an input device, you should pull up the record master volume and one or more sources (e.g. Mic) in the Windows mixer.  For the output device, pull up the master volume and the Wave Volume. In some cases you may have to unmute the desired channels in the Windows mixer. 

If the Windows mixer doesn't appear when you press Mixer, you will have to open the Windows mixer manually. Make sure that you have opened the Wave line out in the Volume Control of your specified sound device. Open one Source (e.g. Mic) in the Recording Control for the real-time input. If you have more than one soundcard installed, you'll need to assign the mixer to the corresponding device.

Optimize Performance Go to <Processing> Tab:

If your system has enough power, choose the 44100Hz Sampling Rate option. 

PC 400MHz and above: 44100Hz
PC 300MHz and below: 22050Hz

To optimize performance, you should set the device buffer size for your soundcard. To reduce the delay between input and output you should optimize the buffer by decreasing it until the overload sign flashes. If this occurs choose a bigger buffer size and press Apply. You can leave the DSP running while adjusting the buffers. Good soundcards under recent versions of Windows allow a minimal delay of about 0.020 sec.

Choose the Synth | DirectX Setup dialog:

Power

Select the Power of the DSP Thread. If it is high it is not interrupted by interface actions. Use this for slower systems if you like to have good sound quality. But the interface reactions get bad performance on slower Systems. "Weak" means  faster Interface reaction, but DSP-Thread may be interrupted on slower Systems. Please use it if you like to use peerSynth together with other applications like sequencers.

All settings in this dialog will be saved after closing and will reload next time you start the application.

Startup Errors

If you get a DirectX error message, you may have to close other applications that are using the soundcard. To remedy startup errors, go to the Synth | DirectX Setup dialog: Try other input or output combinations or other modes. Press Apply and start the DSP again by clicking Start DSP. 

Note: 
Most of the reported startup errors result from an improperly installed Sound System or old drivers that are not supported by DirectX! Please try also the ASIO Setup, even if you have no special ASIO-Soundcard. In this case you can use Steinbergs DirectX- and MME-ASIO Drivers.

The application is a real-time application that takes advantage of the DirectX interface, so please verify that you are using certified DirectX drivers in your Windows system! Check for DirectX drivers by opening the DirectX panel inside the Windows Control Panel. If there is no DirectX panel then you may need to install a new DirectX version from the DirectX page: http://microsoft.com/directx/

Note: Win98 already has DirectX installed, but you cannot view the DirectX panel!

Please contact your hardware distributor for the latest DirectX drivers. 

If there is no DirectX driver available, then try newer versions of regular Windows drivers. DirectX will try to emulate the functions in a special software layer.

Use another sound application to check the input and output functions: Check the duplex mode by recording and monitoring a file simultaneously. 

If the error persists, please send us a note with the complete text of the error message and a detailed description of your system. We will do our best to help you!