Solved Studio One v6 major issues (nahimic audio driver issue)

[Vocalpoint]

I'm wondering where in the BIOS you would disable this as I don't seem to be able to find that functionality?

For reference my motherboards is in my signature and I have American Megatrends Inc. 1403, 30/03/2022

Watch this:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Specifically at the 14:17 mark. (Advanced\Onboard Devices Configuration). Whole lotta things I would turn off immediately - starting with USB audio - to ensure none of this crap (Nahimic) gets installed.

As you are rocking an RME - that (AND only that) should be the only audio device the OS should ever see.

That said - because you did not specify "other" external hardware in your signature - it is hard to tell if maybe you simply have a Steelseries keyboard or something else undocumented here that caused that driver to be installed. Your "Nahimic" issue may have nothing to do with the mobo at all.

VP

 

[sintil8]

@Vocalpoint
What's your take on disabling the onboard Mobo soundchip in Device Manager?
(Asus tend to use Realtek, which I am sure you know)

I ask, as I have a couple of cheap computer speakers, I sometimes use them to see how things translate to smaller speakers, as test bed for friends.
So I find being able to flip the onboard soundcard into action can be useful at times.
Be interested to hear if you have any thoughts on this.

Best regards as always.

 

[Vocalpoint]

What's your take on disabling the onboard Mobo soundchip in Device Manager?
(Asus tend to use Realtek, which I am sure you know)

I ask, as I have a couple of cheap computer speakers, I sometimes use them to see how things translate to smaller speakers, as test bed for friends.
So I find being able to flip the onboard soundcard into action can be useful at times.
Be interested to hear if you have any thoughts on this.

Best regards as always.

As your signature indicates - ideally - you should be doing exactly what I do - ALL audio goes through my RME.

Whether it's simple Windows playback, Spotify, Studio One, YouTube. I have a couple of el-cheapy speakers here too and via my UCX-II (and TotalMix) - I simply send Outputs 3+4 to these dinky speakers as needed.

Per my signature - my motherboard is almost identical to yours and I do not allow any of it's onboard hardware crap to install on my DAW (especially the Realtek soundcard). Recently - I even stopped using the onboard LAN ports now too - and install enterprise quality PCIe LAN cards instead.

Your mileage may vary and I am not suggesting you need to buy a switcher or upgrade your computer speakers but I learned long ago that imposing massive restrictions on the motherboard by disabling everything non-essential not only results in a better, more efficient OS install - but more importantly - instead of allowing some bizarre hardware issue to manifest itself in the distant future - I simply rid myself of any chance of a problem right from the start.

Been building DAWs a very long time and this is one tip that I can say - has never let me down. And it is so easy to do.

VP

 

[sintil8]

VP,
Agreed on so many levels,
I build for my own use and have tidied up a couple of puters for family and locals that I know.
So I tend to blur the edges, as it's not for a critical setting. I don't earn any income from doing any of this, but have many years of working with and using computers in a variety of settings.
Anyway that's a reasonable maxim to apply, "start out how you mean to go on".

Luckily, so far I have avoided gremlims sneaking on board. One day I know they will jump out of the woodwork and grab me when I least expect it.
C'est la vie

As always best regards and thanks for responding.

 

[Vocalpoint]

So I tend to blur the edges, as it's not for a critical setting. I don't earn any income from doing any of this, but have many years of working with and using computers in a variety of settings.

I am running a business here so I do need to ensure each machine is purpose built for extreme stability, long hours and client delivery - that means no consumer grade hardware ever makes the cut.

VP

 

[sintil8]

It's a hard road to travel when your livelihood is up for grabs. Your good offices must stand in good stead if you are making a living out of it.
Nice one, good to know you are around to offer advice.
Take care, it's all good, picking your brain over these details helps.

Kind regards

 

[darren]

Watch this:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Specifically at the 14:17 mark. (Advanced\Onboard Devices Configuration). Whole lotta things I would turn off immediately - starting with USB audio - to ensure none of this crap (Nahimic) gets installed.

As you are rocking an RME - that (AND only that) should be the only audio device the OS should ever see.

That said - because you did not specify "other" external hardware in your signature - it is hard to tell if maybe you simply have a Steelseries keyboard or something else undocumented here that caused that driver to be installed. Your "Nahimic" issue may have nothing to do with the mobo at all.

VP

Thanks for the info on that (and also the on-going chat with @sintil8 which is useful.

I'm thinking about audio devices that I use over and above the RME and off the top of my head there are two. One is a Jabra headset which I used to use for video-conferencing but I don't any more but the second is a a logitech Brio video camera and I do use the microphone. I'd probably have to see if turning off USB audio affected that one because I don't really want to have to hook a microphone up to the RME input every time I want to do a zoom call.

But thanks for the pointers, I'll have to do my own experimentation to see what works but I'd never even considered turning it off on the motherboard and that could be a good starting point. My PC isn't dedicated to the DAW but, in spec terms, that is the primary use.

 

[Vocalpoint]

I'm thinking about audio devices that I use over and above the RME and off the top of my head there are two. One is a Jabra headset which I used to use for video-conferencing but I don't any more but the second is a a logitech Brio video camera and I do use the microphone. I'd probably have to see if turning off USB audio affected that one because I don't really want to have to hook a microphone up to the RME input every time I want to do a zoom call.

Understood. On my secondary machine here - I use an RME ADI-2 DAC, a Jabra Speak 410 and my Logitech Webcam and exactly none of them cause any issues. The mic is not used on the webcam and the Jabra is pure USB (that is plug n play) but has zero footprint driver wise (uses a standard MS driver) and no clash with the RME.

And sure - if you machine is not a dedicated DAW - I get it. There will be times when you need to connect up something - but anything that requires some dreck like that Nahimic driver - which then starts appearing in Studio One dialogs etc as a valid audio device is a step too far for me.

It's either your motherboard (BIOS) or some other device that you are connecting that put it there - and by all accounts - it is not well regarded and appears to be trouble.

VP

 

[darren]

I'm not 100% sure on this but I think I accidentally installed the nahimic driver. I was looking to understand another issue (throughput on one of my NVMe drives) and installed ASUS armory crate as I thought there may be some useful tools to help diagnose the issue. I think this is when nahimic got installed so it was, to some extent, user error!

Not something I'll do again (as the armory crate software was fairly useless anyway) but it is an interesting option to turn it off in the BIOS to stop me inadvardently doing this, or something like it, again.

Many thanks @Vocalpoint

 

[Vocalpoint]

I was looking to understand another issue (throughput on one of my NVMe drives) and installed ASUS armory crate as I thought there may be some useful tools to help diagnose the issue. I think this is when nahimic got installed so it was, to some extent, user error!

Armoury Crate is - by far - the closest software based "descent into unimaginable hell" that any ASUS user can experience.

If there was an official top 100 list of the most annoying (and useless) software ever created - this one would top the list with the other 99 - being a distant second.

This is the very first toggle I shut off in the BIOS - which of course ON by default and buried so deep - you need 10 minutes to find it.

Even worse - if one does somehow allow it to install - good luck getting it off a machine.

Universally despised on every level software could be. Just stay far away for this thing.

VP

 

[darren]

Yup, it was generally speaking a big mistake installing that nonsense. And I'd like to nominate corsair icue for your top 100 list of most annoying software ever created. It misses on the "useless" but it's incredibly ropey.

To be honest, I thought this may have been my issue all along as it's caused me trouble in the past but just this time it seemed to be working fine.