Optimal Sound News - New Audio System Effects included with Vista

Microsoft announces powerful suite of audio system effects to be included in Windows Vista

Microsoft has released a new white paper on describing how system vendors, OEMs, and ODMs should use the new suite of audio processing effect algorithms included at no charge in Windows Vista.

The Room Calibration algorithm is designed to be inserted just after the User Mode Audio (UMA) global audio mixer, and just in front of the audio output hardware.

The remaining algorithms are designed to be inserted between the application and the global mixer. A separate instance of each algorithm will exist for each application and each audio endpoint addressed by the application.

    Loudness Equalization DSP
    Forward Bass Management
    Reverse Bass Management
    Low Frequency Protection
    Speaker Fill
    Virtual Surround
    Speaker Phantoming
    Virtualized Surround Sound over Headphones (for laptop)
    Bass Boost (for laptop)

These functions are required for Windows Vista logo and must be The system vendor has 3 options on how to include this functionality into Vista systems:
* Option 1: Use in-box Audio System Effects without modification
* Option 2: Add additional effects but designate standard functionality to in-box Audio System Effects.
* Option 3: Completely replace the in-box Audio System Effects with equivalent or better.

The system vendor and/or the APO provider must determine how to expose a GUI for the effects, since only one audio control panel is made available for this purpose. If the system vendor uses the Microsoft-supplied GUI along with the Microsoft-supplied effects, then any controls for non-Microsoft effects must be controlled from a separate control panel or application. Alternately the system vendor can choose to provide their own control panel, and provide controls to operate the Microsoft elements that are used.

There is also a brief description of how processing for Real Time Communications (RTC) will be deployed.

This white paper provides the developer with alternative strategies for implementing each of the options shown above.

Read the white paper at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/vista_sysfx.mspx

This white paper appears to enlarge upon, rather than replace, an earlier white paper published in March of 2006 entitled "Custom Audio Effects in Windows Vista", which can be viewed at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/sysfx.mspx.

System Builders, are you

Puzzled by the new audio implementation choices in Windows Vista?
Unsure whether to implement Option 1, 2, or 3 above?
Need to incorporate processing from more than one DSP vendor?
Concerned that one or more Vista Logo audio tests is failing on your system?

Optimal Sound provides solutions for these and other problems related to audio for Windows Vista.
Email us at info@optimalsound.net

Use Optimal Sound services to add an audio expert to your team, and ensure that your systems sound great, are easy to understand, and function properly with Windows Vista. Contact us for more info.

News about HD Audio and Windows* Vista*

Microsoft Releases Updated Guide to Array Microphone Implementation A major update to this white paper from Microsoft provides previously-unavailable details on how the Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Microphone-Array Beamforming processing built into Windows Vista is implemented, as well as how to test it and use it. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Releases New Microphone Array Verification Tool Microsoft has released a command-line tool which can verify whether an audio driver accurately reports microphone-array geometry information and whether the Voice Capture DMO operating in microphone-array mode processes the captured data accurately. For more info, click here.

Microsoft includes built-in Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Microphone Array Processing in Vista As part of DirectShow 9, Microsoft has included Vista-only source code with the new Windows SDK. This source code can be compiled to create a test app which demonstrates the Acoustic Echo Cancellation DMO. While initially intended for use with USB-based array microphones, guidelines are provided for HD Audio implementation as well. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Documents Limit on DTM Test Storage, outlines possible solutions Driver Test Manager (DTM) is the new logo testing infrastructure used for both Windows Vista and Windows XP logo submissions. The default installation is limited to 2 GB of storage, which is enough to get started, but probably not enough for serious DTM users. To find out more options, click here.

Microsoft includes Audio System Effects in Vista Microsoft has released an updated white paper on how to use the Audio System Effects that are included at no charge in Windows Vista. In-box built-in effects include
    Loudness Equalization DSP (LFX)
    Forward Bass Management (LFX)
    Reverse Bass Management (LFX)
    Low Frequency Protection (LFX)
    Speaker Fill (LFX)
    Room Correction (GFX)
    Virtual Surround (LFX)
    Speaker Phantoming (LFX)
    Virtualized Surround Sound over Headphones (LFX)
    Bass Boost (LFX)
For more details, click here.

Microsoft WHQL postpones date that systems must pass audio fidelity tests On Thursday, August 30, Microsoft's Hardware newsletter announced that systems will not be required to pass the audio fidelity portion of the logo tests until June 1st, 2007. However, all submissions must include complete logs from the audio fidelity tests, which requires an Audio Precision System 2 test set to be connected to the DTM test environment. For more info, click here.

Audio Fidelity Testing Now Required for Vista Audio Device Logo Microsoft has released Windows Logo Program (WLP) specification 3.07, which has significant impact on the audio development and logo submission process for Windows Vista. Audio devices and drivers are now required to included passing audio fidelity test logs in order to qualify for device logo. For more info, click here.

Windows Vista RC2 to be released October 6, 2006 Recently disclosed details of Windows Vista RC2 release indicate that Vista build 5743 will be released Friday, October 56, 2006, and will be designated as Vista Release Candidate 2 (RC2). For more info, click here.

Audio Design Line Publishes excerpt from HD Audio Book EE Times affiliate Audio Design Line, has reprinted Chapter 9 of the new book from Intel Press, High Definition Audio for the Digital Home: Proven Techniques for Getting It Right the First Time by David Roach, Scott Janus, and Wayne Jones. This chapter of the book describes the complete signal audio signal path of a modern PC, including both hardware and software audio components. For more info, click here.

Microsoft publishes sample code for 3 different Audio System Effects Microsoft has released sample code for three different sample Audio System Effects along with a retitled document describing how to use them. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Multimedia VP Amir Majidimehr writes about Audio System Effects included in Windows Vista Read first-hand the thinking behind the new Audio System Effects included in Windows Vista. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Channel 9 Video on audio hardware for Windows Vista features Hakon Strande and David Roach Check out the 38-minute Channel 9 video featuring Hakon Strande of Microsoft and David Roach of Optimal Sound discussing the audio hardware in Vista. For more info, click here.

Microsoft Releases HD Audio Pin Configuration Test Guidelines Microsoft has released a paper entitled Microsoft HD Audio Pin Configuration Implementation Test Procedure Guidelines. The paper describes how to use a Microsoft-supplied pin configuration utility to generate and validate a set of verb tables which is embedded in the system BIOS. The verb table describes the audio configuration of the system. If the verb table is configured incorrectly, the UAA HD Audio class driver will not function properly and the Windows Vista logo tests will fail. For more info, click here.

News about HD Audio & Vista

Microsoft announces powerful suite of audio system effects to be included in Windows Vista

News about HD Audio and Windows* Vista*