adobe audition only shows two speakers after installing 7.1 USB external sound card

[chengl14481680]

I am connecting a startech 7.1 usb external sound card to my computer (windows 7) and trying to playback a 4-channel sound from adobe audition. In adobe audition, I set the output hardware to be my USB multi-channel speakers. However, when I was mapping the audio channels, I only got two speakers available. I was expecting 8 speakers because my external sound card has 8 channels. Am I missing anything?

[ryclark]

What external audio interface have you got? Have you downloaded any ASIO drivers from the manufacturers site?

[chengl14481680]

Hi, thank you for responding. I am actually not sure the exact interface it uses, this is its website: USB Audio Adapter External Sound Card | USB Audio Adapters | StarTech.com

I have ASIO on my computer, but when I chose "ASIO" as the Device class, I don't see my USB multi-channel speakers show up... I have minimal experience on dealing with sound outputs, so I might be completely off...

[ryclark · Accepted solution]

I am afraid that this device won't do what you want it to. Unfortunately, like a lot of theses low price USB audio adaptors, they do not supply discrete multichannel outputs. So they won't work with Audition except, as you have found, as a basic 2 in 2 out device. The surround capability is only available for already encoded audio that comes off disc or a media player. So it will decode Dolby AC3/DTS and other similar already encoded audio files but not stream multichannel .wav files from a DAW.

[chengl14481680]

Oh I see, thanks a lot! Just one more question, to make it work for Audition, what kind of sound card should I be looking for? Is there a particular parameter that I need to be careful about?

[ryclark]

You would need to make sure that it has six discrete analogue outputs at least for 5.1 surround or eight for 7.1. Some audio interfaces may have specs that say for instance 2/6 for two inputs and six output's but the outputs may not be all analogue. Often they will count a couple as an SPDIF digital output for instance.

Obviously a true six or eight output interface is going to cost quite a bit more than you paid for your present soundcard I'm afraid. And check that it comes with ASIO drivers.