Introduction to DirectWIRE Output Channels

The Windows driver of GIGAPORT eX, U168 XT, U86 XT and U108 PRE provides a feature called DirectWIRE Output Channels. Also GIGAPORT HD and GIGAPORT HD+ added this functionality starting with driver v3.4, UDJ6 added it with driver v1.3.

DirectWIRE Output Channels allows you to change the assignment between the audio channel in your application to the physical audio output - even while playback is running, in real time. It is possible, for instance, to play an identical signal at the same time via several physical outputs, without any special settings in your playback software.

Please note that the description in this article refers to several different products with the same functionality. This means that the screens have different color schemes based on the used product, also if you are a user of U86 XT or UDJ6, you need to keep in ming that it only provides 6 and not 8 physical output channels. The basic principle is always the same.

Please also note that DirectWIRE is a very powerful feature for special applications and professional usage. For most situations no DirectWIRE settings are needed at all and you should not change those settings unless you know what you want to achieve.

To open the related settings dialog, click on the DirectWIRE > Output Channels entry in the top menu of the control panel software and the following window appears:

On this dialog you can see a list with 8 output channels. The left column identifies the physical output of the audio hardware. The right column shows the playback channel on the computer (i.e. if you play a signal via channel 1 and 2, it is identified here by the numbers 1 and 2). By default, playback channel 1 (right) is assigned to physical output 1 (left) , playback channel 2 to physical output 2 and so on.

With the - and + buttons next to the number for the playback channel, you can change this assignment. With the STEREO LINK button at the bottom of the dialog, you can make sure that channel assignments are always changed in pairs (perfect for stereo signals).

Examples

Let?s look at the following example configuration:

In this example, the signal from playback channel 5 / 6 is sent to the physical outputs 1 and 2, the signal from playback channel 1 / 2 is sent to the physical outputs 3 and 4, the signal from playback channel 3 / 4 is sent to physical outputs 5 and 6 and the playback channels 7 / 8 are being sent as default to physical outputs 7 and 8. The settings have been made with STEREO LINK enabled.

Here is another interesting example:

On this setup, all physical output channel pairs are assigned to send out the signal from playback channel 1 / 2, i.e. you 'copy' or 'clone' the signal from one stereo playback channel to all physical outputs.

Please note that the change of these parameters can be done on the fly, even when playback is running. To reset the settings to default, you can right click on this panel and then on Reset routing to default.