Digigram ALP-Dante User manual

User Manual for ALP-DANTE
User Manual
ALP-Dante
Professional multi-channel sound card with
DANTE connectivity
November 2023
Author
Date
Status
SBT
20/11/2023
Release
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 IMPORTANT NOTICE 4
3 BOX CONTENTS 5
4 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 5
4.1 Main hardware characteristics 5
4.2 Main software characteristics 5
5 REQUIRED CONFIGURATION 6
5.1 Required hardware configuration 6
5.2 Necessary software configuration under Windows 8
5.3 Necessary software configuration under Linux 8
6 HARDWARE INSTALLATION 9
6.1 Preparing the card 9
6.2 Installing the card 10
6.3 Internal LEDs 10
7 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION UNDER WINDOWS 11
7.1 Very first installation 11
7.2 Updating the driver version 12
7.3 Updating the firmware 12
7.4 Verifying the card installation 12
7.5 Adjusting the internal latency of the card 15
7.6 Replacing a card 16
7.7 Changing the order of installed cards 16
8 UNINSTALLING THE DRIVER UNDER WINDOWS 17
9 CONFIGURING THE CARD UNDER WINDOWS VIA THE ALP-X MANAGER APPLICATION 18
9.1 Installed ALP cards 18
9.2 Sampling clock 18
9.3 Input and output vu-meters 20
9.4 Firmware update procedure 20
9.5 Keyboard shortcuts 22
10 ASIO CONTROL PANEL for Windows 23
11 SPECIFICATIONS 25
11.1 Configuration 25
11.2 Audio characteristics 25
11.3 Connectors 25
11.4 Development environment 25
12 APPENDICES 26
12.1 LED 26
12.2 Connectors 27
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
1 INTRODUCTION
This document describes the installation and use of the Digigram PCI Express ALP-Dante card under
Windows and Linux.
This card is part of the ALP-X professional sound cards range.
Copyright 2023 Digigram. All rights reserved.
No part of this manual may be reproduced without the prior consent of Digigram. This reservation includes
photocopying, translating and/or reformatting the information contained in this manual.
Everything possible has been done to ensure the greatest accuracy, however Diagram cannot be held liable
for any error or omission and reserves the right to make modifications and improvements without prior
notice.
Digigram and the Digigram logo, ALP-DANTE are trademarks or brand names of Digigram Digital. All other
marks are owned by their respective companies.
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
2 IMPORTANT NOTICE
Certifications
The product is currently being certified.
This product has been designed in accordance with the following standards:
●EMC Directive 2014/30/EU.
●FCC Rules Part 15, Subpart B.
To ensure compliance with the standards listed above, the following rules must be followed:
●The cable supplied must not be modified.
●The additional cables used must have their respective shielding connected at each end.
Caution
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) can damage the card components. Take the
following precautions to avoid such damage when handling the card:
Connect the card and everything entering into contact with it to the earth potential by providing a
conductive surface and discharge paths. Take these precautions as a minimum:
●Unplug all power and signal sources.
●Place the card on an earthed conductive work surface.
●Connect to the earth potential using an anti-static strap or by holding an earthed object.
●Earth all the tools entering into contact with the card.
Given the shortened length of the PCI EXPRESSTM connector and the resulting lack of
mechanical stability, we strongly advise against transporting the cards installed in a
computer, unless its chassis or case has a device for holding the card firmly in place to avoid
material damage.
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
3 BOX CONTENTS
Thank you for purchasing a DIGIGRAM sound card in the ALP-X range.
The box contains:
●The ALP-Dante sound card equipped with a low-profile bracket (79.2 mm),
●The expansion card for 2 Eth ports equipped with a low profile bracket
(the expansion card can be linked to the main board via the flat ribbon cable).
●a standard height bracket (full height: 120 mm) that can be fitted instead of the low profile
one, and that receives the four Eth ports
4 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
ALP-Dante is a low profile PCI EXPRESSTM x1 sound card. It can be inserted into and therefore
operate in PCIe® x1, x4, x8 or x16 slots.
4.1 Main hardware characteristics
●Low profile
●Two Gbps Eth ports of the main board (PCIe slot).
●Two additional ports on the expansion board.
●The main board and the expansion board can have their own low profile brackets.
●The main board and the expansion board can use the same standard height bracket.
●Inter-card synchronisation
4.2 Main software characteristics
●Low latency multi-card drivers
- Wasapi/DirectSound, and ASIO under Windows
- Alsa driver under Linux
●64 playback channels & 64 recording channels at 44.1 and 48 kHz
32 playback channels & 32 recording channels at 88.2 and 96 kHz
16 playback channels & 16 recording channels at 176.4 and 192 kHz.
Simultaneous acquisition and playback in PCM (8, 16 and 24 bit)
●The available Eth ports can be used in switch or redundant mode
●"ALP-X Manager" application installed with the driver
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
5 REQUIRED CONFIGURATION
5.1 Required hardware configuration
There are no particular hardware restrictions in terms of PC on using the ALP card and its driver. The
PC can have standard height or low profile PCIe card slots.
A PCI EXPRESSTM (PCIe®) x1, x4, x8 or x16 slot must be available to plug in the card.
The processing power and memory required depend mainly on the operating system and the
applications used on the PC.
Note: The driver of the card reports to the OS that it does not manage the Sleep mode. As a
consequence, the PC should not go to sleep mode.
In case the PC goes to sleep mode under Windows, please proceed as follows to disable the sleep
mode.
The windows sleep mode for the PCIe bus must be disabled.
Go to Windows Settings, System, and select “Power & sleep”.
Select Never” for the option “Put the computer to sleep”.
On the same window, click on “Additional power settings”.
Click on “Change plan
settings” in front of
“Balanced (recommended)”
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
Select “Change advanced
power settings”.
Select “PCI Express”, “Link
State Power Management”,
and select “Off” for the
setting.
Click on Ok to validate
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
5.2 Necessary software configuration under Windows
ALP cards operate under Windows from 64-bit versions of Windows 10 from version 20H2.
To use your ALP-X card, you must install the driver included in the installation kit “ALP-X Kit”.
Download the latest version from the digigram website from the ALP-Dante card support page.
This driver supports all the ALP cards.
The "ALP-X Kit" installer is used to install the following components:
●a 64-bit WDM driver offering the WASAPI and DirectSound application interfaces,
●an ASIO driver (32 bits and 64 bits), with its "ALP-X ASIO Settings" configuration interface.
Installing this component is optional,
●the "ALP-X Manager" application, which serves to adjust/view the ALP-X cards settings..
Installing this component is optional.
In your Windows system, It may be necessary to allow the applications to access the input
audio devices of the sound cards.
Please proceed as follows:
●Go to the Windows Settings, and select Privacy.
●Select “Microphone”
●Activate the option “Allow apps to access your microphone” as shown here-after:
It is also necessary to have the “Windows Audio Endpoint Builder” running under Windows
so that the WASAPI audio devices can be used.. On some Windows setups, this service may
not be activated by default.
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
To check this, go to the Computer Management panel, Services, and browse to the line
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder.
Double click on Windows Audio Endpoint Builder to display its properties.
From the “Service status” section, if the displayed status is not running, click on Start and
then OK. Click on Cancel otherwise.
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User Manual for ALP-DANTE
5.3 Necessary software configuration under Linux
ALP cards operate under Linux from the 64-bit Kernel 4.1x onwards (according to kernel.org).
The Alsa driver for Linux is available for download. It is supplied as a DKMS package, which can
therefore be used to compile the driver for the target Linux distribution used.
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