Digigram ALP221e User manual

User Manual – ALP221e
User Manual
ALP221e
Professional stereo sound card
December 2022
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User Manual – ALP221e
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 4
2. IMPORTANT NOTICE 5
3. BOX CONTENTS 6
4 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 7
4.1 Main hardware characteristics 7
4.2 Main software characteristics 7
4.3 Routing audio streams in the card 7
5 REQUIRED CONFIGURATION 8
5.1 Required hardware configuration 8
5.2 Necessary software configuration under Windows 10
5.3 Necessary software configuration under Linux 10
6 HARDWARE INSTALLATION 11
6.1 Preparing the card 11
6.2 Installing the card 11
6.3 State of internal LED 11
7 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION UNDER WINDOWS 12
7.1 Updating the driver version 13
7.2 Updating the firmware 13
7.3 Verifying the card installation 14
7.4 Presence of playback and recording devices 14
7.5 Card detected by the Digigram ALP-X Manager application 15
7.6 Card availability under ASIO 15
8 UNINSTALLING THE DRIVER UNDER WINDOWS 17
9 CONFIGURING THE CARD UNDER WINDOWS VIA THE ALP-X MANAGER APPLICATION 18
9.1 Sampling clock management 18
9.2 Managing input and output levels 20
9.3 Managing the routing and mixing of input signals 24
9.4 Creating, saving and loading setting sessions 26
9.5 Updating the firmware 26
9.6 Keyboard shortcuts 28
10 ASIO CONTROL PANEL for Windows 29
11 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION UNDER LINUX 31
11.1 Automatic installation 31
11.2 Building and installing the driver manually 31
12 SPECIFICATIONS 32
12.1 Configuration 32
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User Manual – ALP221e
12.2 Inputs 33
12.3 Outputs 33
12.4 Audio characteristics 33
12.5 Sample rate converter performance (SRC) 33
12.6 Connectors 34
12.7 Development environment 34
13 APPENDICES 35
13.1 ALP221e functional diagram 35
13.2 LED 36
13.3 Connectors and switches 37
13.4 Breakout cable diagram 38
13.5 Pinout of the breakout cable connector 38
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User Manual – ALP221e
1. INTRODUCTION
This document describes the installation and use of the PCI Express DIGIGRAM ALP221e sound card
under Windows and Linux.
This stereo card is part of the ALP-X professional sound cards range, which also includes
multi-channel cards (4, 8 channels).
Copyright 2022 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, and ALP221e are trademarks or brand names of Digigram Digital. All other
marks are owned by their respective companies.
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User Manual – ALP221e
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 – ALP221e
3. BOX CONTENTS
Thank you for purchasing a DIGIGRAM sound card in the ALP-X range.
The box contains:
●an ALP221e sound card equipped with a standard height bracket (full height: 120 mm),
●a low-profile bracket (79.2 mm) that can be fitted instead of the full-height bracket,
The breakout cable that bears the XLR connectors is available as an option.
Please contact your card supplier to acquire the Digigram-certified cable.
To download the most recent card driver, please visit the digigram website at:
www.digigram.com/support/drivers-firmware-downloads/
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User Manual – ALP221e
4 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
ALP221e is a PCI EXPRESSTM x1 sound card. They can be inserted into and therefore operate in PCIe®
x1, x2, x4, x8 or x16 slots.
4.1 Main hardware characteristics
●1 stereo AES3 digital input, 32 kHz to 192 kHz, with high quality hardware sample rate
converter (SRC).
●1 AES3 digital stereo output (up to 192 kHz)
●1 mini jack stereo headphone output
●Inter-card synchronisation
4.2 Main software characteristics
●Low latency multi-card drivers
●Wasapi/DirectSound and ASIO application programming interfaces under Windows, and Alsa
and libgpio for Linux
●Simultaneous acquisition and playback in PCM (8, 16 and 24 bit), Float IEEE754
●On-board mixing of physical audio inputs and software "playback" devices to physical audio
outputs and software recording devices.
●"ALP-X Manager" application installed with the driver, to control the card settings:
- clock source
- frequency of the fallback internal clock
- input and output gains, phantom power (ALP222e-Mic), RMS VU-meters with peak-meters
- routing of inputs to outputs
●API for implementing the management of the card settings in a software application.
4.3 Routing audio streams in the card
The ALP card incorporates an on-board mixer in an FPGA component. This is a mixer with 6 mono
inputs (3 stereo) and 6 mono outputs (3 stereo).
The mixer captures the 2 physical input channels of the card (2 AES3 channels) and the 3 channels of
the playback devices.
The mixer restores 6 audio channels, respectively to the 2 physical outputs of the card (2 AES3
channels) and the 2 recording device channels.
The mixer can therefore be configured to perform the mixing and the routing of the 6 input
channels to the 6 output channels (6 mix sums).
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User Manual – ALP221e
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. The ALP card can in particular be used in
2U racks or reduced size PC, by using the smaller bracket instead of the standard height bracket that
is fitted by default.
A PCI EXPRESSTM (PCIe®) x1, x2, x4, x8 or x16 slot must be available to plug in the card.
The processor power and memory required depend mainly on the operating system and the
applications used on the PC.
The 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)”
Select “Change advanced power
settings”.
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User Manual – ALP221e
Select “PCI Express”, “Link State
Power Management”, and select
“Off” for the setting.
Click on Ok to validate
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User Manual – ALP221e
5.2 Necessary software configuration under Windows
ALP221e operates 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 ALP221e card support page
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 the ALP-X card settings and display
the signal levels. Installing this component is optional.
5.3 Necessary software configuration under Linux
ALP221e operates under Linux from the 64-bit Kernel 4.1x onwards.
The Alsa driver for Linux is available for downloading. 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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User Manual – ALP221e
6 HARDWARE INSTALLATION
Given the shortened length of the PCI EXPRESS connector and the resulting lack of mechanical
stability, we strongly advise against transporting the cards installed in a computer, unless it has a
device for holding the card firmly in place to avoid material damage.
The card must be inserted in the computer before installing its driver.
6.1 Preparing the card
Before fixing the card in the computer, make sure you install on the card the bracket matching the
PCIe slot into which it is going to be inserted.
To install the card in a low profile PCIe slot, remove the standard height bracket by loosening the
two screws on the sides of the cable connector, position the low-profile bracket and retighten the
two screws.
6.2 Installing the card
Insert the card in the available PCIe slot and press to position it firmly.
Tighten the screw fixing the bracket to the chassis or lock the card using the device provided for this
purpose on your computer.
6.3 State of internal LED
The ALP card has two internal LEDs on the top channel strip. The state of these LEDs can be seen
when the PC cover is open.
If the card and its on-board firmware are initialised correctly, LED 1 must be lit solid green, and LED
2 must flash every second (1 Hz).
If LED 2 flashes faster (twice per second - 2 Hz), this means that the firmware version that has been
uploaded to the card is corrupted, and the card is running the backup factory firmware version. It is
then necessary to re-install the appropriate firmware version.
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User Manual – ALP221e
7 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION UNDER WINDOWS
IMPORTANT
To install the software, you must have administrator rights on the computer.
Please visit the Digigram website at www.digigram.com to obtain the most recent driver.
Should you use a specific application developed or installed by a Digigram partner, this may mean
using a specific driver version. In this case, confirm with your application supplier which driver
version to use.
Any driver downloaded from our website has to be unpacked before installing it. Double click on the
downloaded file to start the auto-extraction utility. You can choose the default destination
(temporary Windows folder) or select another one.
7.1 Very first installation
●Switch off the computer and insert the ALP-X card in an available PCIe slot.
●Restart the computer.
●Click on Cancel if the "New device detected" wizard appears.
●Double click on the ALP driver installation file "ALP-X Kit vxx.exe"
Click on Next to continue with the
installation.
Click on "I agree” to continue with the
installation.
In this window, select the components to be
installed in addition to the card driver.
●ALP-X Manager: application used to
configure the settings of the ALP card(s)
installed.
Some software programs may have been
designed with the ALP card settings
controls built in. In this case, it may be
recommended not to install the ALP-X
Manager application.
●ALP-X ASIO Settings: this application is
used to configure the ASIO driver
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User Manual – ALP221e
settings. There is no need to install it if
no application reliant on the ASIO
interface is used.
The driver is installed by default in the folder
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Digigram\ALP-X".
To change this folder, click on Browse and
select a new destination.
Click on Install to continue with the
installation.
The driver and selected components are
being installed.
7.1 Updating the driver version
If a driver version for the ALP card has already been installed, and you want to install another
version, first uninstall the current driver version (see chapter “Uninstalling the driver under
Windows”), and then install the new version by double clicking on the driver installation file "ALP-X
Kit vxx.exe" (see the detailed procedure in the hereinabove chapter “Very first installation”).
7.2 Updating the firmware
The ALP card on-board firmware may have to be upgraded, and updates can be supplied by
Digigram and prove necessary.
Updating the firmware can be done from the ALP-X Manager GUI (see chapter CONFIGURING THE
CARD UNDER WINDOWS VIA THE ALP-X MANAGER APPLICATION).
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User Manual – ALP221e
7.3 Verifying the card installation
Once the driver and card have been installed as per the process described hereinabove, you can
verify that the card is installed correctly and working properly.
7.4 Presence of playback and recording devices
The audio devices exposed by the card driver are visible on the Windows sound panel. To open it,
right click on the loudspeaker icon in the Windows taskbar and select "Sounds":
.
The audio devices exposed by the card driver are visible from the "Play" and "Record" tabs.
If the card devices are not listed in the Windows sound control panel:
●Make sure that the card is inserted correctly in the PCI slot and screwed to the
computer chassis.
●Try to uninstall the ALP-X Kit (from the Windows control panel, Applications) and
re-install it.
Playback to a device can be tested by right clicking on it and selecting "Test". The VU-meter must
then show modulation and the sound must be heard on the card output(s) according to the
routing and levels configured in the ALP-X Manager application.
Note
The output WDM device level setting, accessible from the Windows Sound control panel, is
coupled to the corresponding input level setting of the card's onboard mixer, and impacts left
and right channels.
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User Manual – ALP221e
Note that after the first installation of the card, the default gain settings are as follows:
●Digital input and output gains are set to 0 dB
7.5 Card detected by the Digigram ALP-X Manager application
The ALP-X Manager application, installed with the driver, is used to control the ALP card settings via
a graphic interface. This application can be launched from the shortcut created on the desktop or
from the start menu, Digigram group. The card must appear as below if it and its driver are installed
correctly. Note that a maximum of eight ALP cards can be displayed and handled in ALP-X Manager.
7.6 Card availability under ASIO
If the ASIO driver for the card has been installed (option to be selected during the installation
procedure), then the card must be detected and displayed in the ASIO control panel.
This control panel can be started from the menu <Start>, <Programs>, <Digigram>, <ALP-X ASIO
Settings>.
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User Manual – ALP221e
All cards present must be listed in the "ACTIVE CARDS GROUP" selection list.
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User Manual – ALP221e
8 UNINSTALLING THE DRIVER UNDER
WINDOWS
Proceed as follows to uninstall an ALP driver version.
Please note that uninstalling a version must be done prior to the installation of another version.
From Windows Start menu, open the ”Settings” panel
Click on the “Apps” icon.
From the list of installed Apps & features, select ALP-X Kit.
Click on Uninstall.
This will remove all the ALP-X ... components
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User Manual – ALP221e
9 CONFIGURING THE CARD UNDER WINDOWS
VIA THE ALP-X MANAGER APPLICATION
This application can be launched from the shortcut created on the desktop or from the start menu,
Digigram group.
When the application is launched, the window below is displayed and shows all the ALP cards
installed in the PC.
Please note that as the ALP-X Manager is a software that manages all the ALP-X
range this section may display some parameters not available for your card.
If another view is displayed, click on the icon to display the list of ALP cards present and
detected.
The following settings are displayed for each ALP card detected:
●its serial number,
●the on-board firmware version,
●the size of buffers exchanged between the driver and the card
9.1 Sampling clock management
Click on the clock icon to display the clock selection settings of cards present.
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User Manual – ALP221e
The ALP221e card can be configured as an internal clock
or external clock (AES3 input).
To select the clock source, click on the "Prioritized
source" selection list and select the desired source.
A red padlock icon on the right of the clock name means
the clock signal is absent. A green padlock icon on the
right of the clock name means the clock signal is
present.
In addition, the detected sample rate of an external
clock is displayed in the clock list.
If the internal clock is selected (“Internal”), select the
sampling Rate value from the “Internal Sampling Rate”
selection list.
Possible values are: (in kHz) 32, 44.1, 48, 64, 88.2, 96,
128, 176.4, 192, and Application.
Selecting “Application” means that the sampling
frequency is set by the application.
Setting the card to one of the frequency values means
that a software application that uses the card must be
configured at the same frequency value.
If an external clock is selected, the card is
synchronised to it as long as it is present.
If the external clock signal is lost, the ALP card falls back
to its internal clock, which is automatically set at the
same frequency as the external clock.
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User Manual – ALP221e
The clock source used at a given moment is displayed in
the "Sync Source" field, and its frequency value is given
by the "Sampling Rate" field.
9.2 Managing input and output levels
Note that after the first installation of the card, the default gain settings are as follows:
●Digital input and output gains are set to 0 dB
●The 8x8 routing matrix is configured this way:
- Play 1-2 routed to outputs 1-2
- Play 3-4 routed to outputs 3-4
- Inputs 1-2 (AES3) routed to Rec 3-4
The other routing points of the matrix are muted.
Click on the icon to access the "I/O Monitor" view which is used to adjust audio levels.
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