Petition: Fix the Balance Drivers

[The_Grass]

My Balance and Reason works great with Windows 8.1 64 and my Balance works great with Presonus Windows 10 64.

That's a Reason...

[Gorgon]

Na, shopping for them is boring. I lose interest before I make a decision. Tell me which one to get.

Try this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-2-0-5-P ... SweW5VBD-u

[igotbuttonstopus]

But that's just generic, how would I know which chipset is in it?

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[jengstrom]

Funny petition.
It's not going to happen, but the USB standard might provide a solution, with the generic USB 2.0 audio device class drivers probably rolled out for Windows 10 at least within a year or so. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/matthe ... o-devices/

[tiker01]

Funny petition.
It's not going to happen

I guess the petition is more desperate than funny. Would it be so hard technically or time consuming to update it?
I am on Win10 too using Balance without problems (at list I think so there are some audio dropouts recently) worrying whether the next windows update ruins my rig.

[jengstrom]

Funny petition.
It's not going to happen

I guess the petition is more desperate than funny. Would it be so hard technically or time consuming to update it?
I am on Win10 too using Balance without problems (at list I think so there are some audio dropouts recently) worrying whether the next windows update ruins my rig.

Yes, it would be quite a costly mission to do anything about the Windows drivers for Balance. We do not have anyone doing any kind of driver development, the software setup for that is retired, and the people who have worked on Windows kernel drivers here haven't done so since Balance was in active development.

If it's working stable for you now, I doubt Windows update will affect it. Some power management related events can make it BSOD, but some systems seem immune to the issue. So most probably related to BIOS/ACPI/Firmware version/bugs/system differences and settings, as well as power management drivers and settings.

As you know, Balance uses standard USB 2.0 audio, and the generic USB audio driver for Mac is the official one for Balance. Balance works with the generic USB 2.0 audio driver for Linux. Now Microsoft are getting ready to release their equivalent for Windows, hopefully that will mean indefinite driver support on Windows as well.

Sidenote: If anyone wants configure or extend driver packages using the upcoming Microsoft USB 2.0 driver or any 3rd party drivers, I'm sure we could help with some info.

[igotbuttonstopus]

Thanks for the response. I'll see what happens in the future. I do really like Ballance, it's just a shame it didn't lead to more developments. This situation reminds of Bluetooth LTE on Windows. It's coming one day.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[Dabbler]

Funny petition.
It's not going to happen

I guess the petition is more desperate than funny. Would it be so hard technically or time consuming to update it?
I am on Win10 too using Balance without problems (at list I think so there are some audio dropouts recently) worrying whether the next windows update ruins my rig.

Yes, it would be quite a costly mission to do anything about the Windows drivers for Balance. We do not have anyone doing any kind of driver development, the software setup for that is retired, and the people who have worked on Windows kernel drivers here haven't done so since Balance was in active development.

If it's working stable for you now, I doubt Windows update will affect it. Some power management related events can make it BSOD, but some systems seem immune to the issue. So most probably related to BIOS/ACPI/Firmware version/bugs/system differences and settings, as well as power management drivers and settings.

As you know, Balance uses standard USB 2.0 audio, and the generic USB audio driver for Mac is the official one for Balance. Balance works with the generic USB 2.0 audio driver for Linux. Now Microsoft are getting ready to release their equivalent for Windows, hopefully that will mean indefinite driver support on Windows as well.

Sidenote: If anyone wants configure or extend driver packages using the upcoming Microsoft USB 2.0 driver or any 3rd party drivers, I'm sure we could help with some info.

Me

[tiker01]

Funny petition.
It's not going to happen

I guess the petition is more desperate than funny. Would it be so hard technically or time consuming to update it?
I am on Win10 too using Balance without problems (at list I think so there are some audio dropouts recently) worrying whether the next windows update ruins my rig.

Yes, it would be quite a costly mission to do anything about the Windows drivers for Balance. We do not have anyone doing any kind of driver development, the software setup for that is retired, and the people who have worked on Windows kernel drivers here haven't done so since Balance was in active development.

If it's working stable for you now, I doubt Windows update will affect it. Some power management related events can make it BSOD, but some systems seem immune to the issue. So most probably related to BIOS/ACPI/Firmware version/bugs/system differences and settings, as well as power management drivers and settings.

As you know, Balance uses standard USB 2.0 audio, and the generic USB audio driver for Mac is the official one for Balance. Balance works with the generic USB 2.0 audio driver for Linux. Now Microsoft are getting ready to release their equivalent for Windows, hopefully that will mean indefinite driver support on Windows as well.

Sidenote: If anyone wants configure or extend driver packages using the upcoming Microsoft USB 2.0 driver or any 3rd party drivers, I'm sure we could help with some info.

Me

Why not share then the current PH driver? Also it would be great if clip safe would be supported by other Audio Cards. AFIK there ore interfaces which are doing the backup recording.

[Gorgon]

But that's just generic, how would I know which chipset is in it?

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Forget it.

[jengstrom]

@Dabbler: PM me if you're serious about that. I would expect you have tried a USB 2.0 audio driver with Balance on Windows - once audio is working, I am sure we can disclose how the special buttons and functions are used on Windows (brief version: COM and USB HID).

Why not share then the current PH driver? Also it would be great if clip safe would be supported by other Audio Cards. AFIK there ore interfaces which are doing the backup recording.

Unfortunately a big part of the driver is proprietary code which we don't have the right to distribute. Also, driver development is not typically a "grass roots" coding task if you pardon the expression - it is unusual to find devs skilled at kernel drivers that want to do that sort of work "for the community / without pay". Unlike most other types of software.

[WillyOD]

Went over my to friends' place for jamming yesterday. Just a laptop, Balance, keyboard and drums.

Had fun, simple first time setup in his new place, and everything went surprisingly smooth.

Except I got two Balance related BSODs on my own laptop. One was after quitting and restarting Reason and the other one was after disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable.

[My friend has Balance too, and apparently he can reproduce BSOD just by disconnecting and reconnecting USB.]

I'm sure this has been reported before (I've probably even done it myself) but here I'm again. I cannot replace my laptop or its chipset, so I'm just hoping you'll find a way to make the driver more reliable. I don't know much about driver development, but I'm hoping there is way to achieve a softer crash since BSOD is so disruptive.

[JJGreen]

Balance interface is one big lemon. I cannot count the number of BSOD's I experienced on Win 8.1. Contrary to this thread though, they occur a lot less since I upgraded to Win 10. But overall, for the two features it stood out for (the clip safe and the tuner) it was not worth the huge price tag, when other 2ch interfaces run at a third of the price.

I will admit though, it does look and feel damn sexy.