i am finally certain that i understand the problem, have fixed it and can resolve it if it reappears. after four months, you have to expect it's something simple.

the driver installation for the mixer has an error in it. the package needs to install two drivers: one basic driver (also used for asio) and a second driver on top of it (used for wdm). however, it was only installing the basic driver. so, i was getting various sound degradation and inconsistency due to the system using the wrong driver.

i was actually about to give up on the kmixer for the device. i wanted to verify i was getting a good sound out of asio, so i disabled wdm in the mixer and tested through cubase. it sounded right. out of curiosity, i re-enabled the wdm with the asio running and the secondary driver installed. it has since passed all stability testing; the issue seems to be resolved.

i have a higher confidence in stating i'm done, now, because i feel i understand it. i have some more listening to do tonight. i need to edit and upload a vlog from the last three days. i also need to eat. and, tomorrow i need to do laundry and test one more time. but, i'm confident i'll be back at this within 24 hours, and could even get some new mixes up by saturday.

i didn't notice this previously because the wdm installed disabled and i had to manually turn it on. i don't know why that behaviour changed.

i've been quiet here, i guess. troubleshooting updates in the vlog, if you're so inclined.

a little while back, i noticed that cycling the mixer was creating a new driver entry in the registry and realized this had something to do with the problem. i think i've finally figured out that the way to get the mixer to load properly is to turn it on before the computer starts. this may be a conflict with the soundblaster, but i'm not sure.

it says to do this in the manual, but i've basically never done this. it would require restarting the computer every day. so, i may have to prepare myself for some wrong sounding mixes, and need to adjust them. basically, everything is up for analysis right now.

i still need to do some testing, but i'm convinced i'm very close and should be done in the next 24-48 hours.

if it's a conflict with the soundblaster, i can at least point out that i had the soundblaster disabled for a long time.

and, the issue is wdm-specific, so it wouldn't really be relevant to the mixing over asio. i think i'm probably safe from having to redo anything.

see, the thing is that i wasn't sure it was wdm-specific. i thought it was. if i knew it was, i wouldn't have bothered with all this, but i couldn't know it was until i figured it out, right?

i think it's making sense now. but i've said that before.