How do I get a Focusrite 18i8 USB ASIO to work with MATLAB?

[merc5361]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to record a multi-channel impulse response using a focusrite 18i8 audio interface. Now supposedly this one has an ASIO driver. Basically, my experiment is to generate a signal through matlab, send it to a speaker. Two microphones are connected to two of my input channels in the focusrite and a third channel tracks the speaker signal. Then i find the impulse response between each microphone input channel and the third speaker input channel.

However, for 3 input channels to work in matlab, it requires ASIO drivers since windows directsound sort of treats the 8 channel usb audio interface as 4 two channel device meaning i can only track two channels at a time instead of the 3 that i need. Currently, my MATLAB is only detecting Focusrite as USB Analogue (1+2) - windows directsound as the driver version.

Can someone privy with focusrite and MATLAB help me out with this? Happy to give any further information for clarification

Thank you so much in advance!

 

[DVDdoug]

Does MATLAB support ASIO? I'd be surprised...

Do you have to do this in real time? You should be able to record the impulse (with a DAW application that supports ASIO if you wish) and analyze the file later in MATLAB.

And if I'm understanding you, you only need to record 2-channels while another plays and regular Windows drivers/software can do that.

 

[merc5361]

Thank you so much for your response! Yeah, actually Matlab documentation says it supports asio under audio toolbox but I just can't get it to pick up my focusrite as an asio instead of wdm.

The reason I need 3 channels is to do an impulse response between the two mic input channels to the speaker input channel. I could theoretically get by with only doing two channels (for two mics) and the impulse response between the signal I generate, but I noticed I got some delays in the impulse response but I can eliminate that when I also track the input I generate through a third channel and do the impulse response to that channel, if that makes sense.. I'm very bad at explaining this, I'm so sorry about that.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Does ASIO output work in other applications that support it (like, say, Foobar2000 with corresponding output plugin)? Are the drivers for the 18i8 installed properly?

 

[merc5361]

Hi @AnalogSteph ,

Yes, I checked with Ableton Live and I was able to get the Focusrite ASIO USB going just fine. Had to switch it in the preferences section to asio but it worked.


I was hoping to find a similar option in Matlab, looks like they had it in older versions back in R2015 and older ones, but can't seem to find such an option in newer versions of Matlab that I'm using (R2024b).