[Solved] Bringing ES-8 Outputs 1-8 out of Rack 2 Pro in Bitwig using ASIO4All on Windows 10

VCV Rack
1

I figured it out…

Method;

  1. Create an Instrument Track with VCV Rack 2 on it.
  2. Start/Load a template inside Rack 2. Depending on how many output channels you have add either the Audio 8 or Audio 16 module.
  3. Look at the Device block for Rack 2 in the Device Panel. Choose the 4th icon at the top of it to Show Plug-In Multi-Out Chain Selector.
  4. Add Missing Chains. This should populate the window with a list of Outputs.
  5. Create Audio Tracks according to how many Output Channels you have. For Input on each track, look at the Rack 2 Instrument Track in the drop down > VCV Rack 2 Chains > choose the Output you want. For Ouput on each Audio Track choose an individual Output Channel.

With this method i’m getting individual outputs from the Rack 2 Audio 16 module to my ES-8 outputs. They’re stereo so I have to use the Audio 16 to get 8 outputs but it works fine. I left a portion of my original post below as I thought it could be helpful to anyone looking at this.

…

So i’ve been digging around this forum for the past 5 days, looking to get Rack 2 sending CV/Audio out of ES-8 ouputs 1-8 to my physical rack. It seems like a real problem when you have to aggregate devices on Windows considering the DAW takes exclusive control of ASIO drivers. But this is essential for me to aggregate my Headphones, Digitakt & ES-8 so that they all work together in Bitwig.

(as an aside Pete Brown at Microsoft wants to see device aggregation eventually included in the default Audio Drivers for Windows. Not sure when that will happen but it sounds promising, he mentions it when talking with Molten Music Tech in this video; https://www.youtube.com/live/2B-r1yrRM64?si=GP5sQ_hC7vwQNemd. )

I’ll list off the various methods that I see people using here with ES-8/ES-9 & Rack 2 Pro inside of Bitwig;

  • Disable “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device” in Windows Sound Settings (does not do anything for me)
  • Don’t use ASIO4All (a.k.a. don’t aggregate devices)
  • Select DirectSound as the Audio Driver in your Audio Module (a.k.a. don’t aggregate devices)
  • Select WASAPI as the Audio Driver in your Audio Module (a.k.a. don’t aggregate devices)
  • Select WASAPI as your DAW Audio Driver (a.k.a. don’t aggregate devices)
  • Select Core Audio as the Audio Driver in your Audio Module (not available for me in the Audio module driver options)
  • Seperate the signals coming out of Rack 2, routing them each to their own Audio Track which in turn point to outputs 1-8 on the ES-8
  • Buy an ADAT interface, connect the ES-8 to it & run that as the DAWS main Audio driver.
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