I'm trying to get 4 channels out. I did it with an M-audio firewire thing, but this Nio USB box wont do it. It seems that PortAudio, or PD requires the same no of channels in, as going out. Is this true?
I've tried all combos in the audio set up boxes. Dont understand the flag thing, but tried a bit of that.
Anyone?

OK, lets ignore that. I've now got an M-audio Audiophile 192 sound card, with the same no. of ins and outs. But it keeps making Pd give "audio I/O stuck, closing audio" message.
I need to get it back to 2 channel operation, and then build from there to 4 ch out.
Where's a good rundown on the audio setup options (menus). There are 3 boxes of similar things. The asio one confuses me - do I use it? (this card has asio drivers).
Any clarity would be appreciated.
cheers

What setting do you have it on now?

You should probably use asio if you're using windows. It's Steinberg's "Audio Stream Input Output" api, and you'll be able to get much lower latency with it.

Make sure you don't have the latency set too low, set where you don't get any crackles and pops. I know that, at least with cubase sx, if asio goes in and out of sync to much, it will crash.

Hopefully that works. If not, post up some more detailed info about your setup and system settings.

Thanks Quantum,
Yes, I'm on Win XP; with latency at 70msec, so that should be fine. Not actually using inputs anyway in PD.
I've got it working again, for 2 channels. Checking now that PD's asio menu has in and out checked, and set on MicrosoftSoundMapper. (There's an option for M-audio Delta 192 (that the standard(MMIO) menu is happy with), and also an option for M-audio Delta asio.)
A further complication, is the M-Audio control panel has an option for
"Checking this box will disable your DAW application's ASIO drivers from using the Monitor Mixer and Router, allowing you to use your DAW
application's internal routing." I have it unchecked for now.
cheers