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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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I use BB 2017 build 468 and a Roland SD-50 to output my sounds.
Recently I had a problem after an update were BB could not remember my MIDI output driver setup, (neither could I to begin with).
However, I am wondering what are the differences, advantages and disadvantages between using ASIO, or MME as Audio Setting?
I like to get the best sound quality, without having to do any setup work between playing back different songs.
Hoping for some good advice!
Brgds,
Tonnie
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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tonnie, This is how I understand ASIO and MME... (if I'm wrong, I imagine someone will correct me soon  ) There is no difference in sound quality between ASIO and MME. The difference is in the signal getting from the soundcard to the speaker. ASIO is much faster. If you have an external instrument hooked up to use the computer soundcard when you play along with BIAB, it's likely that ASIO will be the best option because it will reduce latency. Try the two different drivers and see which works best for your situation. If MME works fine for you, my advice is to stay with that. After being on the forum for quite a while now, BIAB generally plays more co-operatively with MME than ASIO. At the end of the day, though, whichever one you choose, the sound quality will be the same. Lastly, when you get your system set up, under "Options" there's the option to save your preferences. Make sure you do this. Then, if you ever need to reload BIAB, getting everything back up and running again will simply be a matter of loading the saved file. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi Tonnie,
More information about your system would be very helpful. For instance I have read that the new Win 10 MME drivers are so good that some people quit using ASIO in favor of them.
As Noel said ASIO drivers can reduce latency. Latency mostly comes into effect when recording. Most of the time you can use MME drivers when just listening, i.e outputting sounds. A lot depends on how many tracks and how many effects you have playing. The more tracks and effects the better the driver you will need.
BUT everything really depends on what sound card you are using. If it can utilize native ASIO drivers then they should be better at latency than either MME or other ASIO drivers like ASIO4ALL.
Noel is right in that there is no difference in sound quality. He is also right when he said try them both and see which works best for you. Just remember that with most ASIO drivers can only handle one program at a time. In other words you can not have BiaB and a DAW running simultaneously with ASIO but you can with MME. I run Biab with MME and Sonar with ASIO so both can be active at the same time. But I never record in BiaB. YMMV.
Principal: Your child always causes trouble in school.
Me: My child causes trouble at home, do I ever call you?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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What he said.
EDIT: I meant Noel. Mario posted as I was typing and said a lot of what I'm saying below:
ASIO only gives you an advantage while recording, because it reduces latency. For example, use ASIO if recording yourself playing along on keyboard.
Although ASIO drivers exist that allow connecting to more than one output, they are rare. If you have any other software open at the same time as BIAB that uses an ASIO driver, use MME on BIAB because otherwise you will likely be blocked on one or the other.
MME on BIAB uses the WDM drivers, as I understand it.
Last edited by Matt Finley; 08/02/17 02:27 AM.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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ASIO only gives you an advantage while recording, This has been stated a couple times and is not really the accurate answer. ASIO is faster when allowing you to hear the input signal come out of your speakers. This is especially true with MIDI coming in and Audio coming out of your computer (playing a softsynth or VST effect in realtime). Many systems default to as much as a 2 second delay using MME. That means if you trigger a note on your physical keyboard and expect to hear the sound generated by the computer (using a synth inside the computer) it will be obviously delayed. This does not happen 'only' when you record; it happens on any input from outside the computer when using MME. The correct observation that leads to the above quoted statement is that 'playback' gives the computer time to create the buffers needed to play everything smooth, but IF during playback you try to play the same part along with the song from that same external source, you will hear the same delay. Thus it does not "only affect recording" .. it affects a certain signal path during both playback and recording. Any signal coming into the computer and immediately being sent back out as Audio. That's it plain and simple. MME is more stable (because of the buffer time) ASIO is faster to respond to real time changes. Be it MIDI input, a mixer move, etc. Audio Stream In Out (ASIO) creates a more direct connection from the hard drive (sound source) to the speakers, with less buffering. It's a better choice, as long as it works for you. But it does make the system work harder/faster. And the specific drivers can make a huge difference in whether it works on one machine or another. Understanding the difference may help decide when you need ASIO and when you don't. It's not uncommon to 'turn ASIO on' for a session and then return to MME here. MME is less drive/system load .. but may not give the needed response performance, so I use both as needed.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Great explanation! Thank you. I suspect most of us are more lazy and 'set and forget' this choice.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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rharv,
Thanks for taking the time. That's cleared my thinking a lot. I understand better now.
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Expert
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Expert
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The best one is the one that works. The relationship of your computer with your soundcard with your software dictates the driver that's best suitable. While MME in most cases is significantly slower, if you are using an RME interface with Sonar, MME is your best bet. While M-audio cards support both ASIO and WDM, your other computer settings may make one or the other work better in software that can choose either.
win 10 64 bit 16gb,i7 chip, ssd 500gb, m-audio air, ,Roland BK-7M, 1000,shure sm7b,sonar,acid,mixcraft, variety of plugins.Sample tank 3,Kontakt. TC Helicon Voicelive 3 2 . https://beatmaster1.bandcamp.com/releases
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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This is a nice discussion about ASIO and MME but the SD50 is a hardware synth, it connects via USB, it's own soundcard so there is basically no latency. The audio is coming out of the SD50, not the computer. It comes with a Roland driver that gets installed and you select that in Biab.
Many people will finally get tired of messing around with all these latency settings and switch to a hardware synth. The only downside with hardware is you can't do a fast render to digital. If you use a softsynth that render only takes maybe 15-30 seconds for a 4 minute song but with hardware you have to route the audio back into the computer and record it in real time so a 4 minute song takes 4 minutes to record to digital.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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That's a good observation, Bob. I made that decision decades ago and use Roland hardware synths.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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ASIO vs MME.
My recommendation is to always choose ASIO ....IF..... your sound card supports it.
Some of the factory sound cards can't use it efficiently. Most all of the pro-level interfaces not only support it but recommend it.
MME is OK if you can get it to work well. My experience has been that MME doesn't work well with my audio software on this machine I use now.... or even in the past. ASIO4ALL is a wrapper that tried to fool the audio card into thinking it's working with ASIO when it's actually running MME. (or something like that)....either way, I have never had success running A4A on any of my computers. I've always taken the time to set my external (focusrite) interface up with ASIO as per the mfg's suggestion.
As a result, my DAW and PG software runs nicely on the Focusrite with ASIO. Depending on what I'm doing at the moment, I have to remember to load the DAW first to get ASIO.... everything else will then grab MME and they all run just fine like that.
I've heard some folks say they couldn't get ASIO to run reliably and had to use MME which they were able to get to run fine. If that works for you, then by all means, use what does work.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I completely agree with what Herb just wrote.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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