ASIO -- Audio Streaming Input Output

Developed by Steinberg company, originally for their own proprietary pcm digital audio recording systems.

ASIO attempts to "bypass" the way your computer addresses the hard drive such that you get a more streamlined, almost "sacrosanct" if you will, path when reading and wiriting audio data to and from the drive. Disk Streaming as we call it.

Steinberg "opened up" the technology for sharing and use by all. Mfrs of soundcards hurriedly climbed onboard.

Meanwhile, microsoft was working on their driver situation.

Originally with Windows we had "MME" which stands for "MultiMediaEntertainment" or something like that -- and it took more time for a command to make a "round trip" from Input to Output or to address the hard disk for Audio Streaming.

Microsoft then developed the WDM Windows Driver Model scheme in time to be released for use with the tail end of Win98 (could be downloaded and installed in 98, came bundled with 98SE -- Win98 Second Edition) and this improved the speed of Microsoft Sound Drivers considerably. It is safe to say that anyone today using 98SE or any microsoft operating system that came after 98SE is actually using the WDM soundcard drivers when they select "MME" in a pgmusic host program.

WDM can approach the same speeds as ASIO sometimes.

The Vista sound driver is even more streamlined than WDM, it is a different technical approach, is supposed to be faster but in my case the jury is still out on that one. Perhaps using this driver with the new Windows 7 that is in beta will someday equal and exceed the speed of WDM and maybe even ASIO. Time will tell.

The real question to answer is whether or not you need ASIO sound drivers.

First, some quick facts about ASIO:

*ASIO does not sound any different or better than MME or WDM created digital audio. They all make the same end result, a PCM Digital soundfile (or in Windows' jargon, a ".wav format" soundfile. Macintosh users will know this file as .AIFF format. Actually identical except for file header information, easy enough to convert from one to the other and back).

*ASIO drivers can be necessary for those using MIDI softsynths in realtime because the ASIO driver simply can make a "round trip" through the computer faster.

As mentioned earlier, in some cases WDM can "keep up" with ASIO for this purpose, depending on other factors such as machine speed, choice of software synthesizer, and such things.

If you attempt to play a software synthesizer with a realtime MIDI instrument such as a MIDI keyboard or the like and experience latency -- which is what happens when you play a key and don't hear the sound until some time after the keypress, then ASIO drivers should be the ones to choose in your setup.

*ASIO drivers can typically do a slightly better job when attempting to do true multiple channel input and output multitracking on your computer.

This is also often misunderstood. If you are basically a "one man show" in your home studio, using programs like BIAB or RealBand for backing tracks and adding a few tracks yourself to the mix one track at a time, this may be called multitracking, but it is not true multi-channel multitracking where you would be using a multi-channel (more than one stereo recording input) soundcard and recording anywhere from 4 to 32(!) tracks of audio into the computer at the same time!. This while maybe listening to as many prerecorded tracks to play along with. That is true multi-channel recording and truth be told, very few around here try to do that and are not even equipped to do it, not having a multiple channel soundcard installed, multiple mic preamps and multiple mics, instruments and musicians available.

Even then, it is possible to select the "MME" driver choice inside pgmusic products like RealBand and Powertracks and safely record multiple channel input while streaming multiple channel outputs. PGMusic user "rharv" reports using MME (WDM) driver exclusively with his multichannel Delta 1010 soundcard without problems. Matter of fact, he reported problems when trying to use ASIO drivers. Powertracks and RealBand compensate for Windows Sound Driver latency using a robust buffer setting system.

Something to think about there.

*If you've got things working and are making recordings, consider leaving well enough alone if you have no problems as mentioned above.

"If it works, don't fix it."



--Mac

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