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Windows ASIO Driver

Optimization hints

Playing software synths live

In this scenario, you do not need audio inputs. Therefore, you best disable them all, which normally will provide you with a better stability at very small ASIO buffer sizes, or allow smaller buffer sizes in the first place. Further, you should also disable all audio outputs you do not really need. To disable channels, use the advanced control panel, expand the items in the WDM device list and disable everything you do not want to use in this setup!

Computer as effects processor

Obviously, in this scenario you do need inputs. But, as always, you should disable all channels you do not want to use. Disable 44.1KHz resampling if it is not really necessary!

General purpose DAW setup

Normally it matters most that you do not get any dropouts even when the CPU load goes through the roof. Thus, it is recommended that you relax the latency requirements a little and work with an ASIO buffer size that feels comfortable with all your favorite VST plugins active. This especially applies when you are recording audio, in which case dropouts are a little worse than just moderately annoying. If your sequencer provides latency compensation, you probably want to check that recorded audio is aligned properly, and, if not, make the necessary adjustments in the “Latency Compensation” section in the advanced settings dialog.

When latency does not matter a lot

In certain configurations, ASIO4ALL allows for bit transparent audio where the Windows driver stack does not. Hence, audiophiles prefer ASIO output over DirectSound or MME, which most likely does mangle audio data. In these scenarios, latency is of little concern and audio input is not asked for. Naturally, you would make sure that all inputs are disabled, set the ASIO buffer size to the maximum and be happy!

  • Device aggregation

    Device aggregation

    Using the button next to each entry, you can now selectively enable/disable each particular item in the device list. This way, you can also create multi-device-setups (“aggregate devices”) . Multi-device-setups require that all the devices involved are running from the same clock source. You can achieve this by daisy-chaining devices via S/PDIF etc. On-board devices… more

  • Latency Compensation

    Latency Compensation

    Since ASIO4ALL does not have sufficient knowledge of the underlying hardware/driver architecture, it can only guess the actual latencies involved. With these sliders you can compensate for the latencies unknown to ASIO4ALL such that recordings in your sequencer software are properly aligned with the rest. Note: In multi-device-setups the largest respective value of all devices… more

  • Hardware buffer

    Hardware buffer

    Note: For WaveRT drivers, this box is labeled “Allow Pull Mode (WaveRT)” instead! Enables the hardware buffer for the highlighted device. This only works for so called “WavePCI” miniports, as other types of WDM drivers do not usually allow direct access to the hardware buffer. Adjustment for best hardware buffer performance involves the “ASIO Buffer… more