Tutorial : WASAPI support for KMPlayer, having a top-notch video/audio player

1/ Presentation


Since we're using WASAPI, only windows vista is compatible although it should also work with windows seven but i really don't know if its the case.

I'm going to show you how to configure The KMPlayer to use the WASAPI via reclock. It is very simple. Why The KMPlayer ? Because its a wonderful player, the best so far i have tested. It have many features and a total control of the video/audio that he play. It his a free player made by a south-korean engineer but since 2008 it with a "collaboration" with pandora TV.



Click here for a summarize of the features.

Reclock is obviously an re-clocker and more interesting, an audio renderer. It is also completely free.

From their old site (now abandoned) :

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2/ Downloading


First of all you obviously need to download the KMPlayer look on their forum for the last version to download.

You also need to download the last version of Reclock, see also on their forum for the last version

3/ The Setup


You shouldn't have any problem installing them, its very easy, KMplayer use a wizard for the installation and with reclock its basicaly a copy of files.

Now configure Reclock with the shortcut on the desktop. ("C:\Program Files\ReClock\Config.exe")

Set the device you wish to use (sound card or DAC).
Now set the audio interface and choose WASAPI like in the image, set other settings you wish to use or experiment.



Now open the KMPlayer and right click on the player itself, and activate the advanced menu like in the picture then enter the preferences menu.



Now go to the "audio processing" section and select "Reclock" as a audio renderer, you can use the config button next to it to further customize the renderer.



Try to deactivate any audio plugin like the "automatic volume control" but WASAPI normally bypath all the audio features. But do as your heart tell you, don't forget that your brain is the only judge.

Explore the other sections and sub-sections at your convenience to explore all the many wonderful features the player has to offer.

Play some audio or video to test the player, don't forget that a bit exact player have absolutely no volume control (only active or mute, on or off) so try to move the volume control to see if it affect the volume (from both vista mixer and kmplayer).

Some useful shortcuts :

space : play/pause
left arrow : 5 seconds backward
right arrow : 5 seconds forward
control + left arrow : 30 seconds backward
control + right arrow : 30 seconds forward
crtl + alt + A : Video Screenshot
alt + X : show/hide subtitles
f : next video frame
shift + f : reverse video frame

downside : Some audio format are not longer supported. But i think it can be fixed somehow.



The volume bar not affect the sound, being 100%,54%,12% or mute its the same (only mute on the device cut the sound).



Bit perfect output :




4/ The more important : The audio quality


Comparing to foobar2k with WASAPI plug-in the difference in sound quality is HUGE ! (relatively) You don't need to listen several time to hear a little difference its really strike at you !




In WASAPI foobar, the sound is deformed by the volume,as a cheap pre-amp, a proof this is not a genuine bit exact playback, the sound have distortion, sound digital, being harsh and the instruments don't blend together in a natural way, to say the least.

The first thing i notice when i launch a album in KMPlayer is the smoothness of the music, its much more closer to a music being played by instruments !
The instruments now have a holographic sound of their own body, its so realist you can easily "touch" the instruments with your ears. The instruments have now a darker blackness between notes.
The voice is less forward, less detach of the instruments but now blend with them naturally.
The music in itself has more emotion and it is less prone to ear fatigue.
The bass is also fuller and with more impact, that really amaze me !

I didn't thought that this will make such a huge difference and i wasn't even thinking i will be able to even hear it !

I was using kmplayer since long time but solely as a video player and foobar for audio, but now it will do both, at least on my vista setup.

KMPlayer have outstanding video player feature like my favorite : it can keep the video frame to its original size on full-screen, so its does not deform the video.

And SO many things its very long to tell all of them and many are still unknown to me. You can check this manual if you want more information.

I'm now rediscovering again my computer audio collection.

Tested on a audio-gd compass and AKG K271 via coaxial.

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1/ Yes its a "little" issue, it was made for movies after all.
2/ Ideally, i should only use my amp potentiometer,like on a CD player, since anyway, volume control don't work on WASAPI.

Sorry for the errors in English, i don't know if "we" can say that,kind of poetic.

Thank you for the tip.

I use the KM player and its great, I`ll see if it can be bit perfect with Wasapi,
Will it use wasapi even for video files?

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Of course it does, and that one of the reasons its my favorite player.
Try to see a video file with it, or even better, a movie !

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I'm french too, no worries

what you call a "small issue" is totally unbearable to me....and even adding +500ms delay in ffdshow doesn't help, it still glitches

at least foobar doesn't glitch up, and you can use whatever ASIO/WASAPI/KS...plus many soundcards are only bit-perfect via ASIO

and you can use VST plugins in foobar.

well, set foobar volume attenuation to the max, set your windows master volume to 0dB...then use your external knob, I don't really understand what the problem is

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Yes i know you are, i see you in many forums.

Yes but bit perfect mean that the audio signal should not be modified by anything, and i d'ont see why i should set the volume to the max, because it should NOT change the volume at all ! Only on or off. Like i said.

On the player the volume being 100%,20% or mute, the sound is the same.

I don't know what VST plugin is but it should also deteriorate the data.

kernel streaming no longer work on xp, at least with the service packs that mess it up, what why i ended up using vista.

You maybe don't have vista so maybe you cant test it, just compare if you can. The KMPlayer also work with ASIO4All, and many other renderer since a player is just a nutshell.

I using the SPDIF output of my mother board.

KS works just fine whatever in XP or Vista, if it doesn't work that's because of your windows audio drivers not supporting it..

KMPlayer doesn't work w/ ASIO4ALL, as it cannot output to ASIO.

I talked about setting your windows *MASTER* volume to 0dB, indeed in KS/WASAPI/ASIO the "wave" volume control is bypassed.

I tried it and it works pretty well. Better than foobar with wasapi when it comes to soundquality imo (foobar has much better user interface of course).

Foobar for some reason sounds abit grainy and digital to me (this is when using digital out to dac with wasapi). I get a kind of fatigue listening to it (wasapi-digital out-dac). I was a 100% foobar user before, but always felt there was a certain musicality missing.

So around 2 months ago i tried the program i have been badmouthing for many years, Winamp with otachan asio. For some reason it sounds great, much better than foobar. I dont know if that is because of a difference in e.g. flac decoders between music players.

Sorry wont derail anymore.
I will test the kmplayer setup further and get some more impressions.

Not working here May be because of Windows 7 64-bit.

I've been doing the same thing with Kernel Streaming in XP, works great.

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I just set it up on my Win7 64bit box. Works fine. Don't have time to do an extensive test yet just yet but initial results are positive.

Sheesh! What's wrong than?

I'm glad others get positive results too.

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I don't know what exactly are the problem ?

Impossible to install, don't launch, no sounds ... etc ?

By the way its seem that in video mode the sound isn't bit perfect anymore (at least its do not appear on the reclock control panel), but the volume control and audio modifiers still don't work which mean its less interfere in the audio than other players.

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Try setting sound buffer size to 50.

Anyway, I just set it up in x64 Windows 7. Annoyingly, formats that worked fine in XP through KS are now not supported with Wasapi. Is there any way around this, or to somehow use KS?