Initial impressions: WASAPI is MUCH better than ASIO for Hiface - Page 2

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Originally Posted by mattkosem 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hybrys Why use a silly third party product with technical issues instead of a built in Windows protocol that does the same thing?

Is there a player that can automatically vary the bit depth with WASAPI? As far as any documentation that I can find states, Foobar2000 appears to upsample when playing 16-bit audio when set to 24-bit in the output tab. If that's truly the case, it's not possible to allow seamless playback with a library containing tracks of 16-bit and 24-bit depths without manually adjusting the output settings. I'd love to use WASAPI if there's some way to bypass that limitation.

--Matt

As Leeperry noted, 16 bit content outputted at 24 bit is theoretically bitperfect.  All it does is pad 0s (null information, not interpreted at all.)  So, you would just output 24bit at all times, and have bitperfect sound for any 16 OR 24 bit content.

You may be having issue because ASIO4ALL, is not true ASIO...it is a wrapper for Kernel streaming and it can mess up certain devices.

ASIO was designed for recording.  Back in the 90's Microsoft's available drivers could not be used in a professional studio - too unreliable.  Can you imagine paying a studio in which you (the talent) had to redo a take because the computer randomly inserted a pop/click/tick/drop-out in the middle of a recording?  ASIO emerged as the solution, and the the Window's recording community hasn't needed to look elsewhere since. (Mac's Core Audio is effectively the ASIO version for Mac, sorta)

Until WASAPI, ASIO was enticing for playback because it was strict with handling sample rates. ASIO doesn't do sample rate conversion.  If ASIO-compatible software app (music, etc.) wanted to playback 88.2k, then ASIO would tell hardware (DAC) to use 88.2k.  However, ASIO was intended to work with ONE software app at a time (perfect for recording), while Windows wants to mix all the possible streams (insert Ghostbusters: "don't cross the streams").  :)  Of course, WASAPI has exclusive mode, per Dr. Spengler's advice.  :)

At this time, I'm not convinced ASIO is great for playback.  For recording, ASIO (Windows) is the only way to go.

ASIO4ALL is not working for me for some reason (it did a couple of weeks ago -not sure why it's stopped) so I went back to kernel streaming. This gave me pops and clicks only when I stopped or started the music but it sounds great in between.