WDM and ASIO drivers

Monkey Allen

Monkey Allen

Fork and spoon operator
Can someone explain to me the basics of these drivers?

I gather that WDM are generic drivers created by Microsoft to fit a range of audio devices? But, I could be way off the mark here...

ASIO are 3rd party created drivers that you can download from the net? The reason I say that about ASIO is that I have just got a Presonus Firebox and was reading that I should make sure I select the ASIO drivers as these operate better. But I can't find the ASIO drivers anywhere...only the WDM drivers.

Basically, all I know is that WDM & ASIO are in fact sound drivers. I've done some searching on the net to find out things, but my results have proven sketchy.

So, if anyone can point me in the right direction, that would be great.

thanks
 
Thanks a lot. It seems that ASIO drivers are not compatible with Guitar Tracks Pro2...but they are with GTP3. I checked for the ASIO drivers in Stienberg Wavelab 4 and they were there.

The ASIO4All drivers sound interesting.
 
I understand. Too bad Guitar Tracks Pro 2 does not support ASIO drivers...still, is it marked differences in performance between WDM and ASIO? I suppose there are a lot of factors involved, and a lot of opinion.

Anyone know if the ASIO4All drivers are the same basic drivers that would have shipped with my Presonus Firebox...and for that matter, on the install CD's of other devices?
 
It depends really on the developer. I mean both ASIO and WDM drivers can be good. Some cards come out with better ASIO drivers and some come out with better WDM drivers.
 
I think it's a bit easier to think of WDM and ASIO as methods the sound cards and software uses to interface with the system and one another, rather than as separate drivers. Some are better at one than the other. The combination of suond card, software, and system is what dictates which method you should use. Some cards are biased toward WDM with better performance (ESI, for example). Some cards are much better in ASIO mode (E-mu). Some cards have developed both the WDM and ASIO sections of their drivers to be pretty much on par with each other (M-audio, and others...)

Yes, your Presonus should have ASIO built in to the standard driver package you installed from the CD. Of course, it goes without saying to check the Presonus site for the latest version of the drivers.

ASIO4ALL is sort of a wrapper that allows cards that normally don't support ASIO to do so. For an analogy, think of a company shipping via UPS to a a FedEx facility so FedEx can make the final drop off. Yes, that analogy should sound slower because: it is. It's a pretty inefficient way of doing things but...surprise surprise, it can sometimes be better than the sound card company's own ASIO drivers! This is, of course, very rare. You shouldn't have to use ASIO4ALL with your Presonus, which has had pretty good marks from various people on its drivers.
 
Good response...but it's true that some software programs are not compatible/ do not support ASIO drivers?
 
Monkey Allen said:
Good response...but it's true that some software programs are not compatible/ do not support ASIO drivers?
Click to expand...

True. It's up to the developer to code to the device interface or not. For example, Cakewalk did not do so for the ASIO model until relatively recently.

ASIO, like ADAT, started life as a proprietary solution that has become widely adopted, and yet not a de facto standard.
 
I have a FirePod and the none of my programs will recognize the drivers. I've contacted Presonus multiple times and their tech support is stumped on why my audio programs won't recognize the driver. For awhile I was using a "Directsound" driver which was workable but I had to consistenly work around latencies going up near 100 ms which gets to be a pain in the ass.

Finally I gave ASIO4all a try... works like a charm. My latency now is well below 10ms almost getting down to less than 5 I think. I have yet to hook up my 2nd Firepod as I haven't needed that many mic inputs yet, but hopefully the ASIO4all driver will recognize the additional 10 channels.
 
Interesting. My Firebox has recognition in my software, WDM and ASIO drivers show up. What software do you use?
 
I started with Cubase that came with the Firepod. Then I switched to Adobe Audition which worked ok with the Firepod but it still wasn't using the Firepod drivers. I didn't like Audition though for a variety of reasons. Now I'm using Tracktion 2 and with the ASIO4all driver it now works like a charm.
 
Hmm, the Cubase LE that came with the Firepod should have used ASIO just fine otherwise they wouldn't ship it free with the unit. I just tried the demo of Tracktion 2 as well - right after install it was using the PreSonus ASIO driver right off the bat without my doing anything.

You must have some kind of configuration problem. I assume you tried un-installing the Firepod and re-installing the software?
 
Monkey Allen said:
Interesting. My Firebox has recognition in my software, WDM and ASIO drivers show up. What software do you use?
Click to expand...

Try them both, see if there's a difference. One might be coded better than the other. I don't have a firepod so I don't know.
 
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