wdm vs asio

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davexxxxx

New member
What is the difference between wdm drivers and asio drivers??? I have used both with my m-audio 18/14 firewire and sonar 4 producer. is one better than the other??I don't hear much difference in the sound.
 
The short answer is ASIO... The long answer is beyond the constraints of my current headache.... My apologies... :(
 
In theory WDM should be better, because it's a more direct interface with the OS or something like that. In practice, while WDM worked perfectly on my Motu 828mkII for the audio data, I had absolutely terrible MIDI latency...like almost a full second. As soon as I switched over to the Motu's ASIO drivers, the latency went down to a couple of miliseconds and I have had no trouble with audio.
 
peritus said:
The short answer is ASIO... The long answer is beyond the constraints of my current headache.... My apologies... :(
Click to expand...

No, it's not. ;)

I would say that the short answer is: Try and test to see what gives you the best performance. It depends on the programmer(s) of the drivers. :)
 
moskus said:
No, it's not. ;)

I would say that the short answer is: Try and test to see what gives you the best performance. It depends on the programmer(s) of the drivers. :)
Click to expand...

Okay... I stand corrected... :)


P.S. (ASIO worced for me!)









P.S.S (Now I need hooked on fonix)
 
I used WDM for quite awhile with Sonar Homestudio before I tried the ASIO, once I tried ASIO I can't see going back, not that I noticed much, if any difference in quality, but it seems to me that it made the I/O options easier to understand/use, but I'm a noob so it wouldn't have taken much.
 
If WDM and ASIO equally good programmed (if possible), then WDM should be the fastest one, it's just a newer standard (therefore more optimized, to a google-search) and gives more direct access to the hardware, as pointed out by sile2001.

However, I believe that most driver-programmers put more effort into their ASIO-drivers than their WDM-drivers just because ASIO is supposed to be more "pro". Well, that's just a feeling I have...
 
In my case, with a Presonus Inspire 1394 interface and Sonar 4, I started with the WDM. With that driver I could not get Sonar to do 24bit 96K recording. I switched to ASIO and the 24/96 worked. I've stayed with ASIO ever since.
 
moskus said:
I would say that the short answer is: Try and test to see what gives you the best performance. It depends on the programmer(s) of the drivers. :)
Click to expand...

I agree.

I use WDM drivers with no problems.
 
Back when I used M-Audio, I used WDM. With my E-mu, I use ASIO. It's all on not just a card by card (and often even system by system) basis. What works best works best, you know?
 
All things being equal, the hardware signal path is determined by the hardware. The drivers should have no effect on the sound quality of the device.
 
Or if you are like me (Motu 896 & 896HD) ASIO only can access 1 interface so I have to use WDM but, I've got 16 channels at a time no problem. Of course my midi is a seperate box on the usb port.
 
When I used WMD I mean WDM with my emu0404 the sound seemed to sound quieter. when I used midi the volume would be very low even when I had the volume all the way up. but when I switched to ASIO the volume went up to par with everything else.
 
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