wdm versus asio drivers

[jamie_drum]

I use the WDM drivers with my audiophile 2496 in Sonar 2. Do people feel the ASIO drivers are better than WDM, either in general or with this card in particular?

 

[brzilian]

Now that HS2004 supports ASIO drivers, I have used them with my Audiophile and not looked back.

 

[jamie_drum]

How much improvement do you get with the asio drivers versus the wdm ones?

 

[brzilian]

How much improvement do you get with the asio drivers versus the wdm ones?

There is a slight improvement in latency numbers.

 

[AlChuck]

The ASIO drivers have a longer history -- they were developed for the Delta series before there even were WDM drivers. So it's fairly likely they would be more stable, more optimized, etc.

Whether there is anything inherent in the technology at the heart of either architecture that makes one better or worse is beyond the scope of my knowledge.

 

[dachay2tnr]

Whether there is anything inherent in the technology at the heart of either architecture that makes one better or worse is beyond the scope of my knowledge.

Well, one was designed INTO the operating system, while the other was designed AROUND the operating system.

Like you, AlChuck, I have no idea what that actually means in terms of performance.

Cakewalk pushed WDM pretty hard - I presume because they did not want lend any support to Steinberg. Ultimately, though, they caved in and provided ASIO support. Don't quite know what that means either.

 

[moskus]

Don't quite know what that means either.

It means that even if WDM is a better driver model, ASIO has been around longer and soundcard developers put more resources into creating ASIO since it's supported by many programs...


Well, that's my guess...

 

[AlChuck]

Well, one was designed INTO the operating system, while the other was designed AROUND the operating system.

Of course, this is Microsoft we're talking about

 

[dachay2tnr]

Of course, this is Microsoft we're talking about

Yeah, what was I thinking?