WAS (windows audio session) audio support

[TiUser]

Hi
I've lately discovered that Windows Vista / Windows 7 provides another audio driver system than WDM, called WAS (windows audio session)

While WDM introduces too much latency for playing live WAS is better. I've read some posts in KVR telling WAS can be as good as ASIO and tends to supass it on strong pc's... not sure if I am so enthusiastic, but there is something in it anyways.

What I can say is I'm exploring a lib called WasApi and I could manage a setup with 256 sample buffer size @44.1kHz on my machine. There is still a little latency but it starts being playable. Probably smaller buffer sizes may work too.

Why do I mention WAS audio here?

Well, it has some benefits:

- WAS can be used in nonexclusive mode, means you can run audio in parallel with other Windows audio apps, the soundcard is not blocked as it is when using Asio4all.

- WAS needs no special audio drivers

- WAS applications audio levels can be mixed in Windows mixer window.

I wished Cantabile would support WAS audio too.


Any comments and experiences are welcome!