Is ASIO important for playback?

[Jon Loder]

I watched the Creative Sauce instructional on YouTube. He said that ASIO is important enough that you should use ASIO4All if your device doesn't have it. I typically record with a workstation (Tascam DP24Sd) and transfer the files into Cakewalk for mixing and mastering. Since I don't usually record with Cakewalk, does it matter if I just use my DAC (Peavey USB-P) without ASIO? 

The reason I ask is because I got it working but now, when I have a video playing (YouTube, Netflix, etc) I can't do anything in Cakewalk without crashing the sound drivers in the browser.

 

[scook]

20 minutes ago, Jon Loder said:

I watched the Creative Sauce instructional on YouTube. He said that ASIO is important enough that you should use ASIO4All if your device doesn't have it.

This is not necessarily good advice.

A manufacturer supplied ASIO driver usually is the best solution for low latency performance. Also some manufacturers go to a lot of effort to optimize their ASIO drivers sometimes at the expense of neglecting other drivers.

ASIO4All is not an audio driver, it is a wrapper for WDM drivers representing them as ASIO drivers to the few Windows programs that support ASIO such as professional audio and video programs. Like all generic ASIO "drivers" it often conflicts with manufacturer supplied ASIO drivers and IMO should be considered as a last resort after trying WASAPI modes in Win10 and WDM in older OSes.

 

In most recording scenarios low latency is important.

Mixing and mastering does not require low latency. In fact, many users who record using small ASIO buffer sizes for low latency often increase the buffer size considerably when mixing and mastering.

There is no reason at all to use ASIO4All when mixing and mastering. The tiny advantage it may have when recording (as this is questionable) provides no benefit at all once recording is done.

 

20 minutes ago, Jon Loder said:

when I have a video playing (YouTube, Netflix, etc) I can't do anything in Cakewalk without crashing the sound drivers in the browser.

One thing to keep in mind when using the same audio device for Windows and Cakewalk is both must run at the same sample rate because the audio device only runs at one sample rate at a time.

[Jon Loder]

That all makes sense. Thanks scook.

[Noel Borthwick]

If you want to use Youtube and other apps while using Cakewalk at the same time use WASAPI shared mode. 

[bitflipper]

People use ASIO because it's efficient, allowing for reduced latency. However, latency is irrelevant to playback. These days, I use WASAPI for the reasons given by Noel. Some very large projects can take 10-15 minutes to load, so I often listen to music or watch Dave Gorman on YouTube while I'm waiting. 

[msmcleod]

I pretty much stick to ASIO, but have both my on-board realtek device and my audio interface going through a Mackie Big Knob passive which has an A/B switch.

I never thought a glorified volume knob would be so useful, but it is!

[Steve_B]

I kind of puzzled.

I have onboard Realtek disabled. I have a Focusrite 2i2  hooked up and recognised by Windows 10 as my default sound device. I am able to have Cakewalk running and actually outputting sound ( Focusrite Asio driver selected) at the same time as playing a track in Windows Media Player and playing a Youtube video. Everything running smoothly and clearly, no conflicts or problem at all. 

This has always been the case for me. Previously I was using Sonar on an Maudio Delta 66 on Windows 7. Same result. The only time I couldn't run DAW and Windows sound concurrently was when I selected an option in Sonar Audio prefs that was called something like "Share audio drivers". Somewhat unintuitively (to me), this option made sound exclusive to DAW or other applications.  I'm guessing this option has been renamed to "Suspend audio engine when Cakewalk not in focus"

Have I just been very lucky to have the audio gods looking after me?  Just seems odd that this doesn't work for everybody, especially those with the same interface.  I'm not aware of having done anything smart to enable this to happen.

Steve

[msmcleod]

2 hours ago, Steve_B said:

I kind of puzzled.

I have onboard Realtek disabled. I have a Focusrite 2i2  hooked up and recognised by Windows 10 as my default sound device. I am able to have Cakewalk running and actually outputting sound ( Focusrite Asio driver selected) at the same time as playing a track in Windows Media Player and playing a Youtube video. Everything running smoothly and clearly, no conflicts or problem at all. 

This has always been the case for me. Previously I was using Sonar on an Maudio Delta 66 on Windows 7. Same result. The only time I couldn't run DAW and Windows sound concurrently was when I selected an option in Sonar Audio prefs that was called something like "Share audio drivers". Somewhat unintuitively (to me), this option made sound exclusive to DAW or other applications.  I'm guessing this option has been renamed to "Suspend audio engine when Cakewalk not in focus"

Have I just been very lucky to have the audio gods looking after me?  Just seems odd that this doesn't work for everybody, especially those with the same interface.  I'm not aware of having done anything smart to enable this to happen.

Steve

I'm using Focusrite's as well, and I could take advantage of this too...   the main reason I don't is that I tend to use ASIO at relatively low volumes.  If I had YouTube running it would blast through my monitors at a crazy level.

[user 905133]

2 hours ago, Steve_B said:

Have I just been very lucky to have the audio gods looking after me?  Just seems odd that this doesn't work for everybody, especially those with the same interface.  I'm not aware of having done anything smart to enable this to happen.

It sounds to me that you have taken the time to (1) understand the components of the Windows Sound/Audio settings and how they interact with devices on your computer and (2) make adjustments to settings to get the system tuned-up to your needs.  I do this too, but honestly, it took me many hours over several months to try to understand the many complexities.  In fact, I even tested hiding audio devices via BIOS only to get a warning that some Operating Systems ignore the BIOS settings! (Not sure if that means Windows can still access a sound chip even if it its disabled via BIOS.) 

However, yesterday I installed a new-to-me device (iConnectMIDI4+), updated the firmware, and took a look at how the ports were listed in the configuration software, a standalone soft synth, and Cakewalk.  I did not change my Windows Sound/Audio settings  and I changed the software preferences back to my main sound card (a PCI card).

Previously, my setup allowed me to have Cakewalk loaded, listen to Youtube audio, etc.

BUT: somehow my default audio device got changed from my PCI card to the iConnect.  I don't know if it was caused by installation of the drivers, Windows' detection of the new device being on, or what.

So, I knew to go into the Windows Audio device setting and changed it back (so that the default playback device is my PCI Card).

If I am wrong about my premise (see my 1st paragraph), then maybe the deity / deities of your choice had something to do with it.  ?   

[Hillmy]

It also depends on your hardware and drivers. ASIO performs horribly on my new laptop compared to WASAPI. I use WASAPI Shared instead of Exclusive. The Exclusive version is just to help with Latency etc. But for me the Shared version just works fine and I have the best sound and feels like zero latency for me. Exclusive makes it "exclusive" to the program, hence why you cant use audio with any other programs. Shared as stated, allows you do so.