ASIO Driver + FL Studio ASIO Driver

[kmanek]

Since the recent update i cant even use FL Studio Asio Driver, i found out that Asio works better in terms of latency, because Wasapi Shared or Wasapi Exclusive gives me a lot of errors. why does cakewalk by bandlab doesnt use ASIO?. With FL Studio ASIO driver i can use a lot of stuffs at same time, like running OBS studio (recording screen and audio or going Live). Please enable the feature.

[Byron Dickens]

Cakewalk does use ASIO.  In fact, it is recommended. You just don't have a real ASIO driver.

You need to get a real audio interface.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

And you need to uninstall ASIO4ALL. Get rid of it completely, including any registry entries

[Byron Dickens]

8 minutes ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

And you need to uninstall ASIO4ALL. Get rid of it completely, including any registry entries

Need to uninstall the other garbage too.

[Lord Tim]

ASIO4ALL and the FL ASIO driver aren't real drivers at all, they make native Windows WDM drivers appear as ASIO drivers. The Realtek HD one is actually a broken driver that will cause major issues, and Cakewalk actually will warn you not to use it.

ASIO only allows you to use one driver at at time, and it must be selected for both input and output.

With that said, the above replies are correct - uninstall these unnecessary "drivers" and if don't have a proper audio interface with manufacturer supplied ASIO drivers (and not virtual wrapper drivers like shown) then use WASAPI and choose Realtek.

WASAPI Shared will give you the safest performance but will introduce a minimum 10ms latency.  WASAPI Exclusive will give you better latency performance but other things on your system can interfere with your playback. A proper audio interface will solve all of these problems.

[Craig Anderton]

What Lord Tim says is correct. An audio interface (like a Focusrite 2i2 or whatever) with ASIO drivers designed for that interface will improve the overall performance dramatically. He's also right about WASAPI and RealTek. However, if you use multiple programs, not all of them support WASAPI properly. So, following is a fallback approach,

I assume you want to use the FL Studio driver because it doesn't shut down other audio on your computer, like ASIO4ALL does. So, uninstall ASIO4ALL completely. But FL Studio's driver was designed specifically for FL Studio. In theory, for other programs the performance isn't as good as ASIO4ALL in terms of latency and CPU load. If you have to use one or the other, ASIO4ALL may give you better performance with Cakewalk.

But, that's a big if. Although some people have had success with ASIO4ALL, I know others who had a real interface with drivers for it, but had problems if ASIO4ALL was even just installed on their system. It's a kludge and while it's clever, it's still trying to fool your program into thinking Windows' native drivers are something other than what they are. With FL Studio, note that when you install or update, you have the option to check or uncheck the FL Studio driver. So here's the summary:

• Your best option is to get a quality audio interface with drivers designed for it.
• If you don't want to buy an interface, want to run multiple audio programs, and the Windows native drivers don't do the job for you, use the FL Studio driver. However, this will likely give worse performance with Cakewalk than ASIO4ALL.
• Use ASIO4ALL with Cakewalk and uninstall the FL Studio driver if you're willing not to use several programs at the same time, want better Cakewalk performance than with the FL Studio driver, and ASIO4ALL works in your system.

Hope this helps...

[John Vere]

 

[Lord Tim]

1 hour ago, Craig Anderton said:

However, if you use multiple programs, not all of them support WASAPI properly. 

Actually this is a very important point that we tend to gloss over a bit in the forum because our advice is usually Cakewalk specific - other programs may not give you the options that Cakewalk does when it comes to drivers, so you may be forced to leave this stuff installed for their sake.

Good call!

But yeah, even a budget interface like a Focusrite Scarlet Solo will give you proper ASIO drivers and much better performance overall than any onboard sound chips.

[Craig Anderton]

1 hour ago, Lord Tim said:

Actually this is a very important point that we tend to gloss over a bit in the forum because our advice is usually Cakewalk specific - other programs may not give you the options that Cakewalk does when it comes to drivers

Indeed, and it's shame because WASAPI is closing in on the Mac's Core Audio drivers for performance and low latency. Cakewalk has always been at the front of the pack for supporting Windows improvements (not just WASAPI, but things like the pen). And credit where credit is due, Mixcraft was also quick to support WASAPI. Cross-platform programs don't seem as interested. Sometimes I think their official attitude is "We support the Mac. Oh yeah, right...glad you asked...Windows, too."

I understand from an anonymous Microsoft source that they fully expect to meet or exceed the Mac's Core Audio specs in the future, but we're not there yet.

[John Vere]

If they ever figure out how to solve the syncing issue with audio then WASAPI will be an equal performer to ASIO. At this point it is always just a tad late in a Loopback test.
I use WASAPI shared mode on my office computer running dozens of audio and video apps simultaneously with out issues for a few years now.

I used to have an older Scarlett 6i6 connected but it created a problem for the family as this is also the computer used for Prime and Netflix. I test plug ins and do al sorts of stuff and can’t see anything different between this system and the main Daw and using ASIO. But I don’t record audio. 

Edited September 16, 2023 by JohnnyV

[Jeremy Oakes]

I’ve just updated my version of FL. Oh well, another dive into the registry to get rid of its faux Asio driver.

J

[John Vere]

The biggest problem with that one and the Steinberg  and Magix generic drivers  is they can be what we call invasive. They somehow will turn up on the Sync and Caching page so your latency adjustments will be wrong. So only choice is to remove them in the RegEdit app. 

Even though ASIO 4all is not needed anymore I’ve never had it be invasive like that. 

If you follow the set up  in the video you will not have sharing issues with ASIO interfaces or if you are using computer audio system. 
It’s as simple as ASIO for proper interface and WASAPI shared for computer audio. 
There are then devices that don’t support either which you need to toss out the window. Simple. 
 

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/15/2023 at 3:38 PM, Craig Anderton said:

However, if you use multiple programs, not all of them support WASAPI properly.

One of the ones that does not, and explicitly recommends ASIO4ALL as a substitute is Ableton Live.

I was amazed to discover that, especially given the popularity of Live as a program for live performance, presumably on laptops.