Which Audio Device (Windows Audio or DirectSound)?

[martelo]

I'm very new to this whole space having just received a KEYLAB 49 as a Christmas gift.  I have Analog Lab loaded up on my Windows 7 PC running AL 1.0.5.  I am using the KEYLAB 49 as the MIDI controler, but I also have an NI AUDIO KONTROL 1. 

The choices I have for "Device" on the Audio MIDI Settings include:

• Windows Audio
• DirectSound
• ASIO

The last one (ASIO) is my AUDIO KONTROL 1.  All three of these options work, but it looks like the tones change when moving from Windows Ausio to either DirectSound or ASIO.  The user manual suggestst that you the ASIO, but have my laptop connected to my speakers, so I'm incline to stick with either Windows Audio or DirectSound.  The DirectSound appears to behave just like the ASIO, so should I go with that one?

Examples of differences, the Helicopter preset is faster with Windows Audio vs. DirectSound.

Thanks!

[Koshdukai]

With ASIO you should get the best low-latency audio possible when compared with WDM MME/DirectX drivers.

If you're not familiar with computer based audio/music production, by "latency" I mean the time it takes between you playing a note on a MIDI controller and actually getting the audio output of that note on your speakers/headphones.

Also, usually, if you have an audio interface with ASIO drivers, that should also mean that the audio quality you'll get through those should be higher than what you get through a generic embedded audio chips in a laptop (but there's some exceptions to this "rule" where some recent audio chips do achieve some quality but getting rid of surrounding chip interferences is always something embedded audio has to deal with).

So... use ASIO whenever you can, to sum it up