Older Versions Of Windows; Windows Vista Sound System; Background - Cantatis Ultimate Audio Overture 192 User Manual

High performance 24-bit 192khz audio output interface

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Cantatis

Overture 192 Windows Vista User Guide

2.3.2 Older Versions of Windows

Installing the software on older versions of Microsoft Windows should be very similar to the

process described above for Windows Vista.

Note that there is a separate User Guide for Windows XP that describes the installation process

on Windows XP in detail.

If you have any problems with your installation then please contact our support team via the

Cantatis website (www.cantatis.com).

When Microsoft created Windows Vista the sound system architecture was completely

redesigned and no longer works in the same way as previous versions of the Windows operating

system such as Windows XP.

Note that in this section we discuss the "sample rate", which is partly what determines the

"quality" of the sound, the higher the sample rate the better the quality. Sample rate is normally

measured in "kHz" (pronounced "kilo-hertz") which means "thousands of samples per second"

e.g. 96kHz means 96 thousand samples per second. A "sample" is a "snapshot" of audio taken at

a particular instant of time so the more samples there are the more of the original sound can be

reproduced.

In previous versions of Windows, when a sound file was played then Windows attempted to play

the sound at the sample rate of the audio data in the file. If the sound card driver did not support

that sample rate then Windows would up-sample or down-sample to match the sample rate

supported by the driver.

This had some drawbacks. In particular, if a sound was played at a low sample rate e.g. 22kHz,

and then a sound with a much higher sample rate e.g. 96kHz was played at the same time then

the Windows mixer would down-sample the higher sample rate sound to the lower rate, thereby

degrading the quality of the sound output for the higher sample rate file.

In Windows Vista, Microsoft decided that the user (and only the user) should be in full control of

both the current audio output device and the sample rate that is used at all times.

So, for example, if the user sets the sample rate to 96kHz then all sounds that are played are up-

sampled or down-sampled to 96kHz, regardless of the sample rate set in the file. This gives the

user the flexibility to set the sample rate that is suitable for their system and to rely on all sound to

be reproduced at the level of quality they have selected.

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