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Cantatis
Overture 192 Windows XP User Guide
To get the latest tips and tricks for using the Overture 192 with your favourite music player
application please visit the support area of our website (www.cantatis.com) and check the
Frequently Asked Questions list.
4.3 ASIO Compatibility
The Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) architecture addresses the needs a professional audio
recording solution might have. Created and trademarked by Steinberg Media Technologies
GmbH, it does this by supporting variable bit depths and sample rates, multi-channel operation
and synchronization. As a result, the user gets low latency, high performance, easy set up and
stable audio recording across a variety of high-end software applications, particularly those that
are compatible with Virtual Studio Technology (VST).
With ASIO, the entire audio system becomes deterministic, controllable and offers complete and
immediate access to the audio system's capabilities. Since its introduction, ASIO (and now
ASIO2) has become a supported standard by many leading audio hardware manufacturers.
As the Cantatis Overture 192 utilises standard WDM driver design techniques, it is fully
compatible with a wide variety of 3rd party ASIO drivers to allow ultra low latency for those who
need it, particularly for musicians who rely heavily on software synthesis.
Take the scenario of a keyboard player using a controller keyboard over MIDI to their computer
running a software synthesiser. Hit a note on the keyboard and the sounds needs to happen
FAST. A delay of a mere tenth of a second can render the system utterly unusable, especially
where you are playing fast - you can easily play 20 notes in a second - and it's useless if the
audio happens with a 3-4-5 note delay.
Arguably, the most popular 3rd party ASIO driver comes from Michael Tippach
(http://www.asio4all.com):
ASIO4ALL is a hardware independent low latency ASIO driver for WDM audio devices. It uses
WDM Kernel-Streaming to achieve its objectives, bypassing the plethora of software layers more
normally found in an operating system.
© Cantatis, 2009
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