Can someone explain to me what the difference is between MME Windows Direct Sound and WASAPI is ? They all seem to behave the same on my computer ?
In most cases it doesn’t make any difference.
WASAPI does have the “loopback” option which lets you record whatever is coming out of the soundcard (mostly for recording streaming audio). Some of the older ways of recording streaming audio don’t exist on some newer systems.
They are protocols that define how an application interacts with Windows & drivers. MME is the oldest and WASAPI the newest. Audacity works with all 3.
There is a 3rd-party protocol called ASIO intended for more professional, but most hardware (drivers) doesn’t support ASIO and Audacity doesn’t support ASIO unless you compile it yourself.
More information - [u]A Brief History of Windows Audio APIs[/u]