Audacity 2.0.5 and 24-Bit Recording

[Apesbrain]

Can the "Windows WASAPI" audio host in Audacity 2.0.5 record 24-bit audio? Does it offer any advantage/disadvantage vs. self-compiled ASIO? I see in the release notes that WASAPI sampling is currently limited to 44.1, but there is also mention of recording only from "loopback" sources. Can someone explain what this means? I am recording from an external USB audio interface (Tascam US-122MKII). OS is Win 7 x64. Thanks.

[kozikowski]

As I get this. WASAPI is designed to let you record sound already playing on the computer -- like YouTube or an on-line sound show. The data it gets is the data that some other process created. If you have a simple two-channel hardware sound source, and all you want to do is record, you probably don't need it. Set Audacity preferences to record straight from the device and you're good. Audacity will complain bitterly if you select sound specifications that the devise doesn't handle.

If you start dipping your toe into Overdubbing or Sound-On-Sound, then you may need it again in order to manage sound delays and echoes.

Then there's the complication that I don't think Windows natively manages 24-bit sound.

I think I hear me mum calling.

Koz

[steve]

Then there's the complication that I don't think Windows natively manages 24-bit sound.

Audacity is not able to record 24 bit audio using "WDM" ("normal" Windows drivers), but in principle WDM-KS and WASAPI for physical inputs should record genuine 24-bit data if the sound device is 24-bit capable.

Currently the release version of Audacity does not provide WDM-KS support as it is still experimental, but hopefully it will be available soon.

The current release of Audacity has partial support for WASAPI, but this is currently limited to "loopback" and requires Windows Vista, 7 or 8. The loopback input records computer playback even if your sound device lacks its own stereo mix or similar input.

When it is available, WDM-KS should provide a good alternative to ASIO. The main advantage of WDM-KS over ASIO is that Audacity can legally include support for WDM-KS, whereas ASIO builds of Audacity are "non-distributable" (for your own use only) which means that to get ASIO support you need to build Audacity from the source code.