CAKEWALK sonar x3, Reference Manual

Page: 1691 / 2094

1691
Audio hardware (sound cards) and drivers
Beginner’s guide to Cakewalk software
Installation and drivers
When you install a sound card, you are installing both the hardware and software called a driver. The
sound card driver is what allows your operating system and your sound card to communicate. This
section is aimed at preventing problems when installing both your sound card and its driver.
Installing a sound card
Follow your sound card’s documentation for installing the sound card in your computer. If you are
installing a PCI card, or any hardware that requires you to open the cover of your computer, be
careful to discharge any static electricity you are carrying by touching the metal casing of your
computer before handling the sound card itself. Static electricity can damage a sound card’s
circuitry.
WDM and MME
In most situations, the newer WDM (Windows Driver Model) sound card drivers that most sound
card vendors are creating are a much better choice than the older MME (Multi-Media Extensions)
drivers. If your sound card vendor has a WDM driver, it’s usually a good idea use it. The following
table compares their characteristics.
IRQs
An IRQ (Interrupt Request) is an assigned location where the CPU expects to be interrupted by a
device when it has completed a task. There are 16 IRQs on a computer. Usually, three or four are
taken by the system, leaving 12 or 13 for other devices, like printers, USB devices, hard disks, floppy
disk drives, keyboard and sound card. Some of these devices can share an IRQ with other devices,
but for the most part this is not a good thing, and for a sound card which can use a lot of CPU power,
it can be a real problem. IRQ conflicts can cause your system to freeze or fail to boot up properly, or
the system may fail to recognize your sound card. Sometimes the problem only reveals itself when
you attempt to use the device that is sharing an IRQ.
WDM MME
Lower latency Usually higher latency
Not every sound card vendor has
produced a WDM driver. MME drivers are widely available.
Note: If you use two or more sound cards at the same time, and not all
of them have WDM drivers, you must force the WDM drivers to function
as MME drivers. Go to
Edit > Preferences > Audio - Playback and
Recording and select MME in the Driver Mode list.
Table 275.