So what’s the problem with Windows for audio? For small-staffed audio companies, some of it comes down to personnel hours available for testing and coding. “We consistently see ASIO and Core Audio performing with the same high quality and low latency,” he said. Generally speaking, ASIO drivers are no less capable of delivering low latencies than Core Audio, a stance backed up by Steve Macatee, Director of Product Development at Rane Corporation.
However, when latency is a factor most hardware developers use third-party ASIO drivers to achieve lower latencies for their products. Windows systems include DirectSound and a USB class audio driver. While some audio hardware developers for Mac choose to include their own audio drivers with their products, many of them simply use Core Audio and can achieve low latencies. Mac computers run OS X, which includes Core Audio, a built-in programming environment for generating, recording, mixing, editing, processing and playing audio on the computer. We understand that with a great PC running optimally, latency can easily be negligible for DJing and live music performance, but let’s look into the differences.
In our years of testing different computer-based audio systems, both the observational and anecdotal evidence suggest very strongly that-all other factors being equal-Mac systems since the improvement of Core Audio in Mac OS 10.2 produce lower latencies than Windows systems. In the interest of full disclosure, we should own up that most of us at DJ TechTools are die-hard Mac users. To get a better handle on what the differences are when creating audio drivers for both Mac and PC, we asked a couple of third-party audio hardware developers who produce products for both platforms. However, one of the most important factors is the audio driver at work. Latency is a murky issue with many factors affecting it: the number of audio channels and effects being used, CPU power, and more. A recent DJ TechTools round up of soundcards sparked some queries about whether latency is a bigger problem on Mac or Windows machines, or if it’s a moot issue these days.
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