ASIO

ASIO stands for Audio-Stream-Input-Output. It is a protocol driver designed by Steinberg studios. Features of ASIO are variable bit-depths, sample-rates, multi-channel operation and synchronisation. Because the driver accesses the audiohardware almost directly, you have very low latency values that may require also less buffering than audio hardware that are software-driven. ASIO drivers supersedes Direct-X drivers, which is the superb layer for *almost* direct hardware layer approach.