VistaSound

Note: this driverset is available for Windows only.

Windows Vista features new low-latency drivers called "Core Audio" or WASAPI. Sometimes the term WaveRT is used as well, although this actually refers to a technology used by drivers internally. Windows Vista also features MMCSS (Multimedia Class Scheduler Service), which helps prevent audio glitches under high CPU load. The VistaSound driverset makes WASAPI audio and MIDI devices available for use by MultitrackStudio. It supports multichannel recording and playback, provided the sound device driver supports this (Pro Plus edition only).

VistaSound Properties window (Pro Plus edition, Professional has only one MIDI In and two MIDI Out devices)

In the Audio In Device section you can select the audio device that will be used for recording.
In the Audio Out Device section you can select the audio device that will be used for playback.
It's a good idea to use Audio In and Out devices that are on the same sound device. If they're not their samplerates probably aren't equal. This can be quite a problem, as recorded tracks will slowly go out-of-sync during playback.

Audio devices are opened in exclusive mode in order to ensure low latency and good synchronization. This means other programs can't use these audio devices while MultitrackStudio runs. If, for example, you want to record the audio output of another program you'll have to temporarily select 'None' in the Audio Out Device section so the other program can playback.

The Latency box determines the time it takes before you hear the sound when playing MIDI soft instruments live or when using Soft Monitoring ('live effects'). You'll hear glitches if this settings is too low. The VistaSound driverset has been designed to not let these glitches end up in the actual recording: If, for example, you record the Guitar Amp effect live using a low latency and you hear glitches while recording, the glitches won't be in the track and it will sound fine when you play it back.

The Try "pull mode" button turns on "pull mode" (AKA "event mode"), which works better when CPU usage is high. You'd want to have this enabled, but unfortunately some drivers fail to implement this correctly. It also doesn't work on Windows Vista without SP1. Pull mode won't be used if VistaSound can detect it doesn't work, even if it's enabled.

Your sound device may not support latencies as low as the one you've selected. The actual latency appears in the Studio menu's Devices window.

In the MIDI In Devices section you can select the device that is used for MIDI recording.

In the MIDI Out Devices section you can select the device that is used for MIDI playback. The 'Default' option uses the default Windows MIDI output device.

If you have a hardware control surface you can select the MIDI devices it is connected to in the Control Surface section.

Audio Input/Output Control

Audio Input Control using VistaSound The Audio Input Control and Audio Output Control (available from the Recording Options section and the Studio menu respectively) determine which in/outputs will be used. The listed in/outputs will be used from top to bottom. They can be reordered by dragging and dropping them. The Automatically assign channels to tracks button (Audio Input Control only) can be switched off to let you assign channels to tracks manually. The Control Panel button pops up the audio page of the Windows Control Panel, where you can adjust recording levels etc. if the sound device supports this.