I am using Ableton Live lite 11 with rode NT1 & AI1 interface. Now the problem(and this is my question also) is I don't have pairs of studio monitors and studio headphones which needs to be connect with audio interface in order to get the o/p through external speakers. In the device class option in 'preferences' if I select MME then output can be chosen According to your own wish. With ASIO I cannot change it according to my own wish as you will need to connect pairs of monitor with audio interf. In order to get o/p. So at this moment I don't want to spend money in buying monitors, cables , headphones thas why I need to connect speaker through my laptop and get o/p through it but ASIO dosnt allow u to do so. Now the qstn is does MME & ASIO gives different audio quality?
1 Answer
With high-end (and no so high-end) audio interfaces, you can have hardware monitoring. This kind of monitoring is very low latency, since it involves no digital path.
If you use your PC to provide the monitoring, you add a little latency, you may degrade a little the quality : the signal is converted to digital and back to analog, but it can be limited.
The issue with MME is the quality : if both interfaces are not with the same parameters, Windows will convert the signal which degrades it. MME will also add a lot of latency…
Fourth point, Ableton Live, like most DAW will support only one card at a time. You can get rid of this issue with ASIO4ALL which emulates a single interface (and avoid MME). ASIO4ALL will preempt the interface (no other applications can use it while Ableton Live use it through ASIO4ALL, it is the price to pay for a low latency)
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Okay sir so I have couple of questions if I use ASIO4ALL then can I connect speaker with my laptop and get the o/p through those speakers so I need to worry about connecting with audio interface (just like MME )? And does asio and asio 4 all gives same quality?– KReEdCommented Nov 8, 2021 at 18:44
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1All ASIO drivers use a direct stream through the interface driver without a possible alteration by the Windows mixer. You shouldn’t have a loss of quality. ASIO4ALL has no monitoring function by itself, you should use an analog function of Ableton Live. (Note : what do you mean by o/p) Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 19:09
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1The only loss of quality is of course the dual conversion : analog to digital, then digital to analog… but it depends of the interfaces and can be low. If you use the laptop speakers, it will be far negligible. Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 19:28
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btw, o/p output, i/p input. Sometimes shortened even further as ip & op.– TetsujinCommented Nov 9, 2021 at 8:17
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