AV: Sound Latency - Windows Vista and later [18833]

This article applies to:

E-Prime 3.0

E-Prime 2.0

E-Prime 1.x

Detail

The default API used by E-Prime 2.0 and E-Prime 1.x is DirectSound due to capabilities offered by DirectX. Under Windows XP, the DirectSound API provides a thin layer between E-Prime and the hardware components/drivers of the sound playback devices. This provides a low latency sound playback in E-Prime where the latency result is correlated by the hardware implementation.

In Windows Vista and later, the DirectSound API no longer is a thin layer between E-Prime (or any application) and the sound hardware, but instead sits on another management layer. This results in poor performance on the same hardware where lower latency was achieved using Windows XP. Typically, these results average in the 30ms range for sound latency. Therefore, PST does not recommend using DirectSound for paradigms that requires sound latency values of less than 30ms.

For Windows Vista and later, PST recommends using the Core Audio, Chronos, or ASIO API options available under SoundDevice properties in Experiment Object.

NOTE: The default API used by E-Prime 3.0 is CoreAudio.

Please see AV: Use of SoundTester to determine machine compatibility with ASIO or Core Audio/WASAPI [18834] for more information to determine if ASIO or Core Audio is compatible with your system.

See Also:
AV: Sound Latency - Not all sound cards provide optimal millisecond timing [17206]

RELEASE INFO: Operating system (Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP) support in E-Prime [18652]