As part of their keynote at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit 2024, Microsoft have made a number of announcements about upcoming Windows features geared towards musicians and audio professionals. They include both hardware and software support for ARM64-based systems, along with native ASIO integration and built-in support for MIDI 2.0.
The first of the revelations concerns CPU architecture, with Qualcomm and a number of other manufacturers developing ARM64-based chips designed to run Windows, a move that offers similar performance and efficiency improvements to those seen with Apple’s line of M-series processors. The idea of Windows on ARM isn’t new in itself, but it has been fairly limited since its introduction due to an agreement between Microsoft and Qualcomm, which has now concluded.
A number of developers have subsequently announced that they’ve been working on ARM-compatible software builds that take advantage of the increased processing ability offered by the platform. Cockos Reaper is already available in preview, while Steinberg have revealed that previews of both Cubase and Nuendo will soon be launching, with Reason Studios planning to follow suit by early 2025.
Thanks to a collaboration between Microsoft, Qualcomm and Steinberg, there’s also a new USB Audio Class 2 driver set to be integrated into Windows, kitting the operating system out with native support for both Wave RT (Windows ARM native audio) and ASIO.
Thanks to a collaboration between Microsoft, Qualcomm and Steinberg, there’s also a new USB Audio Class 2 driver set to be integrated into Windows, kitting the operating system out with native support for both Wave RT (Windows ARM native audio) and ASIO. The change will bring a range of welcome improvements to musicians and audio professionals, allowing Windows to offer low-latency audio performance for USB interfaces without the need for third-party drivers — much like the benefits of Core Audio that are enjoyed by macOS users. Additionally, there are plans for Windows to natively support MIDI 2.0 which will be music to the ears of many PC musicians.
To find out more about the announcements, check out these blog posts from Scan Computers and Microsoft themselves.
www.scanproaudio.info/2024/10/22/taking-up-arms-a-new-dawn-for-pc-audio-production
devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/making-music-on-windows
devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/windows-midi-services-oct-2024-update
