winapi audio output

Question

I am searching some alternative of pulseaudio for windows. Under linux there is very simple way to output raw sound (with pulseaudio):

pa_simple_write(pulse, data, bufferSize, &error);

It's work perfect with small buffers, that i send to function in the loop.

Under windows i use something like this:

void writeAudioBlock(HWAVEOUT hWaveOut, LPSTR block, DWORD size)
{
    WAVEHDR header;

    ZeroMemory(&header, sizeof(WAVEHDR));
    header.dwBufferLength = size;
    header.lpData = block;

    waveOutPrepareHeader(hWaveOut, &header, sizeof(WAVEHDR));

    ResetEvent(waveDone);

    waveOutWrite(hWaveOut, &header, sizeof(WAVEHDR));

    WaitForSingleObject(waveDone, INFINITE);

    waveOutUnprepareHeader(
        hWaveOut, 
        &header, 
        sizeof(WAVEHDR)
    );
}

It's working, but when i send another piece of data i hear small delay between pieces. Any other way to output small chunks of data buffer to sound device?

Answer 1

If you want to play some audio file, you can use the PlaySound function in windows API.

For chunks of data stored in memory you have to use the Waveform API - waveOutXXX functions.

For the problems with the delay between chunks of audio you have to use some double buffering mechanism.

You can find an example here: double buffering

Answer 2

I created this function in assembly some months ago, maybe it can be useful for you:

PlayMultimediaProc    Proc hWin : DWORD, szFileName : DWORD 

     .data 
     lpDll    db    "msvfw32.dll", 0 
     lpFunc    db    "MCIWndCreate", 0 
     .code 
invoke GetModuleHandle, addr lpDll 
invoke GetProcAddress, eax, addr lpFunc 
mov esi, eax 
push szFileName 
push MCIWNDF_NOTIFYPOS or MCIWNDF_NOMENU or MCIWNDF_SHOWALL or MCIWNDF_SHOWNAME 
invoke GetModuleHandle, NULL 
push eax 
push hWin 
call esi 
Ret 

PlayMultimediaProc endp

Answer 3

XAudio2 is best audio API on windows. It's wrapper under WinMM, DirectSound and other windows audio frameworks. It's easy to use as pulseaudio, it has no problems with latency.