ASIO USB Audio Driver?

Several years ago (in early Win 7 days) I wanted to test my PC sound card, just test to see if it would work wasn't going to really use it, and installed ASIO4ALL.  That allowed Sonar (Probably in the Sonar 8/X1 days) to recognize it.  However, the ASIO4ALL caused problems with the ASIO driver for my recording interface, at the time a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.  To get the Saffire Pro 40 working again, I had to uninstall ASIO4ALL and reinstall the drivers for the Saffire Pro 40.
 
There are posts (several that I've seen) on the gearslutz forum about ASIO4ALL being a 50/50.

I think the most common problem with ASIO4ALL could be when a new user connects an external audio interface and either:
 
1. They had previously installed ASIO4ALL for use with the internal audio, and don't remove ASIO4ALL before installing the new drivers.
 
2. They mistakenly installed ASIO4ALL, thinking that was how to use ASIO with their new interface.

Ive used ASIO4ALL many times over the last ten years or so, with all kinds of sound devices, and while not perfected, and perhaps a little difficult to configure sometimes, it has never caused any major problems. At most it might require an uninstall and a reinstall of other true ASIO drivers....
 
Know its limitations and be happy!
R

pwalpwal
however, "documented here numerous times" is all anecdotal no one has ever shown reproducible steps... it's just another easy blame for errors with sonar... how does it "interfere" with other drivers? there's no record of such on the asio4all forums, as there certainly would be if this were the case!  it has also existed happily with other "real" asio drivers without issue...
 
have you had trouble with it yourself, or are you just repeating what you've read in the forum?
 
the misinformation being spread is that asio4all is the issue - if it was really that way, how have i used it for years across multiple machines and devices without any trouble? i agree that one should use a manufacturer-supplied asio driver if one can, but sometimes there isn't such an option
 
as the recent ezine stats showed that's the most popular driver used with sonar, so it 's weird that this forum says it doesn't work, don't use it...

I am usually defending ASIO4ALL in this forum and I use it on 2 computers for years. "Real" ASIO drivers (M-Audio, Behringer) are also installed there.
And I also think most asio4all problems reported before have roots in wrong configuration.
 
But since you ask about "interfere" and personal "trouble with it", yes I had it once. I have clearly "overplayed" with ASIO drivers on my primary computer. I had M-Audio, VS-20 and SB "real" drivers installed. All was working fine. Then, for test (and really as a prove that nothing bad can happened...) I have added ASIO4ALL there. After several "combination of settings" tests I no longer could use M-Audio and VS-20 without glitches (with original drivers). Uninstalling ASIO4ALL and reinstalling original drivers has not cured the problem. I was about digging deep to find what is changed (registry, ini files, driver chains, etc.), but in several days Windows 10 Anniversary update came and it has restored working environment for me.
 
Note that "problems" was not obvious. I have just started to get pops/clicks at places I am sure they was not before. I had to drastically increase the buffer size for M-Audio to almost avoid them. For VS-20 I could not avoid them with any settings. WDM was still working fine, but ASIO no longer.
 
Am I 100% sure the problem was coursed by ASIO4ALL? Not. But after that "accident", I think ASIO4ALL in fact can interfere with original drivers. I have not found how exactly. My conclusion from the story:
1) if manufacturer has proprietary ASIO driver, an attempt to use ASIO4ALL for the same device is looking for trouble
2) if some devices need ASIO4ALL while there are other interfaces in the same computer with own ASIO, the first thing to do in ASIO4ALL is disable all devices for which it is not needed (effectively avoiding (1) ).