Anyone here know anything about using the WASAPI drivers in Sonar Platinum when using Avid's Eleven Rack hardware?  Looks like it's not only possible but preferable.  What are the ups and downs of the WASAPI drivers??
 

WASAPI was enhanced for Windows 10, and reports are that it is now the best alternative to native ASIO if you are running Win 10.
 
From the Sonar 2016.11 release notes:

the new WASAPI drivers are game changers — now you can run SONAR on a laptop with 3 ms of latency (not a typo — that’s 3, not 30, ms). Say goodbye to MME, ASIO4ALL, and having to carry around an ASIO nterface: SONAR can actually exceed Thunderbolt performance with a computer’s internal sound chip. And the Shared mode, which increases latency a bit to 10 ms, allows running SONAR concurrently with other programs that want to use the system audio, like YouTube or Groove Music.

http://static.cakewalk.com/cakewalk/products/sonar/release_notes/Welcome_to_the_SONAR_2016.11_Release.pdf

I used WASAPI in the past when I was having trouble with ASIO. Never had a problem with it. It ran flawlessly.

abacab
WASAPI was enhanced for Windows 10, and reports are that it is now the best alternative to native ASIO if you are running Win 10.
 
From the Sonar 2016.11 release notes:

the new WASAPI drivers are game changers — now you can run SONAR on a laptop with 3 ms of latency (not a typo — that’s 3, not 30, ms). Say goodbye to MME, ASIO4ALL, and having to carry around an ASIO nterface: SONAR can actually exceed Thunderbolt performance with a computer’s internal sound chip. And the Shared mode, which increases latency a bit to 10 ms, allows running SONAR concurrently with other programs that want to use the system audio, like YouTube or Groove Music.

http://static.cakewalk.com/cakewalk/products/sonar/release_notes/Welcome_to_the_SONAR_2016.11_Release.pdf

WOWZER! Now THAT is extremely INTERESTING.
 I never had latency problems with Focusrite gen 2 ASIO drivers running @ 2.7 msec 128 buffer with SONAR/ Cakewalk 24 bit 48k/hz so I never bothered to even try.
 
I also see no reason at all a hardware Eleven Rack shouldn't work great with WASAPI drivers.. In my experiences with recording Eleven Rack, it sounds much richer, fuller/thicker, and authentic running analog audio out as opposed to S/PDIF which can also introduce AD/DA converter clocking problems and artifacts.
Audio is audio.

not to poo-poo the woo-hoo, but it would be nice to know which onboard chipsets they compared against which thunderbolt interfaces, as there have certainly been mixed reports on these forums regarding wasapi

I know Steve hates this screen shot,, but I shows clearly why ASIO outperforms WASAPI.. Sonar overdubbed tracks will be out of sync so you will need to adjust the manual offset. Below is my test results using all the different driver modes with a Tascam interface. Clearly ASIO is the only mode that is in sync. WASAPI exclusive is pretty close.
 
Of course this doesn't matter if all you are doing is some editing and midi work. WASAPI works 100% for me for those tasks. I would just be aware of this one pitfall.

 That's a pretty sad look'in screen shot Johnny
I just tried WASAPI exclusive drivers using an Allen & Heath ZED 14 as a USB interface recording acoustic guitar and vocals with drum loop running in Addictive Drums 2 with OK results as long as input monitoring was turned off, but doesn't support anything but 16 bit/ 44.1 k/Hz, and that's not the ZED's fault.
 
 Of course it's possible to make great sounding recording with a ZED @ 16/44.1, it has very, very nice preamps, and channel strips, with a Focusrite Liquid Channel, Lexicon, Digitech multi FX processors, TC Helicon vocal processor, and DBX compressors in the rack. Tis a boatload of outboard gear and processing that keeps recording latency done to a dull roar, and being the ZED can only output 4 discrete analog outputs at a time it's not as important it is to record at 24/48.
 But I'm spoiled with ASIO and my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20's ability to record 8 audio tracks by itself, 16 with the Octapre through ADAT, all running input monitoring with Eventide Ultra Channel on some, Waves Sheps Omni Channel with HReverb inserted into it on others, and work with 24 or so existing prerecorded tracks at a measly 2.7 msec effective recording latency, 6 msec round trip.
  The Scarlett is not exactly as fast as Thunderbolt, but close enough where it's humanly impossible to tell the difference.
  WASAPI drivers also don't support any of my 24/48 projects, which is like 80% of them, about 15% recorded at 24/96, and only 5% recorded at 16/44.1. 
 Deal breaker for me, but that certainly shouldn't be a problem for using WASAPI drivers to record an Eleven Rack which is a boatload of outboard processing for guitar!