Editing DirectSound (section)

{{Short description|Software library for Windows operating system}}
'''DirectSound''' is a deprecated software component of the [[Microsoft]] [[DirectX]] library for the  [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] [[operating system]], superseded by [[XAudio2]]. It provides a low-latency interface to [[sound card]] drivers written for Windows 95 through Windows XP and can handle the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams. DirectSound was originally written for Microsoft by [[Miles Sound System|John Miles]].<ref name="maxpcevolution">{{cite journal |title=The Evolution of DirectX |journal=[[Maximum PC]] |date=October 1998 |volume=3 |issue=9 |page=B8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7wEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT93 |access-date=July 21, 2019}}</ref>

Besides providing the essential service of passing audio data to the sound card, DirectSound provides other essential capabilities such as recording and mixing sound, adding effects to sound (e.g., [[Reverberation|reverb]], [[Echo (phenomenon)|echo]], or [[Flanging|flange]]), using hardware accelerated buffers (if the sound card supports hardware acceleration) in Windows 95 through XP, and [[3D audio effect|positioning sounds in 3D space]]. DirectSound also provides a means to capture sounds from a microphone or other input and controlling capture effects during audio capture.<ref>[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff536327(v=vs.85).aspx DirectSound Capture Effects: MSDN]</ref>

After many years of development, today DirectSound is a mature [[API]], and supplies many other useful capabilities, such as the ability to play multichannel sounds at high resolution. While DirectSound was designed to be used by [[video game]]s, today it is used to play audio in many audio applications. [[DirectShow]] uses DirectSound's hardware audio acceleration capabilities if the sound card's hardware audio acceleration capabilities exist and are exposed by the audio driver.<ref>[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd375463(v=vs.85).aspx DirectShow FAQ]</ref>