About Waveform Audio

[The feature associated with this page, Waveform Audio, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by WASAPI and Audio Graphs. WASAPI and Audio Graphs have been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use WASAPI and Audio Graphs instead of Waveform Audio, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

There are several methods for adding sound to your application using waveform audio. The simplest method documented here is that of using the PlaySound function. Most of the other waveform-audio API elements are relatively low-level.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Simple Audio Playback
• Waveform-Audio Interface
• Auxiliary Audio Interface
• Audio Data Blocks
• Handling Errors with Audio Functions

In addition to the APIs discussed here, the Media Control Interface can be used to play waveform audio as well as other media such as MIDI sounds and video. For more information, see MCI.