Build audacity with ASIO support on Windows

README.md

Build your own Audacity for Windows with ASIO driver support

Due to licensing restrictions the Audacity team cannot provide a prebuilt version with Windows ASIO driver support. But with this guide and script you can easily build your own Audacity 3.3.2.

Drivers are the glue between an audio program like Audacity and external hardware like a mixer or sound interface. The drivers usually used on Windows have limitations which can be overcome if you have ASIO drivers for your hardware. Specifically, low latency (delay) and multi channel support are available with ASIO drivers.

The Audacity program is the "go to" solution for many audio recording and editing tasks. However, unlike many more advanced DAWs, it doesn't support Windows ASIO drivers "out of the box". Fortunately, Audiacity's standard MME support is fine for most uses. That said, common reasons for needing ASIO include using digital audio or music equipment that only comes with ASIO drivers, such as Behringer mixers (which actually use the less efficient ASIO4ALL ASIO <> WDM bridging driver). Another common reason is to take advantage of the low latency or multiple channels supported by ASIO. Note that Audacity really is not a good multichannel solution, so if that is required a DAW might be a better bet.

While it is possible to build your own Audacity with ASIO support by following the instructions this usually requires considerable technical skills.

But have no fear, the instructions and script provided here make it easy to build your own version of Audacity with ASIO support. You just need a suitable Windows PC. The script checks all required tools are installed and builds a 64 bit release version of Audacity for you using the official build instructions.

NB. If you do use this to build Audacity with ASIO support you must not redistribute it due to the ASIO SDK licensing terms - see below.

Here's a brief blog post explaining why I needed ASIO and it includes a screen shot. But note, since writing that, I discovered my McMillen K-Mix digital interface mixer facilities alow routing of inputs 3 & 4 to the main outputs on 1 and 2 so can use the default MME Audacity build after all. For playback from PC, I found the HiFi Driver and ASIO Bridge from VB Audio lets me re-route PC audio out to channels 3 & 4 on the K-Mix, Leaving Channels 1 & 2 free for instruments and Mics.

Licensing

The reason for Audacity's lack of ASIO support is licensing, not technical. Steinberg do not alow the ASIO SDK to be redistributed (as required by open source projects). In addition, Audacity is GPL licensed and so is incompatible with the ASIO SDK licence redistribution rules.

Detailed instructions

If you'd rather not impact your PC by installing everything described here you can install VirtualBox and use a Microsoft supplied Virtual Machine image as explained here.

Note for developers: These instructions assume a clean PC with no dev tools. If you have existing tools you may hit errors due to differing versions. Perhaps use a VM (difficult with Windows licencing) or a Windows container.

This video by @Renamesk walks you through the process, but the tool installation method has changed.

• ensure you have a PC with modern Windows installed. 11 and 10 are known to work but 7 and 8 should too.
• install "Git For Windows" - click the "download" button.
• make a new folder C:\projects
• click on the 'raw' button at the top of the script (below) in this Gist.
• use the browser Save As feature to save the script as \projects\build-audacity.cmd (be careful there's no ".txt")
• open a new Windows cmd terminal (Windows + R keys and then type cmd)
• type cd \projects and enter key
• install required tools by typing build-audacity.cmd --install and enter.
  • NB for Visual Studio, make sure you check the "desktop development with C++" workload
  • if you have a non English Windows or Visual Studio then you must also install the VS English language pack.
• when the install completes open a new cmd terminal and start the build by typing build-audacity.cmd and enter.
• come back later - it will take at least 10 minutes
• Audactiy will be launched to test it was built correctly
  • to it run again see the program location printed out at the end of the build
  • or copy the specified folder to where you want to run Audacity from, optionally renaming it

If you have any ASIO drivers installed for active connected hardware you should find ASIO is now available in the the Audacity driver selection combo box.

When things go wrong

As with any complex software build there are many moving parts (including Windows itself) and things can sometimes go wrong. Here are some tips if you hit build errors.

• make sure you have latest script
• run the script with --cleanall and try again
• uninstall all the tools (Python, cmake, Visual Studio and its installer) and then reboot before trying again
  • note having other versions of any of the tools installed may well cause problems - remove them
• read the error output - clues are often buried in reams of impenetrable text
• disable any Anti Virus - the built-in Microsoft one is usually not a problem

Thanks

• @diogodh for finding and fixing the bug with conan installations
• The Audacity team for an fantastic audio tool.

build-audacity.cmd

@echo off
rem Build audacity with ASIO support on Windows
rem See the following gist for details
rem  https://gist.github.com/SteveALee/da24c2be633340b8791066dd98eb5d0b
rem
rem Options (only one may be specified)
rem
rem --install - install tools
rem --clean - remove built files
rem --cleanall - remove fetched and built files
rem --getonly - only get the files 
rem --noget - don't fetch again from git
rem --gui - run cmake-gui
rem
rem MIT licence
rem steve@opendirective.com

SETLOCAL
set AUDACITY_REL=3.3.2
set VISUALSTUDIOVER=2022\Community
set VISUALSTUDIOCMAKE=Visual Studio 17 2022
set VSDIR=%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio\%VISUALSTUDIOVER%
set PROJROOT=C:\projects
set AUDACITY=%PROJROOT%\audacity
set AUDACITY_BUILD=%PROJROOT%\audacity-asio
set EXEDIR=%AUDACITY_BUILD%\Release

rem check projroot exists
if /I not [%~dp0] == [%PROJROOT%\] (
  echo.
  echo Error: This script must be run in %PROJROOT% - see %%PROJROOT%% in file
  echo.
  if not exist %PROJROOT% (
    echo Create %PROJROOT
    goto exit
) else (
  echo cd to %PROJROOT%
  goto exit
)
)

if not [%1] == [--install] goto clean
rem Get tools
rem ANSI escape sequences do not work in if () block so we use goto

set cmake-url=https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v3.25.1/cmake-3.25.1-windows-x86_64.msi
set vs2022-url=https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_community.exe
set python-url=https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.11.1/python-3.11.1-amd64.exe

echo 
echo.
echo Fetching tools..
echo 

mkdir bin 2> :null
curl -L %cmake-url% -o bin\cmake.msi
curl -L %vs2022-url% -o bin\vs.exe
curl -L %python-url% -o bin\python.exe

echo 
echo.
echo Installing tools...
echo.
echo IMPORTANT!! Follow the instructions below for each installer
echo Close each installer when it is done
echo.
echo CMake: make sure you select "add cmake to system PATH" 
pause
bin\cmake.msi
echo.
echo Visual Studio: make sure you select the Workload "desktop development with C++" 
pause
bin\vs.exe
echo.
echo Python: make sure you select "add python.exe to PATH"
pause
bin\python.exe
echo.

echo.
echo This window will now close!
echo Open another "cmd" window (Wnd + R, cmd) and run "%0" again in "\projects" to build Audactity
echo 
echo.
pause
exit

:clean

if not [%1] == [--getonly] (
  if /I [%1] == [--clean] echo Cleaning built files... & rmdir /s/q %AUDACITY_BUILD% 2> :null
  if /I [%1] == [--cleanall] echo Cleaning source and built files... & rmdir /s/q %AUDACITY% %AUDACITY_BUILD% 2> :null
  if /I [%1] == [--cleanall] where /q conan & if ERRORLEVEL 0 echo Cleaning conan modules... & conan remove -f * 2> :null
)

rem Launch cmake-gui
if [%1]==[--gui] cmake-gui -Daudacity_has_asio_support=On -DAUDACITY_BUILD_LEVEL=2 -S %AUDACITY% -B %AUDACITY_BUILD% & goto build

rem ensure tools are installed 
if not [%1] == [--getonly] (
  rem NB this sets 64bit arch for cmake
  if not exist "%VSDIR%\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat" echo Error: Install Visual Studio %VISUALSTUDIOVER% & goto exit /b 
  if not defined VisualStudioVersion call "%VSDIR%\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"
  where /q cmake & if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo Cmake does not appear to be installed & goto exit /b
  where /q python & if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo Python does not appear to be installed & goto exit /b
  where /q conan & if ERRORLEVEL 0 pip show --version conan | findstr /R /C:"Version: 1.59.0" & if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo uninstalling conan & pip uninstall -y -q conan
  echo installing conan 1.59
  where /q conan & if ERRORLEVEL 1 pip install conan==1.59.0
)

rem Get source code
set getsrc=0
if /I [%1] == [] set getsrc=1
if /I [%1] == [--getonly] set getsrc=1
if /I [%1] == [--cleanall] set getsrc=1
if /I not [%1] == [--noget] ( 
  where /q git & if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo Error Install Git for Windows. Choose the option "Git from the command line" && goto exit /b
  if [%getsrc%] == [1] (
    echo.
    echo Fetching code for Audacity %AUDACITY_REL%...
    echo.  
    git clone -b Audacity-%AUDACITY_REL% --depth 1 https://github.com/audacity/audacity/ %AUDACITY%
    if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo Error: cannot fetch the Audacity code. Try the --cleanall or --noget options & goto exit
    if not exist %AUDACITY%\CMakeLists.txt echo Something is wrong with %AUDACITY% files & goto exit
 )
)

if /I [%1] == [--getonly] goto exit

echo.
echo Building Audacity %AUDACITY_REL% 64 bit release with ASIO support...
echo.
    
cd %AUDACITY%
cmake -G "%VISUALSTUDIOCMAKE%" -DCMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES=Release -Daudacity_has_asio_support=On -DAUDACITY_BUILD_LEVEL=2 -S %AUDACITY% -B %AUDACITY_BUILD% & if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo Error: Cannot create Audacity buildfiles & goto exit
:build
cd %AUDACITY_BUILD%
set msbuild="%VSDIR%\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MsBuild.exe"
%msbuild% audacity.sln -t:Audacity -p:configuration=Release
if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo Error: cannot build Audacity & goto exit

cd %PROJROOT%

rem All done
echo 
echo.
echo Congratulations!
echo Your new Audacity with ASIO support will now launch.
echo The ASIO options will appear if you have ASIO drivers and connected hardware
echo In future just run the audacity.exe. No need to install.
echo.
echo    %EXEDIR%\audacity.exe
echo.
echo Or copy the folder 
echo.
echo    %EXEDIR%\ 
echo.
echo and run the included audacity.exe
echo.
echo 
    
start %EXEDIR%\audacity.exe

:exit
cd %PROJROOT%
ENDLOCAL

I was just thinking... the first comment on this issue was on 2020. Almost 3 years ago. Isn't this something we couldn't try to merge with the main project now that it switched hands and they are revamping and improving Audacity considerable in such a short time span? What do you think? Is this doable? Is this possible?

@rvyhmeister the fact its F: not C: as most common and tested indicates there might path issues.

Oops, missed other comments

@Giermann thanks

@victorwestmann works form me. I'm sure even devs would appreciate easy build, at least for first build. And also those wanting to provide a drive by pull request. CC @Tantacrul

Hmm... I don't show the ASIO as shown by @Giermann. As I re-read the instructions it says that I must have ASIO drivers installed. I do have them installed, but they're not active, since I'm not connected to the ASIO mixer... So how do I get the ASIO drivers into Audacity? Or will ASIO show up magically when I run audacity on the machine connected to the mixer?

@rvyhmeister try when connected to the active hardware. Otherwise, please ask over in the Audacity community as this Gist is about building only.

I had to "pip uninstall conan" and" pip install conan==1.59.0" for the script to work. Apparently conan 2.0 was just released and the commands are different. Reference: audacity/audacity#4360

@MarkMayhew oh brilliant!! What happened to backward compatability!? Thanks for the heads up.

@rvyhmeister try when connected to the active hardware. Otherwise, please ask over in the Audacity community as this Gist is about building only.

When connected to active hardware, ASIO showed up and worked! Thanks to all!

@rvyhmeister that's excellent news. Thanks for sharing.

@MarkMayhew I updated the script. Thanks again.

I got it to work as well, but it doesn't function as I expected, I've got a live instrument feed through a Focusrite Scarlett Solo. I am able to select the Scarlett Solo as the ASIO input and output in Audacity now, and it records the instrument through the Scarlett Solo just fine, but I cannot figure out how to configure Audacity to let me hear the instrument (other than playback of what was recorded). So, I can play the recording and hear the instrument in the recording, but I cannot hear the instrument "live." Has anyone else been successful making this work that may be able to help me? Thank you!

@steadybright Best ask the Audacity community as this gist is just about building with ASIO enabled.

That said it sounds like you need something else to play sounds coming in from your device when Audacity is not doing anything. Windows itself probably doesn't see the ASIO drivers at all. Have a look in control panel sound settings.

I'd expect audacity to let you hear when it's recording, so maybe select record and pause?

Updated to Audacity 3.3.2

Fixed a bug stopping conan being installed as python was not on the path until you open a new cmd window