 Pre-mixed PCM audio is sent to the driver in a single format (in terms of sample rate, bit depth and channel count) that is configurable from the Sounds control panel.WASAPI "Exclusive mode" bypasses the mixer, as does using third-party audio APIs like OpenAL or ASIO, which still have direct access to the hardware.Kernel Streaming or Direct Kernel streaming (Direct KS) is a technique that supports kernel-mode processing of streamed data.