Yes, you can. Systemwide can be used to route your system audio (like your music players or internet browser) through the calibration and it can also be used the same way with your DAW. Just make sure to set Sonarworks Systemwide (Sonarworks Virtual Audio Device on Windows) as your output (but not the input) device in your DAW settings.
There are certain advantages to using your DAW with Systemwide instead of the Reference Plug-in. For one, with Systemwide you don't have to remember to bypass your calibration before rendering your mix. On the other hand, adding Systemwide in the chain between your DAW and audio interface results in increased latency (around 20-50ms) which can become an issue when recording audio or MIDI.
So if you want to use the calibration while tracking music, we suggest using the Reference Plug-in. For mixing or if the latency added latency is not an issue, we suggest using Systemwide.
Please note that Systemwide will not work with Cubase on Windows because Systemwide currently supports Windows native drivers only while Cubase works exclusively with ASIO drivers. We plan to add ASIO driver support on Systemwide in the future. Right now a similar functionality can be achieved using the Reference plugin in the Cubase Control room. Learn more about it here.
2 comments
You say "We plan to add ASIO driver support on Systemwide in the future." Any plans when this will happen? I want to use Reference 4 Systemwide as an ASIO device together with my Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 interface in FL Studio and I can't because Non-ASIO devices have less performance in FL Studio.
Regards
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the comment and apologies for the lag in moderation time here - we missed this one!
Just to clarify, a full ASIO driver would be a huge deal, requiring not only a complete driver rewrite but a complete rebuild of the entire software architecture from most aspects. In other words, it is a massive development effort in order for it to no just do the job for the audio stream, but for all of the other features implemented in Reference (for example, any automation features in ASIO are very difficult to address). So, by 'In the future' we mean the next major software release (not in Reference 4).
We are on the right path though, and adding the new ASIO output mode a year back has pushed us on a very steep learning curve (as to how we should approach ASIO in general, what the benefits are, and what do we want/need it for), so we're in a good place for taking the next steps. The ASIO output mode has already allowed countless new use cases, especially for ASIO-exclusive output devices.
I can see that you submitted a support ticket regarding an issue in ASIO mode, but we never received an answer to our response. Did you manage to solve that issue or was there a different conclusion? Feel free to follow up on that ticket, or submit a new one and we'll have a closer look again. Thank you!