Multimedia Audio

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 It has been superseded by MediaPlayer.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

Windows provides functions that enable an application to add audio services. The multimedia audio functions were introduced in 16-bit Windows. Many of their features have been superseded by features in DirectX. For more information, see the DirectX documentation.

The following topics are discussed in the multimedia audio documentation.

• Audio Compression Manager
• Audio Mixers
• Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
• Waveform Audio

Audio can also be played by using the Media Control Interface. For more information, see MCI.