Hardware mixing
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Hardware mixing is a performance feature of computer audio hardware which enables soundcards to receive multiple audio streams and play them all at the same time. Hardware mixing improves performance by offloading audio mixing operations from the CPU and performing them at hardware speeds. In addition to mixing, the hardware performs related operations such as sample-rate conversion (SRC), attenuation, and, optionally, 3D processing that would otherwise need to be performed in software. On Microsoft Windows, hardware mixing is also referred to as hardware buffering or sometimes, questionably as DirectSound hardware acceleration.
