Waila, Hawaii - Musicians who use digital instruments to create, mix, and produce music must feel compelled to rely on the Mac by default, and for good reason. support for everything from digital audio workstations to MIDI support for musical instruments.

Qualcomm and Microsoft, who have teamed up to produce the Copilot Plus PC powered by the Snapdragon X Elite platform, are looking to secure their place in this arena. Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm's general manager of mobile, compute, and XR, said at the Snapdragon Summit this week, “The Copilot Plus PC is a great way for podcasters and musicians recording and performing,” he said.

To that end, new support has been added to the Copilot Plus, which should get musicians singing new tunes. Microsoft will provide MIDI 2.0 support for electronic instruments, and the rewritten stack will offer higher resolution and lower latency; Copilot Plus PCs running on the Snapdragon chipset will be able to support this restructured MIDI stack.

In addition, Microsoft and Qualcomm have partnered with Yamaha to develop a low-latency ASIO driver for Windows USB audio Class 2 devices. This driver allows users to connect a USB audio interface to the Copilot PC and capture audio from microphones and instruments; Focusrite and Steinberg have also developed an optimized drivers for Copilot Plus machines running Snapdragon.

Preview versions of Steinberg's digital audio workstations Cubase and Nuendo, which run natively on Snapdragon X series devices, will also be released. These are high-end programs used by professional audio editors and musicians, who will appreciate the flexibility to run their critical apps on their preferred platform.

Two musicians who attended the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii this week to demonstrate native support for digital audio workstations, MIDI 2.0, and ASIO drivers certainly echoed this sentiment. (I am a guest at Qualcomm's annual showcase of new products and technologies.) The demo featured a Snapdragon-powered Copilot Plus laptop running Cubase, with an electronic keyboard also connected to the computer. An electric guitar was also connected to the side, and two musicians were jamming in real time.

I am not a musician, but I can recognize the importance of low latency when playing an instrument with a computerized interface. Whether I am simulating a piano, a drum set, or an entire orchestra, I want to hear playback instantly when I press a key. And with native support for such audio apps and interfaces, Snapdragon and Windows become a more viable platform for creative professionals.

Not surprisingly, Qualcomm is eager to show off the number of apps that run natively on its chips. Qualcomm's Katouzian said that 90% of the time people spend on CoPilot Plus machines is due to apps running natively on the X Series chipset.