A DirectSound object describes the audio hardware on a system. The audio data itself resides in a buffer called a DirectSoundBuffer object. For more information about DirectSound buffers, see IDirectSoundBuffer Interface. The IDirectSound interface enables your application to define and control the sound card, speaker, and memory environment.
This section describes how your application can retrieve the capabilities of the system's sound device, create sound buffers, set the configuration of the system's speakers, and compact hardware memory.