MCI provides a standard set of commands applying to all types of media devices. Some of these commands can be extended to accomodate unique features of a particular type of device. For a complete reference to MCI command messages, see the message-directory chapter in the Programmer's Reference.
The following table lists common audio playback and recording tasks along with the corresponding MCI command message to perform each task:
| Audio Task | MCI Command |
| Play sounds | ^ | ||||
| Play a waveform sound | MCI_SOUND | ||||
| Open and close audio devices | ^ | ||||
| Open an audio device | MCI_OPEN | ||||
| Close an audio device | MCI_CLOSE | ||||
| Control playback and recording | ^ | ||||
| Play all or part of audio selection, resume playback from pause | MCI_PLAY | ||||
| Stop playback | MCI_STOP | ||||
| Pause playback | MCI_PAUSE | ||||
| Change current location | MCI_SEEK | ||||
| Cue a device so playback or recording begins with minimum delay | MCI_CUE | ||||
| Begin recording on a waveform audio device | MCI_RECORD | ||||
| Save a recorded waveform audio file | MCI_SAVE | ||||
| Query and set audio devices | ^ | ||||
| Query device information such as the product name and the name of the device element currently associated with the device (returns information in string format) | MCI_INFO | ||||
| Query device capabilities such as the device type, number of inputs and outputs (if the device can record) | MCI_GETDEVCAPS | ||||
| Query device status such as current playback position, media length, media format, time format, record level, CD audio track, MIDI sequencer tempo | MCI_STATUS | ||||
| Set device parameters such as time format, waveform data format, MIDI sequencer tempo | MCI_SET | ||||