The different levels of audio services let you choose services appropriate to the requirements of your application and to your programming ability. Windows offers two levels of audio services:
High-level audio services allow you to play and record audio files with as little as one function call. Compared to low-level audio services, high-level services are easier to use and require less programming. High-level services also meet the audio requirements of most applications.
Low-level audio services allow you to communicate directly with audio device drivers to manage playback and recording. Low-level audio services require more programming than high-level services, but give you more control over audio playback and recording.
The easiest way of playing and recording audio is to use high-level audio services. If the high-level audio services don't meet the audio needs of your application, you can use low-level audio services to write your own routines to manage audio playback and recording.