No sound from other apps

[SmurfGGM]

Hi.

I have that issue whereby I can't get any sound from any other applications whilst Ableton is launched.

Chrome etc hangs when trying to play a YouTube video .. the dreaded spinning wheel.
Music playing apps are the same.

When I close Ableton, still nothing will play. The only was to resolve this, is to reboot and not launch Ableton while any other apps that have sound are in use.

This has only started happening recently and I'm not sure what has caused it.

My Audio settings in Ableton are:
ASIO > ASIO Saffire
512 Samples
In/Out Sample Rate: 44100

I have also settings for:
MIME./DirectX
Speakers (Sonar Works Virtual Device) DX

In Windows Sound Control
Default: Speakers (Sonar Works Virtual Device)
32 bit, 441000 Hz
Exclusive control is un ticked.

I'm probably missing something simple. but this is driving me insane.

Many thanks in advance.

[Tarekith]

You need a sound card that supports multi client audio.

[B4L]

Some devices/drivers support multiple apps using audio at the same time, but some don't.

Experiment with the audio settings in windows, something like 'allow this device to exclusively use this device:

[Mark Williams]

Also ensure Ableton and Windows are using same ASIO device and sample rates etc are exactly the same.

[craigc]

I've also recently encountered this when I upgraded my audio interface to a more "pro" model.

My old focusrite 2i2 could handle both audio streams simultaneously but when I upgraded my interface it can only handle one at a time.
Makes sense if you're working with a dedicated composition device as the interface compute is focused on one job or another.

[SmurfGGM]

Thanks for the reply fella's.

On further investigation, it appears that this issue is only when using an ASIO device setting with Ableton.

It seems to screw every other app up that has sound. Switching back to my Sonar Works device doesn't fix the issue, so a reboot is required.

[jestermgee]

This is probably because your audio device doesn't support multi-driver operation. When you use ASIO is opens a path between your software and interface and bypasses all the windows mixer stuff to achieve more reliable and lower latency operation. It is the proffered way to operate in a DAW. But ASIO is a 1:1 protocol only (well mostly) so when an application is connected, no other applications can access the ASIO stream to output audio.

To overcome this most pro level audio interfaces will have the ability to operate in "multi-client" mode where ASIO can be used for direct applications (still only 1 application) but the rest of the OS uses the WASAPI connection and it appears seamless allowing all your applications to work at the same time. The catch here is that for this to work both windows and the DAW need to be using the same samplerate.

Not all audio interfaces allow for this and if you use ASIO4ALL this also does not allow for this as it takes over the usual WASAPI audio, bypasses it and uses an ASIO direct connection instead.

[SmurfGGM]

Thanks mate, that makes sense.

Do you know of any audio interfaces that allow multi-client mode ?

This is probably because your audio device doesn't support multi-driver operation. When you use ASIO is opens a path between your software and interface and bypasses all the windows mixer stuff to achieve more reliable and lower latency operation. It is the proffered way to operate in a DAW. But ASIO is a 1:1 protocol only (well mostly) so when an application is connected, no other applications can access the ASIO stream to output audio.

To overcome this most pro level audio interfaces will have the ability to operate in "multi-client" mode where ASIO can be used for direct applications (still only 1 application) but the rest of the OS uses the WASAPI connection and it appears seamless allowing all your applications to work at the same time. The catch here is that for this to work both windows and the DAW need to be using the same samplerate.

Not all audio interfaces allow for this and if you use ASIO4ALL this also does not allow for this as it takes over the usual WASAPI audio, bypasses it and uses an ASIO direct connection instead.

[miyaru]

My focusrite Scarlet 18i20 3rd generation is capable of doing so.......

And with both Sonar Works switched on and off!

[SmurfGGM]

Thanks @miyaru

I have a Focusrite Saffire proDSP 24 which doesn't seem to work.

I've contacted Focusrite support.

[miyaru]

That is quit an old one...... still on firewire. I had the saffire pro 40 and stopped working because of the lack of new drivers for the latest Win10 versions......... That is why I bought the Scarlet 18i20rd gen.

But as far as I can remember, my Saffire worked as multiclient out of the box.

[cundare]

Not sure if this is the whole story. As the original poster mentioned, this problem begins when launching Ableton, but does not end when Ableton is closed. Also, the issue isn't limited to playing audio from two applications simultaneously. It happens when attempting to play audio from an application while Ableton is not producing any output or recording any input. So I think it's more than merely opening two drivers at the same time. Ableton does not seem to be relinquishing control of the audio interface when not using it, or even after being shut down.

FWIW, I'm using an audiophile Meridian Explorer 2 audio interface. No other audio or music software displays this problem, not Dorico, Sibelius, or FInale, or even other types of audio-enabled applications like Sound Forge, Adobe Premiere, or Audition, not all of which use the same ASIO driver that powers Ableton. I'm VERY hesitant to replace this interface, which offers valuable and unusual features like on-the-fly MQA decoding.

Is there some Ableton setting that would let it share drivers, or even use the same driver that other applications are using (if I can figure out what that is)? Because Ableton is the only program that is exhibiting this issue -- and there are a lot of applications on this machine -- I suspect an Ableton problem, not merely an audio-interface issue. At worst, because there are apparently so many interfaces in the field, legacy or not, that do not support the (simultaneous?) use of multiple drivers, I'd expect there to be a way to configure Ableton to accommodate them -- not force users to have to discard carefully chosen hardware and replace it with a new piece of gear based on the suspicion that the new interface will resolve this showstopping problem.

Latency is not an issue on my souped-up, custom-built Windows computer. Using a non-ASIO driver for now wouldn't be my first choice, but I'd grin and bear it just to get things running right now. My current projects are unlikely to be affected.

Can anybody shed some light, other than "you need to replace your audio interface"? Are there Ableton settings that would resolve this problem? Right now, as a new Ableton user, I can't even run a YouTube tutorial while Ableton is running.

[cundare]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I cured a similar problem with Tidal last year. After launching Tidal, no other application on my machine could produce audio output until I rebooted. I solved the problem by setting Tidal to NOT take exclusive control of my audio interface.

I see that this option exists for other applications, like ProSonus's DAW, but apparently not for Ableton Live. Unless I'm missing something. That seems like a much more likely diagnosis than my interface's supposed inability to multi-task drivers. Apparently, Ableton is taking exclusive control of my audio interface, and does not properly relinquish that control, even after shutting down.

If that's the case, then this should be considered a bug, not a feature. No other program currently exhibits this anomaly, not Dorico, Adobe Audition, VLC Media Player, any of three Web browsers that I use, NotePerformer3, Crescendo, Notion, ProSonus One, etc., etc., etc. **All these applications can access the interface and produce sound simultaneously.** Only Ableton Live 11 is a problem.

If I'm missing something, can anybody direct me to an Ableton setting that turns off its exclusive control of my interface?

Note that, in Windows Control Panel, I have unchecked all options related to my audio interface that would allow applications to take exclusive control of the interface. Didn't make any difference.

Thank you to anybody who can provide some guidance.

===================

Update #2: The problem seems to arise only when Ableton is configured to use Meridian's ASIO driver. The problem seems curable by switching to (ugh!) Windows' MME driver. Of course, that's merely a diagnostic clue, not a solution. Gonna have to be able to use ASIO sooner or later.

[cundare]

***RESOLUTION***

I finally contacted Ableton support and received a recommendation that I switch to a multi-client driver. I installed FlexASIO and that seems to have solved the problem.

Close call -- I almost wound up buying a new interface, per earlier recommendations on this thread, until I thought a little bit about the symptoms. It quickly became clear that this was likely a driver issue, not a hardware problem.

Those who encounter a similar issue, IMHO, ought to try updating to a friendlier ASIO driver, rather than immediately spending $ on a new audio interface. Buying an interface might solve the problem too, but perhaps only because it includes a multi-client driver. Worth a try.

Hope this is helpful.

[mowgli_art]

I'm suddenly having the problem described here but the thing is that nothing has changed in my system (drivers etc) and everything worked fine up till now. So what's the solution then?