Ableton and YouTube not playing audio at the same time?

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Meekit
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Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:31 pm

Ableton and YouTube not playing audio at the same time?

Post by Meekit » Sat Jan 22, 2022 6:38 am

Hey guys,

I've been having a problem with my audio, wonder if anyone could help out. I'm fairly new to this.

I'm currently working on a Dell Inspiron 5593 laptop. To provide some context, my problems started when my laptop display / audio started glitching out the other day. My screen would randomly shut off, my cursor would get pixelated, etc.

I figured this was due to faulty / old graphics and audio drivers. Windows recommended a few alternatives to the drivers I was using, so I chose one of those. This seemed to fix my display issues, but suddenly my audio drivers seemed to be missing. No Realtek.

I ended up downloading audio drivers from my manufacturer website, which has worked. The audio is back.

However, I've noticed that now when I open Ableton, it hogs the audio. When Ableton is running, I can't play audio from other programs like YouTube, Synthesia, etc., which I use as part of my music production.

I've somewhat resolved the issue - I've matched the Windows and Ableton sample rate (48,000). But now, Ableton plays audio through my headphones, and YouTube and other devices come through my speakers. Ideally, I'd have all the audio coming through my headphones.

Headphones are already my default device in sound settings. Also, unchecking 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' just causes Ableton to stop working.

Have any of you guys experienced this? Any solutions?

Tarekith
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Re: Ableton and YouTube not playing audio at the same time?

Post by Tarekith » Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:42 pm

You’ll need a sound card or drivers that support multi client audio, not all of them do on Windows.
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k-wildiers
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Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:44 pm

Re: Ableton and YouTube not playing audio at the same time?

Post by k-wildiers » Sat Jan 29, 2022 3:59 pm

I had the same problem when I started. The issue automatically resolved when I bought an audio interface for my guitar (Focusrite scarlett) that has its own audio drivers… incase you have one, you need to make sure the audio settings in windows itself output to the interface and when you then plug in your headphones in the audio interface, all sounds, so also YouTube etc, come through there. Good luck figuring it out

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