[Help] Cant listen to music/internet while using ableton

[shahbazi]

For some reason i cant listen to music or listen to music via the internet whilst my ableton window is open. If i close ableton i get my sound back, but if i open ableton while playing music, i wont get any sound from ableton, all though the green levels will move up and down. Im using a focusrite saffire 6, and im using asio drivers for ableton. Anybody got a resolution for this problem? id like to be able to listen to tunes while ableton is open to help me make my own tunes. Thanks

[drokkr]

Put the tracks you want to listen to into Ableton?

[shahbazi]

Yeah thats a good idea for short term i guess, but looking for a proper fix if possible, as im sometimes browsing soundcloud/youtube etc

[virks]

Dont know abelton,but if the problem is this chebox:

Release ASIO Driver in Background

[shahbazi]

Sorry i didnt really understand that, what do you mean?

[paravrais]

Um...why the hell would you want to be listening to other music while you work on tunes anyway O.o

[societyloser1]

ASIO is the problem... ASIO demands the sound only for ableton.
So if you want to listen to your browser or iTunes... you'll have to close ableton, lol. (Or you could turn your default soundcard back on!)

[flex vector]

It most likely has to do with your sound card/drivers. What are you using for an audio interface? There is often a setting to allow multiple programs to access the sound card instead of just one at a time.

A lot of onboard sound cards don't seem to allow this though. I have the same problem on my laptop using the built in sound card.

[VirtualMark]

its the same for me using cubase when i use my built in sound card on my laptop. but if i plug in the audio interface i can use cubase and still hear youtube/mp3s etc. so my guess is the asio driver and your integrated sound card.

[deadly_habit]

Dont know abelton,but if the problem is this chebox:

Release ASIO Driver in Background

this

[Ascian]

Go to Ableton's Audio Options and switch to Direct X rather than ASIO, that should fix it

If not right away, try shutting down Ableton and restarting. Direct X drivers should make it work though!

[shahbazi]

I'm using a focusrite saffire 6 usb interface. What is a chebox? :s

[deadly_habit]

checkbox
dunno where it is in ableton, but it looks like this under device setup in cubase

[virks]

if no help-this is copy from abelton forum:
Hey there - I had the same problem (using WaveLab w/Live v8) until I discovered that you can turn off Live's audio subsystem temporarily without having to close the app - simply click on the CPU load meter (top right corner) to release the ASIO driver then switch to your other app

[Sine69]

I had this same problem too, and it's probably because of your ASIO drivers.

I just went into my preferences on Ableton and switched them from ASIO to Direct X and it fixed everything.

[shahbazi]

hmm when i switch to direct x i get pretty shitty latency

[Sine69]

hmm when i switch to direct x i get pretty shitty latency

I emailed Ableton awhile ago about this problem, and there's another solution. I couldn't be bothered to go through with it all, so I just switched my drivers, but here's what they said:

"ASIO drivers on Windows will only allow one application to use the audio hardware at a time. In order to overcome this, you can try the following:

* Go Start --> Control Panel --> Sound.
* Select your interface and go to Properties --> Advanced
* Uncheck "allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" and hit "OK", "OK".
* You might need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect."

This is if you're using Vista, btw.

[Steve_French]

have you chosen the 'focusrite asio driver' rather than the general asio driver?

i'm using ableton and i have a saffire usb 6 and i've had no issues.

also make sure that your computer is using the saffire as its soundcard

[flex vector]

if no help-this is copy from abelton forum:
Hey there - I had the same problem (using WaveLab w/Live v8) until I discovered that you can turn off Live's audio subsystem temporarily without having to close the app - simply click on the CPU load meter (top right corner) to release the ASIO driver then switch to your other app

Good tip! I never thought of doing that!

[shahbazi]

Yeah there isnt an options to release the audio driver when ableton isnt selected, the only thing that works is clicking the cpu button. And yeah im using ableton live 8.1 with focusrite saffire 6 usb, not sure why yours is fine and mine isnt