ESI ESP1010e and Sonar X1 Studio no sound in other programs

Hello all!

I am new to this forum and i recently bought Sonar X1 Studio.

My problem is, that whenever i open Sonar, other programs stop giving any sound. I'm using ASIO drivers for Sonar. So i don't get any sound from browser or if i try to play something with BSPlayer.

I went straight and bought Sonar because i have some experience with it before (version 8). I did also try Sonar X1 trial before and i didn't have this problem. I've updated Sonar to latest patch D.

I have checked the option for Sonar to share drivers with other programs too. Might anyone have a solution for this or could someone using same soundcard as i am, give me information on how they set-up their computer.

My setting:

MB:        ASUS P6T Deluxe v2
CPU:      Intel i7 920
RAM:      6Gb OCZ 1333Mhz DDR3 Tri-Channel
SOUND: ESP ESI1010e
OS:        Windows 7 x64 Home Premium

Thanks in advance! :)

Hey there!

I have no knowledge about the ESI but I can try to guess...

ASIO drivers are fast and stable so good choice, but they can only be used by one program at a time. I suppose that Sonar is the only software you have that use ASIO? However, if your hardware drivers can only run one driver mode at any time then I would guess ASIO takes priority when a software is set up to use them. If this is the case, your other applications will simply not see the audio interface as long as Sonar is running or they will be playing into something that doesn't make sound. Another factor could be that Sonar is set up to run at 48KHz and when you launch Sonar the audio drivers will be set to that. In that case, Windows will either not make a sound or will route the windows sounds and the sound from software set to use Windows sound mapper to your onboard soundcard, if you have that, or to nothing at all for example.

The share drivers seting - If I'm not mistaken - should have Sonar drop the hold of the audio interface when minimized or moved to the background, but don't quote me on that. I've never checked it out. What you are experiencing is a pickle, but it's actually somewhat to be expected

He he, I agree about the pickles

It sound a bit weird since you've actually had this working before. I'm no guru with these things. Perhaps ESI knows what's going on?

Things are working as i hoped they would, after i enabled onboard audio.

Now Sonar is the only program using ASIO on my PCIe soundcard and onboard audio handles Windows and other programs. Of course in the long run, this method is pushing me to buy another set of speakers. So maybe not the best option there is.

I will update more after i get response from Cakewalk. Hope this helps someone having similar issues! :)

just a quick tip with your current sollution - I have my stuff set up the same way. All audio and video apps are using my Audio interface's ASIO drivers. But windows are routed to my onboard soundcard (yeah I'm breaking some rules - but I don't care, it works). To hear it through my speakers, I have a cheap mini-jack to two phono plugs straight into an open input pair that I rarely use on my MOTU Ultralite so I can hear the sounds from my browser etc through the studio speakers. It integrates flawlessly and I don't even think of it being on a separate soundcard.

Save your money for good brew and do that instead if the ESI have an internal mixer that will playback external inputs without drama - or some software in between

Hi Everyone - It's my first time here. I know this thread is old but...
I've been using Sonar for a few years now and a few months back i started having the same kinda problem - Sonar has sound - Soundforge has sound - and after altering the output settings in media player that has sound. But there's no sound in Google Chrome - IE or Firefox. I had Audacity knocking around on my computer too and couldn't get any sound from that (i uninstalled that after i got fed up trying to get it to make a noise). All these worked fine up until about 4 months ago - that's June 2015. 
I'm using X1 in Windows 7 going through an old Edirol FA-101. The ASIO driver is selected. 
I've done pretty much all the things mentioned above like unchecking the exclusivity on the sonar drivers etc. 
Someone mentioned that they thought maybe a windows update has created the problem - i was wondering the same. I tried updating windows to see if they'd fixed it but that didn't help.  
I know it's generally recommended you shouldn't connect your music computer to the internet (i usually have it disabled in Control Panel). Just turning it on when i've got to learn a song or find a sound effect and need YouTube or similar....hmmm, and now to type this. 
It's Realtek audio on the motherboard - and i have tried disabling the realtek stuff in device manager (or wherever you disable that) and that didn't work - i thought doing that might force the sound through the FA-101 - fat chance :-/ 
I tried plugging a mini jack into the line out from the computers motherboard to route through my mixer and then panicked when Sonar popped up a message i didn't quite understand - i did try playing a Youtube clip while it was still plugged in - no sound though - but i did still have Sonar running in the background with the pop up message hanging there. 
Anyway - at least Sonar still has sound so i can get on with my recordings. I do worry everytime i turn it on though - especially when i'm getting paid to record other people.  
Any help would be greatly appreciated.  
Ta-rah for now - Nelson