Windows 10; Tascam US-2x2
 
I'm guessing this is a basic question.  New computer and I have it set per usual with the Tascam providing sound for everything.  But after a SONAR session, MOST of the time when I exit I cannot get sound to play in anything else--YouTube, Windows Media Player, anything.  SONAR seems to not "release" the driver, or whatever the term of art is.
 
When go to the Windows sound panel, my recollection is that I can still see the meters at work indicating there's music there, but nothing is coming out of the speakers.
 
Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Jerry

power-cycle the unit after exiting sonar, this will cause the drivers to unload/reload

This is fairly new in widows, at least to me. I find that changing the output source in the bottom right corner in the system tray for the system sound fixes it for me.

Sounds like a crash upon exit. Does Sonar work If you open a project after this has happened or do you have to reboot to hear anything again. I've had this way in the past, not sure what it was.  I'm not sure if this is plugin specific if it is a crash, have you tried this without effect plugins just to see?  It could also be a driver issue with the interface, even if it worked on the other system.  Are there other drivers available for your interface including beta or older version?

<power-cycle the unit after exiting sonar, this will cause the drivers to unload/reload>
Well, right--I'm trying to avoid having to do this.  Oh...you're talking about the Tascam.  Ahhhh...okay, thanks!  I'll try that.
 
It doesn't seem to be a crash upon exit.  I can still go back into SONAR and work.  And SOMETIMES this problem doesn't happen--just usually.  I might look for alternate ASIO drivers and check with Tascam on the problem.  I'm not using any new plugins on this.
 
 
 
 

jerrypettit
<power-cycle the unit after exiting sonar, this will cause the drivers to unload/reload>
Well, right--I'm trying to avoid having to do this.  Oh...you're talking about the Tascam.  Ahhhh...okay, thanks!  I'll try that.
 
It doesn't seem to be a crash upon exit.  I can still go back into SONAR and work.  And SOMETIMES this problem doesn't happen--just usually.  I might look for alternate ASIO drivers and check with Tascam on the problem.  I'm not using any new plugins on this.

yeah, the tascam, or you can try disable-then-enable in control panel, but power-cycle is most reliable
 
try to avoid using asio drivers not from the manufacturer - asio4all (a wdm-wrapper) works fine, but if device-specific drivers exist then you are best to use those

I do not have Tascam, but with M-Audio that happens in case general settings for ASIO are different from Windows.
F.e. if I use 96kHz in Sonar, Windows which has 44.1 become silent (with M-Audio I can not only use it after Sonar, but at the same time, as long as the settings match).
 

Does SONAR hang if all you do is open and close it without loading a project? How about if you open it in Safe Mode? Is it specific projects? Can you create a new project, record a little audio and then close SONAR OK?
 
When SONAR unloads, it cannot help but release the driver. If the driver is unavailable to other applications, it means SONAR has not unloaded, and Task Manager will likely reveal that it is still running even though there is no visible component. Often referred to as a "zombie process", it can usually be killed via Task Manager.
 
So why doesn't SONAR unload? Because it's hung waiting for something to happen that isn't happening. That something is typically hardware, a hardware driver, or a software dependency of a driver. Anything that runs in kernel mode is a black box to the calling application, which has no way to find out what's going on in there. All it can do is make a request and wait. And wait.
 
It needn't necessarily be an audio driver; any hardware component can be at fault: video, disk, USB/Firewire ports, RAM stick, network adapter, audio interface, any of the hundreds of circuits on the motherboard, internal or external cables, even a power supply.
 
Although hardware failure is statistically probable, it needn't necessarily be a hardware fault. Poorly written software can certainly cause similar symptoms, especially if it's a low-level function such as a driver or interrupt handler. But if you've made no software changes since before this problem began, hardware would be the more likely suspect. Disk drives and the audio interface would top the list.
 
If you can reliably duplicate the symptoms, take it to a knowledgeable technician (e.g. not the Geek Squad), who might just find a loose RAM stick or SATA cable and have you back up and running the same day.
 
 

Strange that programs which do not use ASIO are not making sound. Do the programs play while SONAR is running? If not, it may be Windows and SONAR are set to different sample rates.

I have to turn my Focusrite interface off and back on if I want to close out a 24bit /96KHz recording/ mixing project and listen to anything else.