Well screw me. Took me countless hours of googling to come accross this:  http://www.m-audio.com/?do=support.faq&ID=edb8088eb50111034766ac6534d0e292 which tells me to do exactly what I'm trying to avoid (set my onboard soundcard as default):


There is currently a known issue with the device drivres for M-Audio USB interfaces that affects multi-client operation.  This error can occur when launching an ASIO application and another application, or in some cases the Windows operating system, is trying to access the device.  If you are receiving this error message, quit your recording application, then go to the Windows Control Panel and select your computer's built-in sound card as the default playback and recording device.  This will allow you to use your M-Audio device with your ASIO application.

When you would like to use your M-Audio device for non-ASIO applications (e.g. iTunes, Internet Audio, Windows Media Player, etc), you can set your M-Audio device as the default playback device from the WIndows Sound Control Panel.

Yeah, that means that the drivers don't allow you to use your soundcard for both SONAR and media player playback. That puts you back to the option of using my suggestion of using a Y spliter.

By the way, other options include using a mixer (running the FastTrack output into a mixer, running the onboard sound into the mixer and connecting your speakers to the mixer output) or connecting the onboard sound output to the FastTrack via S/PDIF or an analog input, and have your speakers connected to the FastTrack, but they all require more cables. Sorry.

I'm using an Echo Gina 3g and Sonar X1. I can't get Sonar and Firefox to share the audio outs. When I start Sonar, it takes the outputs and Firefox can't access them. When I start Firefox first, same thing. I'm using ASIO drivers. Is this a problem with Sonar or Echo? I've tried pretty much everything in this thread. Anyone else using the same hardware?

I had a similar problem with my saffire 6 usb. Sorted it by going into control panel/sound/saffire 6 properties/advanced then selecting 2 channel, 24 bit, 48000 Hz (Studio Quality) then un-checking both boxes in exclusive mode, hit the test button and hey presto. Deep joy. Hope this helps anybody else trawling about with the same problem.

Markusad2014 - YOU ARE MY SAVIOUR. I LOVE YOU.