Hi

I have recently purchased a FOCUSRITE Saffire 6 USB audio interface. I am using  Sonar 8 and after correctly following the
Audio Options, Sonar 8 does recognise my Focusrite USB in 'GENERAL' and 'DRIVERS'. However when I hit space bar for Playback, a pop up message appears saying, unable to perform playback, please visit cakewalk technical support. When I dont have my interface connected Sonar 8s works fine with direct sound, having said that my interface works fine when playing music on my laptop through ITunes. Any help or advice would be great.

Best
John

What is your Driver mode set to in sonar?  Also, what version of the Focusrite USB drive are you using with the Saffire 6? (you can find the driver version in Device Manager on the driver tab of the Saffire 6's properties)

Are you using the ASIO drivers?  If so, you have to disable any other drivers in SONAR Options.  By ASIO standard, that is how the drivers work.  Whatever was first installed will be highlighted up at the top - usually the reltek or whatever onboard soundcard is installed.  Unhighlight them and choose the Focusrite ASIO.

Now, go through and make sure all the other pages are using Focusrite ASIO, doing so manually.  SONAR should do it automatically when you close, but that doesn't always happen. 

If you aren't using ASIO, try the above.  In many cases ASIO is the best driver.

@

Then close and reopen SONAR and see if it sticks.  It should and away you go.

If you do not "disable" the the onboard (if you have that) or the other soundcard then the FocusRite will not be the default sound unit. And in Sonar you have to checkmark what output and input you want to use. In Windows your FocusRite should be the default sound device also, and then all playback and recording will be done with the unit. If another sound card - disable it in Windows and in the BIOS of the computer to not use it at all. Two sound units is trouble and you can only use one at a time in the computer anyway. I use to have Soundblaster sound card and my RME, I could switch around (which means to change to one or the other but only one at a time) which was a headache because Soundblaster always gives a message which I got tired of reading. It interfered with the main sound unit I wanted to use. I finally took it out of the computer all together but if you can not do that with a built-in sound card, then you have to disable it in the BIOS and Windows so it is not seen by the computer and the computer attempting to use it, when you want the other sound unit to be used instead.

Thanks guys. 
 
Its working now, I had not set up my drive mode incorrectly! 
 
All the best, Cheers
John