Unable to open audio playback device.

I have had this error for years coming and going as it pleases Sonar. I have had it on 3 different computers and on 2 different soundcards. FF800 and Delta 1010 not on the same PC. Sometimes te error is not there, sometimes it is. And I cant tell when. Sometimes it works to change from ASIO to WDM but sometimes when changing to WDM Sonar says: The default audio format is not compatible with one or more soundcards. It has been reset to 44100 hz(16 bit) as suggested by the driver. Sonar gets the message from the driver wrong because FF800 IS capable of a lot more that 16/44.

I have only 2 x Fireface 800 and when disabling them the error disappears, but of cours - then there is no sound. There is no way to control the samplerate and bit size in RME control panel. I also tried with only 1 FF800 - no difference. I have serched this forum several times and tried EVERYTHING I found here more than once, but no difference.

The error does not show when only playing MIDI, but playing andiofiles with no plugins at 24/96 will also cause this error some times. It does not seem to be a plug in causing this allthough when using PLAY I see the error more often. If the error happens when using PLAY I can remove those from the synth rack and reinsert them. This works most of the time until next time I load the project...

I dont remember for shure but I think the problems started with Sonar 6 and I only have had PLAY for a year.

Look at this picture and find an error if you can. I might have been doing something wrong since v. 6, but what....?:

http://www.microsonic.dk/diy/cw.jpg

I am soooooo tired of this error randomly stopping a project for so many years and Support hasnt come up with anything that wasnt on the forum. I am totally convinced that there is some kind of bug in Sonar that wasnt present in Sonar 5. And Im soooooo tired of the loooooong response time on Tech Support and a silly answer that I already found on the forum or trying to blame third party plugins even though other plugins do the same (Rapture). Like they doesnt really care....

Oh and the black parts of the picture... Sonar does not redraw. Happens a LOOOOOOT. And ONLY Sonar. Buttons and half a message box can be gone but hovering the mouse over the empty pages, some of it comes back...

Your FF 800 is set to 44.1khz. I can see it in the bottom right corner of the ASIO control panel for it under System Clock. Go to the DDS Tab to change it to whatever you want. make sure that SONAR is set to the same rate.

Switching back and forth between ASIO & WDM drivers means you have to change some settings.

ASIO settings are changed within the FF800's applet which you can access directly or by changing to ASIO drive mode in SONAR via Options->Audio-> Advanced Tab then going back to the General Tab to select the ASIO button which opens the FF800s control panel applet.

WDM driver changes are made wholly within SONAR. As of this version (SONAR 8) you no longer need to close SONAR to change driver types or settings, just make the changes and click Apply if you need to go to another tab in the same dialog box or OK if you're done.


When you are in ASIO drver mode and change to WDM, SONAR will run the Wave Profiler to establish settings for the change. If your Sound card can handle say 24bit at 48khz with the ASIO drivers then when you change to WDM it might only be able to work at 16bit 44.1 khz so you will get this warning. Once you're in WDM mode, done a Wave Profile and accepted the settings if you then change back to ASIO you'll need to amnually check your ASIO settings in the FF800 applet.

If you have an onboard sound card enabled when SONAR does it Wave Profiling it can also throw up this message you're talking about.

I changed the SystemClock in FF panel but I still get the same error and the sound is pitched 1 oct. up. And no matter which samplerate I use in Sonar I get this error in ASIO mode. In WDM mode I get this : The default audio format is not compatible with one or more soundcards. It has been reset to 44100 hz(16 bit) as suggested by the driver. And trying to change the bit width to 24 causes this error again.

Windows sounds are completely disabled. So is onboard sound and anything else that might interfere. I always use 24/96 never 88. Seldom 16/44. The FireFace can handle from 44 to 192 khz 16 and 24 bit in both ASIO and WDM mode. The wave profiler only finds the Firefaces as it should as there is no other soundcard.

Sonar is not playing anything in asio mode and in WDM it sounds horrible playing 24 bit sound thru Sonar set to 16 bit. So no music.

In my admittedly limited experience this is usually caused either by an onboard soundcard that has not been disabled or a mismatch between the interface's settings and sonar's. Go to Options/Global/Audio Data and set the Record Bit Depth to 24. Now go to Options/Audio/Drivers and make sure that only you FFs are selected. If anything else shows up, uncheck it and apply to get rid of it. Now make sure your FFs' control panel is set properly and that Sonar's Audio options match and you should be all set.
Good luck!

I am using Vista x64, Sonar 831 and RME drivers are 2.95 the latest. No other soundcards. Options/Audio Options shows only 2 times FireFace. Windows sounds are disabled. My Lex MX200 connected via USB is unplugged and uninstalled as Sonar believes everything is a soundcard. I got the error on my previous DAW too which was a completely different computer and the soundcard was a Delta1010. I think it all started with Sonar 6 x64 some years ago. It happens with all kinds of projects. With or without VST or DXI. Even projects with recorded audio (24/69) and nothing else. Removing VST's from syntrack and reinserting them often makes the project play until next load... And some times I could load an empty project first and load the problem project ok right after, but this workaround does not work since 831.

Still unable to open audio playback device...

Are your Fireface units synced? It should show this in the Fireface Settings dialog box.

As far as Windows Vista and 64bit operating systems, well, I don't have experience with either.

Do you have share drivers with other programs checked? If not, try doing that.

ew

No worry, hopefully Rigpa will get it goin' soon.

There could be two issues going on at the same time. Definetely make sure you have the two RME's synced. Since I don't have two I'm not 100% sure how to do this but it looks like you need them synced, one master and one slave, via word clock, s/pdif or ADAT and once set correctly you should be able to verify this via the Fireface Settings dialog box. I do this via word clock with the Fireface as the master and an Alesis HD24 as the slave.

If that does not fix the problem then I would do as djones mentions above, making sure Windows is not configured to use the Fireface as the default Playback/Record device. In Windows XP you can check this in Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices on the Audio and Voice tabs. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that if you have the onboard sound card disabled (either in the BIOS or Device Manager), Windows will automatically update its settings to use the Fireface when you turn it on. Though I'm not 100% sure about that.

Try opening in safe mode and deleting the Maria og Choir effect.

I tried to disable everything (Services) that has something to do with audio and multimedia. Midi stops working and I still get the error: Unable to open audio playback device...

In your Fireface Settings tab:
Under Synch Check and Auto Sync Ref you show clearly that your 2 units are not synchronized; otherwise it would show Lock not No Lock as it currently shows.

By using the DDS page you can lock your preferred sample rates if you don't want this make sure that Active is unchecked.

Ohhh **** - Just to make things more confusing - I loaded an older project with 7 instances of PLAY and it works great. But the first project still doesnt...

Then I open an older project using the NI versions of PLAY and after replacing the first NI instance with PLAY: Unable to open audio playback device.

I admit that my brain needs an upgrade. I dont understand why 1 project plays and another does not.

Here are the FF panels and the WC LED is green on the master:

Fireface sync settings look good. I told you they were correct.

It was hard to tell though from your original screen shots.

What about Device Manager/Sounds and Audio Devices - Audio/Voice tabs?