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So we know that if you run ASIO4ALL while you have some other program running a sound output, ASIO4ALL shows audio output as unavailable, since it is locked for it, until you quit all the apps that are using the sound output, be it a browser, media player or windows sounds.

This is all fine, I can switch it off. However, is there no way to make a force block/shut the use of sound output, so that I can free it for ASIO4ALL without having to shut down my whole browsing session? I tend to have many windows opened with many tabs on different desktops. Killing the whole browser means I'll lose this complex hierarchy and it requires me to rebuild it, after I stop using Ableton (ASIO4ALL). Even hangout extension leaves chrome application open after closing of all windows, so I have to kill the browser manually.

This is a very tiresome process and I would like to know if someone solved this somehow already.

4
  • You could set ASIO4All as your default sound engine and just use it always (depending on what other sound software you use.. this worked for me when using Ableton and Winamp). Not sure if your browser would support it though.
    – charlie
    Sep 25, 2014 at 19:53
  • 2
    You can make ASIO work for multiple programs at the same time. See music.stackexchange.com/q/20484/7218 Sep 26, 2014 at 3:47
  • 1
    ASIO4ALL is an excellent resource, but this issue drives me nutty. I'm dying to see a good solution. Mar 5, 2015 at 14:52
  • 2
    While not a direct solution, using a browser which remembers your session could help alleviate this problem.(Opera does this by default, but I am sure Mozilla and chrome can be configured for this too)
    – akaltar
    Jul 11, 2015 at 19:58

4 Answers 4

1

This is a very annoying problem. A google search has brought about a fix for FL Studio only. The same link (below) also mentions steps you can take to make ASIO your default sound driver by disabling the default in msconfig.

http://mtippach.proboards.com/thread/2732

Let's hope this works.

1
  • from what I know there are some disadvantages to using ASIO as general. It is not that ASIO would be better. ASIO is just better for this one purpose - making cheaper sound cards have shorter response time, so that you can play the instrument and have immediate feedback instead of one with latency. Performance of multiprocess environment might not be that good with ASIO
    – Ev0oD
    Mar 13, 2015 at 1:50
1

Killing the shockwave/flash without shutting down the browser may do the job. This works for some external sound cards and may work for ASIO4ALL as well.

1

I have spent years trying to find a solution for this problem, and I have written an article about this here:

Low latency audio on a Windows PC with the built-in soundcard

To summarize the idea, there are many programs that allow you to do this, and the best options nowadays are probably:

  • FlexASIO

  • O-Deus AsioLinkPro 2.4.4.2 (see the article above about the distribution of this softwareà

0

Go to sound control panel and uncheck 'allow exclusive access'. Probably that can increase ASIO4ALL latency a bit.

1
  • Update: you have to do this per each sound output, i.e., headphones, speakers and so on. Sep 3, 2022 at 18:16

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