I’ve been a user of Cubase for almost 10 years now and this is the first time I encounter this problem, so I am not sure if it is Cubase or possibly an issue with the audio driver on my current laptop, a Lenovo ThinkPad. I’ve had Cubase on both Mac and PC before, but regardless of the OS, I have always been able to seamlessly switch between earbuds and speakers for output. For example, I’ll be working through my earbuds and then decide I want to listen through my laptop speakers, so I simply unplug my earbuds and the audio would come out of my laptop speakers automatically.
On my newest laptop, this isn’t the case. I have to manually go to the Control Panel under the Audio System section of Studio Setup and switch to a different output port. This then switches my Audio Output to “Not Connected” so I then have to click on Audio Connections and select the appropriate output. Were I to not do this after unplugging my headphones, there would be no audio output. Conversely, if I plug in my headphones without doing this, the audio continues coming out of my laptop speakers.
This would be an issue with the laptop audio device…Have you checked the documentation for the laptop audio to see why you would have separate Headphone and Speaker audio streams…
The following worked for me on a Toshiba laptop running Win 10. Insert the head phones and make them work as you describe.
Open the sound control panel and select the headphones as the default audio device.
Since I had this problem myself I tried to remember what I did to make the switch automatic. It’s been a while, so my memory is blurred.
It might have been in the Realtek Audio Console (obviously only available if your laptop has a Realtek sound device).
Just in case you do here are my settings. German only but you’ll manage. On the left hand side select “Advanced Device Settings” to get this view.
Please never plug or unplug devices from the embedded jack connectors of your computer if you want to spare yourself some very troublesome issues. This is valid for both laptops and desktops.
Maybe an audioswitch headphone stand will be the solution? It switches between headphones and speakers automatically and doesn’t require any drivers. In theory, it all should work seamlessly.
Tracktion Waveform Pro 13 DAW also does not recognize the speaker/headphone switch.
It seems really an OS deficiency.
I found the following explanation online:
“unfortunately this is very difficult to implement. Windows cannot detect any sound jack connection, these jacks are part of sound card hardware and are not visible to Windows. It should be a special sound card driver function to detect headphones connection and send a notification to Windows.
But I never heard someone of mass sound device manufacturers develop such function.
You may ask a manufacturer of sound card (I suppose Realtek) to add such possibility but chances are low I suppose.
You may try to implement similar function if you’ll use USB or Bluetooth headphones.”
In Cubase 13 laptop speakers/headphone setup can be done in two steps:
open Studio/Studio Setup window
-in the Devices column click on the name of the selected ASIO Driver
-click on the Control Panel
-under the Device Name check on Speakers or Headphone
-OK
-OK
open Studio/Audio Connections window
-under the Outputs/Device Port click on the Left row and select the desired output and then do the same setting on the Right row
