Hwo can I hear other sound sources parallel to Cubase12?

Hi,
when I have some music being played from Youtube, and then start Cubase and open a project, the audio sound from Youtube stopps.
Is there a means (setting in Cubase or Win11) to hear both

  1. the Youtube Audio
  2. and in parallel the sound from Cubase (but with the Cubase Window in front and active)
    ?

Hi and welcome to the forum,

Please make sure, you are using another driver type with the other application. Most of the ASIO drivers can work with 1 application only at the given time. So you can use the ASIO driver in Cubase and for example Generic driver in the other application.

If you have two audio devices, like dedicated audio interface and an onboard soundchip, you can use one for Cubase and the other one for Windows.

Some audio interfaces have drivers that can handle both Cubase and Windows at the same time, this is called a multi-client driver. Which audio interface do you use?

If you have only one audio device in your computer and its driver is not multi-client capable then you can’t listen to Cubase and Windows simultaneously.

Many audio devices have a loopback I/O precisely for this use case.

The idea is good if we’d be talking about OBS or Zoom. Loopback is for feeding an audio stream from an output back to an input. YouTube, however, has no input.

I use loopback on both MOTU M4 and Arturia Minifuse 2 to be able to record from Youtube in Cubase.

VoiceMeter Banana is the way to go!

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@Voxango - So if I’m running Cubase and Dorico at the same time with VoiceMeeter Banana I can hear both programs at the same time - or at least jump back and forth between them? If so this would help me out a lot.

I have not tried it but I suppose you can I have done this with Cubase and FL Studio and it works and then watched Youtube Videos at the same time and it works great!

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Hi Johnny_Moneto,
thanks for your answers.

Per your question: I am using
= SOUNDCRAFT Notepad-8FX, as my Audio Device, via USB , Windows11.
= Mainboard has a REALTEC (ALC1220 Codec) Audio Chip
When I summarize all the comments and yours, do I get it right that the recommendation would be:

a) routing a cable from the 3,5mm connector outlet of the Mainbd to a Stereo input channel of my Soundcraft. Set Win11 Sound settings to use the REALTEC Chip as output.

b) set Cubase in Menu Studio Settings to use the SOUNDCRAFT Notepad8 driver

Would this be your recommendation?

Thank you and all for your time and input to my question. Appreciate it.

Hi Voxango,

thanks for your hint “VoiceMeter Banana”.

Per info on their internet side “vb-audioDOTcom” this should work for my problem to be able hear multi client audio sources in parallel including Cubase12.
And seems to be a powerfull tool w/Equalizer and sub busses etc → will test that.

But will test also what Johnny_Moneto proposed, the 3.5mm jack cable frm Mainbd to Soundcraft Audio device

This is a valid solution if you have an empty pair of inputs on your Soundcraft.
Did you encounter your described issue when using the Soundcraft ASIO driver in Cubase or did you use another driver/ASIO device?

Hi Johnny_Moneto,
per your question:
the issue “no multiple client audio usage possible” occurs when Cubase is set to Soundcraft and Standard ASIO driver. In other words: Youtube sound stopps when I start Cubase with either Cubase set w/Generic ASIO driver and also set w/Soundcraft driver.

Okay, just wanted to make sure.

So, you can go the hardware way by pluging a cable from Realtek output to Soundcraft input as you described it already
or
you can install Voicemeter Banana, which is basically a little software mixer in itself. You would then route (software based) Cubase and Windows to Voicemeter and its signal to Soundcraft (I think, I am not 100% sure of that)
or
there is another little helper called ASIO ProLink, which, according to others, lets you do the routing between Windows and Cubase software based as well but looks somewhat complicated to me on the outside (never used it).