Old Rig Win 10 won't play Cubase and Udemy at the same time.

Cubase 10
Windows 10
16GB RAM, core i5 desktop, two monitors
AMD Radeon HD 6800 (1GB VRAM)
Realtek HD Audio (on board)

This is a pretty simple system I built from scratch in 2006. It’s my daily driver, so I use it for email, video creation and other general business. I also use it to answer the phone.

I’m finding that Cubase steals my audio from everything else. No skype, no youtube, etc. So I can’t watch a video tutorial about Cubase on a second screen while I’m following along about Cubase on the other screen. And I can’t answer the phone from the computer.

Short of getting a sound card, are there settings that I can change so I can both play on Cubase and listen to a tut on Udemy/Youtube/etc.?

If I have to add a sound card, I’m not looking to invest a lot in this ancient rig, but I do want to learn Cubase. If I get a cheapo Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX PCIe 5.1 Sound Card from Amazon or a local IT non-profit, will that do the trick?

Cheers,

Chris

Configure Cubase to use the ASIO driver. It might already work with your existing hardware … go to the menu Studio | Studio setup | VST Audio System and choose either the “ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Driver” or “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver”

Check that any soundcard has ASIO drivers before you buy it.

Mr. Soundman,

Thanks for your reply.
I’ve got it set for “Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver.” DirectX is not available. The settings where already as you suggested.

So I rooted around and found “Control Panel” in the same modal dialog box. When I click “Control Panel” and uncheck “Allow ASIO host application to take exclusive control of selected port configuration”, my microphone (Samson C01U) disappears as an available input. However, since I’m not needing a mic right away, this works for me. I can listen to a tutorial and follow along in Cubase.

Thanks for this simple solution!

Chris

If your computer doesn’t have dedicated audio hardware you can try the free ASIO4ALL driver.

This is a 64 bit windows 10 machine, i5, 16GB RAM, plenty of hard drive space…


I’m back after lots of hair pulling.
ASIO4All isn’t working.
Generic Low Latency ASIO isn’t working.
Cubase steals the audio capacity from every other open application (for instance a Udemy tut in a browser) and then doesn’t play anything in Cubase even though it’s denied sound to other open apps.
Studio-> Studio Setup is active, set to proper device ports, stereo.
Studio → Studio Setup → Control Panel settings don’t matter. I’ve tried every combination.
Studio → Audio Connections → Outputs → set to proper device ports, stereo.

I was able to use this software in previous versions. 10 Pro has given me problems with the same rig. Argh.

I’d be grateful if someone would suggest an ASIO-compliant PCIe sound card. There are no cards on Amazon that expressly claim ASIO compliance. Unless someone can tell me what I’ve missed, I’m not sure what else to do. I’d be grateful for suggestions.

Cheers,

Chris

RME HDSPe AIO