It's possible that this issue is specific to my configuration, and there's a better way to do it, but just thought I would share a trick that I found.

I frequently find that I want to play some audio outside of BIAB while I'm working in it, and in my particular configuration (using ASIO4All). For me this happens a lot since I may want to play a chord sound from a website or listen to a track that I have open in another window.

I'm normally unable to play any audio outside of BIAB on the machine I'm running it from - it will either not produce sound or tell me another device is controlling the sound. I stumbled across a way to get around this by opening the Style Picker and then playing a pre-made demo, and hitting the stop button. As long as that dialog is left open, I'm able to play sound through my browser and other apps without having to exit BIAB.

I'm not 100% sure that this always works, though and there are times when I have BIAB open and depending on what is being done, the sound may still play, but it seems that by performing the steps above, it allows the sound to play outside of BIAB.

I don't want to recommend this unreservedly because it seems a bit klugey, but it works for me.

Yes with ASIO (or MME or..) only ONE program can control that audio device (audio devices are "exclusive" use by OS). There is a multi-client ASIO4ALL floating around out there - but it's not reliable in all cases, i.e., it may work for you or it may not.

One easy and consistent way around this, is to use ASIO for ONE program, either BIAB or the other program, and MME for the remaining program. But before you try this you need to set BIAB and the other program up for the audio driver you want each to use, one at time, and with only that program running.

I can't find it, but our Swiss army knife solution guy PIPELINE (bless his soul) I'm pretty sure (BUT I COULD BE WRONG AND MIS-REMEMBERING THAT I SAW IT) has a better, albeit slightly more complex, solution of using a 3rd party utility to do this


Larry

Another suggestion is to select the WAS (Windows Audio System) driver. WAS is said to also be multi-client and able to let more than one program at a time use the system audio. WAS is also Band-in-a-Box's default audio setting but some users experience issues when WAS is selected and switch to ASIO or MME.

Have you got Biab ASIO set to Always On ? as it won't release it when stopped.
But yes, VoiceMeeter Banana gives you 2 ASIO Devices

I have VoiceMeeter Banana Hardware Out set to my Audio Device.
I have Windows Playback Device set to HiFi Cable or VB Cable both available from the VoiceMeeter website,
you can set the Hardware Input 1 to HiFi Cable and Hardware Input 2 to VB Cable

Reaper is Using VoiceMeeter ASIO AUX, Biab is using VoiceMeeter ASIO the VoiceMeeter Mixer mixes all the ASIO and non ASIO out to the Hardware Audio Device/s.

@Jim Fogle - Thanks - I tried WAS and I had a lot of problems with latency and sound distortion (I was one of those folks!) which all went away when I switched to ASIO.

@Pipeline - Yep - I have ASIO set to Always On, and would like to keep it that way. But my little trick suits my needs right now. I've checked out the VoiceMeeter Banana application and it is just crazy cool. I had no idea something that that was out there, and on top of that, it is Donationware. Definitely on my list to play with when I get my rig sorted out a little better. I also noticed your name pop up in a few places when searching other forums and I see that you have some other very advanced configurations that you've used and educated people on, so thanks so much for all that great content.

@Larry Kehl - Thanks for the input and for roping in @Pipeline

Multi client ASIO is available on certain interfaces such the Steinberg UR 22 series for example. Since they invented ASIO it's logical they would probably have the most full featured driver which is why I use them.

Bob

Also, experiment with this setting in the Windows control panel: System --> Sound --> Sound Control Panel --> (select playback device) --> Properties --> Advanced --> "allow applications to take exclusive control..."