Audio recording: "The playback device cannot be opened for recording"

Buergmhe wrote on 12/20/2017, 3:12 PM

Hello! For my current project I want to add some audio commentary, so I am trying to use the audio recording funciton in Movie Edit Pro Premium (17.02.2.159) for the first time. When I go to the record dialog, I can display the level for my mic just fine, but wen I hit record I get the message "The playback device 'Eingang Scarlett 2i4 USB' cannot be opened for recording! Reason: The specified device is already in use. Wait until it is free, and then try again."

Any tips how to resolve this?

Other perhaps relevant info:

  • The device is the only audio driver choice.
  • Recording a mic with the scarlet audio interface works fine in Sonar X3.
  • In the device manager, everything seems to be ok with the device & drivers, also in the sound device settings.
  • There are no other programs open
  • I have tried changing advance settings for the device in windows sound device settings (exclusive mode)

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 12/20/2017, 4:51 PM

Hi

Try the following:

  1. Open task manager - right click the Task bar at the bottom of the screen and select Task Manager
  2. If there is a More details option bottom left of the Task Manager window, click it.
  3. On the Processes tab look for any thing that has Sonar in the name, if there is select it and end the process by clicking the End task button - also see note below
  4. If there is no Sonar process running check that no other software is running in the background that would use the Focusrtie interface.
  5. Try recording from the Focusrite interface again.

Note: if there is a Sonar process running in 3 above it may be set to run at start up and will continue to interfere with MEPs access to the Focusrite interface, open the Startup tab in Task Manager to see if there is an entry for Sonar X3, if so try disabling it and restarting the computer - that is a Restart not shutdown when you click the Windows Power option. You can reverse the disabled start up if necessary.

HTH

John EB

Last changed by johnebaker on 12/20/2017, 4:52 PM, changed a total of 1 times.

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Buergmhe wrote on 12/21/2017, 12:59 AM

Thank you John, seems you are always here to help me out! Good idea, however I could not identify any process related to Sonar or Cakewalk. Of course it could be one of those hundreds of other processes... For the time being I just found a temporary workaround: When I switch MEPs audio output device to my onboard sound chip in the MEP preferences, it let's me record on the Focusrite. Which would indicate that MEP somehow conflicts with it's own use of the focusrite sounddriver?