Sound issues with my PC, part 2....am I asking for something unreasonable?

About 3 months ago I started getting issues with Amplitube and my scarlett when trying to play whilst having any other audio source open, e.g. youtube.

I am now finally being told that this will not work, DESPITE having used it this way for the last 3-4 years.

So, does anyone use a audio software in ( like Amplitube) and play along to mp3's? Is this such a mad idea? If not how do you guys rehearse ( I don;t want to connect my Kepmer up although theorectiocally this won;t work eitehr as it would still be 2 sources at once).

I thought this was basic!

ARGH, anyone know here? I just want to be able to play my guitar along with an mp3 track via headphones on my computer.

Thanks for the response everyone, really appreciate it...

To answer the questions:

What's happening is your audio resources are being reserved for just
your audio software. This is more than likely a driver issue. Yes and hence I got new drivers from focusrite but not worked.

A workaround is to download the mp3 track, load it in your DAW and play along to it. Yes but a real pain. Had hoped to avoid that, but sounds like the way forward

Do you have a lot of other tabs open in the browser, by any chance? No. Same issue without browser open, so when I play an MP3 via groove or media monkey so its not browser related I don;t think..

If you're using window 10, the last update messed up a bunch of stuff audio-wise across the board. I would look into your motherboard manufacturer for an audio driver update? I had issues with my UA gear and this solved it. Also, maybe try and troubleshoot your audio device properties/check device manager for any errors? Pretty sure it was a Windows 10 update so glad you've confirmed that. I'll look at the audio drivers as an update and see if that helps although I think I've aupdated everything over the last few months to try and correct this.

I take it the Scarlett is connected to your PC via USB. Go into your sound properties (playback) in Windows. Look under the Scarlett's
playback properties and make sure that this is not checked "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device". Yes done this, it was set correctly. Part one just described the strange behaviour, which is basically I get errors, clicks or MP3 player/youtube freezing when trying to run Amplitube and any other music source on my PC. Also trying a presonus audiobox and its better but not fixed it. Tried on a different PC etc so the only common part is Windows and Amplitube. Now I'm shocked that Amplitube seem to think the idea of me playing along with an MP3 is an odd use case! How do you play along with backing tracks then without usings other gear or going via the DAW ?

You should be able to do what you describe. Is amplitude configured to ASIO output. That what I think! Shouldn;t be complex! Yes amplitube is configured to ASIO, IK tell me that windows can only handle one ASIO source at a time, hence my expectation is too high hence wanted to know if others try to do this..

I use a little mixer and power amp and run everything into that.

PC
Kemper
Vocal mic
Acoustic guitar

I also use a headphone amp plugged into the mixer headphone jack so Ican have other musicians over to jam any time without volume issues.
Leaving the vocal mic on lets you converse and feel less claustrophobic Ironically want to avoid using my Kemper as its packed ready for gigs ( ironic becuase I'm asking Kemper users) ..

I would unplug the USB and plug it back in or also try a different USB location on the PC. I've had the fortune/misfortune of discovering the USB cable can go bad more often than we think after spending hours of looking at other issues, so try another USB cable. I think I've done this but I'll retry it. Certainly tried other ports but not cables..

I hate Apple, but if I can;t sort I might have to go the dreaded MAC route so pleas save me!!

I cannot tell you how frustrating it is

Yes Amplitube works fine...but try and play an MP3 and MP3 player freezes. Switch off Amplitube and mp3 plays. Switch Amplitube back on and Amplitube cannot find ASIO driver until you switch off MP3 player or any other audio source. At one point audio played but slowed down, but wierdly was playing at full speed via the headphones output of the PC ( bypassing the scarlett).

Its clearly an ASIO problem and contention for the same resource but I have no idea about ASIO and struggle to understand why 2 sources can't be managed, especially with the setting about exclusive control, suggesting you can have multiple if unticked..

I'll try disabling the soundcard ( if I can work out how )

Gonna have another play tonight...

Thanks

Will do, it will need to be later after work..

Note I've been through all the settings with both Focusrite and IK.

Quote from nightlight

God, after all the problems I've been reading about the Scarlett on these forums, I can safely tell users: stay away from these interfaces! The hype does not appear to be borne out by fact.

Yeah that's what I initailly thought but I get the same issue using a presonus so i don't think its the interface but windows!

@Zapman disabled sound card, made no difference

Sound settings...note this is with the presonus..

Quote from Zapman

I got the 1st Gen 18i20, hasn't presented any real problems for me (yet). Next on the list for @V8guitar would be to remove the Scarlett from the chain and just use Amplitube with the stock soundcard and computer speakers. Just time consuming and PIA to eliminate everything which he is doing a good job of so far. Oh yeah, I'm still on Windows 7 which I prefer over 10.

Not sure how to plug in without an interface though or do you just mean monitor but still use the scarlet for plugging in? I have been using a presonus audiobox that I borrowed which is better but I still get intermittant problems - I think its just "lighter" on resources so I think the problem is the same...ARGH!

BTW - it does work fine using Amplitube through Ableton, which is a right pain to load up everytime and makes the Amplitube App useless, but at least it works...so some progress.