No 'use system playback device' setting? [solved]

[Anti]

In preferences > player > sound device > audio player > output, anyone know the reason why you have to specify a device?

I have recently starting changing between ASIO and WASAPI quite often, and would like MB just to play through whatever I have selected in Windows. If that's not possible, then is there an easy way to cycle through devices? I couldn't see anything in the hotkey section.

Thanks.

[hiccup]

In preferences > player > sound device > audio player > output, anyone know the reason why you have to specify a device?

MusicBee has (and should have) no opinion or do any filtering on what hardware you have available on your system.
If you have 10 sound output capable devices available, MusicBee should show all those 10.

If you don't want that, just disable the sound devices that you don't need for playback in Windows > Devices, and then they won't show up in MusicBee either.

(or am I misunderstanding what you are asking here?)

[Steven]

for wasapi shared, MB allows selection of the windows default device. The windows functionality is not available for exclusive device use.

[Anti]

Thanks Steven. That's what I was looking for!
(Thanks to Hiccup too).

[hiccup]

Maybe I understand better what you mean now.

Is it that e.g. when you have switched from asio to wasapi, and then back to asio, MusicBee doesn't remember what device you had selected for asio before, and you have to manually select it again?

[Anti]

Sorry for not explaining myself properly.

In Musicbee, I saw the outputs:

Directsound
WASAPI
ASIO

I was looking in that list for an option for Musicbee just to play through whatever default playback device was set in Windows, whether it be my RealTek mobo chip, Dragonfly usb DAC, or my instrument interface (with its own ASIO driver), rather than choose one specific output.

I thought that if I chose Directsound or WASAPI, MBee would only output to my Realtek and Dragonfly. So every time I disconnected my instrument interface, I would have to go into MBee settings and manually change it from ASIO to WASAPI.

However, as Steven said, if I choose WASAPI -> Primary Sound Driver, then MBee will use whatever playback output is currently set in windows, including the ASIO driver.

[frankz]

Wouldn't this defeat the purpose of using either WASAPI or ASIO, as you're sending the output through Windows anyway rather than directly to the device?   Or am I misunderstanding?

The reason you can't select "Windows Default" in WASAPI exclusive or ASIO mode is because you're sending the output directly to a device rather than sending it via Windows processing.  The purpose of these modes is to avoid what Windows does to your sound as a middle man.

[Anti]

I only need ASIO for lower latency when recording vocals and guitar - not to do with the quality so much.

I switch off the interface when I'm not going to record for a couple of days or more. When I switch it off and change the default playback to WASAPI, I want all my software to use it without me having to go into each program's settings.

[frankz]

Got it!