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[mseeley]

I just made some changes to my JRiver playback settings (see changes below) and now I cannot get sound out of my speakers when playing Spotify.  Specifically, when I try to play a song in Spotify I get the following error: "There is a problem with your sound card.  Spotify can't play music".  Below are the changes that I made to JRiver.  Would any of these be the culprit?

Volume: switched from system volume to "disabled volume" (switching this back did not help)
Audio Output: changed from direct sound to Wasapi - event style

Then in Windows Control Panel under Sound/Playback/Speaker Properties/Enhancements, I checked "disable all sound effects".  The speakers are also running in "exclusive mode" (under advanced property tab), but it always has been.  So that shouldn't be the issue (?).

Reverting back to my original settings doesn't seem to fix the issue.  Though is possible I'm not 100% remembering my original settings.  Any thoughts or help would be very appreciated.  Thanks! 

[glynor]

WASAPI (both Vanilla and Event Style) enable Exclusive Playback by default.  This allows MC to bypass the Windows mixer, which is one of the biggest benefits of using one of those modes, as it allows the output to be truly bit-perfect.  Otherwise, the Windows mixer and audio subsystem is allowed to modify the sound that MC puts out (it has to be able to do so, in order to mix in the other audio outputs on the system).

This does mean, however, that while MC is "playing" the audio output it is using is "locked".  This includes being paused.  So, if you open up MC, play a file, pause the playback (even for hours), and then try to play audio on your system using another application (Spotify, a web browser, system sounds, whatever), Windows won't be able to access the audio output because MC has it locked, and playback will fail in the other application.

To get MC to "let go" you must actually stop playback, not just pause.

Alternatively, you can disable the Exclusive Mode playback option, but be aware that this also allows the Windows mixer to "interfere" with your sound.  To do this, go to Options > Audio > Audio Output Options and deselect the appropriate option.