Get Sonar to "follow" system audio settings?

[quattj]

Is there a way to get Sonar to follow system audio settings?  I constantly have to go in to the preferences any time I connect or remove my earbuds or other external speakers/microphones.  I'd like it to automatically switch to whatever the current Windows device is.  Very jarring when I have put headphones in for privacy and my music starts blaring out of my laptop speakers.

[57Gregy]

1 hour ago, quattj said:

Is there a way to get Sonar to follow system audio settings?  I constantly have to go in to the preferences any time I connect or remove my earbuds or other external speakers/microphones.  I'd like it to automatically switch to whatever the current Windows device is.  Very jarring when I have put headphones in for privacy and my music starts blaring out of my laptop speakers.

You shouldn't have this problem if you used Sonar with your audio interface designed for recording and the computer's sound card for everything else.

[quattj]

I use Sonar strictly for editing MIDI files. 

[57Gregy]

19 minutes ago, quattj said:

I use Sonar strictly for editing MIDI files. 

So, how do you hear the MIDI?

[Bass Guitar]

I was just travelling with my laptop and just like you I found it a bit annoying that Sonar wouldn’t always switch to my headphones when I plugged them in. 
Everything else did. Audacity. Media Player etc. 

But all I needed to do was change the output in the Master bus. 

@57Gregy

I own 6 audio interfaces but in the case of using a laptop I rarely use them. 

There’s nothing wrong with using on board audio if you’re not recording audio tracks. 
Just listening using good headphones is more or less going to be the same thing plugged into a computer or an interface. 
With WASAPI exclusive there’s isn’t any noticeable playback latency. 
 

The biggest difference between an audio interface and the computer audio is the specs. An interface will have higher quality Converters and ( hopefully) better signal to noise specs. But that depends entirely on the computer and the audio interface build quality and driver quality. 

Edited Thursday at 04:37 PM by Bass Guitar

[Promidi]

1 hour ago, 57Gregy said:

I use Sonar strictly for editing MIDI files. 

Do you outboard MIDI gear, use MIDI notes for your Metronome and you have no audio tracks present in your project?  

If all of the above is true, then the audio engine should even need to run.

That is how I edit MIDI files in Sonar and the audio engine is not running.

Unless you are using VST synths.

[57Gregy]

Just for the record., the OP wrote, "I use Sonar strictly for editing MIDI files." I quoted him.

Hasn't there been discussion about this operation in the past? Wasn't it due to how Sonar exposes ASIO drivers? or some such tech talk.

[Bass Guitar]

48 minutes ago, 57Gregy said:

Wasn't it due to how Sonar exposes ASIO drivers? or some such tech talk.

Yes but that is a completely different issue that I think you are referring to. That is the issue with using a proper ASIO interface but there’s 3rd party ASIO drivers present in the system that can take over. 
 

In a system that only uses the computer audio you should also get rid of 3rd party junk and keep it simple. Windows Audio using WASAPI drivers is a solid system and a big upgrade from years ago when all we had was MME and WDM modes. There is no need to use Asio4all anymore as example. 
 

The OP’s issue is simply that Sonar has never liked it when you make a change to the on board audio set up.
Computer audio uses 2 or more outputs in most cases it is Speakers or Headphones. In windows settings you can set a default but that doesn’t always stick. 

You plug in headphones and It kills the speakers. But Sonar might interpret that as the audio system was just turned off. 
It should pop up a dialogue box and ask you to do something but this is hit or miss. 
 

How many threads have we all seen that the OP said they couldn’t hear anything and the solution was the Master bus was set to “None”. That’s what I found when I plugged in my headphones with Sonar open. 

The solution is always keep the headphones or a set of powered speakers plugged in. Plug them in before you start Sonar. 

I generally never use my laptop speakers because they suck. 

But because I was only messing around with installing a couple of plugins I didn’t plug the headphones in. That was when I discovered that Sonar didn’t like it when I plugged them in when it was running. But I knew what to do right away so not really a big deal. 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:21 PM by Bass Guitar

[mettelus]

14 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

I was just travelling with my laptop and just like you I found it a bit annoying that Sonar wouldn’t always switch to my headphones when I plugged them in. 
Everything else did. Audacity. Media Player etc. 

I think this is the OP's issue. Laptops are designed so that if headphones are present, that is what gets used (default behavior). Most DAWs can be latched on to a device (which you want), but if that device is set "Windows Audio"  it should follow what Windows (or the laptop) is doing. From the OP it seems that Windows' behavior is being overridden by the DAW in this instance. If you plug headphones in, the laptop speakers are supposed to go offline.

[57Gregy]

10 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

but that is a completely different issue that I think you are referring to. That is the issue with using a proper ASIO interface but there’s 3rd party ASIO drivers present in the system that can take over. 

I remember that now. Thanks for the clarification.

[quattj]

21 hours ago, mettelus said:

From the OP it seems that Windows' behavior is being overridden by the DAW in this instance. If you plug headphones in, the laptop speakers are supposed to go offline.

Yes, this is the issue I am referring to. I edit on my laptop.  I have no other hardware attached for recording, performing, or anything else. 

I open a MIDI file that has been created and edited with various other pieces of software. I use Cakewalk/Sonar to trim and fade my files after most of the work is done elsewhere.   My synths are softsynths.

Typically, when I'm editing MIDI files, that is not the only thing I am doing on my laptop.  And I'm not always at home, and I am not always where I can just have my audio blaring for some quick edits. 

And I have to manually select my "listening" output if I plug in or remove my headphones while using Sonar. Additionally if my headphones are the last thing used when I quit, and I don't have them plugged in next time, then I get a warning about a missing audio device. 

On 12/10/2025 at 9:26 PM, 57Gregy said:

So, how do you hear the MIDI?

With any other application in my system, by using Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth with a custom assortment of soundfonts.  With Cakewalk 2022, prior to my forced upgrade to Sonar a few weeks ago, also via Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth.  This followed my system audio settings.  I never had to manually assign my listening output, because it was handled by Windows. 

Sadly, with Sonar, my only "quick" option to hear MIDI without having to manually assign a VST to everything is TTS-1.  These are strictly MIDI files and are never save as a Cakewalk/Sonar project file.

Edited 20 hours ago by quattj

[Bass Guitar]

@quattj
Yes it sucks that for some unknown reasons they not only removed access to MSWavetable but as well Cool Soft Virtual midi synth is also not available. Why??  
And you are lucky that you do have the TTS-1 as new users don’t. 
With the long history that Cakewalk had as one of the best Daw’s for midi users they have now taken a few steps backwards. 

No TTS-1

No Connection to on board GM midi players 

For new users wanting instant playback the only option that Im aware of is to purchase VST Soundfont for 15 Euros. 

[azslow3]

DAWs are designed to explicitly control audio routing, so in most cases people don't want it react on hot-plugging events (except for MIDI... so DAWs tend to detect new MIDI device is connected). ASIO / WASAPI can't (and shouldn't) switch by design, they are "too close" to the hardware (and depends on property of particular device). So what is asked in technically feasible for driver mode which provides "Windows default output device" (that is the one which is switched, by OS, if possible).   And people rarely use indirect audio with DAWs (latency and potentially extra processing which modify the sound).

I can't test right now if in MME it is possible to set "default" device as output.  If not, may be some "virtual audio" software support s"Window default" as the output and so will do the trick (Sonar will always output to that "virtual" device and virtual device will follow Windows output).