Some applications take over your audio interface when they start and do not allow any other applications to use it. If you run into an issue where no audio plays through your audio plugin host, make sure that exclusive mode for your audio interface is disabled.
Disabling the Exclusive Mode options in Windows Sound Preferences prevents audio applications from taking exclusive control of your interface's driver.
Click on the Start button and then type in Change system sounds; click on the Change system sounds control panel item:
Click on the Playback tab (1), then select your playback device (2), and click on Properties (3). In the Speaker Properties window, click on the Advanced tab (4) and untick Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device (5). Click on OK to save changes.
Repeat the same procedure for the recording device:
Click on the Recording tab (1), then select your recording device (2), and click on Properties (3). In the Line In Properties window, click on the Advanced tab (4) and untick Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device (5). Click on OK to save changes.
Note: under the Exclusive mode settings, you may have the Signal Enhancements settings. In that case you may want to deselect the Enable audio enhancements check box, as there are users that reported that audio sounded distorted when this option is enabled.
