Hi Katherine,

That sounds like Finale is utilizing an audio device API that necessitates exclusive control of your audio hardware, something like WASAPI. There are a couple of ways you can reconfigure some settings to fix this:

1. Open Finale's Audio Setup dialog box (MIDI/Audio > Device Setup > Audio Setup). Choose DirectSound form the Audio Driver drop-down menu; click OK. Once you have done that restart your applications (including Finale) and see if that helps. Make sure that DirectSound is still chosen after restarting Finale.

2. You can prohibit your audio device from allowing applications to take exclusive control. Right-click on the speaker icon in your system tray (usually lower, left-hand corner of the screen) and choose Playback Devices. Click once on the device with a green check mark so it is selected then click the Properties button. Choose the Advanced tab; deselect the Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device option in the Exclusive Mode section. Click Apply; click OK. Click OK again to close the Sound dialog box.

You may have to restart Finale after doing this one as well, possibly your computer too. Hope this helps! 

Hi!

Have used Finale for many years, and this problem seems to haunt me. The solution with DirectSound driver does not always work, It seems. occationally that the problem only get bigger. I have never seen the solution with deselect the "Exclusive control" button. It seems logic that this does the trick.

I have also found another way to achieve several applications playback simultaneously with the ASIO driver. Under Midi/Audio - Device setup - Audio setup, Under output I have the following selections.

(Finale 25.5.0.290 - on Windows 10)

Source: ASIOSaffire - driver (Sound card Saffire Pro 4.0)

Channel: 1-2

Sample Rate: 96000

Buffer size: 1024

Changing the sample rate to 96000 did the trick for me. Never had any trouble with playback since.

I've had this problem forever, no matter what version of Finale I use (currently 25.5). The one thing that works the best for me (although not always) is to launch the other app first, play something with it, then launch Finale. Hope they figure this out. By the way, DirectSound never works for me.

Scotty, are you on Windows?

Finale 25 solved this for Mac users. Before that, it was a bit different for us. Finale required 44.1kHz audio while some apps required 48k. Dragon Dictate was the bear on my system. Both have been upgraded and they work well together.. Before that, it was easiest to reboot before switching from one to the other.

I am. Windows 10.

The only time I have had a problem like this is when the Dorico audio driver was set to claim total control of the sound card. In Dorico that setting can be changed, but it may be that other programs have audio drivers that likewise claim total control of the sound card and contribute to this problem.

Just now noticing the same problem  - Finale 25.5 on Windows 10 - can't use it with bluetooth headphones. I tried playing audio on another program before starting Finale. When Finale loads, all the sound stops (the other program continues to play). On top of it all, Finale won't even produce its own sound during playback. The progress bar reads through the measures but no sound. My audio devices show that they are receiving signal, but there is no output happening in the headphones or any other location. It mutes my whole system, including itself. I turned off the Exclusive control option on the headphones, as suggested by others, and no change. If I leave music running on the other program, and close Finale, my computer regains audio capabilities. This, coupled with a recent development of Finale crashing any time I open the Score Manager? Pretty expensive software to have glitches like this...

Mr. Dutton's solution worked for me. Never had to do this when installing Finale (any of several versions) on Win 7. Just upgraded (forced) to Win 10, happened on first use. Evidently another "brilliant idea" from MS.  Though this is different hardware, so could also be a difference in device drivers. Anyway, I'm good now.  Thx.

I started to have this CRAPPY problem with windows 10 and Finale 26 once I've changed my Sound Interface to a fancy Roland Rubix 44, that works very fine with all the other multimedia applications.  =(

Again, check the Rubix 44 driver (in the Control Panels) to make sure it is not set to claim exclusive control of the audio card.

If your problem is different than that, please describe it in more detail.

Frustration I understand, but I generally only experience "crappy" problems when changing diapers.

Sorry for the expression and my language, my apologies =).

Tried unckeck the exclusive section at the properties of the sound card, and tried to chech/uncheck the microphone acces option on Win10 config. . And still not work.

I still can't write transcribed music using both Finale and any other audio player at the same time =(

Hi again... finally after research and serendepty, I solved the question. I found a help article on the web for other application related to similar symptoms and I tried to configure the default sample rate in win sound device control panel... and it worked. It was set to 48k and I set it to 44k and it worked. Is strange that with the old setting everything worked as itself but not with more programs opened...

So I solved myself, but thanks for your patience and help!

in Audio Setup - set the driver to Direct Audio, click OK. You should hear the playback. Now, go back to Audio setup, and set the Audio driver back to Asio. This worked for me.