WMP 11 disables n-tracks
When I use WMP 11, it disables n-tracks 4.0. I have to shut down and restart my computer to reset n-tracks. I use another player most of the times to get away from this problem, but sometimes wmp is handy to have. I’m running xp home, its a new computer, and I have an echo mia sound card installed. Any suggestions to fix this problem would be appreciated. 
If you are using ASIO then it could be the limitation of ASIO itself, which will allow only one instance at a time. Switch to WDM or MME and the problem should go away. I’m assuming a lot – I use Echo cards (Gina and Layla) and WMP 11 and don’t have this problem, but I don’t use ASIO either.
Hi fizer and phoo:
Something you might consider and try…
Go into the settings and options of WMP and remove the checkmarks and don’t accoiate any music file extensions to WMP…
This will keep WMP from opening while n-Track v4 is on your desktop…
Somehow, I think when you “Mouse-Click” on a .wav file it launches WMP and then you have a “Conflict” happening that may close n-Track…
It might be worth a try…
Bill…
Thanks Bill and Phoo,
So I’m using the wdm, not the asio. I have tried Bill’s suggestion, and it seems to have worked.
Thanks both 
of you for your input.
Guy @ fizermusic
I’m not sure how Bill’s suggestion helped.
The problem should’t go away if you all you did was disassociate a file type with WMP. Unless I’m missing something if you run WMP and n-Tracks at the same time then the problem will still exist. No mention was made that that WMP was accidentally starting up while n-Tracks was running, but it was intentionally being run.
As I said, they should work together.
This is more than likely a driver issue.
Along those lines, I have had problems when system sounds are turned on. Some sounds when played can change the underlying samplerate at the device layer. If n-Tracks is running at 44.1k (for example) and a system sound is played that is a 22k (or less) wave then the the renderer could switch to 22k out from under n-Tracks. I had had this happen when playing out the Echo Layla24, and recording.
When recording everything seemed fine. During playback the just recorded wave would double speed at some point in the middle.
I could make it happen when playing video clips in WMP 11 as well. The result was that the video clip would double speed.
The render was expecting 22k audio but was getting 44k, double the expected samples. During recording the same thing. It dropped down to 22k and started getting just 22k samples,but n-Tracks was expecting 44k. The wave was written out as 44k, but there was half the expected samples. At playback, again it double speeded at the point the system sound played.
The “fix” was to avoid the situation by disabling system sounds.
I’ll try to repro the issue this weekend. I couldn’t at work yesterday, but I don’t have an Echo device at work anymore.
As I said, this should work, without having to change file associations. Heck, I do this all the time when mixing. I render a mix from n-Tracks them pop it open in Windows Media Player 11 to see how it sounds there. Then I edit it in Adobe Audition. All the while n-Tracks is still up and running so I can back track and rerender the mix is anything needs tweaking.
I don’t know about the Echo drivers but here’s what I do with my EMU1820M.
n-Track, Reaper, Cubase, Sonar (etc) and BIAB are setup to use the EMU ASIO driver. Audition is setup to use the EMU WDM driver. I also have SoundMax audio on my PC’s motherboard. I have it connected to a separate set of speakers. All system sounds play through there because it is selected in Control Panel as the default system audio device. On the advanced settings for the EMU in Device Manager, I have selected “Do not map through this device.” for the EMU. What this does is prevent the OS from “grabbing” the EMU driver when some app requests an audio device.
There is a tip on MusicXP.net for setting up your card this way.
BTW, I can still manually setup WMP to play through the EMU if I want. Change the device setting, shutdown WMP and restart and bingo.
The extra 50 bux for the speakers I use for the SoundMax was well worth it. When setup the way I described, you’ll never get a 110 dB “DING!” through your 1000 dollar nearfields unless you want to for some sick reason.
D
Hi Gents:
There are occasions when I want to open a rendered track or mix by using WMP or another application when I’m working on a mix with-in n-Track…
Maybe, I’ll open it in GoldWave…
If I open the file in GoldWave, I have to open the track by searching for it by using the Explore Window…
No Music Files are connected/associated with GoldWave…
However, if I mouse-click on the file and I have WMP set to automatically open the file with a Double-Click then it will automatically play…
But. I don’t recall that I have lost n-Track…
But I could see a conflict arising from a command like that…
It could be a case of "Shared .dll’s, or something…
One thing that has floated to the surface with me recentlly…
I’d like to associate an mp2 .dll with viewing an .AVI file…
I don’t know how to do that…
?
Does anyone know how to do that…?
Bill…
Back to phoo’s answer…“The problem should’t go away if you all you did was disassociate a file type with WMP” You’re right, the problem didn’t go away, it’s back. I do run wmp to check out how my songs sound.
I never had any problems before this year. I now use Creative MediaSource 5 Player, to check my song files, but I hate not having to use wmp.
So if it’s a driver I need to fix the problem, is it a wmp driver, or n-tracks driver? My echo mia drivers are up to date, as far as I know.
Hey I appreciate all suggestions.
Hummm…the driver be the Echo driver. It’s probably a setting somewhere that got tweaked. The default playback device in WMP, for the whole system, something like that.
Without seeing how things are set in your machine…actually without seeing how things are set in MY machine, I don’t think I have must to add. I suspect something is in exclusive mode (one instance at a time) that wasn’t before. There are setting for that in different places, including n-Tracks. The one in n-Tracks is labeled something like “Keep Devices Open” I think. Some folks have had to enable or disable that to make things stable. I don’t remember if there is something similar in the Echo Console, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t (lock samplerate, etc…).
WDM should work…well… it SHOULD. 
Well everyone, I think I got it, I went in because of your feedback, I went into advanced settings in audio preferences, and I put a tick on stop wdm devices when pausing. I tried playing n-tracks, and it seemed to work.
Hi fizer:
It’s nice to hear that you have made some progress on the issue you have… It’s good to know that we may have “Sparked” some idea that fixed all this… You know… You can struggle along without solving this issue… and then something else can be added to the mix and then something BIG begins to take over your setup…
The saying is… If you look after the little things and take care of the details… the big things take care of themselves…
Bill…
Hi Bill,
Thanks a lot for your input. Its nice to know that there are people out there that care and will lend a hand.
Maybe your thoughts on the new N-track 5. I upgraded whenever it came out, used it for a while, then uninstalled it and I’m back to using 4.0. It had some small issues about saving, it wasn’t really a problem, but I didn’t see much of an advantage to using the new version. It is a little slower to load, a lot bigger file, and I’m not too sure whether the final sound is better. Anyway if you or anyone else has anything positive for the upgrade, I’m interested in what you have to say.
Guy
Hi fizer:
Way back in v2 and v3 days I used to be frightened to death regarding updating to the latest builds as Flavio posted them…
Then I discovered that as Flavio posted new versions he would be on this Board scanning topics that the guys would post on bugs and issues that would crop up …
He would then post builds that would correct the issues and from Day-to-Day as many as a dozen builds would be posted by him in as many days…
When Flavio replied to my concerns, and in most replies he would say at the end of his mail… It would say… Don’t forget to push the “REVERT TO DEFAULT” Button…
Did I ever hate to hear him say that…
So…
In that regard you’re
gonna find me continuing to install the lastest builds of n-Track as Flavio posts them…
At that point and I observed that he was on top of bugs-and-issues I took on the idea of up-dating and installing the latest builds…
There’s no point in holding back and using a build that has bugs-and-issues…
You may as well install the latest builds and play with the latest bugs and issues as Flavio codes the builds with bugs-and-issues… In my opinion…
Flavio welcomes the Board Members to give him all the feed-back we can report to him, as to how the latest builds behave, as they are posted…
As-well-As… let Flavio know of the Build Behaviour as it applies to your set-up and machine…
Playing with an out-dated build is like eating moldy cheese…
Flavio’s last version of 4.2.1 was a beta build 2099…
At that point-in-time (and after that build) Flavio expanded his version-and-build posts to be able to install and operate both Version 4 and Version 5 (and builds) to reside on your machine…
I have two folders in my C:/program folder/FaSoft folder…
that includes n-Track v4 and n-Track v5…
So…
I am never without a working build of n-Track…
At the moment I have build 2099 and build 2313 installed and able to work…
I’m not sure that there is any other Multi-Track Editor out there that has that capibility… to run two versions of their product at the same time…
As I rebuild this XP P-111 I now have to pay attention as to how I’m gonna manage all these Plug-ins I have…
I’m not using as many FREE plugs as I once did.
I have a bunch of PAID-FOR VST Plugs and a bunch of DX Plugs…
I’m not sure how to do this… BUT … I’d like to present-and-use these plugs to as many Editors as I have installed…
including GoldWave, n-Track, PolderbitS and a bunch that I wouldn’t name and include in my list…
I havn’t been Tracking now for more than a year…
I’m still working on “Tracker’s Block”
BiG TiMe…
BUT…
When I was tracking, n-Track was the primary Multi-Track Editor that was used around this Studio…
Before that…
it was a Tascam - 38 8-track Tape Machine…
That goes back almost 20 years now…
How time goes by…
Bill…
Hey Bill thanks for that. On my old computer, I had the two versions installed. The version 4.0 was not workable with version 5, so the reason I didn’t work the version 5 on my latest project. Oh but for next year’s new project I will try out the new version 5. Have a great Easter week-end.
Guy