631: How to play back through a different device

If you're not getting any sound during playback or would like to direct Sibelius' playback to a different device go to the Play menu and choose Playback Devices.

Here, you can set up a new Playback Configuration. Click New at the top and type in a name (it doesn't really matter what you call it as long as you will recognise it). You'll now find you can activate the devices you want from the Available Devices list on the left and deactivate any unwanted devices from the right. Check you choose the most applicable Sound Set from the far right too. This can determine which sound library you use too i.e. if you activate Kontakt Player 2, say, the Sound Set list allows you to choose from the libraries you have installed.

Click Save and then the Close button. Play back your score and you'll find Sibelius now chooses all the sounds it needs from the new devices.

If you want to change the audio device Sibelius is playing from i.e. you have your headphones or speakers plugged into your audio interface instead of your computer, say, go to Play, Playback Devices and click the Audio Engine Options button. There, you can click the Interface drop-down, which will list all the audio devices Sibelius can see. On Windows, some may appear more than once with letters in brackets afterwards and should be chosen in this priority:

(ASIO): Audio Stream Input Output: this will be the best option to choose, if you have it. This will generally give you the lowest latency too.
(WASAPI): Windows Audio Session API: This too will give low latency but will be using your computer resources to do so
(DS): Direct Sound: This is the common driver using Windows' Direct Sound and will do for most situations.
(MME): Multimedia Extensions: This is an emulated driver that Windows can use. This will give you the worst performance and is not recommended.

So, if you have a device listed with ASIO, choose that. If not, try WASAPI and then DS, then if you really don't have anything else, choose MME.

If you're not getting any sound in Sibelius, check you have chosen the right interface for where your speakers and headphones are plugged in. If you're finding the Latency value is 0, this means the audio driver isn't functioning so you'll have to reinstall the drivers for the sound card or audio interface. Here are some common websites you can visit to download the latest drivers:

M-Audio
Avid Audio
EMU
ESI
MOTU
Roland and Edirol
Tascam