Starting with the "new revamped way of handling audio in MC" there is a serious limitation (from my point of view it is a bug) for everyone using audio device supporting ASIO interface. Upon starting, MC takes exclusive access to any ASIO device, regardles of the selected audio HW device in MC preferences. This exclusive access (which has nothing to do with the exclusive access in Windows control panel, since this doesn't affect ASIO audio devices) prevents windows system (and thus any other application) from using this audio device, rendering all DirectSound access to the device impossible (even MC itself can not use DirectSound output, when setting this optin in MC audio HW preferences, audio playback, in fact general playback, is impossible).

It would be great if the MC handles audio devices (including ASIO capable devices) properly. When ASIO output is selected, the selected interface/device has to have exclusive access, which is fine. BUT when selecting DirectSound output, there is absolutely no need to lock audio device via exclusive ASIO access.

If I want to use ASIO for reduced latency for specific audio tasks/jobs, I am ready to "sacrifice" the affected audio device. But in general work in Media Composer it is VERY frustrating to not be able to use any audio via such audio device.

Tried to log this as a bug via support, but I was turned down that it is not a bug in their view, since MC doesn't certify ASIO audio devices. I don't agree with that at all. MC preferences lists ASIO interfaces in HW selection option. This is NOT a "basic" or regular behaviour of Windows applications, since you have to have specific functionality/interface to use ASIO devices. So MC in fact is ready to use ASIO devices. The problem is, that is uses them in a problematic (to say it politely) way, locking/using them regardless of user's choice in Audio HW preferences.

Fixing this shouldn't be a problem, since other application with ASIO audio devices support can release ASIO devices with no problem when they are not used/selected for audio output.

In my case I have/had two different audio cards (SoundBlaster Z and SoundBlaster AE-5) that support ASIO natively and the problem affected both of them. I have also opened a support ticket with CreativeLabs to try to solve the issue. After intensive testing and diagnostic they indeed confirmed that the problem is in MC initialization, when MC locks ASIO interface regardless of Audio HW option selected in MC preferences.

If anyone else is struggling with this issue, here's the workaround I currently use: Before launching MC I start a media player (FooBar in my case) and let it play some audio in loop, setting the audio output level to zero. This itself keeps the audio device "busy", so MC can't lock it exclusively during the initialization/launch process. When I keep this "dummy" audio output from media player active, DirectSound audio output from MC is working fine.

If there's anyone else with a better solution, please let me know. Hope this helps anyone encountering this strange MC behaviour (took me quite some time to realise and understand what is going on).