Troubleshooting Sound Devices after Windows Update

Windows Feature Updates, which occur every 6-12 months, are known to reset any peripherals you have connected to your computer - including sound cards. This can cause Windows to forget which USB port/device corresponds to each Device in Windows, and jumble the order of your sound cards after an Update.

Additionally, some mixers present each USB channel as a separate physical device to Windows. As these devices have the same model number and (often) serial number, Windows has no way of differentiating between each channel, and the device order can change at random.

This tutorial explains how to troubleshoot the ordering of your Audio Devices.

Pre-requisites

We do not recommend carrying out this procedure on an on-air studio. If possible, put an alternative studio or your automation to air before starting.

Ensure your mixer and sound cards are connected, turned on, and being detected by Windows. If the device is not appearing under Windows, it is possible that it has not been installed properly - you will need to refer to the instructions from the manufacturer.

What we're trying to do

Simply put, we're trying to determine which sound card on Windows corresponds with which Audio Output device.

The logical steps for this are:

1. On your mixer, fade down every channel except for e.g. Myriad 1
2. In Windows, play a test sound through every sound card until you hear it through the mixer
3. When you hear the test sound, make a note of the Windows Audio Device that you tested
4. When you've finished working out which channel goes where, update your Media Engine Settings [and restart Myriad].

Finding Sound Control Panel

On Windows, click on the Start Menu and choose Settings. Under Settings, choose System, then Sound. On the right hand side, choose Sound Control Panel.

If you can't see "Sound Control Panel", your screen might not be wide enough: scroll down to the bottom of Sound Settings

This will open the 'classic' Windows Control Panel, which looks like this:

Testing Each Device

Firstly, fade down every channel on your mixing desk, except for Myriad 1.

Under Sound Control Panel, make sure you have the Playback tab selected.

Make your way down each device in the list, right clicking each one and clicking 'Test'.

After you've tested a few devices, you should hear a 'ding ding ding' sound. Make a note of the name of this device - this is your Myriad 1 channel.

Carry out this process again, for the rest of your Myriad channels - fading down every channel except Myriad N, and testing the devices we don't yet know. Once you've finished, you should have a list of what Sound Card on Windows is corresponding to what Myriad channel on the mixer.

Updating the Media Engine Settings

With this list, go into the Settings menu and choose Media Engine Settings.

Using the list we made in the previous step, click on the dropdowns next to each of the Myriad Players, and choose the correct Device.

You will then need to restart Myriad for the changes to take effect.