No audio out when using Sonarworks Reference 4 Systemwide

Description of the issue:

Audio cannot be heard when using the professional studio calibration software Sonarworks Reference 4 (in its “Systemwide” setting: where it is applied to all apps that use audio on the computer). Sonarworks measures a room using a calibrated microphone and through a multi-spot sound test calibration process. This is then converted to basically a custom EQ curve that fits your room and audio monitors and is applied to audio played either through audio software alone or though “everything” that generates audio on the system. The latter is called “Systemwide” and is the default option. This uses a virtual audio device for the processing, which is then connected to the actual sound output.

So it goes:

  • A piece of software plays audio into the virtual soundcard
  • The virtual soundcard processes the audio (and yes, adds latency)
  • The virtual soundcard plays the processed audio through the initially selected output

In my case, I’m on a professional-grade Universal Audio Apollo 8 system.

For the past few weeks, audio has been getting a little spotty at times when using Brave, until yesterday when it just completely fails to work. What is happening is that audio only plays for half a second. Then I go to the Windows audio output selection, select my audio interface, and the audio resumes for half a second before the virtual soundcard is selected again and the audio stops.

I am well aware that this is a little niche, but since it only occurs in Brave and not in Chrome, Edge nor Firefox, I tend to believe it’s a Brave issue. It also does not occur on other software like Ableton Live, Reaper or even Spotify or VLC. Just Brave.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Well… Have Sonarworks Reference 4 Systemwide installed
  2. Use the version of Brave as referenced below, go to a website that plays audio
  3. Observe the utter silence
  4. Switch to your regular soundcard, hear 500ms of audio, then observe that Windows switches to the Sonarworks virtual soundcard, and silence resumes.

Expected result:

Audio would continue to play as normal.

Brave Version: Version 1.10.93 Chromium: 83.0.4103.106 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Additional Information:

I’m sorry.

Well, egg on my face. The Brave.exe app was muted in my Windows advanced settings. So. No bug just me being dumb.

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