Pitch dropping on files ??

This has happened a few times now recently...  I record some audio for a project in Sonar, and it sounds fine, but then if I open it in Adobe Audition 3, at some point when I come back to it in Sonar (and in AA) the pitch has dropped.  The timing is still the same, but the pitch of the audio is now noticeably lower.  And I can't seem to figure out what's causing that or how to fix it or change it back to the right pitch.  Is it some kind of conflict between the two programs?  Somehow the sample rate is changing, I presume.  Best I can tell, everything is configured correctly (I'm using an Echo Mia card with a Win 7 computer).  Both programs say that they are sampling at 44100.

Okay, it doesn't have anything to do with AA.  I have a project open in Sonar... sounds fine... then just listened to some sound sample effects from a website, and then went back to Sonar and the pitch is low.  If I exit out of Sonar and go back in, it's okay again.  So, anyway...

So, anyway...

I was about to suggest that another app had altered your soundcard sample rate, when you sort-of worked it out for yourself! Moral, therefore solution is obvious, I hope.

No, still trying to figure it out, but it's clearly more of a Sonar settings issue than AA.

Well, let's put it like this: if you have one program running your sound device at 44.1k and, let's say, another one running at 48k and you switch between the two, then the sound device is likely, when you switch back and try to play the file from the first one without reloading it, to play it at the last rate the device was set at - which means that it could either be about a semitone lower, or higher, depending on which way you go.

It can potentially get worse with ASIO, I think - although I'd have to try this to prove the hypothesis. If you have different channels attached to different programs (which is allowable), then I don't think that it's beyond the bounds of possibility that if you start a new file in one whilst the other's playing, that it will alter the rate during playback of the first one! Now, any sensible driver ought to trap that out, but you never know...

As far as I can tell from the tests I've been doing recently with Windows 7, the whole subject is a can of worms.

In general AA behaves impeccably on its own, switching between sample rates depending on the sample rate of files and handling sessions correctly.

Where it becomes impossible to predict is when different manufacturer's drivers behave differently in whether they reflect settings  through from different applications and whether asio settings can affect the wdm settings and vice versa. Asio may bypass the Windows audio, but it doesn't necessarily bypass the Windows settings.

The basic problem is that Windows' audio handling has become so potentially complex that it is becoming very difficult to advise people on how to set up general purpose but occasionally pro-audio machines.

The rule seems to be - switch off all Windows Sounds, decide on a sample rate that you will always use and set all defaults to that sample rate. Keep all internet audio etc on the on-board audio interface if possible and all the serious stuff on the proper soundcard.

Just read the whole thread.

Now it make sense to me. Because I'd been having trouble with my inter phase. Having read this I tried to do and try it now I am able to figure it out!

Thanks!