632: How to fix stuttering during playback

If you're getting a break up of sound or the sound is crackly during playback, this will either be due to the choice of Audio Interface you're using or the drivers for the device need reinstalling:

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 on Windows and you don't have a device with (ASIO) after it then we recommend you purchase a sound card with ASIO drivers, which you can do from shop.avid.com

If you're still getting stuttering during playback, change the Buffer size option to a higher number. If you can't choose anything other than the one option that's there, quit Sibelius and open the control panel for your audio device. This will allow you to choose a higher buffer size which will in turn allow you to increase the latency.

Go back to the Play, Playback Devices dialog and choose Audio Engine Options. You should now find the buffer size number has increased and therefore the latency, which will give Sibelius more time to process the audio and in turn reduce the stuttering during playback.

If you can't change the buffer size at all 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