Audio Toolbox unresponsive/not working

Whenever I try to use any function or block from the Audio Toolbox in MATLAB and Simulink, MATLAB becomes unresponsive, starts using 2GB of ram, and just states its Busy. The program doesn't crash, there are no warnings or error messages, it just starts loading something forever. The issue persists after reinstalling, and updating MATLAB and the toolbox.

[jibrahim]

Christian, this is might be related to your particular install. Do you see this issue if you use the functions sound, soundsc, audiodeviceread? Note that these functions live in base MATLAB, not Audio Toolbox.

[Christian Katona]

I've been troubleshooting since I posted this, and I've narrowed it down to the sound and audio functions of MATLAB. I get the same issues when I try to run soundsc and audiodevinfo ant etc.

[Peter O]

It sounds like it's something with an audio driver call maybe? Are your speakers working OK otherwise?

Trying the low hanging fruit here -- are there any updates for the driver? Assuming Windows here, have you tried disabling it in the Device Manager and re-enabling it, or swapping the default device?

[Christian Katona]

The drivers are up to date, and the speakers are functioning properly. I've tried disabling and swapping the device, but the issue persists.

[Peter O]

Is anything else possibly trying to access the drivers at the same time that is maybe locking it up? A media player or taskbar widget? What's the audio driver in use?

[Christian Katona]

It does this when MATLAB is the only program running. If i play the beep command, it makes the sound, so I don't think its a driver issue.

Answer 1

[Srijith Kasaragod]

Hi @Christian Katona,

Firstly, make sure that you are not using any "Wake on Voice" features. If so, disable them and see if that fixes the issue.

Try the following steps and see if the issue is resolved:

1. Check if the "beep" command works.

2. Try running the following code:

    load('handel.mat');
    player = audioplayer(y,Fs);
    play(player);

3. Try running:

    info = audiodevinfo();
    struct2table(info.output)

If this fails and you experience a freeze/hang, follow the steps at the bottom of the page (titled "If Step 3 failed").

4. If playing Handel did not work, look at the table that is displayed in point 3, identify output audio devices that would be suitable for testing, note their IDs (3rd column), and then test the following code for each device, where the last argument in the call to AUDIOPLAYER is the device ID:

    load('handel.mat') ;
    player = audioplayer(y, Fs, 16, 5) ;   % <-- replace the 5 here by relevant device ID(s), one at a time
    play(player);

5. Finally, right-click on the loudspeaker icon in Windows 10 task bar, click on Sounds, then pick the Playback tab, and send me a screenshot of all devices present.

If Step 3 failed:

1. There may be an issue with the PortAudio library. Check whether it is shipped using the following command. If the output is zero, the library is missing. If the output is 2, the library is present.

    exist(fullfile(matlabroot,'bin','win64','libportaudio.dll'), 'file' );

2. Install Audacity and play any sample WAV file. Audacity also uses PortAudio, so this is a good way to test another package that relies on this library. Let me know if this works, or if it stalls or crashes.

I hope this helps!

[Christian Katona]

Thanks for your response.

I am in contact with matlab support at this point, and they've lead me through this process already. No fix as of yet.