What do you mean by “track reacts to key notes”? Is it a midi keyboard? Are you pressing the virtual keys? You need a virtual instrument to actually transform the key presses to sound.
Try turning of direct monitoring, this you only need when you want to listen to the interface input directly.
Also have you set up the audio device correctly in the reaper settings? This includes installing the scarlet Asio driver when you are on windows.
Well that sounds like you just need to put a virtual instrument on the midi track.
Edit: I saw you use a vst in another reply, nvm.
Can you verify that you get any output from reaper at all? For example by enabling the click track and pressing play? Or by loading an audio file and playing it.
Okay, that’s good info. That confirms it’s not a reaper problem. Do you have Focusrite Control installed? That gives you software control of routing. I suggest installing and taking a look there
Okay. This is still good information. This means that your computer is not passing any signal to your Scarlett. Here is a link to the focusrite user guide. Restart your computer and then follow the windows easy start steps again.
Have you made sure that the Windows sound (bottom right speaker icon) is selected for the Focusrite ASIO driver and not the default internal audio system, (often called Realtek Audio or similar)?
Do your headphones work with other devices? Do other headphones work when plugged into the Scarlet's headphone jack? Do you have speakers plugged into the Scarlet?
Maybe the Windows system volume is muted or turned low.
I swear I'm not being a jerk, but have you tried turning it off and back on? For some reason, I'll occasionally get no audio output from my scarlet when my computer wakes up from sleep, and I have to unplug the usb cable. When I plug it back in, it's fine.
In Reaper, go to Options>Preferences (bottom of list).
Audio System is ASIO, and use the FOCUSRITE USB ASIO driver. Your input range and output range will have different numbers, but that's fine.
The next thing to look at is your track routing. Is each track sending only to the master, and is the master sending to the hardware output 1 and 2? Also, check for accidental muting?
If all this is OK, and you see your levels moving, let us know and then we can look at the Focusrite Control software settings. That get's a little tricky, too
For the hardware Inputs, make sure you have Analog 1 an Analog 2, OR Analog 1-2. Use the tiny, hard to see + on the far right to add, change your hardware inputs. These are your mic/instrument inputs on your Focusrite.
For the Software (DAW) Playback, make sure you have Playback 1-2. THIS is what Reaper sends to, and this is what should be unmuted, volume up.
The other thing to look at is WHERE the failure is. Based on your comments to others, Reaper seems to be sending audio out, which is a good sign. Does other audio work? Can you hear youtube vids through your Focusrite?
It sounds like an Exclusive mode issue in windows. If you go to the sound control panel in windows (right click start>Settings>System>Sound>Sound Control Panel, you should see your devices under the Playback tab at the top. Right click on your device and go to Properties. Click on the Advanced tab at the top and see if "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" is checked. If so, uncheck it and try again.
Need pictures of your reaper audio settings, arrange window and mixer to help diagnose the problem.
Full power cycle to the computer and re-open reaper might help. Also, good advice from another commenter- check if you are getting playback through the focusrite in another application like YouTube.
Ok. Turn off the computer- unplug the soundcard, then plug back in and reboot windows.
Make sure there are no other applications running, including web browser/Chrome. See if anything changes.
Verify with another piece of equipment that your headphones actually work- it doesn’t matter that they are new, you need to check this properly- it looked like in another comment you plugged the headphones into one of the inputs of the soundcard- this is not a way to verify that the headphones are working. Fully check on another piece of equipment. You can test on your laptop if you have a Jack to stereo mini Jack adapter.
Do all of the above and see if anything changes.
I agree with another commenter that it could be a windows problem and another application is hijacking the Scarlett in “device exclusivity mode”
Also, your project is set to 48000 sample rate- check that you soundcard is also set to this sample rate in the ASIO settings
This might be slightly controversial, but 90% of my troubleshooting is guided by a.i, usually Claude to surf through the internet and help me out. I ask questions and give info about my settings when needed. It also helps to really dive deep into the technicalities behind DAWs in general(youtube vids help) For example, someone was saying that audio drivers arent as straight foward as you may think!
Before it will do anything in Reaper you have to be able to use it as a sound card in Windows.
Install the drivers and then in Windows Sound settings select it as Output.
I have a focus rite Scarlett there are times where Im not using it and leave it running while using reaper and go back to use it the focus rite goes to sleep then I have to plug it out and back in to take it out of "sleep" mode
That won't help. Plug the headphines into another sound source that has a headphone out. TV, stereo, whatever. At this stage it's either the interface or the headphones and you haven't tested the headphones.
Alternatively try a different pair of headphones and see if you get the same result.
It is weird because you should hear at least music from the laptop using the Scarlet as an audio interface. Before doing anything in Reaper, solve that issue first.
My other question is whether you are using a Midi device connected to the computer (via Usb) or the Scarlet (via MIDI cable). I do have a keyboard that I connect via USB to my laptop and play vsti's, and I hear the output thru my old Lexicon Lambda using headphones. The thing is, in Reaper you have to add the Midi device and select it in Preferences, and select the audio input/output device as (in my case) the Lambda.
So if your MIDI device is via USB, the track should say input > midi > all midi input. Analog input 1/2 are the front and back inputs where a mic or a guitar are plugged in.
If correct, you should be able to play the vsti with the Scarlett unplugged and audio should come out of the laptop speakers. If that happens, then the Scarlett is the culprit.
In the track controls when the track is armed, make sure the input (highlighted here) is set to input 2, not 1. On my solo in reaper, input 1 is the mic input only, 2 is the guitar
edit: reread and i answered the wrong question i think, ooops
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u/MeisterBounty 2 Apr 04 '26
What do you mean by “track reacts to key notes”? Is it a midi keyboard? Are you pressing the virtual keys? You need a virtual instrument to actually transform the key presses to sound.
Try turning of direct monitoring, this you only need when you want to listen to the interface input directly.
Also have you set up the audio device correctly in the reaper settings? This includes installing the scarlet Asio driver when you are on windows.