Slow Audio Playback

For audio-only playback the shortcut is , (comma) on numpad.

Changes are high that you just mistake preview-rendering with playback.

Open info panel to see when AE is preview rendering (slow, daemon like sound), and when it plays back at realtime. If the cache indicator (green bar above comp timeline) is all green, playback should be realtime.

Check the preview settings, make sure fps is set to auto or meets the same setting as your comp.

In the older days of AE, you just hit 0 (numpad) and it preview renderes the whole render area. As soon as this was done, it playback the rendered frames. Since a few years, you can hit spacebar once to start preview rendering and space bar again to play back what is already rendered. But since the time indicator is moving when hitting spacebar once, a lot of people mistake this as playback. But this is only true, if all frames are already cached.

*Martin