Audio "Dead Zone" at 2:o'clock

[Cronyx]

I've got an ASUS A8V Delux mobo with on-board audio. I only have a 2 speaker setup (with a sub, but that's routed through the speakers -- the mobo doesn't know it's there). Also headphones. So basically it's just two channel.

When ever I play a game (Half-Life 2, in particular) that has support enabled for directional surround sound, any sound effect or dialog works fine except for when it's being projected from 2'clock (just off my right hand side, barely out of eyeshot) by player's perspective. For example, if Alyx Vance starts talking in HL2, and she either moves to my 2, or I move so that she is now in my 2, she goes completely mute. Same goes for gunfire or ambient "projectors" that the map maker may have put in (in fact I can now locate these rather easily by spinning around till they go quiet). However if there's any echo effect going on in that level, I can hear that just fine, as long as the echo bounces around to the left side, or just anywhere out of the 2'clock.

When spinning around slowly near a constant audio source, it is full strength (100%) at any orientation, till I get to around 12 or 4, then it drops gradually as I continue to turn until it goes to full mute (0%) once it hits my 2.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled my drivers multiple times, as well as the sound management (alternative audio dashboard) software it seems to want to install as well. I've also played around with that software for weeks but have had no progress. It seems like if I could just locate a volume slide bar for that side, I could just turn it up, but I can find no such thing.

Any help trouble shooting this (and subsequently solving it) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wildfire99]

Hmm... sounds like a mixing problem alright. Is something confused between the game and your system setup/drivers? Perhaps the game thinks you have a 4 or 5 channel setup and something's getting canceled out getting downmixed into 2 channel?

 

[Cronyx]

Well it seems to happen, like I said, in every game that has support for directional audio. Wherever possible, I've changed the config options to two channel but the problem persists.

I went looking in my advanced sound settings, seems I'm already set to two channel desktop speakers. I also found this thing. I can drag that bee around with the mouse to test the 3d simulation with only two speakers, and it is pretty good, except for that dead zone. I moved the bee around till I couldn't hear it buzzing anymore, like I figured, it was almost exactly 2'clock. I can drag it out further or bring it closer, but as long as it stays at that angle, its quiet.

An other peculiarity is the effect of putting the bee at my 4'clock. The tone and pitch are way off. Like it's being muffled badly, but I can still hear it, just very quiet. And it's almost uncomfortably loud if it put it in my 10'clock or 8'clock.

Shouldn't there be some options somewhere to recalibrate this or adjust individual channel volume or something?