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Quiet mono playback

B

Bashe

n00b
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Messages
9
I've been using onboard Audio with my GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard. It uses Realtek HD for the audio, but for some strange reason, anything in mono is played back quieter than it should be. Stereo sounds, even mono sounds made into stereo with identical channels, play back at the expected volume. I've looked for help elsewhere, but it seems only one other person has had this problem, and it was never resolved on his end either.

I can fix it by doing the left and right channel playback under the Audio I/O tab, but this is only a temporary fix that I must do at startup. I'm looking for something more permanent. I also noticed that before fixing it, the quiet mono sounds are not affected by the Wave Balance volume control under the volume options, when normally they would. After applying the temporary fix, they are once again affected by Wave Balance like they should be.

This is quite the strange problem, and I've been dealing with it for nearly a year now, but now I'm asking for help to possibly find a solution.
 
It could be some quirk of the amp design. Have you considered doing an L-->R clone and then unplugging your right speaker? Or if this is some software thing, have you tried converting your mono file to a stereo file with a dead right channel?

Perm. fix in software short of "update your drivers" implies something being aware that you're not using both channels and then automatically increasing the digital gain on the remaining channel - while not triggering it on accident when a stereo signal is unbalanced. It seems a little...impractical.

Mono is a teensy bit exotic...normally even if there isn't significant stereo information, the same signal will be sent to L and R to prevent giving a lopsided feel to the playback.
 
I'm using headphones, so some of those are out of the questions.

I just updated my drivers to the 12-15-2009, and now I can no longer do the temporary fix, which bums me out because now I'm stuck with quiet mono sounds and no real way to fix them. Enabling Dolby Headphones would fix it, but it also turns on reverb effects that I don't want and can't disable. I'm not sure what to do out this point, but it's an annoying problem.
 
Do you use mono playback often enough that a mono to stereo adapter would be worthwhile? I think Radio Shack sells them for a couple bucks. I don't know why you'd want sound only in the left ear, but it'd do it.

If it won't do L-->R cloning anymore, there are other probably ways to pull that in software. I think foobar does it trivially, if your source allows you to use it.
 
A lot of sound effects I have are mono, and some old game music and sounds are in mono, so I still use it regularly. I just can't understand why this motherboard plays them back quieter unless in stereo. It just doesn't make sense to me. I used to be able to temporarily fix it at least, but updating the drivers appears to have screwed me over. I guess I will have to roll back until I can find a permanent fix, which might just be getting a sound card.
 
To get technical, you likely have a two-channel amp that doesn't anticipate mono sources and fails to adequately isolate the stages of the circuit, resulting in a lower value for Vpp at a given gain setting if both channels are not producing a similar mean voltage. Which is to say, it's designed in a way that makes it quieter when playing mono.

Is it from old games, or recordings of old games? Foobar will definitely work if it's audio files, but it can't affect another program's sound output as far as I know.

Are you sure that the feature wasn't moved elsewhere in the driver control software? Is there any reason why you can't use an older version of the audio drivers, if the current one disables a feature you apparently need? If you can get that working but don't want cloning, the mono --> stereo adapter plug will cut the signal for the extra channel so that you get "true mono" from the headphones.

From there...the next option does sound like a sound card. If you can't fix it in software, and you can't fix it in the drivers, then it's probably time for a hardware fix.
 
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