Music Problem with 5.1 speakers

[floppybootstomp]

I bought a Hercules 5.1 speaker system several months ago, it sounded quite naff with my old Gigabyte board so I put the stuff back in the box and stored it.

When I swapped out the Gigabyte board for a DFI Lan Party NFII Ultra B I thought I'd try them again. The DFI board has seperate sockets for Centre/Bass & Rear Out, unlike the Gigabyte board which used the Mic In & Line In sockets for these functions. Just one of the many appealing features of the DFI board.

They sound great in DVD movies and Games. Half Life 2 sounds very impressive indeed.

But. All my music sounds crap. I have the choice of three media players to play music on, Windows Media Player 10; Nero and Winamp. They all sound not too good. I've searched and searched settings but can't seem to influence the sound much at all within any media player.

Basically, there's no bass. Front and rear speakers work, but nothing else. If I go into the Nvidia sound prperties and enable middle channel (see pic below) I get bass, but it really doesn't sound very good at all. And after I've finished playing music I have to disable the middle channel.

How come Games and Movies (InterVideo Win DVD 4) sound great yet music sounds poop? Is it something to do with music being only stereo? My old 2.1 speaker system made music sound very good indeed. How is the sound transferred to onboard sound chip via motherboard?

Again, the 5.1 speaker system sounds great in Games and movies, all six channels show levels, so I've no complaints there, but I would like my music to sound a bit good again.

Any ideas? Any alternative players for playing back audio files? All I ever play is mp3's; WAV & cda files.

[Grogan]

Did you try adjusting the speaker configuration in Windows Control Panel as well? It could be incorrect there. I've found playing with those settings in there only worked to my detriment so I just keep it set for normal, standard speakers.

During gaming, it's probably using a different interface (e.g. directx interfaces)

[floppybootstomp]

Yes, I did try that, whatever changes I make in the Windows control panel or Nvidia control panel also happen in each other. If I set desktop stereo speakers in Windows CP for instance, that change also happens in the Nvidia panel.

I suspect the Nvidia panel is a GUI sitting on top of the windows panel.

If I tinker about a bit I can get a fairly decent sound, but it doesn't have the immediacy, the fullness, if you will, of my old 2.1 speaker system.

And of course if I then play a game or watch a movie, I have to change settings around again.

[labatts]

don't know anything about 5.1 in computers flopps.but i do have a home theater system.and have found that you should go to 2 channel mode for stereo music if you want it to sound good.so i would try changing listening mode from 6 speakers to 2 and try enabling.. create Lfe channel.i know that has something to do with bass in movies(more for low frequency impact than anything else).and i realize your getting good base from flicks,but give it a try and see what happens.Other than that i have nothing.

[TJM4FUN]

I think G got the reason right. games and such use directx for sound, or the eax extension. You can test the directx sounds with dxdiag in the directx folder in program files. see if those sound good.

I have a sb 128pci that does 4 ch sound, and it has NEVER worked in xp, yet worked perfectly in games and music under w98.
Even the game sound lost 4 channel ability in xp, and that was annoying as I couldn;t hear steps behind me in fps multiplayer.

(and yes I tried about 10 different drivers to get it to work)

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the input fellas :)

labbats, I tried what you said, even with LFE enabled, all I get is two rear speakers active. There may be bass fequencies being passed to them but they're too small to reproduce them.

I suppose I'm just lumbered with the situation, really, unless I split one of the signals to the rear speakers and took it to a woofer, but that's a lot of bother.

Perhaps I'll just burn all my mp3 files to CD and play them on me set top DVD player, which is wired to my Hi-Fi, it's in the same room.

[James]

Have You checked in the bios,for the chipset options?

[oslinux]

I have the same board and my sound sounds great. I have all the checks in output and surround settings checked. I use the Digital output to connect the comp to my recever(never used the analog output). Try and check the dolby(R) Surround encoding on and check the rest(you can leave the rear speaker phase shift off). this should enable stereo sources to become 5.1 suround sound.
I know if I uncheck the digital suround my music becomes stereo.
I have used the newer audio driver and the sound is horrible. based on your pic we are using the same driver. hope this helps

[floppybootstomp]

A conclusion.

Y'all probably will not believe this, but all this time my bass and mid speakers were round the wrong way.

Not physically via the cable, but in the software.

Apparently it's quite a common problem with the Soundforce setup and Nvidia have a small software solution for it.

I downloaded that and swapped the two erroneous speakers around and now I can't quite believe how good this thing sounds. Star wars sounds quite superb.

What I do find embarrassing, however, is the fact I ran it like that for almost three months and couldn't figure it out :hhead:

And I'm supposed to be a Sound Engineer for a living, sheesh...

[TJM4FUN]

Originally posted by floppybootstomp
A conclusion.
.............
And I'm supposed to be a Sound Engineer for a living, sheesh...

Another example of the shoemaker's children-eh?