Hi John,

I think you're onto something there. Some background. I made a mic recording and yes, as it was too quiet I did it again using normalize. To my surprise, when I played that back, instead of hearing sound from the central and side speakers on my desk (and presumably the subwoofer behind my mionitor), I heard the two rear speakers and the 'side pair' was silent. Mystified, I played around with the Realtek settings, not really understanding them. For example:

Anyway, somehow I then got normal play back. (Which for me, BTW, never seems to include anything from the rear speakers, apart from those tests. Including playing a variety of tracks of various genres in my usual music player, Media Monkey.)

But I don't see why now pasting any sound object to a new movie should give this bizarre difference? Surely, merely using Normalize on one object in Movie X shouldn't make all sounds in that movie quieter than in Movie Y?

Hope you have a good night's sleep. With all dreams at the same volume.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Hi Terry

In step 2 it is showing the optional speakers, you always have the front pair L&R.

As you have selected 5.1 surround sound you have L&R front which you cannot remove, and in the optional setup can add/remove centre/subwoofer and rear L&R

The 2 side speakers belong to the 7.1 surround option.

As for the extra loudness, do you have the audio import set to -6dB in the program settings, and are normalising again?

HTH

John EB

In step 2 it is showing the optional speakers, you always have the front pair L&R.

As you have selected 5.1 surround sound you have L&R front which you cannot remove, and in the optional setup can add/remove centre/subwoofer and rear L&R

The 2 side speakers belong to the 7.1 surround option.

Got it, thanks John.

Is it also to be expected that stereo narrative recorded with my AKG Perception 120 USB would have zero content from RL and RR? Come to that, when should I hear anything from those speakers with any source?

As for the extra loudness, do you have the audio import set to -6dB in the program settings, and are normalising again?

No, that option is not selected.

Hi Terry

. . . . Is it also to be expected that stereo narrative recorded with my AKG Perception 120 USB would have zero content from RL and RR? . . . .

Stereo has only front L & R.

According to the specs for the AKG, it is a mono mic, presumably you are getting the narrative in both L & R channels in which case the apparent position of your voice is in the centre - you can change this in the mixer with the L-R balance control.

HTH

John EB

Thanks John, understood. Never seen that mono/stereo point mentioned in the specs I have. Was it in the main PDF manual, which is in German?

Did you see my edit, adding that more general query?

Hi Terry

. . . . Never seen that mono/stereo point mentioned in the specs I have . . . .

The specs that come with the mic and on the AKG site are not explicit, however I did find more information which states that it is a single capsule mono microphone, you need 2 capsules usually set at 90 degrees to one another (45 deg from the centre line) for stereo.

Re general enquiry edit - which part is that?

Added:

. . . . But I don't see why now pasting any sound object to a new movie should give this bizarre difference? Surely, merely using Normalize on one object in Movie X shouldn't make all sounds in that movie quieter than in Movie Y? . . .

Did you have auto ducking turned on in Movie X during recording?

John EB

....Re general enquiry edit - which part is that?

That was just the extra sentence "Come to that, when should I hear anything from those speakers with any source?".

My audio aspirations are very primitive! Decades ago my PC acquired what is apparently called 5.1 sound and after only one rewiring project (following moving house) my six-speaker setup remains the same.

As mentioned, the only time nowadays I get to hear from all six is when running the Realtek tests. (I don't think this has always been the case.)

So apart from the subject unsolved puzzle, my outstanding questions are:

1. Which, if any, of my thousands of tracks (mainly MP3 but including all the Magix OGG files, my WAV sound effects and probably still a few hundred WMAs) should already deliver sound through all six?

2. What, if anything, I could do if I wanted to get everything to consistently use all six?

....Did you have auto ducking turned on in Movie X during recording?

No. Unless MEPP 2016 did so unbidden. I've never used that. It's unchecked now.

Probably unrelated, but I have had rather more occurrences in recent days of a couple of issues. One is that when I close MEP it clears my project but leaves an empty window that also then needs closing. The other is the equally annoying 'boomerang' flaw, when MEP restarts immediately after being closed.

Hi Terry

. . . . Come to that, when should I hear anything from those speakers with any source? . . . .

With a 5.1 surround sound audio source that actually has audio in the appropriate channel, however another possible cause of not hearing anything from the rear speakers - the player you are using must support and decode the audio correctly.

Assuming you are using VLC then it may not be set up correctly - see here.

I have uploaded an original video clip, 5.1 Surround Sound, from my camera to test with - you should be able to hear people talking behind you.

HTH

John EB

Hi John,

Thanks - success!

At first I got the same results as before (with any of the players I used), with nothing from the rear speakers. (Actually, when I unplugged the two front speakers I could then hear very faint signals from the rears.)

But I decided to check the configuration again and found Stereo was now selected instead of 5.1. When I tried to enable that option I got a message I don't understand warning me about another application using it. But it allowed me to 'continue anyway' and I appear to have succeeded in switching back to 5.1.

I can now play your MTS with various players and get sound from the rear speakers.

I'll have to check this regularly as I don't see how it got switched to stereo.

Hi Terry

Great news, did you find yourself looking back for the people talking?😄

John EB