Weird Speaker Behavior.

I've never before had this problem, even on this same system, it only became a problem after I reformatted.

Anyways, I have 7.1 surround sound input (only 5 speakers are used, 2 are broke) and I can be listening to music, and everything sounds good. Then if I open another program that uses sound (a game for example) the bass instantly dies, so I turn up the bass to compensate, then if that program closes, the bass is instantly double of what it normally sits at.

I'm not sure why, but programs just being opened (even if it's just minimized and making no sound on it's own as is) instantly kills my bass levels.

Anyone have any ideas?

I'm guessing it could be a compatibility error between your sound driver and whatever programs you're using, or perhaps a memory/resources issue?

I have an i7 and 9GB DDR3 RAM, I doubt the latter.

I have the same set up, including the software, that I did before the reformat, nothing has been changed in that aspect. Which is why I'm lost. I'm guessing there's some setting I had different in Windows before the reformat, but I have no idea what that would be.

It's the same games, the audio settings are done through SoundMAX, same version I had before the reformat, and all those settings are back to where they were.

That's a really odd problem... I would ask these questions though...

- Do the bass levels at your standard setting sound normal when the music application is closed and the other apps are opened?
- What music app are you using?
- Is it literally any other application you open or particular ones?
- You said 2 speakers are broken, which speakers are they in the setup, and is your audio card app set to only 5.1 sound because those other two speakers don't work, and are they plugged in still?
- What kind of speakers do you have?

That might help narrow it down a bit... and this problem wasn't present before re-format, after re-format same setup and now it happens?

Same exact setup, same settings on everything obvious, same release of software, I know my computer intimately so it's not hard for me to make quick work of getting all the settings and software back to normal after a reformat.

I haven't tested if they're normal without the music going, I can't check that atm, but I will.
I'm using Winamp, it's pretty much any program that uses sound. It won't happen if I open calculator or note pad or anything like that. It's only when that program uses sound, but it's hard to explain exactly.. Won't happen if I open another media program to play a movie or show or something (the problem will still happen if I use another program to play music on though, there's just no conflict between media players). Speakers are broken and removed and my settings are on 5.1. They're Creative speakers, don't remember model. Kinda old though.

Nope. I'm telling you everything obvious is already set the exact same.

Well that does at least paint a better picture... so you can use Winamp open say Media Player Classic and watch a movie and it's okay... but as soon as you open program x or y it goes all wonky... I would certainly try to see what those x and y programs sound like without winamp running... that should probably explain where the issue is.

Yep, does it even if Winamp isn't open. Seems the programs themselves are killing my bass somehow. It isn't limited to games, but offhand it's the only program I can think of where you're not exactly playing a media file, but sound is an inherent factor.

It also doesn't do it when you're installing a game, if there's no sound involved like background music, but when you go to the update screen, and there is music, then it happens.

Well at least you narrowed down where the issue is.... so media players don't do it, but games do... I wonder if there is some sort of auto setting that changes the sound setup based on what you're doing... the fact that it changes what your music in winamp sounds like means it changing the general output so it's not a setting in the game or anything, most likely.

This is just a far fetched theory, but check the sound settings for said program. I know a couple games of mine allow for forced sound settings for various reasons(ie. Dragon Age allows for forced stereo for headphones). This could possibly be causing an issue.

It's gotta be program settings or something.

Either that, or try *** around in a sound synthesizer (If applicable), maybe there's some weird setting in there causing it to freak out on programs.

Okay I think I figured it out, I turned off "Give exclusive mode applications priority".

Yay! Hope that works out for you... kinda figured it had to be some kind of special setting... I was thinking auto setting, but a program taking exclusive control over the card sounds right as it would release that control after it was terminated.