Automatic volume leveling during audio playback

Hi All _ THIS FIXED THIS PROBLEM FOR ME,

Answering in response to this post as i have a similar setup with the SoundMax Audio drivers and i found whenever playing games that the audio would dim into the background. I had turned off all the settings in the sounds section of control panel and updated drivers, checked cabling.. etc etc..

However... you are not going to believe what i did to fix the issue... i can only assume that this is some weird incompatibility between the SoundMax driver and the new Microsoft architecture of Vista/7 (as i didnt have this issue with XP - but did with Vista and 7)

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Go to Sound
3. Click on your Speakers - Go to Properties
4. Go to System Effects Tab (not sure if you dont have SoundMax whether this is there or will work, maybe someone can confirm by looking)
5. If you have Sonic Focus Processing Enabled (or Disabled - it doesnt matter) this is the problem.

** At this point i feel i should note how this button worked for me for the last 2-3 years. When i click the radio button on or off it would enable/disable the effects - including quite majorly the bass speaker. The bass did not work when i turned this option off, again for 2-3 years.

Today i read some of this post and thought about actually fixing this issue.

I **** you not... I clicked the radio button on and off a few times today with music playing through spotify and the bass continued to play after the button had been disabled.

(((SO... The radio button should not be clicked the sonic focus should be disabled but the bass working well. Then click ok.))))

My jaw dropped.

The sound was good the bass was playing, i clicked ok to all the windows. I jumped into SC2 to test (guaranteed to stop the bass game) and it just carried on working.

HAPPY PERSON RIGHT HERE!!

I do work with software and to me this looks to be a misalignment in the configuration parameters of each the actual sound driver and the windows front end on it. I cant say i got as far as testing the same mechanism of flicking on off in the driver interface itself. Sorry to be selfish but its working and im not changing it. I really hope this helps at least one person - it made me so happy when it worked after assing around with this clunky OS for 3 years now...

Linux Rules!

The audio fluctuation I was hearing was heard in Windows Media Player during DVD video playback. No other players were used.

Our sound card: Realtek High Definition Audio, on-board.

I had tried everything else suggested in the replies to this posting with no luck.

What I found was the dialogue of the video was being boosted which made the reset of the audio seem like it was much quieter. This is a Dolby Digital setting.

To change this setting:

While playing something, video or audio, in Windows Media Player you can right click anywhere on the display window to get the options menu.

Under the Enhancement menu there are Dolby Digital settings.

By default it is set to "Night - Reduces the audio range of all Dolby Digital content and increases dialogue for a quieter listening experience optimized for laptops."

Change the radial setting (dot) to "Theater - Increases the dynamic range of all Dolby Digital content for a full listening experience." or "Normal - Reduces the audio range of all Dolby Digital content for a quieter listening experience."

You cannot access the proper settings menu while in full screen mode.

There is a different options menu when WMP is in full screen mode.

Cheers,

Coop

Finally fixed this on my Win 7 machine - onboard ASUS audio with Realtek drivers (6.0.1.5959) using Realplayer plus (14.0.1.609).

1. open the REALTEK AUDIO MANAGER
2. on the "SOUND EFFECTS" tab make sure "Loudness Equalization" is off on all tabs (Speakers, Digital Output, Digital Output (Optical)
3. Click "Ok" to close the window
4. load up RealPlayer
5. Click on the menu, then TOOLS > EQUALIZER
6. On the right hand side you will see "tools" with a slider bar underneath.  Below that is an option box that says "Automatic" -  DESELECT this box.
7. Close the Equalizer.

No more "normalization" for me.

I've spent the last few hours looking for an answer to this same problem when I found this thread. I've been using Win7 for only a few days (lots of hair-pulling trying to figure out how to things I knew how to do in XP) and this audio "softening" was getting really annoying. I first noticed it on system sounds as they would fade in. At first I thought they weren't even turned on because some of them were shorter than the volume ramp-up time of this volume thing so I barely heard anything.

I had already turned off the Loudness Equalisation and selected the "do nothing" option for phone calls but nothing had worked. But then I tried turning off theEQUALIZER in Sound>Playback>Speakers>Properties>Enhancements and voila!!problem solved .

For reference, I'm using the on-board Realtek sound on a Gigabyte GA-H55USB3. I use JetAudio for mp3/wma files and it has it's own equalizer so I don't need the system EQ. I gave up on WMP a long time ago so I don't know, but I would assume that WMP uses the system EQ so you may need to switch to another player to be able to use an EQ.

You are a damn saint.  Dozens and dozens of sites.  Reading through dozens of retarded comments, quotes and high school gibberish by these moronic tards that rather bicker like children then help look for a solution and your beautiful typed words just made my day.

I should probably add, make sure that under SOUND/COMMUNICATIONS that the DO NOTHING tab is selected before going back to SPEAKER PROPERTIES and ENHANCEMENTS.  Once you check that your problem is fixed you can RE edit which enhancements you wish without the sounds auto adjusting anymore.  I've tested it and I would have to say, Thank god for Dryroasted.