[Tech] Channel into sound device

Angelic

Angelic

Active Member
Sup dudes,
so I was wondering if I can essentially take my "side speakers" jack/channel and make windows recognize it as a separate sound device. The reason for this is that my motherboard has 7.1 output, but I only have 5.1 speakers. I want, however, the ability to use headphones instead of the speakers. It would be great, therefore, if I could make the side speaker channel into a separate audio playback device and choose to use it if I wanted to, instead of the big speakers.

Is there a utility or built-in feature of windows 7 that allows this?

Thankies,
Angelic
 
Traxata

Traxata

Junior Administrator
Angelic said:
Sup dudes,
so I was wondering if I can essentially take my "side speakers" jack/channel and make windows recognize it as a separate sound device. The reason for this is that my motherboard has 7.1 output, but I only have 5.1 speakers. I want, however, the ability to use headphones instead of the speakers. It would be great, therefore, if I could make the side speaker channel into a separate audio playback device and choose to use it if I wanted to, instead of the big speakers.

Is there a utility or built-in feature of windows 7 that allows this?

Thankies,
Angelic
Click to expand...
Doesn't your PC have front-panel audio?
 
Angelic

Angelic

Active Member
Traxata said:
Doesn't your PC have front-panel audio?
Click to expand...
It does, but from what I can tell either the cable or the actual connectors are borked up. I did check several times whether I have it plugged into the motherboard properly - I do indeed. I also know for sure the headphones I'm using are in working order. Unless there is a system setting somewhere that disables the front-panel audio connectors, I must assume they are broken. (The sound device for the front-panel is enabled in the playback devices Windows settings, it always shows as Not plugged in regardless of whether the headset is physically connected to it or not.)

@Dezmond - that looks...interesting, but I fear beyond my technical capabilities & desire to learn to operate :-/

An obvious solution would be to either get ANOTHER sound card (if the cheapest possible), but from using an external USB one I can assure everyone that it brings a lot of problems and mishaps of its own, though it might be a solution for the time's being.
 
Wol

Wol

In Cryo Sleep
Angelic said:
It does, but from what I can tell either the cable or the actual connectors are borked up. I did check several times whether I have it plugged into the motherboard properly - I do indeed. I also know for sure the headphones I'm using are in working order. Unless there is a system setting somewhere that disables the front-panel audio connectors, I must assume they are broken. (The sound device for the front-panel is enabled in the playback devices Windows settings, it always shows as Not plugged in regardless of whether the headset is physically connected to it or not.)
Click to expand...

Have you got the proper drivers installed for your current sound card? The onboard stuff on the mobos I've used, it's all part of the custom software that comes with it as far as I remember.

When you say you want them to act as a separate sound device - do you actually mean that?

Separate sound device = One audio track playing on speakers and a *different* audio track playing on the headphones. I can do that with my mobo sound, by splitting out the headphones and suchlike to have 2 different streams. I can also plug in my headphones to any of the sockets, it'll popup going "what have you plugged in" and you select headphones and it just routes it to that. Can't remember if it also cancels out any of the other things enabled as headphones or not though.

What sound card are you currently using on the mobo?
 
Angelic

Angelic

Active Member
Per Psi's suggestion (was it you, man?) I installed the newest mobo drivers along with a special driver for the onboard soundcard, which included a Realtek Audio Manager, in which there is a little advanced setting about the Front and Rear devices output one/two different audio streams at a time. I've checked two different streams and voila, a new audio device appeared for my front panel jacks, fully operational and everything :) Woot!

Thanks, Psi, thanks, Realtek :)

Also thanks Wol and thanks everyone else who bothered replying :)

EDIT1: Changed Wol's name to Psi's.
EDIT2: Added thanks to Wol specifically and everyone else as well so as not to seem ungrateful.
 
Kasatka

Kasatka

Active Member
Realtek are good for this kind of thing.
I have to have TS via my headset but game audio via my surround sound. That means i can keep positional audio to boost gameplay, and always hear voice chatter without it being drowned out by noisy game audio.
Prime example of why i do this would be in a game of Mechwarrior Living Legends. I asked Sokarhthu on TS whether he was using an autocannon, and all i heard was the chug-chug-chug of an autocannon and him yelling "I can't hear you over my autocannon!".
Guessing that is kind of what you want to avoid?
 
Angelic

Angelic

Active Member
Mostly, yes :) I want to have full control over what plays into what and what the volume is and everything :)
 
Wol

Wol

In Cryo Sleep
Angelic said:
Per Wol's suggestion (was it you, man?) I installed the newest mobo drivers along with a special driver for the onboard soundcard, which included a Realtek Audio Manager, in which there is a little advanced setting about the Front and Rear devices output one/two different audio streams at a time. I've checked two different streams and voila, a new audio device appeared for my front panel jacks, fully operational and everything :) Woot!

Thanks, Wol, thanks, Realtek :)
Click to expand...

Nps.

I've had my desktop setup before with my other half watching a film on one monitor on one audio output, and then me playing a game on the other monitor on the headset audio output. wierd ass stuff you can do :p Sometimes you get screwed over if it disables one when the other is enabled though. I've generally never had a problem with it.
 
Angelic

Angelic

Active Member
Wol said:
Well gee thanks.....

Next time I won't bother bothering to reply when you have a problem.
Click to expand...
Chill, man, are you in a bad mood or something? o_O I'm grateful to all of you who replied. I DID have the drivers installed, I merely didn't have the Realtek utility - that was what helped me in the end. Edited the post, hopefully you don't feel underappreciated anymore :)
 
Wol

Wol

In Cryo Sleep
Angelic said:
Chill, man, are you in a bad mood or something? o_O I'm grateful to all of you who replied. I DID have the drivers installed, I merely didn't have the Realtek utility - that was what helped me in the end. Edited the post, hopefully you don't feel underappreciated anymore :)
Click to expand...

Usually the driver package which came with the mobo should have the utility in anyway, rather than just the driver that windows update would grab.

It was more that the thread was your question, my reply/suggestion, you saying thanks to what appeared to be my answer, and then you rescinding this thanks and then saying thanks to someone who'd not even posted in the thread! I was like... wtf :S
 
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