5.1 never ending story

The Virtual Audio Mixer discussions and support...
xcasxcursex
Posts: 173
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:04 am

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by xcasxcursex »

Hey that's great news!

The GPU being a good sound card is kinda surprising, isn't it? They (at least I can speak for the nvidia ones, I haven't tried AMD) also make an EXCELLENT timing source for VM, for example you'll be able to get much smaller buffer sizes with the GPU as your A1 device, than most other devices - but even if you don't care about a few milliseconds of latency, they are also very stable and resilient to problems that can occur when your PC is under a heavy load.

In my experience the GPU is even better than most of the ASIO audio drivers I have used. After many comparisons an competition between cards, the victorious device was to use my second monitor, a TV using HDMI, as my A1 device in VM, and can get almost half the buffer size (awesome!!) that I can get with anything else I've tried other than a several thousand dollar RME pro audio card using its native ASIO driver. It's at 160, and with my new PC I have a strong suspicion I'd be able to drop it to the minimum available buffer size of 128.

Who'd have guessed?!

I also tried the modded realtek drivers in the hope of getting the multichannel to work and had little luck with it. I did also find one that worked with MME drivers but the latency was very very high and also I found them to be somewhat unreliable after a longe period of time.

So glad to hear you got it working, that's a nice amp! Enjoy :)
Vincent Burel
Site Admin
Posts: 2014
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:01 pm

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by Vincent Burel »

good, thanks for this thread! that could be helpful for many users i guess!
alex4vba
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:00 pm

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by alex4vba »

Yeah thats indeed surprising, I am glad I found that out once more reaching out to you guys, really appreciate it...

Just one more little question: When I want to listen to music I noticed it will only output to my front speaker. Then I found the "Stereo Repeat" button and I am getting the music directed to all 6 channel now! Just wondering if this isnt going to hurt the satelite speakers cos it sounds that there is a lot of bass being transmitted to them as well?!
xcasxcursex
Posts: 173
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:04 am

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by xcasxcursex »

alex4vba wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 2:52 pm Yeah thats indeed surprising, I am glad I found that out once more reaching out to you guys, really appreciate it...

Just one more little question: When I want to listen to music I noticed it will only output to my front speaker. Then I found the "Stereo Repeat" button and I am getting the music directed to all 6 channel now! Just wondering if this isnt going to hurt the satelite speakers cos it sounds that there is a lot of bass being transmitted to them as well?!
Ahh this one is easier :)

In the sound control panel, you can select your HDMI device and click the button on the bottom left labelled 'Configure'
The first screen will be "Choose your configuration" and you probably already have "5.1 surround" selected in the list on the left (you will see a graphic on the right displaying the configuration), Now you can click 'Next' to confirm it. Note there may be multiple arrangements for your outputs, Eg I have two "5.1 Surround" options, one with rear speakers and one with side speakers. Choose whatever is most accurate for your setup.
The next screen is "Customise your configuration" and you will have check-boxes for each of the speaker types (Eg Centre, Subwoofer and Side Pair). Check them as appropriate for your configuration. Then click 'Next' to confirm.
The next page is the one you want, "Select full-range speakers". Check them as appropriate for your configuration. If you have limited-range satellite type speakers and there is too much bass, make sure those speakers are not ticked here. Speakers which are ticked are full-range and get all of the bass, speakers which are limited range get only mid-to-high frequency sound (leaving the low frequency/bass for the subwoofer and full-range speakers). Click 'Next' and then if you are satisfied everything was correct click 'Finish' and you are done.
TheVoice
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2020 10:19 pm

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by TheVoice »

Glad to see a resolution here. I had a similar problem and ended up using a different solution. The forum search function is poor, so I will add a link to the other thread, so if someone stumbles upon this thread, they will be able to access both threads/solutions.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1297&sid=9912891da9 ... 42013dea89
xcasxcursex
Posts: 173
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:04 am

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by xcasxcursex »

TheVoice wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 4:55 am I had a similar problem and ended up using a different solution. The forum search function is poor, so I will add a link to the other thread, so if someone stumbles upon this thread, they will be able to access both threads/solutions.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1297&sid=9912891da9 ... 42013dea89
Thanks, the forum search can be difficult, with its "I didn't search for this term because it's too common" type errors :?

Hmm, in order to avoid confusion in future, I must say.... these issues are almost entirely unrelated.... ALMOST. Your voicemeeter setup and soundcard were always working. You didn't really use an alternative solution to a similar problem, you had a totally different problem. It was never your sound card driver or voicemeeter. Your media player was just out of date and misconfigured.

It's important to have a known-good, working, source of audio, so that you can test with it if there are any problems. Andres outlined a good way to test this, using windows' Control Panel testing tools. Unfortunately in your case you misunderstood his instructions and added an extra step he did not suggest, which is why it failed, too. So, it is important to be familiar with the testing tools, or, carefully follow the instructions given to you, should you trust somebody else to help you with the issue. But, you didn't let that trouble you too much, your next few replies figured out the miscommunication, and it wasn't long before you successfully confirmed that your sound card and voicemeeter had been working all along. After that, there was only the question of what was wrong with your media player, and trying a more modern one without the codec pack was the trick, there.

The important lesson here is persistence and methodology! With Andres' help, you calmly worked through your issues, and the constraints of text-only communication (not an easy way to solve audio-only problems :D ), one-by-one testing the components, so that you could isolate the cause of the fault, and once you knew where the problem lay, you could easily solve it. That's the right way to fix any computer problem, right there!
alex4vba
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:00 pm

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by alex4vba »

Ok I looked up the configuration and it was all ticked... so I disabled both but somehow that did not really made a difference... :)

2021-03-11 18_16_02-Speaker Setup.png
2021-03-11 18_16_02-Speaker Setup.png (25.02 KiB) Viewed 6092 times


But the stereo repeat option is korrekt?

2021-03-11 18_16_54-VoiceMeeter.png
2021-03-11 18_16_54-VoiceMeeter.png (16.64 KiB) Viewed 6092 times
xcasxcursex
Posts: 173
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:04 am

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by xcasxcursex »

I wouldn't use the Stereo Repeat function here. I would just use normal mode. Stereo audio will play in stereo, surround will play in surround.

The manual https://vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/Voicem ... Manual.pdf on page 20-22 has all the info you need about which mode does what.
alex4vba
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2018 3:00 pm

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by alex4vba »

ok you are right... I figured I have to set my receiver to stereo and thats it. That leads me to my very last question:

When I have VM turned off and output directly to my receiver, the receiver will automatically detect the incoming source material and puts itself into the according mode. I tested it with DTS, Dolby Surround and Stereo Material and the receiver outputs the format on its display. But when VM is turned on, all incoming material will show up as multi channel on the receivers display (doesnt show DTS or Dolby Surround) and as mentioned above I have to set the receiver to stereo all channel manually when listening to music. Why isnt it detecting the material automatically anymore?

Any ideas?
TheVoice
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2020 10:19 pm

Re: 5.1 never ending story

Post by TheVoice »

xcasxcursex wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:19 am Hmm, in order to avoid confusion in future, I must say.... these issues are almost entirely unrelated....
You are right. You had a different problem preventing you from getting 5.1. My point was if someone is searching for an answer to passing 5.1 through VM, they may have your problem, my problem or something different preventing them from successfully passing 5.1 through Voicemeeter. I didn't mean to disturb the thread, but was trying to help would be searchers in the future. If they saw the title, "5.1..." they may be looking for the same goal. If your particular issue didn't line up with theirs, I was offering another possibility in light of the poor search function. I am not a forum etiquette expert. Perhaps it was a misguided attempt.
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