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Author Topic: Direct Sound channel selection ignored... everything goes to 2 front channels  (Read 2789 times)

jeffspl311

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I have a multi-channel (7.1) USB audio device (Sound Blaster Audigy 2NX) that has worked flawlessly for years from Win XP to Win 10. Windows playback device settings are set to 7.1 channels, and testing the different channels by clicking on the speaker icons in the settings panel works perfectly.

In MC21 I have two zones... Main and Preview (I'm a DJ). In Options > Audio I set up Main to play via Default Audio Device (Direct Sound) and select Left Front + Right Front for the output channels. I have also set the DSP Options to mix down to Stereo. I've done the same with Preview, but direct to the Left Side + Right Side pair. This has worked fine for years. But now, suddenly (maybe around the time of the Win 10 Anniversary update, but can't be sure), every stereo pair is directed to the Left Front + Right Front. Even though I've selected LS + RS for Preview, it comes out the Main front channels!

I've done Audio Calibration in MC21, for which I had to set the output channels to default, and all the tones play just fine in each of the 7.1 discreet channels, But when I set it back to the desired Direct Sound pair, everything once again goes only to the front pair.

Any clues to what might have gotten jacked? I've already reinstalled MC21 and the audio device drivers... with no joy.
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blgentry

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Have you tried the WASAPI driver?

Brian.
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jeffspl311

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No I didn't try WASAPI because I didn't see any option to select which stereo pair I wanted to steer the output to. Is this capability there and did I not see it?
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blgentry

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That's an interesting clue all in itself actually!

I rarely use MC for Windows; usually I use MC for Mac. So I'm not super familiar with the audio options for direct sound, wasapi, etc.  But I *have* remapped channels on the windows version using the Parametric EQ section.  You just make a zone with the audio device you want to use.  Then you use Parametric EQ > Mix Channels .  You can use move channels or copy channels; which ever makes sense to you.  Just move L an R to L side and R side.

Experiment with it; it should do what you want.

Also, it's really neat to hear that another DJ is using MC.  I don't DJ, but I've studied it a bit and I know one pro DJ.  He uses Itch and various pro interfaces.  If you don't need to be a club DJ, I think MC can do a lot.

Brian.
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jeffspl311

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OK, very interesting, Brian. I already turn my stereo into mono using the Parametric EQ (ahem MC team, because the Output format to mono doesn't work), but I didn't know using WASAPI that I could/should use it to remap channels, especially given that both zones output to the same device. Thanks, I've tested your solution and it works!! But Iv'e noticed that I've lost sync with some of the videos that I tested (yea, I'm a DJ/VJ). I wonder if this is because all the additional processing I'm asking MC to do to get things to the desired channels.

On that topic, I had to do a LOT of tweaking using the Output Format in DSP to get WASAPI to work at all. Thank goodness for the informative error messages that guided me through this. Props to the MC team for that.

Honestly though, if it had worked like it used to, Direct Sound was so much more straight forward... Use almost all default settings and just select the stereo pair that I wanted the zone to output to. Anyway, I would still like to see that issue solved/resolved/explained...

Thanks again Brian!

Cheers,
Jeff
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