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Binding applications to multiple sound devices?
Binding applications to multiple sound devices?
- Hello,
I wish to control which application uses which sound device. In example, I want Counter-Strike to use my onboard (AC97) Headphone output, while I want Media Center to use only my Audigy SPDIF output. What options do I have to bind specific sound devices to certain programs?
Regards,
Aydn
All Replies
- i am having the exactly same problem at the moment and cant sort it out figure it out at all... did u get a answer m8 or not?
if ne1 could help would b great?
thanks mc5ive - Hey,
I havn't been able to find anything built into Vista. Im geussing we are going to need a third party application to force the selected applications to only recognize one sound adapter.
Anyone? Any daring devs out there? This can be worth your time seeing as this is a universal problem all Vista users face. - ANYONE???
Please! Are there any solutions? - For Vista you can have only one "default" output and one "default" endpoint. Applications can play to any output (and record from any input) but by default they will only use the "default" input and output.
This is the problem that "device roles" were intended to solve (see link) but unfortunately it wasn't ready for Vista.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms678712.aspx - I have a somewhat unusual system in that I have two pro sound cards.
I have a Creative X-Fi Platinum, mainly for the Crystalizer function, but I also need multiple sound inputs for my music authoring. I have several MIDI devices, and want to run the output of each back into the system, then record them all through one device.
My second card is an E-MU 0404, which has multiple input devices.
My X-Fi optical digital output is wired back into the E-MU digital input. So I can mix all the inputs from the X-Fi I/O drive with the inputs to the E-MU and then send to my amp.
Works well, except the X-Fi doesn't send the Crystalizer effect to the digital output! Doh!
So I have to switch my amp between the two outputs, and mess about with the mixer settings in Vista,
Microsoft, Why O Why didn't you allow multiple input and output device to be 'mixed' together.
Why only one 'default' playback device - I want to send playback to my analog output and my digital output, and googling, it looks like lots of people do too.
Otherwise, (being a user since Windows 3.11) Vista x64 is great, so why have you limited us to one output/input and why go backwards compared to XP. Maybe I have to dual boot and use XP for my general music work, and only Vista for games...
When will you fix and allow more than one 'default' device - by its very name 'default' implies first, not only. I work for IBM, and one thing we do try and do is listen to customers... how long has this thread been open without a single MS response?!... - I work on the Windows Sound Test team.
Applications are free to play to any device in the system, but most will play to the "default device".
As a Vista user, I've noticed that I can make different "default only" apps play to different devices by playing games. For example, I can:
change the default device to my USB Audio gumstick device
start WinAmp and begin a playlist
change the default device back to my speakers
WinAmp continues playing over the USB Audio gumstick device; other apps play over the speakers.
Aydn, I'm not expressly familiar with Counter-Strike or Media Center, but I suspect that Media Center allows you to specify somewhere that you want to play over the Audigy SPDIF output. If so, you can tell Media Center to play over the SPDIF output, and set your AC97 headphone output to the default device in the Sound control panel; Counter-Strike will then likely pick up the default. - > Media Center allows you to specify somewhere that you want to play over the Audigy SPDIF output.
Hmmm... perhaps not. That complicates things. - I use windows media center for a local 5.1 and 7.1 environment and also send the audio to a whole house audio. XP allowed this to be SPDIF local and analog for the whole house system. Now with vista there seems to be no way to do this. Its not a matter of telling one application to send audio to here and another to there its having MCE send audio to both at the same time. Ive spent hours on the phone with microsoft support on this and I get the empression that Im speaking to monkey looking at a slide rule. I understand why the developers redesigned it for greater performance and stability, but with microsoft trying to everyone to use media center, this is an issue that needs to be resolved. I cant believe that with all the brilliant engineers at MS that there is no way to edit the registry for a monitor out function. Please assist if you can.
- Gee the device roles issue wasn't "Vista" ready in October of 2007, and the problem still hasn't been resolved or even addressed as of January 2009!
Nor has it been corrected in FIXTA (Windows 7).
Considering Vista was supposed to be the ultimate media center pc, it seems to me that the brilliant (ha-ha) engineers at Microsoft must have been picking their noses when they got around to developing, or let me rephrase that and say downgrading the sound system and Windows Media Player.
With the reduced functionality in Windows Media Player 11, I've already abandoned Media Player for listening to music, in favor of WinAmp, which gives me back the functionality that Microsoft removed from Media Player 11. Now with Vista and & not being able to output to more than one audio device, I think it just might be time to bail on Micrtosoft altogether and upgrade to Linux!
To add insult, the sound issue with multiple audio output still exists in Windows 7and Windows Media Player is even more sorry.
Get youy act together Microsoft and fix your operating system! You're not the king of the hill anymore and we do have very viable choices! - In Windows 7, you can configure Windows Media Player to play to a specific audio device. Tools | Options | Devices | Speakers | Properties | pick the audio device you want to play to.
Matthew van Eerde - I'm on the 7057 build of Windows 7. Am I able to bind system sounds to a device other than the default? I'd like system sounds to play on the analog device hooked to my computer monitor while the default output remains my digital output hooked to my theatre speakers.
- "Am I able to bind system sounds to a device other than the default"
Short answer - no. System sounds always play to the default device.
Longer answer - You may, however, be able to configure your media player to play to a non-default device. What media player are you using? Alternatively you can disable system sounds altogether by choosing the "No Sounds" sound scheme in the Sounds tab of the Sound control panel, and unchecking the "play startup sound" checkbox.
Matthew van Eerde - Since vista and windows 7 have program specific volume control why can't a little addition be made there to tell it which sound device to output to on the system side instead of the program side. Multiple outputs would be really nice, and I don't see it being to hard to do. I do like some of the stuff they are doing with audio, specially the ability for the end user to opt-out of things like the muting you music when a communication program reports that it is on a call. The ability to switch between sound devices without having to stop and restart you music is really great, but it didn't go far enough. 1-multiple is needed. Because most programmers are not going to add multiple sound device options in their programs it would be best if the OS was able to handle this NEEDED function.
