SoundEffects are too quiet through headphones

Question

I've been working on a WP7 that deals with audio, and I'm having trouble getting SoundEffects that I play to be loud enough through headphones connected to my device.

I've ensured that both the SoundEffectInstance.Volume and the SoundEffect.MasterVolume are set to 1.0, and the phone's volume is 30/30, but even when I play sounds that have been scaled to full volume in 16-bit PCM they are still relatively quiet, nowhere near how loud the music app plays music through the headphones.

I did the following test - I took an MP3 file that I have on my phone, converted it to stereo WAV via audacity, and loaded it into a SoundEffect and played it from my app - I'd say it plays at less than half the volume through my app vs. playing the mp3 through the WP7 music app.

I'm developing on a Samsung Focus S for what it's worth, and it seems to work fine when I don't have headphones plugged in. I don't seem to run into this problem on the Emulator.

I've also noticed a possibly related issue with the device - when i plug in headphones that have no microphone built-in, the device does not let me record through the device mic - this even happens when I try to take a call, the other party can't hear me until I unplug the headphones.

Thanks for the help!

Cheyne

Answer 1

Hi,
The last item may be a clue; are you using the headphones that came with the phone?  Also it is possible you have defective headphones or phone hardware.

-Mark

Answer 2

I'm not using the headphones that came with the phone, I have no idea where those are. I have tried with 3 different sets of headphones, though, and they all reproduce the issue. I've tried it on an original Samsung Focus, as well, and I see it happen on that device, too. I have noticed with the Focus however that if I start if I play a SoundEffect with the headphones unplugged, and then plug the headphones in, the sound is the expected volume, on par with the music app. If I start playing a SoundEffect when the headphones are plugged in, it plays in a similar muted volume as the Focus S. On the Focus S this is not the case - when I listen to a SoundEffect with the headphones on it is muted, regardless of when I started the SoundEffect.

These two threads seem familiar to this issue:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpdevelop/thread/9a16085e-31d1-430a-9fc1-341c5ca5d4c0/

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/winphone/forum/wp7-wpapps/sound-effect-volume-extremely-low-for-xbox-live/d2a34b07-5d70-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5?page=1&tm=1304600360803#footer

...and both the Focus and Focus S are mentioned in them.

Thanks for the help!

Answer 3

Thanks for adding the related links.

I will raise the question again internally.
Make sure that your phone has the latest updates; it is ultimately up to the OEM to propagate fixes to their respective operating system images.

Hope this helps,
Mark