Basically, my left ear is better than my right ear, and so I needed to balance the sound through Window’s sound balance interface so that the right channel is louder than the left channel to get proper perceived loudness in both ears.
However, Audacity resets my Windows settings every time it starts.
The thread I linked indicated this issue would be fixed by 2.0.4. I am currently using Audacity 2.0.5, and the issue doesn’t seem to have been fixed. Any word on this? If all else fails, reverting back to 2.0.1 is not that bad of an idea.
I’ve moved this and the topic you cite to the Windows board.
The Windows 98/ME functions that caused the reset for the user in the cited post have been removed, so presumably the cause for you is something else.
What version of Windows do you have and exactly what sound device are you using? Are you using MME, Windows DirectSound or Windows WASAPI host in Audacity’s Device Toolbar? Can you open Help > Audio Device Info… top right of Audacity and post the information from there?
I would not recommend reverting to 2.0.1, but if you exit 2.0.5 you can use the zip version of 2.0.1 as a test without installing it: https://audacity.googlecode.com/files/audacity-win-2.0.1.zip. Let us know about that and your operating system, device and driver details as above.
Sorry that it took so long to answer this. First of all, in 2.0.1, the sound balance is not reset upon starting the software. In 2.0.5, it is reset.
OS: Windows 7 x64 SP1
Device: Fiio DAC E10. I have similar results with Xonar Essence STX ( I didn’t try my motherboard’s integrated DAC) with the UniXonar 3rd party driver but let’s focus on the FiiO DAC for everything that follows since I don’t have the STX installed.
Driver: Autoinstalled with windows. FiiO indicated this is normal behavior.
Are you using MME, Windows DirectSound or Windows WASAPI host in Audacity’s Device Toolbar?
MME and Windows DirectSound reverted my balance setting. Now this is interesting, Windows WASAPI did not reset my balance settings. Great! I never thought it would matter. Woohoo!
Can you open Help > Audio Device Info… top right of Audacity and post the information from there?
If you have time to test, does 2.0.7-alpha (the top build from gaclrecords.org.uk reset the Fiio balance under Windows WDM-KS host? Note there is a small risk that the WDM-KS host could cause a problem with your Realtek device which could potentially crash or freeze the computer. That’s probably an issue in the PortAudio audio I/O interface we use so is difficult to fix.
Okay, I’ve tested the topmost build (audacity-win-r13582-2.0.7-alpha-10-nov-14). WDM-KS (no sound came out when i tested Audacity with a FLAC file) produces an error with the FiiO E10. Message says “Error while opening sound device. Please check the playback settings and the project sample rate.” With the Realtek soundcard, no errors and the sound came out.
Now, on to the subject issue with audacity-win-r13582-2.0.7-alpha-10-nov-14. With WDM-KS, the sound balance did not change. However, with Windows WASAPI, the sound balance resets. I was thinking that maybe I made a mistake with analyzing 2.0.5, but I tried 2.0.5 again, and WASAPI did not change the sound balance.
This might be far fetched but, maybe only the very bottom sound host doesn’t reset the sound balance?
WDM-KS grants applications exclusive control of the sound device (even if they are no longer playing sound), so WDM-KS will fail in Audacity if another application was already using that device. Does that help?
I guess it’s far-fetched, yes It is probably something to do with WASAPI being fully enabled in the alpha builds, exposing bugs, but in 2.0.5’s partial WASAPI implementation there is no reset.
I have some more info. I just noticed that 2.0.6 has been released. So I gave it a go using the zip version, and it exhibits the same behavior as 2.0.7 alpha, that is, Windows WASAPI is causing the sound balance to be reset. Hope it helps.
WDM-KS grants applications exclusive control of the sound device (even if they are no longer playing sound), so WDM-KS will fail in Audacity if another application was already using that device. Does that help?
Yes, that helped. I closed foobar2000, and now WDM-KS works with the FiiO E10.