System Audio balance reset at audacity startup

[hosxt9]

Hello, I'm having an issue with the latest Audacity 2.1.2 (using the installer .exe) on Windows 10 Pro (version 1511, OS build 10586.318). I need to have the system audio balance set always to Left or Right but those settings are reset to center when I start up Audacity. For me it's important that those settings never change. I'm not having this issue with the older 2.0.2 version and would like to know if there is a way to fix that problem in a more recent version.
Thank you for any help!

[Gale Andrews]

Unfortunately it is a known bug and there is no fix yet. Here is our bug tracker entry: http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1321.


Gale

[hosxt9]

Thank you! This is a helpful trace of information. Was there after 2.0.2 any version without this bug? I'm asking because the 2.0.2 had some file saving issues and I wouldn't like to run into any of those problems.

[Gale Andrews]

I think version 2.0.3 and later has this issue.

In 2.1.2 you could try right-click over audacity.exe, choose Properties, then on the "Compatibility" tab, change compatibility to Windows XP. But I only recall one person whom that helped.

What are the file saving problems in 2.0.2? If they are that Audacity can't write the AUP or AUTOSAVE file, there is not much you can do about that if using simple file names with numbers and letters only doesn't help.


Gale

[hosxt9]

Yeah it looks like after 2.0.3 this issue is present since I've tried to install a bunch of different versions and the most recent version without that problem is 2.0.2. Thank you for checking up on that.

I also tried to use compatibility mode on 2.1.2 and yeah, it didn't work. The program also worked quite slove due to that, which can be a bit inconvenient. Still thank you for that hint.

I didn't had any bad experiences regarding saving files with 2.0.2, but I've check on the known issues and saw that there can be a issues. But since you asked me about that I've check up again on it a bit more and realized that it shouldn't be much of a problem in my case. Thank you for your concern.

Thank you for all the help regarding this matter, it looks like that using 2.0.2 will solve my problems with balance just fine.

Cheers

[rsod]

It is such a shame that people who have hearing disability (such as me) have to stick to 7 years old version. I do understand that audacity is completely free and you, as developers, are free to do anything you want to do with it, including removing, adding anything or not doing so, but a simple small additional setting somewhere in config menu would not hurt at all. And would not take much time to add either.

[steve]

And would not take much time to add either.

Are you a C++ developer? It looks pretty complicated to me.

It is such a shame that people who have hearing disability (such as me) have to stick to 7 years old version.

Why not use the Wiindows mixer to adjust the pan? I realise that would be a slight inconvenience, but it's not really such a big deal is it?

Another possible solution would be to use a headphone pre-amp that has independent left/right input controls (such as the Behringer Amp800). This would allow you to listen to any audio equipment, and get the left / right levels that you want without having to mess about with the device's left / right pan.

I do understand that audacity is completely free and you, as developers, are free to do anything you want to do with it, including removing, adding anything or not doing so

Changes are sometimes forced onto the developers in response to operating system updates. Sometimes changes come from updates in components that Audacity uses. There are many reasons for changing things, and often it is because the change is required due to changes in something beyond the developer's control.