Prevent auto volume adjustment during sound capture and broadcasting.

[George Valkov]

Hello!
My sound card is Creative Audio PCI 128.
It uses the default drivers that come with Windows XP.
When I use WM Encoder 9 or any other program (like sound forge) to
capture audio, the volume (recording) is automatically raised and
causes sound distortion. Volume Control slider is not moved, but the
volume is changed.
This will occur in the following situations:
Start Capture or Broadcast
Open the live stream with Media Player or Media Player web control.

This problem occurs on both of my XP pro and 2k3 Server installations.
This problem does not occur on Windows 95.

Apparently there is some part of Windows that thinks
"I am adjusting the microphone volume"
but it is adjusting the Line In. Maybe this is the speach recognition
feature, but I don't know what it is doing in background.

How can I find / stop / remove this stupid code that is causing the
distortion? I don't want any "smart" software that acts stupid and causes
problems. I can use Command Prompt, Regedit and other administration
utilities
if needed.

Note: If I open the Recording Control (Capture), then change the volume and
change it back, it will restore to normal operation with no distortion. But
should I do this every time???


George Valkov

 

[Malke]

Hello!
My sound card is Creative Audio PCI 128.
It uses the default drivers that come with Windows XP.
When I use WM Encoder 9 or any other program (like sound forge) to
capture audio, the volume (recording) is automatically raised and
causes sound distortion. Volume Control slider is not moved, but the
volume is changed.
This will occur in the following situations:
Start Capture or Broadcast
Open the live stream with Media Player or Media Player web control.

This problem occurs on both of my XP pro and 2k3 Server installations.
This problem does not occur on Windows 95.

Apparently there is some part of Windows that thinks
"I am adjusting the microphone volume"
but it is adjusting the Line In. Maybe this is the speach recognition
feature, but I don't know what it is doing in background.

How can I find / stop / remove this stupid code that is causing the
distortion? I don't want any "smart" software that acts stupid and
causes problems. I can use Command Prompt, Regedit and other
administration utilities
if needed.

Note: If I open the Recording Control (Capture), then change the
volume and change it back, it will restore to normal operation with no
distortion. But should I do this every time???

Try updating your sound card drivers from Creative's website. Do not
update drivers from Windows Update.

Malke

 

[George Valkov]

I've already tried all available drivers about an Year ago. The latest
drivers are from year 2002. They don't fixed the problem then, but even made
things worse:
Played sound is too loud and with much noise.
Recoded sound is even more distorted.
Looked like those drivers cause the sound card to apply additional
amplification that causes additional distortion.

The drivers that comes with Windows work much better.
I just can't seem to understand why Creative and ATI use to write driver
updates...
.... Their updates are a long step toward regress


George Valkov

 

[Malke]

I've already tried all available drivers about an Year ago. The latest
drivers are from year 2002. They don't fixed the problem then, but
even made things worse:
Played sound is too loud and with much noise.
Recoded sound is even more distorted.
Looked like those drivers cause the sound card to apply additional
amplification that causes additional distortion.

The drivers that comes with Windows work much better.
I just can't seem to understand why Creative and ATI use to write
driver updates...
... Their updates are a long step toward regress

Drivers from 2002 or from a year ago are not current. If you are having
sound problems, then the drivers that "come with Windows" do *not*
"work much better". If they did, you wouldn't be posting. Maybe your
speakers need to be replaced. Maybe you are picking up interference.
Maybe you have a subwoofer and it is too close to the monitor. Standard
troubleshooting steps (trying one thing at a time and testing after
each change before trying the next thing):

1) update drivers from device mftr.'s website
2) change out speakers
3) relocate speakers if appropriate
4) change out sound card

Malke

 

[George Valkov]

Okay, let me explain it in a different way.
This problem does NOT exist in Windows 95.
It was present before and after I upgraded from
Intel 440 BX, Celeron 400 MHz, 128 MB SD-RAM
to
Eitegroup K7 VTA3, Athlon XP 1700+, 512 MB DD-RAM

I use quality headphones, connected to the sound card line out jack.
They are powerful enough to make You feel pain in Your ears when amplified
too much, and still not causing distortion.
Audio playback is perfect.
Line-In playback is perfect.
Audio capture is distorted, because a little piece of code exist in Windows
XP that is trying to adjust the capture volume but is amplifying it too
match and this causes distortion.
Probably this piece of code has something to do with the Speech recognition
(auto adjust capture volume for better recognition).
I need to disable it.

The "updated" drivers for old devices are created in such a manner that will
force You to buy new hardware. But I don't need new hardware, because I know
that mine can do better. I've seen it work better. And if I adjust the
volume control every time after I start capture, it works fine.

Finally all I want is to find and disable the code that is adjusting the
capture volume.


George Valkov

 

[Malke]

Okay, let me explain it in a different way.
This problem does NOT exist in Windows 95.
It was present before and after I upgraded from
Intel 440 BX, Celeron 400 MHz, 128 MB SD-RAM
to
Eitegroup K7 VTA3, Athlon XP 1700+, 512 MB DD-RAM

You ran Windows 95 on this box with this new motherboard? Sorry, it
still sounds like a driver issue to me.

I use quality headphones, connected to the sound card line out jack.
They are powerful enough to make You feel pain in Your ears when
amplified too much, and still not causing distortion.
Audio playback is perfect.
Line-In playback is perfect.
Audio capture is distorted, because a little piece of code exist in
Windows XP that is trying to adjust the capture volume but is
amplifying it too match and this causes distortion.
Probably this piece of code has something to do with the Speech
recognition (auto adjust capture volume for better recognition).
I need to disable it.

I don't think you can go into Windows XP and change a "little piece of
code". Windows XP is not open source. However, if you are that capable
a programmer, maybe you can write better drivers for your hardware.
Since I'm not a programmer, I will leave any suggestions about doing
that to others.

The "updated" drivers for old devices are created in such a manner
that will force You to buy new hardware. But I don't need new
hardware, because I know that mine can do better. I've seen it work
better. And if I adjust the volume control every time after I start
capture, it works fine.

That totally doesn't make sense to me. The only time you need to buy new
hardware (assuming the old hardware works well) is if the device mftr.
doesn't support whatever operating system you're running. I have very
old Soundblaster cards running in some of the Windows boxen and XP
doesn't have any problem with them. So unless your hardware is
extremely old and unusual, there are probably good drivers available.
However, if you don't want to update your drivers or get a different
sound card, then don't.

Finally all I want is to find and disable the code that is adjusting
the capture volume.

Sorry I wasn't able to help you with that. Maybe you can find
third-party software that will enable you to do what you want. Maybe
you could contact your soundcard's tech support for help.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[George Valkov]

In most cases it is possible to disable an option / code that runs with a
configuration utility or regedit. Sorry, I didn't explain it properly.
Actually Windows 95 was running as a testing installation on the old
hardware. I tried to install it on the new one, but it displays Windows
Protection Error blue screen on the first boot after setup and cannot run on
it.
Well, currently I don't know how to write a driver, but I can build an
application that resets the volume from time. This will prevent distortion
and keep it recording with a good quality.

I also spent some time on examining the DirectX 9 SDK. The Graph editor is
an useful tool.

Thanks for the conversation.

George Valkov