Any way to control volume on individual speakers in 5.1?

[t3h l337 n3wb]

I have a set of 5.1 Logitech X-530's, and I always feel that my front 3 speakers are louder than my rear 2, and I just don't like how it sounds. Is there any software that I can use to make my back speakers louder?

 

[mamisano]

Depends on the sound card that you use.... the manufacturer may have those options built in to the drivers, I know my ASUS A8R-MVP with on-board ADI chip.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The drivers might include a setup mode that sends noise or a tone to each speaker in turn, with volume adjustments for each. Or not.

 

[Lonyo]

Do your speakers not have a sound balance option to make the rear speakers louder, or redistribute the % to front/rear?

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Do your speakers not have a sound balance option to make the rear speakers louder, or redistribute the % to front/rear?

Don't think so... I've got Realtek ALC850 integrated audio.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Dig out your motherboard CD and see if there is a PDF for the audio, if not find the motherboard manual and try RTFM, sometimes it actually does answer your question 🙂

 

[corkyg]

Any realistic surround sound will move the loudness to where the source is. Remember - your ears face the front - so if the sound is balanced, it will seem louder to the direction to which your rears are aimed. If you are listening to music, the front will usually always be louder because that's where the source is. The only thing that should be in the rear are harmonics and reverbs.

 

[caz67]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Any realistic surround sound will move the loudness to where the source is. Remember - your ears face the front - so if the sound is balanced, it will seem louder to the direction to which your rears are aimed. If you are listening to music, the front will usually always be louder because that's where the source is. The only thing that should be in the rear are harmonics and reverbs.

Exactly.

 

[ottothecow]

With my soundcard and speakers (Terratec DMX 6-fire and Promedia Ultra 5.1's) music doesnt play from anything but the left and right speakers by default. I have to use a winamp plugin to send it to the rear speakers (I simply repeat the left and right channels though it does have custom "rear" channel modes). Using that plugin, the rear speakers get exactly the same signal and since they are exactly the same speakers, they are just as loud. The difference lies in the fact that the front speakers are in arms reach at my desk and the rears are maybe 8 ft away and thus will always sound quieter. If I really wanted to make them sound the same, the speakers allow for balancing and the Terratec software allows custom surround mixing (and will play white noise on each channel seperately).

The real tool for balancing a surround system is to get yourself an SPL meter (bonus points if you tripod mount it where your head would be) and then use the generated white noise to balance it so that the white noise is all exactly the same. If the white noise is the same, everything else should be the level it is supposed to be.