Lowered Volume Levels?

Lowered Volume Levels?

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Posted by: SuicidalFish.9482

SuicidalFish.9482

Since the patch yesterday I’ve noticed that the volume levels for everything, especially dialogue, have been lowered. I haven’t changed my audio settings at all nor am I running any VOIP clients.

I was just wondering if this was an intended change or a bug.

Asura Engineer-Tinker Lina
TC

(edited by SuicidalFish.9482)

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Posted by: Dark Jericho.8609

Dark Jericho.8609

I’m having the same issues and the low volume stays the same no matter how high I set the sliders to.

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Posted by: Substance E.4852

Substance E.4852

Same although it’s only the background music levels that are nearly inaudible for me.

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Posted by: Donari.5237

Donari.5237

I can barely hear music or dialogue. I missed out on Tybalt’s gruffness while disguised as a .. lady with apples .. as a result. LA is eerily silent. I know I’ve read of such issues before and there have been workarounds, but I just restarted the game after an hour away and it’s no better so a simple reboot isn’kitten

I hope it’s fixed soon. I don’t do outside music, the game sounds are my environment while playing.

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Posted by: Mortizone.7318

Mortizone.7318

Glad this isn’t only happening to me. Was driving me insane how the dialogue was really low, the music was low, but combat was fine. Kinda like watching a movie now, have to turn up to hear what people are saying, and then when the combat starts your ears start bleeding from the volume levels o.O

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Posted by: Keenan Sieg

Keenan Sieg

Sound Designer

Next

Hello, all. During the patch on Friday we made some changes to fix stability issues with the audio engine, which in turn may affect your mix. We test the levels on various different setups here to ensure the audio mix is balanced whenever there are changes, but different hardware can be affected with varying severity. I would advise anyone having these problems to use the “Restore Defaults” option in your Sound Options panel then adjust the volume sliders accordingly.

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Posted by: Saucermote.9140

Saucermote.9140

It still seems a lot quieter than it used to be. I have the music slider maxed and the dialogue volume near max and can barely hear either of them. Looking at the windows volume mixer, it doesn’t look like the sound is going above about 20% of the maximum allowed by windows 7.

I have a Soundblaster X-Fi fatality with an optical link to A/V receiver, setup as DTS encoding, and then to a 3.1 full range speaker setup. I’ve had to turn the volume up quite a bit, which can be a bit unnerving when an email or something arrives.

You don’t win friends with Salad.

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Posted by: Keenan Sieg

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Keenan Sieg

Sound Designer

Next

I have a Soundblaster X-Fi fatality with an optical link to A/V receiver, setup as DTS encoding, and then to a 3.1 full range speaker setup. I’ve had to turn the volume up quite a bit, which can be a bit unnerving when an email or something arrives.

Have you set your Audio Device in the Sound Options panel to reflect this? The “Default Device” setting will not always choose the optimal device.

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Posted by: Saucermote.9140

Saucermote.9140

I have a Soundblaster X-Fi fatality with an optical link to A/V receiver, setup as DTS encoding, and then to a 3.1 full range speaker setup. I’ve had to turn the volume up quite a bit, which can be a bit unnerving when an email or something arrives.

Have you set your Audio Device in the Sound Options panel to reflect this? The “Default Device” setting will not always choose the optimal device.

I just tried it, doesn’t seem to make a difference. I have default, SPDIF, and speakers, and they are all identical in sound output. I have the sound card on my motherboard disabled in the bios, and I don’t use any HDMI cables from my nvidia geforce 660, I also do not have my usb headset connected.

That being said, randomly it seems to be louder now after tonight’s patch.

You don’t win friends with Salad.

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Posted by: Maja.6372

Maja.6372

Reset to default and readjusting volume levels didnt help
voice from npc´s or players is very silent even maxed out
realtek onboard sound card

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Posted by: Keenan Sieg

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Keenan Sieg

Sound Designer

Next

Reset to default and readjusting volume levels didnt help
voice from npc´s or players is very silent even maxed out
realtek onboard sound card

I’m still looking into this issue, but so far it is not reproducing on any of our setups. Are you using headphones or speakers?

Edit:
Speaker configuration could also be the source of the problem. Please check your Speaker Setup settings in the Windows sound device panel and ensure that it accurately reflects your speaker arrangement (Stereo is generally the standard for headphones or two speakers). For Guild Wars 2, being set to 5.1 or 7.1 can cause significant problems with playback volume when the playback device is only capable of left and right channels. When running 3.1, also ensure that Center is the only “Optional Speaker” enabled. If you are still experiencing problems after this, please reply and let me know. Thanks!

Attachments:

(edited by Keenan Sieg.1493)

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Posted by: Rajani Isa.6294

Rajani Isa.6294

Just in case – have you tried making sure that the “Communications” tab is set to “none” when you right click your speaker panel and choose sound?

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Posted by: Saucermote.9140

Saucermote.9140

I have long since switched windows to 2.1 and just have my receiver mix the stereo channels to the center as Guild Wars 2 has never behaved with surround sound settings.

But the volume drop is new.


Sound Devices
——————-
Description: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_000B&SUBSYS_00431102&REV_04
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1348 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo’d: n/a
Date and Size: 12/18/2012 21:35:38, 703152 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0×0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2 Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura™ ZoomFX™: No

You don’t win friends with Salad.

(edited by Saucermote.9140)

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Posted by: Keenan Sieg

Previous

Keenan Sieg

Sound Designer

Saucermote, in the application level of the Windows volume mixer, is Guild Wars 2 set to 100%? I want to make sure all external variables are accounted for. In addition to that, does adjusting the VOIP Ducking slider (in the Sound Options panel) when the volume drop is occurring affect the levels in any way?

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Posted by: Maja.6372

Maja.6372

I have speakers
the settings are fine (stereo)
gw2 is maxed in soundmixer
ingame master volume and dialog are maxed
rest is little bit above half
before patch
dialog was just at above half too

(edited by Maja.6372)

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Posted by: Saucermote.9140

Saucermote.9140

Yes the volume is maxed out in the Windows Volume mixer and after resetting to defaults the ducking reset to the middle option. While trying to fix this I slid it all the way to the left, so as to hopefully avoid it kicking in. I don’t normally play with a headset and it is not connected to my pc.

Attachments:

You don’t win friends with Salad.

(edited by Saucermote.9140)

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Posted by: Substance E.4852

Substance E.4852

I have also noticed that the dialogue and music levels will greatly vary from local to local. When I’m in the character selection screen the bgm is clearly audible like it was before the patch but then will drop significantly compared to combat and menu sfx the second I load into a map.

The problem can be largely solved by cranking the master volume and bgm very high and lowering effects and menu sliders very low but this wasn’t necessary before the latest patch that addressed sound issues.

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

I’ve also noticed that music levels seem to be a lot softer than it was before, although bumping it up to maximum setting has alleviated the problem.

One other issue that’s come up is that when zoning or even waypointing within the same map, the music will often cut out completely, then start replaying once I regain control. It’s extremely jarring.

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Posted by: Avatara.1042

Avatara.1042

Music is much quieter now. Even on max level, it is far quieter than battle sounds. It also fails to activate or cuts off.

The Halloween patch did it.

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Posted by: Donari.5237

Donari.5237

I had everything so muted — I just followed the dev hint about the sound mixer and my ears got blasted, so upping that is the trick (at least for me).

I took GW2 to 100% in the mixer, then lowered it and lowered it and still at around 30% it was so loud I had to move the sliders down. I am looking forward to getting to LA and actually hearing the Halloween music.

(edited by Donari.5237)

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Posted by: KittyGirly.6241

KittyGirly.6241

Sadly everything mixed up about the audio after that patch.

I mostly love GW2 because of the custom soundlists, thats a huge factor for me, but now that my bow is louder then the music itself, its kinda pointless. Also at cutscenes, before it always toned the music down while they were talking, now they talk quieter, just as much music is, so its hard to hear it good.
Then not to mention that audio cuts out almost everywhere now, for example, before, if you used a waypoint in the same map, the music went on, now it resets. Then the first music in the playlist starts, then 2 second later it stops and goes on to the next, which it also didn’t do before, and at some places it doesn’t even start any music anymore.
If it helps anything, my soundcard is the onboard Realtek HD Audio of an asrock 960gm-gs3 fx motherboard.

Really hope they fix it soon :<

(edited by KittyGirly.6241)

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Posted by: IxISUICIDEIxI.7196

IxISUICIDEIxI.7196

Having a similar problem here…Combat effect audio such as sword slashing and other similar weapon noises are extremely low while effects such as character grunting when attacking is extremely loud. Its really killing the vibe and makes the game not fun.

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Posted by: Likesh.7625

Likesh.7625

Having the similar problem as IxISUICIDEIxI.7196, the Combat effect Audio is extremely low but the character and monster voice effect is high, it’s make the game quite weird.

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Posted by: sheepZA.7054

sheepZA.7054

i have had the issue of very high combat audio, like monsters groaning when hit, much louder than my own weapon hits. I have played around with new audio drivers, changed volume levels all over the place and cannot get the sound as it used to be.
Weapon sounds are non existent as well.

So much so, I play with no audio, as it is pointless trying to play with audio. I wish this issue would be fixed. Really.