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Topic: [Bug Report] Windows volume mixer problem since v1.6 (Read 2108 times) previous topic - next topic
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[Bug Report] Windows volume mixer problem since v1.6

Hello, today, I updated to v 1.6, but had to return to latest 1.5.x because of this.

Foobar's volume bar is tied to the one you can see in Windows volume mixer next to foobar's icon. Before 1.6, whenever I touched any of those two bars, the other one moved too. That makes sense, because their value is identical.

But since 1.6 (tested on 1.6 release and 1.6.1 beta 5), the behaviour is strange. Changing the value in foobar UI seems to change the one in volume mixer too. But not the other way around. So if I have both values at max, then go to volume mixer and set it to 0, music stops playing, but the volume bar in the UI is still at maximum (- 0.00dB). If I only slightly touch the bar in the UI, music starts playing at almost full volume.

Also, after restarting the program, I can always see maximum volume in Windows volume mixer. This value is ignored and the one saved in the UI is used.

I use volume mixer all the time, Spoiler (click to show/hide)
so this is a really annoying issue for me. Plus it worked correctly in the past, so I hope we can return to that.

Re: [Bug Report] Windows volume mixer problem since v1.6

Reply #1 –
The changelog for foobar2000 v1.6 says "Removed mixer volume sync feature". There is no longer synchronization between the internal volume and foobar2000 mixer and I can't replicate the behavior you describe. Both settings adjust separately.

But if the mixer is somehow affected by the player's volume slider you may need to provide some additional details. I just tested with fresh portable install and my decade-old real environment and can verify that things work as changelog describes.

Note that this new behavior is superior setup for correct float handling. Previously peaks above digital fullscale were always limited by the OS mixer even if foobar's volume was lowered and they could have freely peaked. Also the OS mixer's volume adjustment introduces glitches. I'd recommend leaving the OS mixer at maximum and using only the player's volume control.
 

Re: [Bug Report] Windows volume mixer problem since v1.6

Reply #2 –
Thanks for your reply, and sorry for my late reply.

Quote from: Case on
The changelog for foobar2000 v1.6 says "Removed mixer volume sync feature". There is no longer synchronization between the internal volume and foobar2000 mixer and I can't replicate the behavior you describe. Both settings adjust separately.
Oh, I somehow missed this while reading the changelog.

Quote from: Case on
But if the mixer is somehow affected by the player's volume slider you may need to provide some additional details. I just tested with fresh portable install and my decade-old real environment and can verify that things work as changelog describes.

I tried to replicate with my laptop and exactly the same thing happened. Then I uninstalled EarTrupmet and the problem went away... I will describe again what was happening:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I would still love to see this issue fixed, but I guess that isn't very likely now that we know the cause. It's weird, because I've never had any other problem with EarTrupet before. Too bad that the native mixer UI is close to unusable...

However, another part of the problem is still happening:
Foobar's mixer volume is set to max (100) every time I close and reopen foobar. This is very annoying, because I keep every app at 20, so foobar is constantly becoming too loud.
I do this because the sound is too loud in my headphones, even at very low global volume levels in Windows. So I keep all apps at 20, which gives me usable global range of 0 to circa 25. It would be from 0 to 5 otherwise. (Or maybe only approximately, I'm not sure how exactly these sliders work). I don't think this is ideal, but don't know about any better solution.

Quote from: Case on
Note that this new behavior is superior setup for correct float handling. Previously peaks above digital fullscale were always limited by the OS mixer even if foobar's volume was lowered and they could have freely peaked. Also the OS mixer's volume adjustment introduces glitches. I'd recommend leaving the OS mixer at maximum and using only the player's volume control.
This makes sense, thanks for explaining. Do you have any link where I could read more about how this works (or doesn't work  :D ) in Windows?

Re: [Bug Report] Windows volume mixer problem since v1.6

Reply #3 –
Thanks for reporting the bad behavior.
v1.6.1 beta 7 improves this, making foobar2000's own volume control not interact with the sliders at all, also getting rid of the reset-to-100% behavior.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

Re: [Bug Report] Windows volume mixer problem since v1.6

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Peter on
Thanks for reporting the bad behavior.
v1.6.1 beta 7 improves this, making foobar2000's own volume control not interact with the sliders at all, also getting rid of the reset-to-100% behavior.

Thanks for looking into this. I have tried it with the v1.6.1 release and there is still one thing left. The reset-to-100% behavior is still occurring, but only visually. Every time I reopen foobar the slider in the mixer appears at 100. The sound I hear is not affected by this and the last mixer value is remembered somehow.

Foobar's own slider now doesn't interact with anything at all and all issues with EarTrumpet are gone, so thanks for fixing that.