ATC and Co-Pilot Voices Very Low

I would like to use my external speakers for all sounds. Engine sound and environmental sounds are acceptable, but ATC and Co-Pilot voices are very low and I can barely hear them. With headphones all sound is perfect.

 

Sound settings are as follows:

MSFS Settings

Communications Selection: Default

Text to Speech Settings: Azure (tried windows offline and no improvement)

Master: 100

Voices: 100

Aircraft Engines: 74

 

Windows Audio Settings

Speakers set as default device and default communications device

Volume at 100%

Default format: 24bit 48000 Hz

My sound settings are shown below. Voices are still the loudest of all the sounds.

Thanks Art. That's good to know. I'm beginning to think it must be something with a Windows 10 audio setting or the sound card because everything's nice and loud with headphones, so it's gotta be software or hardware related and not the sim.

 

I do run the headphones with the onboard MB audio and speakers go through a Sound Blaster card.

Make sure a sound setting called noise reduction or something along those lines is not turned on in your Sound Blaster control panel.

There is also a knob in the cockpit to turn the radio and Nav volumes up or down. They help a little.

Well, I switched my external speakers from the Sound Blaster Card to the onboard audio output and the atc/co-pilot voices blew my doors off, so it's definitely something with the Sound Blaster.

 

Make sure a sound setting called noise reduction or something along those lines is not turned on in your Sound Blaster control panel.

I don't have any control panel software for the SB, so I'll see if I can download a ui for the card.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. At least I've identified the cause now and hopefully will find a fix.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Leadraft

Figured this out in case anyone else has this issue. If you have 2.1 speakers (2 speakers plus woofer), audio channel must be set to Stereo. I had it set on 5.1 Surround.

 

I had the same problem in "reverse". ATC etc OK but no engine sound in cockpit. Switching from surround sound to stereo fixed it.

Greetings all,

 

Leadraft, yeah it seems as if the 2.1/5.1 setting changes every time Windows updates itself. I have to reload the SoundBlaster suite every update when using my Zx external mike/headphones/volume control. I'm sure your discovery will helps a bunch of folks.

 

Respectfully,

Brian