Surround Sound confusion!

[woodsy15]

Hey everyone happy New year.  I have a successful 7.1 system set up but I'm a little confused about how the tables utilize this. I had expected when tables get posted by creators that they would already be configured for proper localization of sounds.  It seems like I have to go into the sound manager for each table and configure the bumpers to be in the 7.1 rear, make sure the flippers and slings are in the front and even set the balance left or right accordingly when necessary. Is this normal? Are creators not able to preset these items? Or is the issue not knowing what everyone's cabinet configuration is...  Is it normal to have to spend a bunch of time going through sometimes 5 to 10 different bumper sounds and sling sounds to configure them all to the front and back?  It's definitely one of the most important things for realism and immersion on these tables so I'm willing to spend the time if this is what's normally done, just want to make sure I'm not missing something.  Appreciate anyone's feedback :-)

[tjaf]

No that is not normal. Pretty much every table on my cabinet, and certainly the more recent ones, just works perfectly out of the box. I also have a 7.1 setup, just using the onboard realtek soundcard paired to a creative 7.1 pc amplifier. The only thing you need to adjust usually is the volume balance between rear, front, back and center (either centrally in your windows driver settings or using something like pinvol if you want more control per table) as that depends a lot on your specific cabinet build where depending on how you mounted your different speakers they might get differently attenuated. But I have never needed to reassign left right balance or reassign sounds in the sound manager. 

 

Maybe share a bit more info on your specific setup? Which soundcard, which amplifiers, what type of speakers, do you have center channel installed or not, windows driver settings, vpx sound settings, which vpx version installed, ... 

[woodsy15]

Thx for the reply.  My setup is pretty standard, Startech ext 7.1 USB card, exciters, a bass shaker etc..  I should mention that a few weeks ago I had some sort of crash and Visual Pinball seemed to loose all its settings.  I had to configure all the buttons again etc..  I wonder if this coincided with what feels like tables losing there sound config??  I assumed the Sound Manager config settings would be saved in the VPX table file itself, but perhaps they are stored in some other VP ini file or something?  I had backup of VP files and Registry but learned that 10.8 stores VP config in the c:\users\twoods\local.....etc   Ooops doh 😉   I am slowly checking tables but so far it feels like a few of my favorites I have checked had defaulted to front/rear equal.. (ie:  Spiderman, GB, MM...) 

[Thalamus]

Make sure that Windows default sound hasn't become 2:1

 

* Right click sound icon in task bar. -> Sound -> Playback. Recommend to disable all speakers you don't use. Here only the realtek will be enabled.

* Mark the one you want, my case - Realtek -> Configure. Is it 7.1 Surround ? Go through wizard if it isn't. After this, go through properties. Make sure that under Advanced the tests work and that Applications are allowed to take exclusive control. I've got Enable audio enhancements enable too.

 

You are right - PinballX.ini is the file that controls settings. If you close down VP, make sure that it isn't running. Then rename that file, you will get a new and fresh one. This is a good thing to do, if you have problems. If it doesn't resolve anything. Well, close down VP - delete the newly created one and rename back. If it IS working - well, compare maybe ? Might be settings you want from the old etc. But, in most cases, those should be pretty fast to set back via the GUI.

 

Under VP audio options, make sure that the correct audio device is selected. Try moving it to something else - save, then back to what it should be.

 

[woodsy15]

Thanks, starting to get the hang of it.  I think my tables are fine, just maybe a few that I feel could be tweaked a bit better