Where is the Realtek HD Control Panel?

My last build also had Realtek HD Audio and the Realtek software came with a fairly nice control panel. I could choose 2 or 4 speakers (I have Klipsch THX 4.1), set front and rear volume, EQ, and more.

This relatively new build (with a MSI Z170A Gaming M7 motherboard) drivers installed MSI's Nahimic audio control panel. I just had to uninstall Nahimic as thru a different tech support, it was the cause of problems with a utility I have. I also installed Realtek's latest drivers.

Now the utility works fine, but the fresh Realtek didn't install any sort of real control panel. See attachment for what I have. Realtek defaulted to Stereo speaks, so I'm now missing half my sound, and I can't find any way to change any of their default settings.

And things are sounding terrible without my rear speakers...

So how do I get the Realtek control panel back like it was on my last build? I went to their site but couldn't find anything but the same drivers I just installed.

Any ideas?
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I got an email notification that Layback Bear posted a tip to simply hit the Start key and then type in "Audio" to bring up the Realtek Control Panel. That worked. Thanks Layback Bear. Following that, I tried the same trick using "Realtek" which also worked and narrowed down my choices some. However, I don't see the post here...?

ignatzatsonic said:

I just built a Z170 PC with Realtek 1150 sound.

There's an icon for it in Control Panel and the pic below is what I see when I poke it.

I would go to the MSI site and get the Realtek driver for your MSI Z170A Gaming M7 board.

Accept no substitutes.

Go there rather than Realtek.

My driver (from Asrock, the board manufacturer) is called Realtek_Audio(v7614) and is 662 mb in size. Your driver at MSI would likely not match that exactly.

Thanks ignatzatsonic. I looked at the Control Panel and I also have an icon for it :) - I never thought of looking there.

So now I have all my speakers back and things sure sound a lot better :)

But I do have another question: How do I get it to pop up when I hit Notification icon instead of the mini-control panel that I attached above?

Both the Notification icon and the Control Panel icon have the same description: "Realtek HD Audio Manager" but bring up different things.


Oh, I downloaded MSI audio drivers (not installed) and they appear to be identical to the ones from Realtek: Same file size on disk (274,681 KB) and same file name under the ZIP wrapper (audio_6.0.1.7801). Since I've got the control panel back I don't want to take a chance of mucking things up by installing yet another driver set.
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I have a lot of choices when I right click the Realtek speaker as shown below.

I don't know if I should start a new thread on this or not, but I tried out the 'Sound Recorder' but it records in such a low volume that it's basically useless.

I went into audio devices, clicked on the Recording tab, Stereo Mix is the default. I went into Stereo Mix's properties and set Levels to 100%.

Still, the recorded volume is so low you can barely hear it, even with the speakers cranked up...

Any ideas?
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ignatzatsonic said:

"I tried out the 'Sound Recorder' but it records in such a low volume............"

Is it actually being recorded at low levels or is it recording at normal levels, but you can't hear it because it's being played back at low levels?

Yes, playback volume is up. See the Windows Volume control below. I have Klipsch THX 4.1's and normally when playing back with the volume set that high my BetterHalf would be complaining!

In fact, I just realized that since I uninstalled Nahimic, the playback volume is *a lot* less. At the level indicated below, I shouldn't even be able to hear the TV which is on low volume.

Are all playback levels set high, at or near max?

Yes, they are linked so they all go up and down together.

If you use a standard recording app such as Audacity, do the record volume meters bounce up high into the acceptable range?

Thanks for suggesting Audacity; I forgot I even have it as I haven't used it in years (but it is updated).

I fired it up and recorded a half minute or so. I barely know how to use Audacity but things seem OK. If you notice something, please let me know. I played back the clip and it's about the same volume as the source.

I then fired up Sound Recorder, recording the same source, and overlayed it over Audacity. You'll see below that it has only one green bar. I put in a yellow arrow pointing to it.

I then realized that the Audacity part of the screenshot didn't show the green bars. So instead of doing it all over again, I took a small screenshot of Audacity's green bars.

So besides figuring how to increase volume in Sound Recorder, I now have to figure out how to increase overall volume since, overall, it's a lot lower than when Nahimic was installed...

Any ideas?? I'm clueless...
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In playing with settings, trying to figure the overall main volume problem, I found a clue. But I don't know how to fix it. I opened up the Sound Playback tab and its green bars are very low, bouncing between one and two. I positioned it next to Windows volume control showing it's still cranked up. It really should be Loud!!

I'm thinking it has to be some kind of setting somewhere that I can find.

Hopefully this helps...
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