Low volume/sound limiter (realtek)

Realtek ALC662 + Windows 7 here.

I've been everywhere, from BIOS, to new, old drivers, equalizing, desequalizing, been to every menu on sound I could find.
And certainly deactivated that "conversation setting" supposed to bring your volume down when in calls.

Yet, my sound is terrible. I'm pretty sure the "awesome" new sound processing system on Windows 7/Vista is screwing me over.

1.When listening to music, I can reach, generally, the 40% volume. Anything above that is dead. I can roll to 50, 70, or even 100 and there will be no change.

2. The music is playing. If a MSN sound, for example, is played too loud, my music will forcedly play at a lower volume at that moment. That's valid for EVERY sound. If I play a louder youtube music, my mp3 will be lowered. It's awful. Everytime the dullest random sound is played, my music will go down.

3. Obviously, the music is awful, as even louder parts in the own song are enough to push this "volume down" thing on the whole playback.

Is it a driver issue? I know a lot about the cracking sound some people experience, so, my solution is also to wait for the correct drivers, like them?
I have seen more of that problem around, than mine, but still...

Or is there a setting I'm missing that keeps on dragging louder sounds down?

Thank you all for the time...

PROBLEM FIXED!

I realise this reply is late, but having discovered a fix I thought I'd share it with whomever may still be searching...

I've had my new PC for only a few days, and although I am liking Windows 7 enormously, the volume fluctuation was really aggravating. As Patemos describes, it isn't random - it's like some sort of automatic volume normalisation. It is especially noticeable when listening to classical music, as the quiet parts become almost as loud as the genuinely loud parts. Patemos' note (2) above is the obvious symptom to check if you think you have the issue.

Anyway here is the fix...

1) Right click on the volume icon in the System Tray
2) Select "Playback devices"
3) Double click on "Speakers"
4) Click the Enhancements tab
5) Check "Disable all sound effects"
6) Click OK
7) If you are playing any sound/music, stop it for a few seconds, then try again.

This took me no less than 9 hours to find... I had tried this option before temporarily, but unlike all the other buttons, the change wasn't instant, so I hadn't realised it would work. You do actually have to press stop in WMP/Winamp, and wait a few seconds before playing music again to notice the change. What is also nasty is that even if the box of enhancements has nothing selected, you still need to check "Disable all sound effects". It would appear that there is some other normalisation effect that is going on in the background which you can't see in the list of options. (The last option is marked "Loudness Equalization" - this sounds like it is the culprit, but it isn't. Leaving it unchecked doesn't make the problem go away (unless you have checked "Disable" above), and checking it just makes the problem even worse.)

Hope this helps a number of you,
Bluto

Thank you for your reply. I hope it helps some people.

However, for me, I had a different problem and could not solve it normally!

The thing was, I'd plug in a HEADPHONE, and the system would recognize it as SPEAKERS.
I'd never guess that this was the problem, as I thought it just referred to my "headphones" as "speakers" in a general way.

So I followed instructions to go to Windows Registry, and there would be options to manually FORCE your sound jack to recognize speakers as headphones.
I have no idea where this is anymore, though

And, there, problem solved. My headphones were properly recognized as such and the loudness-quietness problem was COMPLETELY solved!
I also could manage to pull out a much greater volume. It was VERY QUIET before.

Seems that the speaker setting is quieter than headphones.
Also, when I had the low volume on speakers, my sound levels in the monitors were EXPLODING and thus overdriving the card and distorting the sound.

Seems like a big issue, actually. I'm not sure, but I suppose this could damage your hardware.
Overdriving it to distortion for absolutely no high volume.

Now, with the headphone settings, I have great volume and the volume levels don't even reach its peak

I hope this may help others in the same situation! Pay attention if your HEADPHONES are recognized as SPEAKERS.

I followed your istructione and all went ok.
Thank you very much.
Aldo

bluto said:

PROBLEM FIXED!

I realise this reply is late, but having discovered a fix I thought I'd share it with whomever may still be searching...

I've had my new PC for only a few days, and although I am liking Windows 7 enormously, the volume fluctuation was really aggravating. As Patemos describes, it isn't random - it's like some sort of automatic volume normalisation. It is especially noticeable when listening to classical music, as the quiet parts become almost as loud as the genuinely loud parts. Patemos' note (2) above is the obvious symptom to check if you think you have the issue.

Anyway here is the fix...

1) Right click on the volume icon in the System Tray
2) Select "Playback devices"
3) Double click on "Speakers"
4) Click the Enhancements tab
5) Check "Disable all sound effects"
6) Click OK
7) If you are playing any sound/music, stop it for a few seconds, then try again.

This took me no less than 9 hours to find... I had tried this option before temporarily, but unlike all the other buttons, the change wasn't instant, so I hadn't realised it would work. You do actually have to press stop in WMP/Winamp, and wait a few seconds before playing music again to notice the change. What is also nasty is that even if the box of enhancements has nothing selected, you still need to check "Disable all sound effects". It would appear that there is some other normalisation effect that is going on in the background which you can't see in the list of options. (The last option is marked "Loudness Equalization" - this sounds like it is the culprit, but it isn't. Leaving it unchecked doesn't make the problem go away (unless you have checked "Disable" above), and checking it just makes the problem even worse.)

Hope this helps a number of you,
Bluto