I've searched through these forums and have located the proper settings to disable to stop audio ducking from occurring when loading Teamspeak, Ventrilo or Mumble. The Windows 7 menu says "Do Nothing" like in the following screenshot/post - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/13210-system-sounds-auto-leveling-disable.html . I've also gone into Mumble and disabled attenuation and have gone into Ventrilo and done the same. I still get the audio volume lower when any voicecomm software is active.
Any ideas? I've checked the Realtek control panel and don't see anything there that could be doing it, either. I've been in the guild wars 2 settings and don't see anything there, either. Starting to drive me a little nuts that it keeps happening even though I've told it to not.
Thank you for your help!
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7 Ultimate x64Intel I7Corsair Patriot - 8 GB DDR5Nvidia Geforce 560 Ti
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel I7
Motherboard
MSI P67A-GD65
Memory
Corsair Patriot - 8 GB DDR5
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia Geforce 560 Ti
Sound Card
On board (Realtek)
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Wide Acer + 19 square Samsung
Hard Drives
128 GB OCZ Agility 3
2 TB Western Digital Blue
750 MB Seagate
I stumbled across the solution. Posting it to a number of places as I've seen others on other boards trying to hunt this down.
I think it has to do with Realtek audio driver behavior. This worked and stopped my system from audio ducking (even when "DO NOTHING" was selected in the communications tab):
Right click on your volume control, then pick your playback devices tab. Right click on your speakers, then choose "Enhancements". In the scroll bar area, check "Loudness Equalization". My system stopped audio ducking.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7 Ultimate x64Intel I7Corsair Patriot - 8 GB DDR5Nvidia Geforce 560 Ti
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel I7
Motherboard
MSI P67A-GD65
Memory
Corsair Patriot - 8 GB DDR5
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia Geforce 560 Ti
Sound Card
On board (Realtek)
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Wide Acer + 19 square Samsung
Hard Drives
128 GB OCZ Agility 3
2 TB Western Digital Blue
750 MB Seagate
Audio ducking is a "feature" of Windows where when the OS detects an incoming communication-type action it lowers (or "ducks") the sound of everything else by a percentage. So, when in Ventrilo/Skype/Mumble, etc, in-game sounds will lower itself.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7 Ultimate x64Intel I7Corsair Patriot - 8 GB DDR5Nvidia Geforce 560 Ti
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
Intel I7
Motherboard
MSI P67A-GD65
Memory
Corsair Patriot - 8 GB DDR5
Graphics Card(s)
Nvidia Geforce 560 Ti
Sound Card
On board (Realtek)
Monitor(s) Displays
22" Wide Acer + 19 square Samsung
Hard Drives
128 GB OCZ Agility 3
2 TB Western Digital Blue
750 MB Seagate
I have limiters in my recording studio that I can use to keep a recording level from peaking above a certain level. If the input does go over the set level the "limiter" kicks in an lowers it to the preset level.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 10 64 bitIntel i7 6700K16GB Corsair DominatorIntel CPU Graphics
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
My Own Build
OS
Windows 10 64 bit
CPU
Intel i7 6700K
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero
Memory
16GB Corsair Dominator
Graphics Card(s)
Intel CPU Graphics
Sound Card
RealTek
Monitor(s) Displays
27" Dell S2719dgf
Screen Resolution
2560X1440
Hard Drives
1 TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD for Win 10 Pro
500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD for Win 10 Insider
2 TB drive for backup
PSU
EVGA Supernova 750G2
Case
BeQuiet Silent Base 600
Cooling
Deepcool Captain 120EX
Keyboard
Microsoft Wireless 2000
Mouse
Microsoft wireless
Internet Speed
100 MB/sec (Cable)
Antivirus
Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes
Browser
Edge/Firefox
Other Info
Cakewalk (Sonar) by BandLab and Studio One 4.1 Pro recording studio software. MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid recording interface, Frontier Tranzport wireless control unit, Behringer X-Touch Control Surface.
Five USB connected optical drives for CD Audio production using Nero BurningROM
