Sound volume low

[Phrosen]

Hi.

I recently updated my graphic drivers to the latest. (ATI Catalyst 10.9)
I restarted my computer and noticed that my sound is acting strange.

When I play a game, for example Oblivion or Fallout 3, and talk to a character their voice is very low volume. I can barely hear what they're saying.
When I stand next to them and they are talking (without me engaging in a conversation with them) I can hear them just fine.
I can also hear all other sounds just fine.
I checked the audio settings for Fallout 3 and the voice option is set to 100%.

I believe that while playing Dirt2 the voice that tells me 'easy right', 'hard left', 'don't cut', etc is "muted" as well. (I'm not sure, though - haven't tried it enough to be sure.)

I also checked my audio drivers, and it's set to 5.1 (I thought it might've reset to 2.0 or something.)
I have a 5.1 audio system, so that's not the problem.

I also checked the audio advanced options for "communications" (which can 'set all other sound' to: 1. 50% 2. 80% 3. Turn off completely. 4. Do nothing.)
-I tried doing nothing, but I still can't hear the voices properly. (It was set to 80% by default.)

I tried to automatically search for audio driver updates, but found nothing.
I haven't tried re-installing them.


Here's my specs:
Analog Devices AD2000B @ Intel 82801JB ICH10 - High Definition Audio Controller
ATI Radeon HD 5870
Windows 7 Pro x64


EDIT:
When I run the "check each speaker" -thing; I get clear sound from all speakers, except the Center speaker.
It sounds just as the others, but it is really low. (Like 15% volume, compared to all the others.)

 

[Aphelion]

Did you reboot after selecting "Do Nothing" under the communications tab?

Here's some ideas.

Right click the MS speaker icon in the task bar, select playback devices.
"Speakers" should have the green check mark as the default communications device.

Single left click "speakers", the configure and properties buttons should become active.

Select properties... go to the levels tab and make sure all of your levels (Center...etc) are up, you will have to scroll down to see all of the level settings. Also look at the enhancements tab, select Immediate mode first then try disabling the "Loudness Equalization" enhancement. Again, you may have to scroll down the list.

Back up and select the "Configure" tab, make sure it's set for your speaker system.

Ap

 

[Jacee]

Go into speaker 'properties' > 'Advanced' tab and make sure it's set to CD quality

 

[Aphelion]

Go into speaker 'properties' > 'Advanced' tab and make sure it's set to CD quality

I'm curious, besides the obvious of changing the bit-depth and possibly the sample rate... (Cd's can only be 44.1) what else does this do?

I'm taking a guess that with anything higher (24-bit 48 or 96kHz) there's some software interpolation that converts everything to the level that the hardware is natively capable of?


Ap

 

[Jacee]

Oops, I meant DVD quality ...
See this post http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/21089-low-sound-volume.html#post234986

 

[Aphelion]

Oops, I meant DVD quality ...
See this post http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/21089-low-sound-volume.html#post234986

Thanks... appreciated.

Interesting, that's for SB Audigy... I wonder if it's the same for internal (Realtek...etc) audio.

Ap