Korean Job Discussion Forums

Katchafire · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:29 pm Post subject: Classroom PC sound problem.

Hi all, hopefully some of you might have suggestions as to what I can try to fix the following problem.

a) When I play youtube videos - the background music is heard easily, but the lead singer has almost no sound coming from him.

b) When playing the Elementary school lesson CDs, I have to turn the speaker volume right up to full - which then causes speakers to have that 'wind blowing' background sound coming from them.

c) Again with lesson CDs ... the Story sound will play (with speakers again, turned up full) .... but when it is listen/repeat - the voices are not there, they sound like squeaky robot-mickey-mouse's.

Thanks for any help.

Gordana

Rusty Shackleford · Joined: 08 May 2008

Sounds like one of the speakers is busted. Try making sure all the plugs are plugged in (genius advice, I know). Or see if you can swap the speakers for another set.. It could be a loose wire somewhere so try jiggling the cords.(more genius advice).

Katchafire · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:51 pm Post subject:

lol Yes, tried all that.

Best way I can describe what is happening is .. it's as if all the background sound is playing - but foreground sound is barely audible.

Thanks for the 'genius' advice tho! Wink

G

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Definitely sounds like the speakers are receiving or outputting only mono, not stereo.

Check the cables you're using.

Check the audio software in the PC. Has the EQ been messed with?

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

Sounds to me like your speakers are out of phase. Meaning one is putting out an upside down signal, effectively cancelling anything that's the same in both channels. Anything panned left or right will sound fine (background) while those in the foreground (centered) will be canceled out.

It's the same process those old boom-boxes with Karaoke mode used to cancel out the lyrics of songs, since they are most often dead center in a mix.

As for fixing it, good luck with that. The sound card drivers might have some kind of karaoke mode that someone turned on and didn't turn off, but other than that it's not easy to flip one channel upside down, or right side up as the case may be.

Edit: My advice is, if you can put up with it, is to turn off either the left or right channel and see if your playback sounds OK through only one speaker. However, if for some reason the soundcard is taking one channel, flipping it, then combining it with the other before sending the signal out this won't fix anything and you've got a more serious/weird problem.