Games don't output anything to the subwoofer channel.

[arcticsqwat]

Greetings,
So I recently bought the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 (True 7.1) and a ASUS STRIX RAID DLX soundcard to drive it as listed by Razer as a supported soundcard.
My issue is that when I go into games they don't output anything in the subwoofer channel, but all the other channels have activity in them.

So take Witcher 3 as an example (I've tested others but same issues there)
- On the splash screen before the main menu, It outputs 5.1 sound while utilizing the subwoofer channel.
- In the main menu it outputs stereo.
- In the game itself, it outputs 7.0 only utilizing the center speaker for voice (conversations etc) and no activity on the subwoofer channel at all.

Though what's weird is that if I click the 7.1 button on the Razer Tiamat controller (Toggles between 7.1 mode and stereo) the bass returns as per usual.
I don't have any options on my soundcard for bass redirect or something along those lines, I have options for EQ, Bass Boost, Voice Clarity, Compressor, Upmix (from stereo to 7.1 and such tho not 7.0 to 7.1) and reverb.
It's configured to 7.1 in Windows and when I click on each seperate speaker all of them work including the subwoofer, I've tried to disable/enable full range speakers on all of them to no effect.
What I think the issue is that it's outputting the bass to all other channels and not bothering about outputting it to the channel designated for it.
The format it's configured to (I've tried most of them and no difference there) is 24bit 192khz

Any of you have any solution to this problem? Not much point in having a true 7.1 headset for gaming if games don't output 7.1 sound.

 

[gamerk316]

Stupid test: Flip the side and rear channels.

At least years and years ago, PCs and Home Audio mapped their speaker setup differently; they rear/side channels were reversed of each other. That might be what's happening to you here.

I'm pretty sure the sub channel is being output; it's probably just not getting to the right place.

 

[arcticsqwat]

Stupid test: Flip the side and rear channels.

At least years and years ago, PCs and Home Audio mapped their speaker setup differently; they rear/side channels were reversed of each other. That might be what's happening to you here.

I'm pretty sure the sub channel is being output; it's probably just not getting to the right place.

Don't think that'll help, as the headset doesn't use either Rear or Side as the subwoofer channel.
The inputs on the soundcard and headset are currently configured as

Soundcard -> Headset
Side + S/PDIF Out -> Side Surround (Grey)
Center -> Center / Subwoofer (Orange) <Center and Subwoofer>
Rear -> Rear Surround (Black)
Front -> Front (Green)

Did a little more testing and found the most likely reason as to why this is happening.
Games output sound as if all speakers are full dynamic range speakers and don't by themselves split the bass into the subwoofer channel.
Using the onboard audio with Bass Crossover enabled in Realtek everything works as expected.
Though the STRIX Sonic Studio (Software for the Asus STRIX RAID DLX card) don't have an option for bass crossover
So unless there's a software/driver update or some sort of program I can use to get the bass crossover function, the soundcard is useless for gaming

 

[gamerk316]

Try this:

Windows Control Panel -> Sounds -> Right Click on whatever your sound output device is and select properties. There might be a setting that allows you to change the default dynamic range on the speakers.

Also, I know that older ASUS Xonar cards had a Flex Bass option that allowed the user to set the frequency where audio would be redirected to the LFE channel. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a similar option on their new cards.

 

[arcticsqwat]

Try this:

Windows Control Panel -> Sounds -> Right Click on whatever your sound output device is and select properties. There might be a setting that allows you to change the default dynamic range on the speakers.

Also, I know that older ASUS Xonar cards had a Flex Bass option that allowed the user to set the frequency where audio would be redirected to the LFE channel. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a similar option on their new cards.

With the menu I presume you mean this one, It's in Norwegian but I've tried both having full range speakers enabled and disabled in Windows and there's no visible effect in games

Yeah I came across that other older Asus soundcards have the Bass Crossover function, which is insane to me how they can 'forget' to put it in one of their flagship soundcards, This is all the settings I have on the utility software.
The Upmix is if the sound is stereo or such, it'll try to upmix it to 7.1 and that doesn't work either in games

I'm getting to the point where I think the only fix is either some sort of program that can do the bass crossover functionality, or a driver/software update from Asus though you never know how long time that's going to take

 

[knut-johan-larsen]

I have the same problem..