Question Reversed directional audio when gaming.

[Sharples65]

I'm really having trouble this with problem. Not only is there almost nothing on the net about this very rare problem, nobody seems to know the solution.

Basically, anything outside a game, such as Youtube or Facebook videos work perfectly on my headset. There's no issues whatsoever.

However, when I go into any game, say Left 4 Dead 2 or Call of Duty, the left/right directional sound is completely reversed. Like hearing sounds from the right meanings they'll come from the left and vice versa.

I've had this issue for the past couple of issues. Here's what I've done.

. Bought a new headset. The Hyper X Cloud Alpha. My previous one was the Hyper X Cloud II. At the time I thought it was the Cloud II having an issue, but I was wrong.

.New Motherboard, RAM, CPU, Graphics card, New Hard drive. I bought these merely for an upgrade to my old one, but the old parts also had this issue.

.Reinstalled Windows 10 with a blank slate

.Removed all audio drivers from device manager, all this did was made sure Windows 10 couldn't load up anymore, hence why I opted to just reinstall Windows.

.Turned spacial sound on and off, messed around with 7.1, 5.1, Quadraphonic, Stereo...

I mean the only solution I can find is to reverse my headset and then hey! It works perfectly in gaming. B-but now my microphone will be behind me and... outside of gaming the audio is now reversed.

 

[gyetger]

Hi,
I have the same problem when playing Fortnite.
I've seen that some of you mentioned Equalizer APO.
I use it, too, to make my mic louder.
What if that program is the reason for this problem??

 

[Sharples65]

Hi,
I have the same problem when playing Fortnite.
I've seen that some of you mentioned Equalizer APO.
I use it, too, to make my mic louder.
What if that program is the reason for this problem??

I don't think it is. I installed Equalizer APO years back so I can switch the audio channels around from left to right to fix this problem. It pretty much gives you a solution when you game. Unfortunately audio direction reverses when you're say on Youtube for example, but you can't really notice it as bad as gaming.

Also the fact that I need Equalizer APO to switch the audio channels otherwise I'll need to snap my neck around just to use the microphone.

What is your head set? Does anyone else here use Hyperx Headsets?

The problem is I can't see this being a hardware issue if audio works perfectly outside of gaming without any software to swap the audio channels around. I think it has something to do with headset drivers installing somewhere and getting ghosted with something else?

I wonder if the headset drivers that came with this particular headset were faulty?

 

[gyetger]

What is your head set? Does anyone else here use Hyperx Headsets?

I have a Trust GXT 353.
For a while, I had no problems. I don't remember when it started.
For me, it doesn't happen as soon as I start the game. The channels change during playing and not every time.
If I unplug it, then reconnect it, the audio gets fixed.
Yesterday, I played a YT video for testing the channels while the game was running. The channels were reversed. As soon as I quited the game, the same video played OK...
Next thing I will try is to use a direct USB port instead of a hub I'm currently using.

 

[Sharples65]

I have a Trust GXT 353.
For a while, I had no problems. I don't remember when it started.
For me, it doesn't happen as soon as I start the game. The channels change during playing and not every time.
If I unplug it, then reconnect it, the audio gets fixed.
Yesterday, I played a YT video for testing the channels while the game was running. The channels were reversed. As soon as I quited the game, the same video played OK...
Next thing I will try is to use a direct USB port instead of a hub I'm currently using.

Even when I reinstalled Windows I had this same problem with this same headset, I have no idea what is causing it... your problem sounds so weird...

 

[gyetger]

Well... since I changed to the USB 2 port, it is working fine... but of course I need more time to be sure.
It's interesting that now the name of the headphones is recognized: "Trust GXT 353 Headset", but when I used the USB-C hub, it was named something like "USB Audio Device".

 

[thebakedtaco]

I am having the same issue I think. I built a new pc with a Asus ROG Strix motherboard a week or so ago, and noticed that when playing Valorant the directional audio is impossible to comprehend. This was not an issue I had on my old gaming laptop. Audio seems fine in all other games I have been playing and when watching videos/listening to music. No idea what this is, but I really hope its not my mobo's sound card. It is not my headphones either, because I've tried other pairs. SO ANNOYING

 

[AudioBoy]

I'm really having trouble this with problem. Not only is there almost nothing on the net about this very rare problem, nobody seems to know the solution.

Basically, anything outside a game, such as Youtube or Facebook videos work perfectly on my headset. There's no issues whatsoever.

However, when I go into any game, say Left 4 Dead 2 or Call of Duty, the left/right directional sound is completely reversed. Like hearing sounds from the right meanings they'll come from the left and vice versa.

I've had this issue for the past couple of issues. Here's what I've done.

. Bought a new headset. The Hyper X Cloud Alpha. My previous one was the Hyper X Cloud II. At the time I thought it was the Cloud II having an issue, but I was wrong.

.New Motherboard, RAM, CPU, Graphics card, New Hard drive. I bought these merely for an upgrade to my old one, but the old parts also had this issue.

.Reinstalled Windows 10 with a blank slate

.Removed all audio drivers from device manager, all this did was made sure Windows 10 couldn't load up anymore, hence why I opted to just reinstall Windows.

.Turned spacial sound on and off, messed around with 7.1, 5.1, Quadraphonic, Stereo...

I mean the only solution I can find is to reverse my headset and then hey! It works perfectly in gaming. B-but now my microphone will be behind me and... outside of gaming the audio is now reversed.

You can try...
Changing the audio leads from the PC, left to right.
You can reverse the output with PC software that maintains the audio
You can change your speakers from left to right
You can look at game settings. Most games give you the chance to reverse the stereo.
You can change your headphones from left to right.

But what you need to find is the standard that fits all.

 

[Sharples65]

You can try...
Changing the audio leads from the PC, left to right.
You can reverse the output with PC software that maintains the audio
You can change your speakers from left to right
You can look at game settings. Most games give you the chance to reverse the stereo.
You can change your headphones from left to right.

But what you need to find is the standard that fits all.

What I'm not understanding is why the audio works perfectly outside of games but works reserved inside games. If this was a hardware problem, wouldn't you think that both would be reversed? I've just coped with having my headset reversed since audio outside of gaming isn't as crucial to me then an FPS shooter where it is.

I know equaliser APO can swap the left sterero with the right one, it almost fixes the problem because then it actually allows me to use the microphone on my headset without needing to swap the headset around, the only issue involves outside of gaming.

It's probably a driver being ghosted somewhere that not even DDU Uninstaller can detect and remove. I've all but given up on steps to fix it. If and when I buy a new headset that isn't related to Hyper X in the future and if it happens, then I'll decide to troubleshoot it again.

Edit: Now that I come to think of it, I don't think I ever swapped out the soundcard on my motherboard... I wonder if this is it.

 

[Slay33]

I've had the same issue for the last 4 years, it's unbelievable (I've used headphones without a microphone so I'd turn them around). Not a single game works correctly since then, youtube/windows work just fine. It just switches in games. I've just bought a new Steelseries Arctis Pro today - the same situation.

There are plenty of people with a similar problem on different forums, I've searched through all of them, but no one has found any solution yet, it's just infuriating.

 

[helpstar]

Should be a software or driver issue

Try a cheap headphone for pc with 3.5jack

 

[Slay33]

It doesn't matter if it's cheap or jack or usb or bluetooth - I had this issue with using 5 headphones.

Not a software issue - formatting and reinstalling doesn't help.

Driver as well - I've disabled all of them, nothing helps.

I suspect that some motherboards are just broken if it comes to reversional audio. There's no other explanation as I've excluded everything.

 

[helpstar]

only thing I can think of if I read something like this:
It´s not a clean install of an activated windows with only legally bought and installed games. Some tools or driver updater (booster) used.

A motherboard can´t be the issue because USB would exclude this as an issue. It´s a dedicated sound card. Therefore the problem should be the USB device.
btw which motherboard and other hardware are you using? Maybe there is some kind of recording device or adapter or hub which is interfering

Other than that I think that this issue can pop up with different solutions, there is not one way to get this problem fixed. There might be more than one problem in a system than in another one.

 

[Sharples65]

Right so I'm trying Razor Kraken headset right now and I'm still having the same issue. Also used Windows reset to reformat PC, still having the same problem. The Razor Kraken uses no USB and requires 3.5mm audio jacks for both sound and microphone. These have been plugged into the back of the case.

So far I've tried the following headsets:
HyperX Cloud II
HyperX Alpha
Razor Kraken

I think we can rule out the coincidence for HyperX here.

Also my motherboard is Gigabyte B450M DS3H.

Edit: Also just tested my LG TV speakers with audio as well. Same exact issue.

 

[helpstar]

Edit: Also just tested my LG TV speakers with audio as well. Same exact issue.

Did you connect the TV by HDMI?

In which exact games is it happening?

 

[Shurderfer]

I'm having the same issue, and I just wanted to ask everyone if their speakers/headphones were plugged in using a USB adapter? That's what I'm doing so that I have a microphone input as my laptop doesn't have one normally.

If I would harbor a guess as to why this issue happens, it's probably the audio engine in-game vs in browsers. What's probably happening is that google chrome is using a different audio engine that the games are, and the process the identification of hardware differently. Chrome would see that you have an adapter(in my case) and know that it would have left be one speaker and right be another. In the case of games, their drivers might not notice that the adapter is there and instead assume that you're using something else. That something else might have the speaker identification set up in the opposite of how you have it, and therefore the audio is reversed since the game doesn't know which speaker is actually right or left.

tl;dr: Probably doesn't work since the audio engines for games are different from chrome's, and they are wrong as well.

 

[SoldierCantKill]

I'm really having trouble this with problem. Not only is there almost nothing on the net about this very rare problem, nobody seems to know the solution.

Basically, anything outside a game, such as Youtube or Facebook videos work perfectly on my headset. There's no issues whatsoever.

However, when I go into any game, say Left 4 Dead 2 or Call of Duty, the left/right directional sound is completely reversed. Like hearing sounds from the right meanings they'll come from the left and vice versa.

I've had this issue for the past couple of issues. Here's what I've done.

. Bought a new headset. The Hyper X Cloud Alpha. My previous one was the Hyper X Cloud II. At the time I thought it was the Cloud II having an issue, but I was wrong.

.New Motherboard, RAM, CPU, Graphics card, New Hard drive. I bought these merely for an upgrade to my old one, but the old parts also had this issue.

.Reinstalled Windows 10 with a blank slate

.Removed all audio drivers from device manager, all this did was made sure Windows 10 couldn't load up anymore, hence why I opted to just reinstall Windows.

.Turned spacial sound on and off, messed around with 7.1, 5.1, Quadraphonic, Stereo...

I mean the only solution I can find is to reverse my headset and then hey! It works perfectly in gaming. B-but now my microphone will be behind me and... outside of gaming the audio is now reversed.

Navigate to Cortana and type in control panel, click on "Hardware and Sound", then press "Manage audio devices" when you click on this a tiny window will popup, you need to click on the top bar that says Playback and double click on your primary device. There should be 5 options on the top you can click on, can you please screenshot all of them?

 

[Sharples65]

Navigate to Cortana and type in control panel, click on "Hardware and Sound", then press "Manage audio devices" when you click on this a tiny window will popup, you need to click on the top bar that says Playback and double click on your primary device. There should be 5 options on the top you can click on, can you please screenshot all of them?

Sorry for the late reply, but here:

https://imgur.com/a/NKXqSDv

View: https/imgur.com/a/NKXqSDv

Did you connect the TV by HDMI?

In which exact games is it happening?

1. Yes.

2. All of them. Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5, Spore, Call of Duty series, ect. It just doesn't happen when it's out the game.

 

[helpstar]

reinstall windows, don´t install any other software than the game and drivers

take a screenshot of the device manager

 

[Sharples65]

reinstall windows, don´t install any other software than the game and drivers

take a screenshot of the device manager

I don't want to reinstall Windows for the third time, but this was one of the first things I did; Installing the game. Heck, I did it without the drivers first, same issue. Even when I then installed the drivers.

 

[aviv05443894]

I also have this problem.. tried reinstalling windows 10 and the audio drivers and it also didnt work. the only thing that helped was downloading equalizer apo but i cant use razer THX spatial audio with it.
does anyone have a solution for this?