FSX Sound Help

[727737Nut]

I know there is a setting for this but for the life of me I can't find it!  Whenever ATC starts talking, my cockpit sounds mute out.  Where do you change this to keep it from happening?
Thanks,Rob

[Tom_G_2010]

I had never experienced that before yesterday.  I changed my headset interface from the stock analog one that is integrated into the pc to a USB to analog interface that is mounted up on my MIP.  This was done to allow me to plug the headset into the MIP as is on a typical GA aircraft.

As soon as I made the change, the aircraft sounds started to mute every time ATC came on and a couple times they did not come back after ATC stopped talking.  Unfortunately I don't have a good answer on how to solve it as I simple unplugged the USB device and all was good again.  I'm back to the old setup.  Would really like to go back to the USB device though as it made headphone use much easier.

Hopefully others will chime in with a real answer to this.

[jackpilot]

Just out of the blue.. I remember experimenting using a USB Headset with FS9 and that you have to assign the  headset (seen as a sound device by the PC) to the voice setting or something like that.
I have the doc somewhere ...somewhere?
Will dig

[Trevor Hale]

Its been a long time since I messed with sounds..  Am I correct that you can select the bit rate in the sound menu? If I am I would try selecting the different bitrates, and see what happens. 

Other then that, I can't offer any help.

[727737Nut]

I have 2 sound cards, one for voice and one for cockpit sounds, it worked great at first, did not mute at all.  It started after I uninstalled and then re-installed some add-on aircraft, I think?? LOL
Another strange deal is that everytime I unplug or unplug a USB devive, it changes my sound settings in FSX while its running!  My set-up is onboard sound and a PCI sound card

Rob

[Tom_G_2010]

I was looking through the periodicals at a local book store and came across a copy of PC Pilot magazine.   I found a reader question about this exact scenario on Page 96, Issue 75.

The info refers to Win 7/Vista and they say one of the fixes may be a change to a windows setting.  Go to Control Panel, Sounds, then click the communications tab.  On the tab that comes up click "Do Nothing" ans "Apply".

I'm going to try that when I get a chance this evening to see if it helps and allows me to use the USB to analog converter,

[727737Nut]

Cool! Let me know
ROb

[Tom_G_2010]

That solved it!

In Win 7 and Vista it looks like MS added functionality to accommodate things like Voice over IP.  As such the operating system tries to distinguish voice communications from music and system sounds.  This may only kick in when a second sound card is installed, not sure about that, but that's when all my trouble started.  The default though is to mute music and system sounds when communications is detected.  There are four options: 1. Mute; 2. Drop other sounds by 50%; 3. Drop other sounds by 80%; and 4. Do Nothing.

Hence the fix of going to Control Panel, Sounds, then click the Communications tab, and on that tab click "Do Nothing" and "Apply".

I tested it in normal flight mode using the AI ATC and the problem was resolved.  I'm going to try it this weekend in a multi-player session with Live ATC and see if the same holds there.  I'm actually thinking about testing the 50% setting as apposed to the Do Nothing setting since in multi-player I use headphones to ensure I don't miss any instructions from ATC and I always have to keep the engine and environmental sounds lower than I'd like.