Sound through left rear channel only...

[Deacon Blues]

Any workarounds other than changing my mix to stereo before starting the game? I play on a 7.1 system and all the game audio comes through the left rear channel. The menu music comes through the front left/right speakers but the game sounds all get pushed to one rear surround speaker. Since there doesn't seem to be any sound options in the game whatsoever, I was hoping someone had discovered a solution.

From perusing the discussions, others with general problems - not specifically my issue - mentioned forcing compatibility to Windows 8, but that didn't help. Right now my only option is to adjust the aforementioned mix settings before starting the game.

[Vertigo]

I don't have a solution, but a different problem. The sound is coming out of the front speakers just fine for me, but my left rear speaker makes this awful popping sound. Didn't happen until I turned on 7.1 in my windows settings. Have you found a solution since posting this?

[Deacon Blues]

Originally posted by Vertigo:

I don't have a solution, but a different problem. The sound is coming out of the front speakers just fine for me, but my left rear speaker makes this awful popping sound. Didn't happen until I turned on 7.1 in my windows settings. Have you found a solution since posting this?

Hey there, no real solution other than lowering the sample rate down to 16-bit/44100hz, and making sure the output is set to Stereo. See if that helps. With those settings, the game does sound less distorted and at least everything is pushing through my center/l/r speakers more appropriately than with my default settings.

It stinks but that's the best workaround I can suggest.

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by Deacon Blues:

Originally posted by Vertigo:

I don't have a solution, but a different problem. The sound is coming out of the front speakers just fine for me, but my left rear speaker makes this awful popping sound. Didn't happen until I turned on 7.1 in my windows settings. Have you found a solution since posting this?

Hey there, no real solution other than lowering the sample rate down to 16-bit/44100hz, and making sure the output is set to Stereo. See if that helps. With those settings, the game does sound less distorted and at least everything is pushing through my center/l/r speakers more appropriately than with my default settings.

It stinks but that's the best workaround I can suggest.

Alright, sucks that changing settings is the way to go, but it's certainly way better than the awful popping sound XD

[usa423]

I seen this thread yesterday but did not comment. At the time I had just went through Castlevania 1 with no problem. I have it set to 7.1 and 24 bit 192 khz. Yesterday I ran through Castllevania 4 and also did not have a problem, the sound was fine. I fired it up today and it seems Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest is having the sound issue you mention. It seems back and to the left as if the left surround is also involved. And it is also a horribly DISTORTED sound.

I mean, the games were obviously not in 7.1 to start, and surely not in 24 bit 192 khz lol. But it was working right till today. I can hear today even the menu selection sounds off and in the rear speakers.

I will try some stuff and report back in this thread...

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by usa423:

I seen this thread yesterday but did not comment. At the time I had just went through Castlevania 1 with no problem. I have it set to 7.1 and 24 bit 192 khz. Yesterday I ran through Castllevania 4 and also did not have a problem, the sound was fine. I fired it up today and it seems Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest is having the sound issue you mention. It seems back and to the left as if the left surround is also involved. And it is also a horribly DISTORTED sound.

I mean, the games were obviously not in 7.1 to start, and surely not in 24 bit 192 khz lol. But it was working right till today. I can hear today even the menu selection sounds off and in the rear speakers.

I will try some stuff and report back in this thread...

Yeah for me I can only say it's in the main menu and the Japanese version of Castlevania III. I haven't tried the other games.

[usa423]

Dialing back to 16 bit 48 khz had no effect. It seems the easiest solution (Windows 10) is to simply right click the speaker icon and set it from 7.1 to stereo.

I suspect the game was already doing this by itself somehow as the stereo setting sounds to me like it did yesterday. Perhaps today it was not able to change it or force a stereo mix?

[Vertigo]

That's what I've seen elsewhere, people suggest just turning the sound settings to stereo. I'll have to test this weekend and see if there's anything I can find out

[Fleppie]

Hey people, I had the same crackly sound through the left ear problem. I have a steelseries headphone and they have a feature in their software called sonar which is supposed to enhance your sound by using an algorithm. Turn that off or any software that messes with the sound. I put it in direct mode and it works perfectly.

[Vertigo]

May have found a solution to this problem. It's dumb, but if others try this out and provide input that would be great.

Steps:
1. Open the game
2. Close the game after getting to the main menu
3. Put your computer to sleep
4. Wake computer back up, and log in
5. Go back into Castlevania Anniversary Collection. Sound issue should be fixed?

This has worked for me twice today, and fixed this issue (popping sound in the left rear speaker). It also fixed it in Contra Anniversary Collection. However the issue may reappear if you exit the game again after performing the above steps.

Extra note: this solution was found while Windows sound settings were set to 7.1 surround sound.