Mass Effect 1 Surround Sound Fix

Because Bioware again shipped some broken, old OpenAL32.dll where surround is not working properly here are steps to fix it

Steps

1. Download openal soft from https://openal-soft.org
2. Put file from Win32/soft_oal.dll as OpenAL32.dll to Windows/SysWOW64 and file from Win64/soft_oal.dll as OpenAL32.dll to Windows/system32, override if necessary
3. Delete OpenAL32.dll from binaries in game directory
4. Put this:

[ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice]
MaxChannels=128
UseEffectsProcessing=True
TimeBetweenHWUpdates=15
MinOggVorbisDurationGame=20
MinOggVorbisDurationEditor=4
DeviceName=
ReserveChannels=2
TotalAvailableChannels=128
UseEffectsProcessing=True

To BIOEngine.ini in config directory in path like Mass Effect Legendary Edition\Game\ME1\BioGame\Config, make it read-only so game doesn't override it. There should be already section like ISACTAudio.ISACTAudioDevice so put it there

5. Run alsoft-config.exe from openal-soft-{version}-bin\alsoft-config and set your desired channels - in my case it's 7.1 and click apply, you can try other options, whatever seem to be better for you
6. (Optionally) go to %appdata%, there should be file alsoft.ini and you can try adding two options there:

volume-adjust = 6
front-stablizer=true

volume-adjust increases overall sound volume -24 to 24
front-stablizer - mixes sound from left and right channel to center
7. Just run a game, you should have surround sound working fine now
8. If it doesn't work try restarting your PC
9. Also it might work if you replace dll only in a binaries folder - but i didn't try it

[Murzoned]

2025: it still works. Thanks!

[Slayristo]

it feels like you left out steps in your steps because wth is Win32/soft_oal.dll Wasnt the linked file

[Raziel]

cannot find the .ini in the appdata

[hwfanatic]

In 2024, the %APPDATA%\alsoft.ini file needs to look like this:

[general]
front-stablizer=true

[eax]
enable=false


Without the first line, sounds coming from the front will not be as loud as those coming from the back.

Without the second line, reverb effect will be permanently enabled. It's some sort of issue with OpenAL Soft.

There is no need to touch BIOEngine.ini file at all and I would advise against it. If you experience a crash with the exception code 0xc0000005 on a system with multiple audio devices, try switching the device back and forth. The second time you launch the game, it should work.

[CHENG CHONG]

Pathetic that it's now 2023 and this never got fixed. Not surprising since it's EA. I played the OG game back on the OG Xbox over a decade ago and the surround sound worked fine but I guess its too much to ask for from a super HD legendary remaster

[CHENG CHONG]

Hey I just wanted to chime in and let you know that it wont let me give you a thumbs up since I do not own this on Steam but your guide helped put me in the right direction so you deserve kudos.

I just wanted to add one little thing that got me hung up was that there are 2 different Openal Soft downloads one if for the Source and one is for the Windows binaries. It's never specifically stated but you need the Win32 and Win64 binaries download and no the other Source download (which shows up first on the page). This could be due to the fact that the guide was written back in 2021 and its now 2023 and maybe the Openal website was different back then.

I almost forgot to add that the only steps I did were to rename the OpenAL32.dll inside the Mass Effect 1 binaries folder with a '.bak' extension and replaced it with the OpenAL32.dll from the download Win64 version off of the Openal website. Then I pasted the lines into the BIOEngine.ini config and it sounds so much better now.

[Maverick]

What Yggdrasil says worked for me too. Thx

[K9liberator]

step by step guide please

[420inPortland]

Hey on Step #6 does the line "front-stablizer=true" have a typo or is this correct? Should it actually be "stablizer" as written above, or is it supposed to be "stabilizer"?

[Victor4815]

And if I don't have realtek what do I do?