Windows ducking game volumes

Gibster

Posts: 31   +0
Hi all, I have a problem thats been ongoing for months and I just cant get it solved so im hoping you can help.

The problem is that whenever someone speaks in teamspeak/ventrilo/skype/insertvoiphere my game volume drops to almost nil. This is not a problem tied to any individual app as ive been through all the individual fixes to no avail such as volume control plugin disabled, etc. And the fact that every single voip program does it, leads me to it being a windows option somewhere.
I have also gone into the sounds>communication and have that set to do nothing.
It still happens.
It is not just with 1 game either, I tried 4 different games and the sounds on every single one duck out when someone talks.

Also another note, it also ducks out when I click to run any program on my pc via admin. You know, when the box pops up asking you if you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer where you click yes. When the box pops up and it goes "beep beep" , at that exact moment the game volume ducks out.

note - its only ducking game volumes too, it doesnt duck out media player, youtube vids, or anything like this

Please please if anyone can help me solve this issue it would be so appreciated.

Thanks
 
I'm assuming that you are on Windows 7? Go to the sound icon on the bottom-right of the desktop, right click and select playback devices. Right click on your default device (Either speakers or an integrated chip set normally) and select properties. Go to the advanced tab and make sure that the Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device box is un-ticked.. and make sure that the give exclusive mode applications prioirty is un-ticked, then report back to see if it has worked (Don't forgot to apply and OK the changes).
 
Oh and I am using a soundblaster z-series card if that is any help to you, but I could fine no sound ducking options in its control panel
 
What OS are you using?? When this occurs, what processes run in the background? If you can, screenshot task manager open showing them... Also do you use a headset for communication?

Another thing to try it right click again on the sound icon in the bottom-right corner, and selecting play-back devices. Go to the communications tab and may sure 'Do nothing' is selected and then see what happens...
 
Thats really strange as the only one it appears that can perform ducking is Teamspeak. Have you checked the programs settings to see if it is enabled through that?

After doing some research for you, I found this: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1645375 :) It may hold the answer to the problem... If it does, I will haave a look for the other programs! :)
 
Hi thanks for the reply
Its 100% not teamspeak. I have volume control disabled, and as I said in the original post it happens with every voice comms program, and also happens when a "system sound" happens, such as my example of when you run a program as admin, when the yes/no box pops up and it goes beepbeep, at that exact moment of the beepbeep it ducks the game volume
 
Right click ->Playback Device->Communications

the choices are obvious :)
 
jobeard
that has been checked already and is already set to do nothing. I also noticed that its ducking the sounds of embedded videos aswell as games.
 
I believe that setting is Per User & not system wide, so be sure it's set for the specific user and then ( I would) set it also on the Admin Id
 
Thanks for the reply. I only have 1 user account which is (myname) admin. am I missing something else?
 
P.s. its now ducking out sound of video clips like youtube too. this is so annoying I wish I knew how to fix it
 
I know this is an old thread, but I had the same issue and finally figured out how to get it to stop ducking the volumes of my music/games. I'm not sure if this will work for everyone, but below are the steps I took on my Windows 7 machine...hope it helps someone!

  1. Right click on your system volume icon in the task bar
  2. Select "Playback Devices" from the context menu
  3. Right click on your "Default Device" and select "Properties" from the context menu
  4. From the device properties, click on the "Enhancements" tab
  5. From the Enhancements tab, make sure that the "Disable all sound effects" box is checked
  6. Click OK on both windows and then test to see if your music or games are ducking their volume
    • The way I tested this was to play my music in Spotify, open the system volume control and left click on the volume indicator so that it plays the default sound. If your application volume doesn't duck, then success!
 
Back