Very weird sound problems

I am having an odd sound problem on the kid's computer. It's an older
machine - P450 w Win 98 ES1868 sound card.

The sound has always been fine until a few days ago. Now it has a weird
tone to it. It's a bit trembly, but the odd part is the mix. For
example when playing a song, the music and the background simgers will
be loud and clear, but the main singer will be faint and hollow
sounding. It works this way for mp3s and video sound. Wavs seem fine,
but they have no music so I can't tell for sure. It's like some parts
are comong through and others aren't (or are very faint)

I've checked the headphones and speakers, uninstalled and reinstalled
the drivers, and checked for any conflicts under system properties, and
looked at multimedia properties. Nothing is showing as a problem.

I checked the net for this problem, but all I found was endless pieces
of advice about what to do if you get no sound at all.

Anyone?

On 30 Jul 2005 11:15:19 -0700, wrote:

I am having an odd sound problem on the kid's computer. It's an older
machine - P450 w Win 98 ES1868 sound card.

The sound has always been fine until a few days ago. Now it has a weird
tone to it. It's a bit trembly, but the odd part is the mix. For
example when playing a song, the music and the background simgers will
be loud and clear, but the main singer will be faint and hollow
sounding. It works this way for mp3s and video sound. Wavs seem fine,
but they have no music so I can't tell for sure. It's like some parts
are comong through and others aren't (or are very faint)

I've checked the headphones and speakers, uninstalled and reinstalled
the drivers, and checked for any conflicts under system properties, and
looked at multimedia properties. Nothing is showing as a problem.

I checked the net for this problem, but all I found was endless pieces
of advice about what to do if you get no sound at all.

Anyone?


I don't have any specific advice, but the symptom of
background singers coming through OK but the lead
singer faint, sounds like a "karaoke" setup. Any chance
you might have activated some special effect on this
card? If not, then the next thing to look for is phase
reversal. The lead singer is normally mixed about
equally into L and R, so if you add L and R with one
inverted you get this sort of effect.. in mono, of course.
Getting stereo with a missing center usually requires a
more involved setup, as for karaoke. Not sure how
that could happen by accident. Sorry!

Best regards,



Bob Masta
dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom

D A Q A R T A
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Home of DaqGen, the FREEWARE signal generator

As far as I can determine, there are no setting options for this card.
It is a P&P and has no options. It's worked fine for 5 years and then
went wonky. Diagnostics all show it as working fine, but the sound is
way off. You've made me think it must be something with the channels
that are wrong. I thought it might be, but that wouldn't account foor
the wavering.

Jo

Bob Masta wrote:
I don't have any specific advice, but the symptom of
background singers coming through OK but the lead
singer faint, sounds like a "karaoke" setup. Any chance
you might have activated some special effect on this
card? If not, then the next thing to look for is phase
reversal. The lead singer is normally mixed about
equally into L and R, so if you add L and R with one
inverted you get this sort of effect.. in mono, of course.
Getting stereo with a missing center usually requires a
more involved setup, as for karaoke. Not sure how
that could happen by accident. Sorry!

Best regards,

Bob Masta


On 30 Jul 2005 11:15:19 -0700, wrote:

I am having an odd sound problem on the kid's computer. It's an older
machine - P450 w Win 98 ES1868 sound card.

The sound has always been fine until a few days ago. Now it has a weird
tone to it. It's a bit trembly, but the odd part is the mix. For
example when playing a song, the music and the background simgers will
be loud and clear, but the main singer will be faint and hollow
sounding. It works this way for mp3s and video sound. Wavs seem fine,
but they have no music so I can't tell for sure. It's like some parts
are comong through and others aren't (or are very faint)

I've checked the headphones and speakers, uninstalled and reinstalled
the drivers, and checked for any conflicts under system properties, and
looked at multimedia properties. Nothing is showing as a problem.

I checked the net for this problem, but all I found was endless pieces
of advice about what to do if you get no sound at all.

Anyone?

wrote in message
oups.com...
I am having an odd sound problem on the kid's computer. It's an older
machine - P450 w Win 98 ES1868 sound card.

The sound has always been fine until a few days ago. Now it has a weird
tone to it. It's a bit trembly, but the odd part is the mix. For
example when playing a song, the music and the background simgers will
be loud and clear, but the main singer will be faint and hollow
sounding. It works this way for mp3s and video sound. Wavs seem fine,
but they have no music so I can't tell for sure. It's like some parts
are comong through and others aren't (or are very faint)

I've checked the headphones and speakers, uninstalled and reinstalled
the drivers, and checked for any conflicts under system properties, and
looked at multimedia properties. Nothing is showing as a problem.

I checked the net for this problem, but all I found was endless pieces
of advice about what to do if you get no sound at all.

Anyone?

I'm wondering if that's some sort of interference/short circuit between the
left and right channels. Some sound editing software has tools to remove
vocals which exploit the differences between the channels... it could be
that there's a cable fault or something that's having the same kind of
effect.