I was wondering if there was a way to change the way sound in the game is heard. Right now it’s almost like surround sound, but i only have 2 speakers. Like, i was testing with loremaster Cho. If i stood in front of him. His speech would come from the left, even though i was head on. if i turned the camera, it would follow the camera to the right.
i’m not sure i’m explaining this well, basically. how to make it sound from both speakers instead of just one.
I shall thank you for starting this discussion, cause i ask every, i search the web for answers and nothing helps!
I have the very same issue, i don’t even know how to describe this matter, because, everyone with that problem tells something different. Somebody here told me that windows update KB4517211 is resposable for, but, that specific update is from September 2019, which means, you cannot either install or remove that update, it’s not even listed into Windows 10.
I recently moved WoW folder to a SSD drive which solved the problem for some days and don’t ask me why that worked, but, the problem is here again. I tried to install old Realtek drivers, removed Dolby Audio, set default sound format to every option displayed on the advanced config, disabled all sounds effect and everything i could, still, got no luck.
i’m “happy” i’m not alone on this… if i find a solution, i’ll post here right away.
I also deleted WTF folder, but nothing changed at all… any tips will be appreciated.
Hey there,
This type of thing tends to be a configuration issue within Windows, rather than within WoW itself. WoW can take advantage of surround sound (whether that be a physical 5.1 or 7.1 system, or a virtual surround sound software when using just 2 speakers), but it’s Windows that tells WoW how to render the audio.
In Windows 10 right-click your Volume icon in the system tray and go to Spacial Audio, if that is turned on try turning that off.
If you have any virtual surround sound software installed, like MSI’s Nahimic or ASUS Sonic Studio for example, try uninstalling that and then reboot the PC before testing again.
In some cases reinstalling your audio drivers from your motherboard or system manufacturer’s support page can help reset those settings to defaults as well.
@Jambrix
Thanks so much for the repply and i’m afraid i’ve done everything you told me to do already.
I’m about to reinstall the entire game again, but i’m not so sure… i’m not willing to download more than 40gb just to get a fail result at the end… and i prefer to agree with you about Windows settings… however, i tried everything in Windows already, even an Operational System Downgrade.
I’ve come here just in case you guys know how to do something different in WoW itself, something that i didn’t try or is out of my knowledge: a WTF config, a /console SET surroundSoundEnable “0”, etc… but i don’t think i’m going to fix that in a while…
Anyway, thanks in advance! i’ll keep searching for a solution and IF i find it, i’ll post it here.
There is a workaround for this. Go into your audio settings and switch from Stereo to 5.1 or 7.1 and disable all the speakers. Only the front ones will be active and you will get stereo sound in the game.
I generally don’t like to necro threads, but as I was running into the issue myself I wanted to give an update.
I was gone for about nine months from July of last year to April 2022. When I came back, I was experiencing what felt like surround sound despite having stereo speakers. In the time period between I did upgrade to Windows 11. Sure enough, some of the previous solutions listed didn’t work.
With a bit of trial and error I managed to fix it. If you’re on Win11, head into your system settings, then click on sound. From that menu, look under the header for output and pick the device you generally play WoW’s audio from. Click on that (the heading at the top of the window should be System>Sound>Properties)
Under output settings, you’ll want to set Enhance Audio to off, as well as the Spatial Sound setting. If you have WoW running when you do this, chances are all volume within the game will go mute at this point. Go into the sound settings within WoW and change the Game Sound Output to anything else (doesn’t matter). Afterwards, swap it back to your original option. For example: on my system I changed WoW’s output to my monitor speakers, then swapped it back to my external speakers. That got the audio running again and also eliminated the pseudo surround sound effect that becomes highly noticeable on only two speakers.
Hope that helps someone out should they run into the same issue.
Ok, not to necro but… OMG!!! THANKS Lilus!!! I have been going nuts for the past week, the sound has been such a pain, i cant hear my fishing bobber, cant hear the npcs talking, its been a mess and i didnt know what else to do, but i found your post and it worked like a charm!
Hahahah i never write on forums but this time i had to log in just to say a HUGE THANK YOU! <3
This needs to be added to the knowledge base…Prior to trying your solution, the game was borderline unplayable.
I mean, I myself don’t know if I’d go THAT far, but I do get what you’re saying.
It’s such a little thing, yet if you’re not aware of the changes that came from some Windows related updates, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out.
On that note, I’m fairly sure some folks on Win10 systems are also having issues. 10 and 11 are fairly close to one another in features, so hopefully my instructions are still close enough to get to where you need to go if you’re on an older version of Windows.
sorry to necro once again but good god you’re a lifesaver man. Finding a solution to this took me literal weeks because nobody had any windows 11 answers. thank you and I wish you a many rare drop mounts in the future
Gosh, thank you so much! This was driving me nuts, because I did not find any active Spatial Audio setting. But disabling Enhance Audio did the job. Certainly can’t be a wrong thing to necro this thread just to highlight this.
Actually, I think this topic might be worth being covered by a help article on WoWs support website, as this Windows setting seems to be on by default when installing Win 11. I just got a new PC with Win 11 where this issue popped up, never had this happen in Win 10.