Bugzilla – Bug 1321
System output balance reset by launching Audacity
Last modified: 2019-05-23 10:32:59 UTC
Regression on 2.0.2. At least 15 reports on Windows, including a few on XP. Some reports say pressing Record also resets balance but I do not experience that. Having correct drivers does not stop the problem. From testing I have done in the past, reverting r12160 (https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/fe97387) corrects the issue, though in itself that reversion might decouple the Audacity and system volume sliders on some Vista or greater machines. No reports on Mac OS X other than my testing. Sometimes the separate Left / Right sliders for the built-in output device are enabled in Audio MIDI setup on my El Capitan system, sometimes not, for no reasons I can see. No reports on Linux. On Ubuntu 14.04 I find the balance slider in system sound settings and the Left/Right balance in ALSAmixer is not reset by Audacity.
I do observe that balance resets when changing to WASAPI, just as for changing to the other hosts.
Partial fix here https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/5f76da4f5ba25f381f78622edfa0824fa002ecfd Balance will not reset after Preferences dialog, unless changes are made in the Devices page.
(In reply to Paul L from comment #2) Thanks Paul. I can confirm the improved behaviour (no balance reset on open Preferences and OK) on Win 7, Win XP and El Capitan. Release Note and steps to repro updated.
***STEPS TO REPRODUCE UPDATED***
Steps to reproduced spaced out into separate "steps" for readability
I am at a loss as to how to test this - on my W10 laptop I have no idea how to reset the balance of my system output device (and yes I have looked in Sound Settings thoroughly). As for Mac I have even less idea - and is the reference to Soundflower still appropriate (I thought it was deprecated) ?
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #6) On Windows 10: 1) Right clik on the speaker icon in the taskbar. 2) Select "Open sound settings" 3) In sound settings, click on the "Device properties" text link (below the "Choose your output device" drop-down selector and just above its "Volume" slider). 4) In the "Properties" window, select the "Levels" tab. 5) Click on the "Balance" button. I can confirm that on my machine, launching Audacity 2.3.2 does reset the balance. P3 seem a bit high with regard to Windows. The vast majority of Windows users will never change the master balance (at least, not deliberately). For those few users that do, this is really just a slight inconvenience as they know how to readjust the setting. For most Windows users, I'd go so far as to say that this behaviour is a good thing because it corrects what could be a very hard to discover problem if the balance has been inadvertently set over to one side. With regard to Windows, I'd be tempted to close this as "won't fix", or at most, downgrade it to P4.
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #6) I would suggest that we remove references to SoundFlower in this bug report as SoundFlower is obsolete.
(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #7) Additional test results: The balance settings are only reset for the device that is selected in the Device Toolbar. I note that it is not only the balance that is reset, but also the volume level. The volume level for the device selected in the Device Toolbar, is set according to the level set in Audacity's "Playback Level" slider. This is the correct behaviour. Audacity does not have a "balance" (pan) slider for the playback device, so I think it is reasonable for this to be permanently set at "centre". If we wish to keep this bug open, I think it should be marked as an "Enhancement" to add a balance (pan) control for the playback device selected in Device Toolbar. In my opinion, as it stands, this is "not a bug". I've not tested on Mac, but I'd guess that the case is the same there.
The behaviour described for Windows is also reproducible on Linux. I've change the description to indicate "all" platforms. As a Linux user, the observed behaviour looks totally reasonable: * Audacity's playback level slider controls the playback level for the selected playback device. * Audacity does not have a pan control for the playback device, so that is set to center. This could be documented in the manual. Bug closed as "not a bug".
I've added a note about this behaviour in the manual: https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Mixer_Toolbar#Playback_Slider
