It's all about the Software

Hello,
A continuing problem, I am having with the SW is that my audio levels are very low. I am listening to WWV right now as selected from the favorites menu. My volume level is set to 50% and i have head phones on the signal is above S9+20 and yet I can hardly hear the audio. All other computer sounds are blasting. Computer volume is set at 50%. I should not be able to have my head phones at this level. Why is the audio so low? again all other computer sounds are at the level you would expect. Hope the screen shot helps.

Radio is RSPDX, all other console options are off. AGC is set to slow. Off results in high sound level if slider is moved to the right but also creates distortion.

WA3141SWL wrote: Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:31 am A continuing problem, I am having with the SW is that my audio levels are very low. I am listening to WWV right now as selected from the favorites menu. My volume level is set to 50% and i have head phones on the signal is above S9+20 and yet I can hardly hear the audio. All other computer sounds are blasting. Computer volume is set at 50%.

This sounds very much like a Windows Audio issue. However, personally I usually find SDRC volume around 80 to match the level from other programs like the browser etc. I think 50% is on the low side. Others may disagree. But I'd still expect louder volume than you describe.

For a start, are you listening to what you think you are listening to? I see at top of the RX DSP you have "Default" selected. What in fact is your default Windows Audio Devices device?

On the keyboard, hit Windows Key+R then in the Run text box entry that comes up, type "mmsys.cpl" (no quotes). This brings up Audio Devices. Check that on the Playback tab, the Default device really is what you think? For most people this is the main output device, so speakers or headphones. The other way to check is in SDRC RX DSP, change it from "Default" to "Speakers" or Headphones" or whatever it is that you are listening to to make sure that you are selected to the correct output device.

Then, having checked this is the case and if still no joy, run the Windows audio mixer. What version of Windows are you using? Vol mixer has gone through some changes recently.

To have fuller control over what the audio is doing (the regular Windows audio volume control is a mess) the consider downloading Ear Trumpet. It was written by Microsoft developers to be what the Windows Sound Mixer should have looked like. Set it to show icon in the SyssTray and then clicking that brings up a long list of all the audio sources. Left click to adjust output volume, right click to route audio to different destinations:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/eartr ... blggh516xp

Ear Trumpet quick tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzUHkicKQAA

Bit rambling but the important part about destination selection is at 3min 45sec.

But in summary, this is very unlikely an issue with SDRC. Your settings look reasonable. When you disable the the Audio AGC as you described, the audio gain in the DSP chain is fully manual. The way you described it is totally normal. It's rarely if ever used in manual. Stay with AGC Slow usually I would say.

Just a quick note about posting screenshots. Do not crop off the bottom, or any other part. Post them exactly as generated by SDRC screenshot tool. There is important information in all corners of the screen. Also have Home Tab selected in the top "Ribbon" bar. Again, important info on how you have the SDR radio set up. But in this case you have healthy signal so pretty sure not an issue with the radio settings.

73

Max

Ahh...... looks like MS may have taken Ear Trumpet off the App Store (I'm getting page Error 404). Probably because they think they have removed the need for it with new Volume Mixer in Win11:

https://www.howtogeek.com/902471/window ... e-taskbar/

But if you don't have Win 11 then Ear Trumpet is still worth getting. Seems maybe now you may need to get it from GitHub (or Chocolatey) instead:

https://eartrumpet.app/

73

Max

Max,
Thank you. I think I got it figured out you made mention about windows setting and that got me thinking about VAC, it seems that I had set the sample rate and a couple other parameters too low when I was testing SDRUno and was getting some clipping. Adjusted those back to 48000 and then went and check sound levels with Windows, the levels there were below 50% brought them up to 75 and did upped SDRC audio output to 80% as you mentioned and now things sound a lot better. Thanks for the help!

Couple more questions if I may... On the attached picture. The blue circle around the volume control. the green bar is the current audio level but there is a gray bar that extends out more so into the slider, what is the gray bar showing? whats it purpose?

Also is there a manual for SDRC that I can download and read through, there are a lot of setting that I would like to adjust and I have but I have no idea if what I am doing is working at all. or more so if its helping at all?

Thanks again for the help.

WA3141SWL wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2024 3:40 am Couple more questions if I may... On the attached picture. The blue circle around the volume control. the green bar is the current audio level but there is a gray bar that extends out more so into the slider, what is the gray bar showing? whats it purpose?

Also is there a manual for SDRC that I can download and read through, there are a lot of setting that I would like to adjust and I have but I have no idea if what I am doing is working at all. or more so if its helping at all?

Ah yes, keep 48kHz sample rate throughout all audio chains is the essential key to success. Especially important on whatever you feed to the audio input for the TX DSP side as it uses that as a clock for other functions (Tune signal for example). Glad you sorted it out anyway. I still very much recommend Ear Trumpet especially if not running Win 11 but I do (run Win 11) and even then I prefer it to the "new improved" volume mixer.

Not 100% sure about the gray bar but observing behaviour I can only think green is average level and gray is peak level? Maybe Simon will come along and clarify?

SDRC has constant development so Simon has chosen to put the "manual" on his website. Unfortunately some of the changes have been so numerous and frequent that it does not fully document every function but it's pretty good, especially for the most commonly needed information.

Find it on Simon's main SDRC website here:

https://www.sdr-radio.com/

Hover cursor over the menu items at the top and many drop-downs and sub-dropdowns are revealed with all the information categorised. It's pretty good and is the closest there is.

73

Max

Thanks Max, I found the manual. appreciate the help

WA3141SWL wrote: Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:24 am Thanks Max, I found the manual. appreciate the help

NP! 73, Max