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Assigning programs to different sound cards

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  • Sound Cards
  • Speakers
  • Headphones
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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November 11, 2011 4:00:43 PM

So for various reasons I was needing to assign certain programs to different sound cards. The majority of programs do not allow me to set which sound card I want them to use. Usually the load the program then change the default sound source works but that is just annoying. I want my game sounds to come from my speakers and my music to come from my headphones. The specific programs I am talking about are MW3 and Spotify but looking for a program that will assign more than just those two programs. And for clarification yes the headphones and speakers run off different sound cards.

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November 11, 2011 4:06:36 PM

^^ I know EXACTLY what you mean, but very, very few programs allow you to assign audio to the non-default sound output device. That being said, it *should* be possible to do what you want, as most music playback software allows you to set which audio output device to use. For example, you can configure Windows Media Player to always output to whatever sound device your headphones are hooked up to.
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November 12, 2011 6:51:54 AM

Why use 2 soundcards if I might ask?
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November 12, 2011 4:52:26 PM

gnomio said:
Why use 2 soundcards if I might ask?


Makes it easier to assign where you want certain programs to play through. One does my surround sound and the other does my headphones. Before keeping them separate was a bigger pain. Now on programs like Ventrilo I can just select the sound card I want the sound to come through and be done with it. No setting things up over and over each time I change the smallest thing.
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November 13, 2011 1:27:15 AM

rans0m00 said:
So for various reasons I was needing to assign certain programs to different sound cards. The majority of programs do not allow me to set which sound card I want them to use. Usually the load the program then change the default sound source works but that is just annoying. I want my game sounds to come from my speakers and my music to come from my headphones. The specific programs I am talking about are MW3 and Spotify but looking for a program that will assign more than just those two programs. And for clarification yes the headphones and speakers run off different sound cards.


What OS are choosing to do this through?
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November 13, 2011 1:52:35 AM

rans0m00 said:
Makes it easier to assign where you want certain programs to play through. One does my surround sound and the other does my headphones. Before keeping them separate was a bigger pain. Now on programs like Ventrilo I can just select the sound card I want the sound to come through and be done with it. No setting things up over and over each time I change the smallest thing.

So your using two devices with two in/outputs and two different clocks? I know Dj programs can utilize but they have sync functions
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November 13, 2011 3:52:40 PM

halcyon said:
What OS are choosing to do this through?

Win 7
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November 13, 2011 3:57:19 PM

gnomio said:
So your using two devices with two in/outputs and two different clocks? I know Dj programs can utilize but they have sync functions


The sound coming out of them are not the same so I don't see why they would really need to sync.
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November 16, 2011 10:36:27 PM

So I am guessing from the lack of responses no one knows of a program to do this with..... slightly surprised since I can't be one of the few that uses two cards and has run into this issue.
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November 17, 2011 10:59:17 AM

^^ To my knowledge, there is no way to override a program from using the default sound output device if it doesn't allow you to manually select another sound device.

And again, most music playback software will allow you to select which output device to use, so for music playback, you usually can accomplish this.

And yes, I wish this wasn't the case, especially since Windows itself seems capable of handling many audio output devices at one time...
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November 17, 2011 11:12:33 AM

rans0m00 said:
The sound coming out of them are not the same so I don't see why they would really need to sync.

they still using clocks. Have you tried looking in the sound and devices in the control panel? under options you can select what sound output to use for what.just look at the different tabs
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November 17, 2011 1:32:45 PM

^^ You can't do it per-application from the Control Panel, no are there any application switches that allows selection of a specific audio output device. You can only accomplish what the OP wants if the program allows you to select with audio output device to use.
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June 4, 2013 10:20:01 PM

There is a sound server software for linux called pulse audio which now has windows support. It can do exactly what you want to do. You can manage multiple cards and make certain programs always use that card. Last time I used it it didn't have the capability to create program "groups" and just set a group to use a certain card, but if you posted a suggestion to the people at pulseaudio.org I'm sure they'd look into it. Also another thing to look into is jack audio which is a linux native program which also has windows support now. Jack has a much higher learning curve than pulseaudio though but has a much better feature set.
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September 26, 2014 10:04:57 PM

Hello,

I've got a solution for you, check CheVolume : www.chevolume.com

Here is a screenshot from the website :



Hope it will help you.

Have a nice day
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