Can you downmix Windows 7 sound to mono?

Question

I need my Windows 7 64 bit machine to output mono downmixed sound. Downmixed, not just single channel (I'm deaf in one ear).

Is there any possibility to force such behavior. I'm looking for a software solution to mix two channels into one.

I know that some media players have this functionality, but I'd like the whole system (ie games, flash applications, etc) to produce downmixed audio. (If none exist then just one for Spotify and Windows Media Player would be handy).

Cheers.

Solution

I'm deaf in one ear too. I haven't found a general solution for Windows 7, but there is a solution for Windows Media Player:

• Start WMP and go into the "Now Playing" view.
• Right click anywhere in the main window and choose "Enhancements -> SRS WOW effects".
• Click the "Turn on" option.

I don't know why this works, but it does. If you drag the TruBass and WOW Effect sliders all the way to the left, it seems to avoid messing with the audio quality (other than downmixing the left and right channels to mono).

Comments

[Greg Jennings]

This may be of help: superuser.com/questions/117494/…

[Breandán]

Cheers, don't have those options exactly, I can go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound and select my device on the Playback tab and hit Configure. This gives me the option to Select and Audio channel, problem is, only Stereo is available, no mono :(

[kumarharsh]

Fantastic... I was just fiddling around with WMP's controls, trying to find something like Downmix to Mono (which i remember was a functionality in Winamp or KMPlayer...) Anyways, your solution is perfect. Works like a charm. I'm not deaf in an ear, but my earphones behave differently when I plug them into my computer (I think Waves MaxxAudio has something to do with that) so I can listen to just Music perfectly, but not to Human voice which is garbled at 50% balance. I have to manually change the Balance to 100% Left or Right to listen to voices.

[beppe9000]

I dont' have it in my Jabra headphones...