Upscaling audio from 2.1 to 5.1 in Windows 7

Question

I'm currently using the onboard sound on my Asus P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard (SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio) and was wondering if there was any way to make either windows or the audio drivers upscale 2-channel audio to 5-channel audio (basic duplication would suffice)?

I was using a creative sound card but got fed up with the memory leaks and poor sound quality.

To clarify: I have a 5.1 sound system and the onboard card supports 5.1 output. I have 5.1 games and applications from which I want full 5.1 sound; However, I also have some applications (music) which is only stereo, which I would like to upscale to 5.1 without losing the 5.1 sound from other applications.

Solution

You need to use an option called Speaker Fill - follow these steps in Windows 7:

1. Open control panel --> Sound
2. Click on the your device, and then click properties
3. Click on the 'Enhancements' tab
4. Tick the 'Speaker Fill' box, and then preview the sound

This basically creates a mirror image of your front speakers into your rear speakers

Also I believe you can get to these settings by playing something in WMP and then going to the now playing view, and right clicking on the album art, and choosing enhancements

Comments

[chronos]

Headphones exist with stereo-to-5.1 converters; those converters usually come as a separate box between 3.5 plug and the headphones. Maybe those will work for you. For basic duplication, there are 3.5mm splitters with 1 male 3.5 plug and 2 female 3.5 sockets. That should give you 4 channels with 1 splitter, and 6 channels with 2 splitters :)

[user1984103]

@chronos A stereo-to-5.1 defeats the purpose, as that would strip the extra channels from applications that provide it.

[chronos]

Sorry, that wasn't clear before the edit. Have you had a look at superuser.com/questions/96796/… ?

[user1984103]

That is winamp-specific or realtek-specific (not the chipset I have), and I was looking for something on the system level, because while that works for the example, I have other applications I would like to see affected (flash, youtube, java, and games which do not have surround sound)

[Piotr Kula]

I have seen an option in the SoundMax Application somewhere before where you can tell it how to handle MONO/STEREO to your 5.1 Output. Like Stereo - Use all channels. Stereo USe Front or Back/ disable WOOFER. post processing, pre processing. Are you using that Application provided with the MB?

[user1984103]

@ppumkin My SoundMax may have been out of date, but I do not recall that option existing when I last checked (admittedly, more than a year ago). I've replaced most of the hardware in my desktop, and no longer have a soundmax audio chip. My new motherboard supports window's "Speaker Fill" enhancement, which does exactly what I need.

[bobobobo]

Does not appear on my computer. The only way I got this to work is through a Winamp plug-in.

[falter]

Which version of Windows are you using?

[user1984103]

this does not do what you think it does. This simulates 5.1 audio over 2.1 speakers.

[user1984103]

Virtual Surround is the simulation of surround sound over a stereo audio output. Since replacing my motherboard, I have noticed a new enhancement, named 'Speaker Fill', which does do what I want.

[Luca Piciullo]

I have an external semi-old Creative sound card (Audigy NX 2). It has official Win7 driver, but this is not feature-full. In this the "Enhancements" tab is replaced by Createive's one, and missing speaker fill function. However the 7.1 and 5.1 channels is available, 5.1 films and foobar2000 can make sound in 5.1. Have anyone any solution for this? Or virtual audio device with device mapping + fill up? - Some app can not fill-up speakers (e.g. Spotify).

[Jonathan]

For those who can't find the "Speaker Fill" option (which appears in 5.1 speaker mode only), I know some motherboard distributors (e.g. MSI) have drivers you can download for your sound card which have options like this.

[DarkDiamond]

Welcome to SuperUser! Please give an explanation on how exactly your proposed answer solves the question, by giving sources, a selfwritten short overview of the tool you would use, and at best quotes from the actual manual or other source that states how the tool can be used. Short answers like this one that only say „use that piece of software“ are very likely to be deleted.