Get better sound with Vista

SP1 tweaks
Microsoft made some tweaks to the audio system with the release of Service Pack 1 for Vista and this, combined with newer drivers from manufacturers, seems to have cured many of the audio problems.

If you’re still experiencing problems, our advice is to first make sure you’ve installed Service Pack 1 and all the other latest operating system updates, and second to make sure you’ve upgraded your soundcard’s or soundchip’s drivers to the latest version available.

You should be able to find the latest drivers for your card by visiting the support section of either your card or computer manufacturer’s website.

While these audio problems are annoying, they are to be expected when a new audio architecture is introduced.

Apple had similar, if less extreme problems, when it moved to its Core Audio system with the switch to OSX and many of us can remember similar driver issues with the move from Windows 98 to XP.

The new audio technologies added to Vista haven’t all been a disaster. As well as the update of the underlying audio system, Microsoft has made some useful tweaks to how the volume control panel works and added some neat audio tools and effects.

But while these updates have been far more successful, many people either don’t know they exist or don’t understand how to use them. So let’s take a look at them in more detail.

One of the most basic, but useful features is the mixer control panel. In previous versions of Windows the mixer panel only allowed you to control hardware volume­ – the level of your soundcard’s audio output or the level of the output from your soundcard’s onboard synthesiser.

In Vista, Microsoft has changed this to allow you to control individual audio streams from different applications.

For example, when you’re listening to music in Windows Media Player you can turn down or mute the volume of the email alert in Outlook so you don’t hear a ‘ping’ if an email turns up midway through a music track.

To access the application mixer click on the speaker icon in the taskbar and then click on the mixer link at the bottom of the Device volume slider.

This will open a new mixer panel with faders to control the individual volume levels of each open application.

The main volume control now includes an integrated volume meter that rises and falls in green along the length of the device mixer panel.

This can act as an aid in troubleshooting audio problems; if you can see the meter moving up and down then Windows is producing audio, the fault must lie with some other elements of your audio system.