Headphone Surround Sound gets disabled when loading certain games

[Scryder]

So I've had an issue that's been bothering me for quite some time. When I play games with my headphone on, on loading some games, the surround sound on the headphones gets disabled, and it switches to Stereo (I think!).

I normally play games Windowed, with some other video playing on the side of my screen; Either on Youtube, one of the streaming services or on VLC or other media player. As soon as the game loads, the sound changes from Surround to something else. It sounds like Surround gets switched off and it's quite jarring. If I alt-tab to make the video the active window, the Surround Sound is back.

Is there a way to not have this happening? I've only noticed it in some games, not all, but for the life of me, can't figure out what's causing it. The latest I noticed it in is The Outer Worlds. I tolerate it, but it is getting a bit annoying.
The other thing is when the game loads, the volume drops... so I increase the volume. BUT then after I exit the game, Surround Sound is back on and it's really loud sometimes.


I currently use a Logitech G430 headset. With Surround sound turned on via the G HUB app. I've noticed the same problem with my Corsair H2100 Dolby 7.1 Wireless Gaming Headset in the past. I don't use this anymore... the batteries are too heavy!

Any help in resolving this will be much appreciated. Thanks.

[Millennium]

Do you also have this issue in games running side by side that support surround sound? Like (I think) Battlefield 4?

[Scryder]

Do you also have this issue in games running side by side that support surround sound? Like (I think) Battlefield 4?

Thank you for replying.

So I tried the other game I noticed it side by side with The Outer Wilds, which was Civ VI. Afterwards I tried with both games and a video on VLC (to make sure I was playing a 5.1 audio) and then youtube. No change... as soon as I switch to whichever game, as soon as one game has the active window, the sound switches.

I also noticed something in Civ VI. That game now has a launcher. When I'm watching a video on youtube, as soon as the Launcher comes on, the sound switches. Before the game even loads.

Another thing I noticed is as soon as I press and hold Alt+Tab (without letting go), the full Surround is back...

One last thing, in Game for both, there's no option for changing type of Audio (Stereo/5.1 etc). So I checked PC Gaming Wiki for the Audio setting on these games (I don't know if this will help resolve anything, but adding for completeness):
* The Outer Worlds - Surround sound - 5.0 surround. Non-front speakers tend to be utilized primarily during combat.
* Civ VI - Surround sound - 5.1 Supported, follows windows speaker settings

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I think I might have partially diagnosed what's causing the problem. On both headsets, the Surround Sound is simulated by the software. For my current G430, the G HUB software does this. It has an "Enable Surround Sound" button. It's possible this software is getting overridden when these games are loading and become the active window.

So another thing I tried was to disable that button. This means the sound is not modified by the G HUB software. This time no problems. However, I want the simulated surround sound. It's part of the reason I got these headsets. So I'm back to my original conundrum, is there a fix? I have a feeling there is something in common with games that are doing this, but I just can't figure it out!

This is a screenshot of the G HUB software (changing any setting here yields no success):

[Millennium]

I would suggest you reach out to Logitech Support. I'm sorry, no idea why this would be happening as you describe.

[Scryder]

Thanks @Millennium. It's alright, it's probably Win10 being Win10. I appreciate you reading through my wall of text above.

I was hoping someone else here might have noticed this... guess I'm probably one of the few that play games windowed and have a video playing at the same time (on the same screen btw) to notice this.