Mono Anyone?

No, not that Mono…

I’m no audio guru but it seems strange that Windows supports stereophonic, quadraphonic, etc but doesn’t support a monophonic speaker configuration. I know it sounds lame. Why on earth would you not want stereo? Well I have kids sleeping upstairs and I’m working in the basement trying to listen to Third Day in one ear and I’m losing half the song, so to speak.

Am I missing something?  

© 2007 Kenny Kerr

Published Thursday, May 24, 2007 12:59 AM by KennyKerr

Comments

# re: Mono Anyone?

Thursday, May 24, 2007 2:02 AM by Ben Hollis

You should be able to bring up "Speakers" in your audio control panel, click the "Balance" button, and pull it all the way to one side. That'll mix the stereo into one channel.

# re: Mono Anyone?

Thursday, May 24, 2007 2:22 AM by KennyKerr

Ben: thanks for the comment. I assume you’re referring to XP. I’m using Vista and it doesn’t have the “balance” trackbar found on the “Volume Control” window on Windows XP nor have I found a similar setting...

# re: Mono Anyone?

Thursday, May 24, 2007 3:03 AM by jon

Right-click on the volume icon in the taskbar and choose Playback Devices, locate the appropriate entry and click Properties, then on the Levels tab click Balance.

# re: Mono Anyone?

Thursday, May 24, 2007 5:08 AM by Ben Hollis

Jon is right, I was referring to Vista.

# re: Mono Anyone?

Thursday, May 24, 2007 8:10 AM by otsdr

you could use a pair of good headphones...

# re: Mono Anyone?

Thursday, May 24, 2007 10:05 AM by KennyKerr

The Level tab for my speaker device doesn’t have anything related to balance. Perhaps my audio drivers aren’t up to the task... On different systems the Levels tab has different properties but none of my systems have a Balance option.

# re: Mono Anyone?

Friday, May 25, 2007 3:43 AM by jon

img267.imageshack.us/.../balanceso5.png

You don't see that? Weird.

# re: Mono Anyone?

Friday, May 25, 2007 10:33 AM by KennyKerr

jon: Nope. Check this out: weblogs.asp.net/.../NoBalance.png

# re: Mono Anyone?

Saturday, May 26, 2007 8:58 PM by jon

I give up then, sorry :)

Maybe uninstall/reinstall sound card, etc?