Get The Most Out Of Your Audio
YOU’LL NEED THIS
WINDOWS 7 + Realtek Audio Console
AUDIO LISTENING IS A HUGE PART of day to day life for most people. Whether it is simply for personal use, or part of your professional role, it is important that what you are listening to is of a high quality. If you’ve got your headphones plugged in for long durations every day, of course you are going to want to get the most out of them. Having higher quality audio can get you more involved in what you are listening to, and immerse you in the experience—your music will reveal more layers to you, it will heighten your awareness while gaming, and hopefully, it will make any form of listening more of a pleasure.
How do you listen to audio? Is it through earphones, headphones, or speakers? There are many settings you can use to get the most out of what you already have. In this tutorial, we will show you how to get the best audio quality out of your PC through the Realtek Audio Console software, to get your audio peripherals pumping out the best sound they can. Hopefully, after this tutorial you’ll be able to tweak your audio settings to exactly suit your needs. –SAM LEWIS
1 WELCOME HOME
Don’t make rash decisions before attempting to improve your audio—this tutorial may save you a few bucks. If you have your eyes set on a beautiful pair of headphones, just try this first. You may be expecting more out of your current headphones, and some simple settings may be holding them back from delivering the best performance they can provide.
>> The software we’ll be using is the Realtek Audio Console (Ours has the ROG skin but yours should look similar). In basic terms it enables you to adjust your computer’s audio settings all in one program. When you open it you are greeted with the home main menu. This will display all of your playback devices and recording devices, which are also listed on the left-side panel. Through this home screen, you will be able to switch between outputs if you have more than one, and you can do the same with inputs. Other options include the ability to mute, change the volume of your selected output or input device, or go into the settings of your devices. Click the Settings button of your chosen device to open up the main settings for your headphones or speakers.
2 BALANCE AND IMPEDANCE
Once you’re on your selected device menu, you can see all the settings you can alter to suit your audio needs. At the top of the screen is your device’s main volume—pretty selfexplanatory—followed by a Mute button, and then a left/right Audio-balancing option [ Image A]. In some cases, this can be rather handy. An old set of headphones or speakers may be unbalanced due to usage over time, or one driver may be pumping out more than the other, so a slight tweak can sort this out right away. It’s a very handy solution that can save you from ditching your old peripherals unnecessarily.
>> Below these settings, you can find out your device’s impedance sensing figure. Finding this figure out can be important to help you understand what you may need to do to improve your audio setup. It can very quickly become confusing but here’s a tiny bit of science: most headphones with an impedance level of 25ohm and below require less power to push high audio levels. Low-impedance headphones work best for portable uses, such as listening to music on your cellphone, laptop, or maybe even plugging a pair into your gaming controllers. That’s why most headphones have a low impedance level.
>> As the impedance level starts to increase, more power is needed to deliver high audio levels. Highimpedence headphones are intended for use at home or in a studio. When used with the right DAC/amplifier it can push more sound out of the headphones, offering a clearer sound, stronger bass, and overall better sound.
3 MORE SETTINGS
Now let’s take a look at the settings options below. Here you’ll find the Amplify Level settings. The Performance option should be selected here—you ideally don’t want to virtually increase the sound, as this can sometimes cause a lack of clarity. The other two options, Powerful and Extreme, both increase the output volume. If you do find that the maximum volume is still too low when using the Performance option, then try either of these two options, with Extreme being the loudest.
>> The next option we see is for sound effects. The Sound Effects options may vary depending on your PC. The first option for our PC is Sonic Studio 3. When you click on this option it will open Sonic Studio 3 in a new window. The Studio section of the software lands you on the Basic Mode screen. Here you can play around with equalizers and create a custom equalizer. Listen to a variety of music while tweaking the equalizers to get your ideal sound [ Image B]. Underneath that you’ll find the Sonic Studio Effects, which can be toggled on or off. There are some precreated effects for music, movies, gaming, and communication. You can alter these further by playing with the sliders.
>> Then there’s the Advanced Mode screen. This is where you can find the Device Manager, enabling you to switch between output devices, just like with the Realtek Audio Console home screen. It also has the Application Manager. This gives you the option to set an equalizer for a specific application—for example, if a certain game sounds too bass-heavy, you can set an equalizer for this application with less bass—problem solved.
>> Back in the Realtek program, the option next to Sonic Studio 3 is called Sonic Radar 3, but we won’t be needing that for this tutorial, so don’t sweat just yet!
4 DEFAULT FORMAT
Now we’re getting into the juicy stuff, the option you need to change to know that your PC is set correctly to push out the highest audio it can from stock. The Default Format setting is the option that is usually set by default to Low. It’s where you can find the sample rate and bit depth of your audio output. The higher the bit depth, the more data will be captured to recreate the sound more accurately. The lower the bit depth, the more information will be lost, resulting in reduced quality. The same goes for the sample rate—the higher the better. So whatever your highest option is, go for it. This will ensure that you have the best audio quality you can get.
>> Paired with a custom equalizer, you should now be set for a clearer audio experience. Your audio should be pushing out the best it can without it being restricted. It seems odd that this isn’t set to the highest by default.
5 CONFIGURATIONS
Finally, we have Speaker Configuration. Depending on your speakers, you can select the correct configuration—for example, stereo, quadraphonic, 5.1, or 7.1 surround sound. Clicking the Room Correction option enables you to virtually place your speakers in the software so that it matches your layout. This will correctly set them up, giving you a better listening experience [ Image C].
>> Realtek Audio Console is an excellent, free tool that lets you manage all of your audio needs in one place. It’s easy to navigate around, and can make your audio exactly tailored to your needs. Without spending anything, you should be able to make the most out of your existing setup. Always make sure that the files you are listening to are of the highest quality too—musicstreaming sites such as Tidal offer extremely highquality music listening compared to many competitors. Audio is crucial for lots of things, so don’t settle for anything but the best—fully immerse yourself in your music, gaming, work, or whatever you’re getting up to.
As you are probably all aware, gaming today is quite different to its humble beginnings. The market now is mainly online multiplayer and is an often highly competitive environment for players. Split-screen mode is a mere speck in the horizon of our rear-view mirror, and the prospect of having your buddies over to share a storybased game on the big screen seems like something from the distant past. Maybe this is just a sad reality of growing up, or the unalterable pathway that gaming has taken.
Online-only games have spiked, and the demise of two-player multiplayer is well underway. For people with no internet or poor connectivity, gaming as a whole is becoming more of an inconvenience to enjoy. That’s not to say in any way that I don’t enjoy this new era of gaming, just that I would happily welcome the social side of traditional multiplayer to return, alongside this new online age.
With the way the world has been in the last year, it was inevitable that online multiplayer gaming would thrive. It has been so important for people to stay in touch with each other, and thankfully this has been helped through gaming. But hopefully with the world gradually returning to normality, we will see an increase of traditional multiplayer in games from developers once again.