Triggers Audio Ducking in Windows 10/11

[stefhol]

Audio Ducking means it lowers the sytem sounds compared to the Signal sounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ducking

Bug Description

Audio Ducking is enabled my Parner in the call uses windows 10, I use Windows 11

We experience both this issue. It started out of nowhere

Steps to Reproduce

1. start call

Actual Result:

Audio Ducking is enabled

Expected Result:

Audio Ducking is disabled

Screenshots

Platform Info

Signal Version:

5.24.0

Operating System:

Windows 11 and Windows 10

Linked Device Version:

Iphone 8 and Iphone 11Verison 5.25.0.13

Link to Debug Log

https://debuglogs.org/636664b11b0233112dd6d2237f41158f3bdf9a5a9d705a3debafde8c93503059.gz

[EvanHahn-Signal]

You can get around this issue by changing the sound settings in Windows. Please try following these instructions to see if they help you: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/4492#issuecomment-688593543

[theOfficialJoeGG]

You can get around this issue by changing the sound settings in Windows. Please try following these instructions to see if they help you: #4492 (comment)

Can confirm that the audio setting in the Windows Sound control panel is not respected. Setting it to "Mute" completely disables audio, but putting it to "Do nothing" still causes ducked audio. Only seems to affect the audio device Signal is attached to as well, as I use a Virtual Audio cable to avoid voice appearing in recordings I make, but my main desktop sound is unaffected.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been closed due to inactivity.

[Jerald]

This is still happening as of signal desktop 5.62.0 with Windows 10 build 19044.2006.

Can this be reopened and taken a look at? It's quite frustrating, I actively have to stop using Signal to talk when I'm trying to watch or listen to things while talking to people.

[jrose-signal]

Hi, @Jerald. Can you share more info about your audio settings? In particular, we'd like to know what output devices you have available and which is selected, both system-wide and any per-app customizations you might have made; all of this is on the "Sound mixer options" page (at least, that's what it's called in Windows 11; hopefully it's something similar in Windows 10, which I don't have on hand at the moment).

Besides that, please double-check what setting you have for the system-wide "Communications" ducking (Sound settings > Advanced: "More sound settings" > Communications). And finally, if you're willing to share, a debug log would be helpful just to verify that Signal is using the Windows audio system like we think it is.

Thank you for bringing this up again; hopefully we can track down what's different on your system from ours!

[Jerald]

Seems this issue is persistent: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/6142

The ducking built into windows (the "Communication" tab of sound settings) has been off. There are no per-program audio adjustments I've made. The only non-disabled audio devices I have are my headphones (the real ones I use), an unplugged random device I forgot to disable, and the "Speakers" device from nvidia broadcast. My audio driver is Realtek v6.0.9075.1.

Here is my log: https://debuglogs.org/desktop/5.62.0/4d4b7400655a0f3723acd82cc9c1e0f02c9d8ad28e7301d23ce19870c96ee6e9.gz

[AlbinoGeek]

Issue still exists... It's ignoring Windows' setting.

[nocawy]

The issue still exists (for the past 2 years). Automatic volume adjusting in Windows 10 is disabled, but signal still reduces volume of other applications when voice or video-call starts.

Even manually re-adjusting the value in Volume Mixer doesn't bring the volume back up. The only solution I found is to use the Sound->Communications menu to select "Mute all other sounds", click "Apply", then select "Do nothing" and "Apply" again. I have to do it every time Signal starts a call. This workaround appears to solve the issue until Windows is restarted.

This doesn't happen for WhatsApp desktop calls. This does in fact happen with WhatsApp desktop app as well.

[Miguel-Signal]

Hey @nocawy, could you also check if disabling audio enhancements resolves the issue for you?

1. Open Settings (Win+I).
2. Click/tap on System on the left side, and click/tap on Sound on the right side.
3. Click/tap on All sound devices.
4. Click/tap on the device you want to disable audio enhancements for.
5. Select Device Default Effects (off or disable).

Let me know how it goes,

[nocawy]

@Miguel-Signal

Sadly it didn't resolve the issue. The settings look slightly different for me (Windows 10 Pro, 21H2): The above setting had no effect.

Doing the workaround from my previous post resolves the issue until Windows is restarted.

[AlbinoGeek]

Neither does anything for me, at this point I've had to run signal through a virtual audio driver, and then copy the result of that to my headset, so that it stops *** with my audio settings.

Please stop this madness, it's absolute Insanity when using Bluetooth devices, or just trying to do literally anything while on a signal phone call.

On Sun., Dec. 11, 2022, 1:35 p.m. Nocawy, @.***> wrote:

@Miguel-Signal https://github.com/Miguel-Signal

Sadly it didn't resolve the issue. The settings looks slightly different for me (Windows 10 Pro, 21H2): [image: rundll32_2022-12-01_18 29 55 170] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1131732/206929923-3d18a041-1224-4ad6-9449-8a490c890b1a.png The above setting had no effect.

Doing the workaround from my previous post resolves the issue until Windows is restarted.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/5649#issuecomment-1345662400, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAOSNPMLVTLKN3UWHVOP6Q3WMZCJRANCNFSM5IKPTRYA . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[Miguel-Signal]

@nocawy Could you please write in from within the app so we can better understand what the issue is. Go to Signal Settings (profile) > Help > Contact us. Make sure to include the debug log as a link.

If the email template is empty when using the in-app Contact us option, fill out this form: https://support.signal.org/hc/requests/new

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[AlbinoGeek]

Issue still exist,

On Mon, Mar 13, 2023, 3:01 p.m. stale[bot] @.***> wrote:

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/5649#issuecomment-1467025379, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAOSNPKHXBD5BLYMHQMSDUTW36KKDANCNFSM5IKPTRYA . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

[bmbmjmdm]

Also having this problem

[Spikeone]

same problem here

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been closed due to inactivity.

[Drunkula]

Late November 23 and I'm still having the audio ducking problem. I'm trying to use Signal instead of Discord while streaming and it ducks the game audio down and my TTS goes so low I can't hear any comments.

Communications is set to do no ducking.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@Drunkula Can you provide more information about your system, perhaps a debug log from Desktop after this happens? With or without a debug log, your specific Windows version and audio devices might help as well.

[AlbinoGeek]

This is one of those things that confuses me about development sometimes, as a Developer myself. This one feels open and closed. While I don't know why it happens, it's a 100% duplication from a fresh install of Windows 10. (I have to assume you've identified Signal in WASAPI as a communication app, which causes this to happen unless you set the exclusion flag, but that's only a random guess.)

I literally just installed a Windows 10 Pro N machine (English US) today, which is a pretty standard set of installer choices for someone in North America; and I install chocolatey to install signal. Immediately, I get the ducking issue, making signal useless for me.

I then go to sound settings and disable ducking, of course

Screenshots

 

Then I restart signal, just in case it somehow holds onto settings (you know, basic troubleshooting.) I even try restarting the computer, just in case. However, I get on a call, and 100% reproduction, I am getting ducking, still, even though it's disabled. (btw, Skype also does this.)

---

Alright, now for a workaround solution for those affected; Install VoiceMeeter

What is VoiceMeeter?

  VoiceMeeter is the successor to **virtual audio cable**, a Windows software that augments and enhances your audio experience, and generally increase your quality of life on Windows in general. Ever wondered how streamers split their audio up and record voices separate of game audio and music? This is one of the ways to do so.

What do you mean Install VoiceMeeter? How does that fix my problem?

This is not an ad, I am not related to Voicemeeter or their company/group, I just find it essential to replace Windows' shit audio handling with a third-party software as a matter of course, to fix issues with other third-party software (like signal) having issues with audio routing in Windows. Expand spoiler for some basic setup guide on voicemeeter

VoiceMeeter Setup Guide (abridged)

1) Install VoiceMeeter 2) Click **Hardware Input 1** (top left) and choose your primary microphone. 3) (optional) Click **Hardware Input 2** and choose a secondary mic if you have one. 4) Click **A1** (top right) to choose `WDM: Your Sound Device` (speakers, etc.) 5) (optional) Click **A2** and choose your secondary sound device (headset, etc.) 6) Highlight (click green/blue) the A1/B1/B2/B3 as follows in the image below:  You will notice I only use **Hardware Input 1** and **A1**, because this machine doesn't have multiple microphones or output devices (it's not my main rig, just a random computer I wanted to install signal on, and had to install an entire audio routing system to work around... but hey, voicemeeter is also great software, I can change people's volumes, even **remove their background noise** so I don't have to hear it, win-win. **One final step is required**: Change your Windows DEFAULT audio devices to VoiceMeeter, so that audio comes from Windows --> VoiceMeeter, then from VoiceMeeter --> Your devices. See the below screenshot as example:   And in programs like Signal, make sure they are using voicemeeter too. **Now you will have no more ducking issues, ever. No applications are allowed to duck anymore, since they no longer have the ability to control their own volume, you can now use voicemeeter to change the volume between things. Likewise, Voicemeeter doesn't break Windows volume, so that still works too.**

---

I apologize if this was too off-topic -- I've tried to put the majority inside a spoiler tag so it's not distracting, but I feel it's important, because if people Google and find this thread and are upset/annoyed like I am, then see the issue has been here for years and still exists, well... here's a workaround that doesn't rely on anyone to fix it, nor Microsoft to fix the bug in the first place, lol.

To be fair, this isn't even signal's fault if it's the WASAPI bug. But signal could "fix" the issue by mis-reporting their application as "not communications" (such as Media) -- but this wouldn't be great either, as it would break other features in Windows, like Phone Link, and ducking on other apps.

I hope this helps someone!

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[bmbmjmdm]

Bump

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[krizzzgaming]

Issue is still present after more than a year or so.