Whenever Yeesah or Esher gave one of their speeches, the voices were mostly inaudible. There would be sudden increases in volume occasionally, allowing me to make a few words, but mostly I couldn't hear what they were saying.

I fiddled with the various in-game audio settings, but it didn't help much.

Then, I found the problem on the "Speakers" tab of the Windows "Advanced Audio Properties" dialog box (get there by clicking Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds). The "Speaker Setup" was set at "5.1 Surround Sound Speakers". I changed it to "Stereo Headphones", and all the voices became perfectly clear.

collinsc1,

do you have a 5.1 sound card and speaker system on your computer? because Myst V does output 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. if you have this kind of setup (for example, 5.1 speakers and an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard) then you should be able to leave it set at 5.1 and still get good sound in-game.

Hi myster3,

Yes, I do have a suitable sound card. But I only have 2 speakers connected. And I only use headphones when playing the game. So I guess the PC was sending all the dialog to the center channel, which I don't have. So I was only hearing portions of the dialog, when part of the sound would come from the left or right channel.

Problem solved. If you have a Creative Audigy 2ZX or similar sound card as I have. Creative has a new driver released Sept. 30.

AudCon_PCApp_LB_1_20_23.exe

7.75MB and it works perfectly. Good Luck.

This answer is a repeat of a similar question.

collinsc1,

yep, that was definitely your problem! luckily you figured it out before going crazy... if you are interested, newegg.com has these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121118
for only $46. i have them myself, they are very good speakers for the money... and let me tell you - Myst V sounds incredible in 5.1 surround!

happy gaming,

-myster3

Hi again myster3,

Thanks for the link. That certainly looks like a bargain for those speakers, and it is tempting. It's just that I've always found Myst games to be more immersive when I use headphones, so I can block out other sounds better. But I have often wished I had "quadrophonic" headphones.

I saw recently a set of headphones that have small microphones set into the outside of them, they pick up noise and use signals to cancel it out, basically blocking outside sounds with anti-sounds. clever eh...?

Hi Romeo,

Yes, those are called "noise-cancelling" headphone, and they've been around for quite a few years. They are mostly intended to reduce constant, low-frequency noise (such as the roar of the engines on an airplane). They don't work on sounds that change rapidly, such as screaming kids.

However, I did just order myself some Dolby Surround 5.1 headphones! Here's what I ordered:
Turtle Beach Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound Headphones

and here's where I got 'em:
Amazon product page
Now I can hopefully enjoy the improved sound of Dolby 5.1, and still have the fully-immersive quality of headphones!

collinsc1,

hey, be sure to check back here and let us know how you like the headphones. it has been a year or so since i researched them, but i remember reading that many of those 5.1 headphones were less than spectacular. maybe they have improved with time? anyway - let us know how they sound!

-myster3

quote:

hey, be sure to check back here and let us know how you like the headphones.

OK, I'm checking back in. And I'm sorry to say that I'm not exactly thrilled with the headphones.

They are basically working. If I change my Windows "Speaker Setup" to "5.1 Surround Sound Speakers", I can now hear the voices coming from the Center Channel, which I couldn't hear before with my regular stereo headphones.

And my sound card has a speaker-test utility that makes sound come from each speaker one-at-a-time, so I can verify that the headphones really do have all the channels that they claim.

But when I'm playing Myst, I just don't really notice any improvement. If there's a difference, it's too subtle for me, and I would need to instantly switch back & forth between the headphones to hear a difference.

So... if I had bought the headphones at a local store, I would probably return them. But since I bought from Amazon, and would have to pay postage to return them, I'll just keep them.

one way to test them in-game is to get to one of the "speeches" and while the speaker is talking, slowly rotate around. on a good 5.1 set-up you should be able to distinctly tell if the speaker is in front of you, or behind you, or to the front-L/R or rear-L/R without looking at the screen.

I tried to "test" them as you suggested, but once the "speech" starts, I no longer have control, so I can't turn around.