Zinc emu

[Burchman82]

Hey guys,

the description pretty much sums it up, anyone notice that when playing a zinc game its about 10x the volume than other games? my volume settings are pretty twitchy on my cab and i dont like to change it, but zinc is so much louder its almost unbearable.

anyone else have this problem? or a rectification for it? i tried using a different sound.znc that supposidly had a volume option (which i did find) but it made no difference.

[bkenobi]

Audio is a bit of a balancing act. There are so many applications that we want to run at the same volume level. It seems like there should be a way to run an application that automatically levels the sound. Unfortunately, I know of no program to do it. The only 2 things I can suggest are playing with things until you get them close enough or installing a volume control somewhere accessible. I err on the side of quiet, but it does get annoying when you can't hear anything in some games.

I did a quick google search for "automatic volume leveling" and found a few interesting products. In one of my cabinets, I use the TV's speakers for audio and connect the PC's audio out to the TV via RCA lines. There is at least one product that I saw that could automatically level out high and low volumes that was basically a box you plug in between. I don't like that idea particularly since the box doesn't know what should be heard. Another option is software on the PC that automatically adjusts the volume. I like that idea, but it does take system resources. One that I saw was called "NoiseNakPlus" and could do both date/time and per-application based leveling. This is great and all, but I bet a FREE script could be put together to do it pretty easily. That's just a cursory investigation and needs more effort really.

[headkaze]

There is a util I wrote called "Volume" which you can run before and after an emulator and it will remember the volume and set it back to the last level you set when running the emulator. The only problem I see is that if your using GameEx inbuilt Zinc support there is no way to load an app before and after it. Anyway the program is on the main GameEx website under the utils section.

[bkenobi]

I noticed that there is no launch before/after for Zinc, Model2, or Daphne. How do you work around that?

Also, I found another program that says it can do everything automatically (haven't tried it yet though as I'm at work). AutoMixer

[Burchman82]

thanks for that hedkaze, i remember seeing your app. but came to the same conclusion that you just spoke about ;-)

ive done a bit more research and it seems im not alone, it just outputs too damn loud compared to other emus/apps. i have my mixer turned right down to have it at a decent level as it is.... putting zinc in the mix just makes it pretty much unplayable (unless i disregard the neigbours with my 800w amp)

EDIT:

Just had a look at that Automixer program, turns out it only works for sound cards with the little volume display that comes up in your mixer... (not mine)

[bkenobi]

Hmmm, that's disappointing. I was planning on taking a look at it this afternoon. Well, I could always just script something in AHK. Perhaps I could use HK's volume program with an AHK script that watches for the active app. That way, if it sees zinc or Daphne, it will adjust the volume since GameEx can't do it right now (without a loader anyway). On the other hand, maybe a loader is easier... I really just wanted to have something that would automatically up/down the system volume based on the audio being output. That way quiet MAME games would be equalized with loud ones and everything else. Awe shucks, back to the drawing board.