# Realtek driver won't upmix audio from stereo to 5.1



## BEP (Sep 15, 2017)

Hello, I need some help with my upmixing problem. I have 5.1 speakers connected correctly to my onboard analog outputs. The motherboard is Gigabyte GA-970-Gaming with the Realtek® ALC1150 codec. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. The problem I have is that stereo sources will only output to the front speakers, and I want to upmix stereo to 5.1 that will sound good enough (i know it won't be real 5.1 quality, it's upmixing, but I also don't want some lame distorted output)

Usually audio driver managers have a built in option called "Speaker Fill" that should do upmixing. I tried with a lot of different Realtek drivers and versions, tried the default generic windows audio driver's "Speaker Fill" too. All did output sound to all speakers, but really distorted sound and lower volume on all speakers except the front ones, so it was still basically stereo with with some half-assed sound rerouted to the other speakers.

Before this motherboard i had an AsRock M3A770DE with VIA® VT1708S Audio Codec, VIA's drivers were certainly not the best ones either, since the default driver that came with the motherboard would crash when trying to enter "Expert Mode" or whatever it was called, but without it you could barely set anything up, so I had to search random drivers from VIA's website till i got one that worked and didn't crash, however all drivers did not have audio enhancements tab for microphone like all realtek drivers did. However what VIA at least had, was the most important thing: their "Speaker Fill" function worked! You just press it and BOOM, nice decent sounding upmix from stereo to all 5.1 speakers.

Choosing Sound Effects > Environment > Room in any of the Realtek drivers will actually do more than that broken "Speaker Fill" they have, it actually reroutes sound trough subwoofer,center and rear too, and it's not as distorted and low volume like just Speaker Fill from windows or realtek driver, but it's still distorted and subpar nonetheless.

I only managed to output sound that was like 90% of the quality from VIA's Speaker Fill, by using foobar2000 with Channel Mixer selected from Dsp Manager, the thing is I need that driver level or something, I want that kinda upmixing on all input, not just in foobar2000. The plugin i used was Channel Mixer 0.9.6.7 by skipyrich, which was basically a .dll file. What I noticed in via's driver after I installed it, is it had a lot more dll's than realtek, so maybe that's why they had the good sound quality upmix working.

So is there any way I can have VIA level upmix on my current setup? A software or something that uses a dll to upmix but to all input, not just a media player with a plugin that works only with imput going trough it.


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 15, 2017)

Use Microsoft's generic driver and enable Stereo Surround enhancement.  It's what I use because manufacturers deliberately disable the feature in Realtek's drivers.


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## BEP (Sep 16, 2017)

I don't have that in my enhancements tab apparently, but I found out one thing... Even with realtek drivers installed, the enhancement "speaker fill" is the Microsoft provided one, VIA however has it's own that works, so that's the problem.


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 16, 2017)

Did you make sure to configure the speakers for 6 channel first?  In 2 channel, it's virtual surround instead of stereo surround.

If memory serves, Realtek drivers literally remove the option so, in Device Manager, make sure it says Microsoft driver:






Then config:





Then Enhancements:





This is a function/feature of the Windows audio stack.  As long as it is HD Audio or AC'97, it should work.


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## Aleksandar012 (Sep 17, 2017)

@BEP I was have the same problem when i change motherboard. So i mod driver and replace all relatek s**t with via enhancements.
Install it manually from device manager and find it in ms sound properties.



```
https://www.mediafire.com/file/mtqyf6mhoatfv3d/VIA.rar
```


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## BEP (Sep 18, 2017)

@Aleksandar012 Thank you so much, that's exactly what I was looking for, now it works! Thanks again you saved my ears


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