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When I use my speakers as DEFAULT OUTPUT DEVICE I can redirect the audio to my "Realtek Digital Output" device. As you can see, both devices show an active output signal.

Both devices active

Stereo Mix shows the same signal and is setup as follows:

Mix setup Stereo mix

However, if I make my headset the DEFAULT OUTPUT DEVICE NEITHER the digital output NOR the Mixer continue to display the output signal and the signal NO LONGER is forwarded to "Realtek Digital Output".

Why is that, what could be the reason?

No mixing signal

Further investigation:

Some have written I need to disable "Exclusive access", but it did NOT help.

Exclusive access

Comment for myself: Related to Change microphone for Word/Outlook Dictate only (Win10)? and Windows 10 speaker sound (voice) to text?

Horst Walter
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    My guess would be that the Realtek Speakers (analog) and Realtek Digital Output (Optical) are part of the same sound device (both motherboard outputs?) and they can work in unison per the device driver. Your KLIM Impact headset sound device is a separate device and probably the reason it doesn't not work the way the 2 Realtek outputs work. Depending on what apps you want to channel through your headset and optical out, you may be able to configure/mix them to your liking through Settings > System > Sound > Advanced sound options > App volume and device preferences. – Blaelph Jan 27 '21 at 02:35
  • Good hint, seems to be the same with my OTHER laptop as well, I can mix the Realtek devices but for instance NOT logitech and realtek. Unfortunately "App volume and device preferences" does not allow me to forward sound to more than two devices. – Horst Walter Jan 27 '21 at 15:45
  • .... however, in his video he is able to connect another USB device and both play the output. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNhGRSc4oY0 So obviously supposed to work. – Horst Walter Jan 27 '21 at 22:05
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    One thing I noticed was that the "Stereo Mix" recording device is a Realtek device. Try setting the Realtek output you want to use (either analog speakers or optical) as the default device, then with Stereo Mix > Properties > check "Listen to this device" and set "Playback through this device" to your KLIM headset. I'm curious to know if this configuration will work for you. My hunch is that the Realtek playback device can forward its audio to other playback devices via its driver, but the other non-Realtek devices cannot forward their audio because they use a generic driver. – Blaelph Jan 28 '21 at 01:48
  • Thanks for the hint: This indeed works (have tried that a while back), and I have further noticed that in ALL the YT videos about this topic it seems to be a REALTEK mixer as well. Strange that there is no mixer by Logitech or others. Looks a bit as the mixer is a REALTEK only thing while it sounds somewhat like a generic Windows feature. – Horst Walter Jan 28 '21 at 11:03
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    The Realtek Stereo mix likely has related hardware within the PC's sound card controlled by the driver. Headsets likely do not have such hardware as the manufacturers want them to be as simple and universal as possible. – Blaelph Jan 30 '21 at 01:11

1 Answers1

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Let me summarize my findings.

As pointed out by Blaelph (thanks!) in the comments, mixing DOES WORK with a REALTEK device as DEFAULT output sound device. It does NOT WORK with one of my headsets (Logitech, KLIM) as DEFAULT routed (mixed) to other devices.

The Windows "APP sounds" feature is also nice, but it does not allow multiple devices for one application.

One of the best summaries about this topic is this Quora answer by James Gurr: I have tested Audio Router and it would be exactly what I need, unfortunately it is no longer maintained and has an issue with SOME applications (because of driver signatures, I could switch those off, but ...) such as Chrome. However, some other applications as Firefox work just fine. Some keep hanging.

driver signature hanging

Horst Walter
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