Four-speaker audio using onboard Realtek audio

[Bob Scott 7,721]

I stumbled across this on another site (thanks Neil!)--a registry setting that allows you to remap the input/output jack assignments on the Realtek audio controllers used on a great many motherboards now. If you have a four or five-speaker audio system, you may have noticed that the only way to get FS to use the rear speakers is to enable "speaker fill" in the drivers, where the driver synthesizes a rather fuzzy signal for the rear speakers. Using this mod, you can reassign the rear speaker jack on your motherboard to duplicate the front-speaker outputs, giving you the same high-quality sound on the rear speakers as on the front. Since you can then run the speakers with a basic two-channel stereo config, the driver is also doing a lot less processing, too.To make the change, use regedit to locate the hive:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\ {4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}Under this will be a set of numbered hives like 0001, 0002 etc. Find the one that corresponds to the Realtek audio drivers (look in 00xx\Drivers\wave\wmdaud.drv for a Description field "Realtek High Definition Audio" or similarIn this same 00XX hive, look for something like \Drivers\Settings\Drv6101_DevType_0889_SS80863a3eThe key is "DevType_088x" should be in the key name...it may be different if your mobo uses a different variation of the Realtek chip than mine. In this key, create a new binary value "Pin02" and set it to 04 00 00 00 -- this remaps the black rear channel output jack on the motherboard to front L/R. On some of the earlier versions of the Realtek, the rear channel is Pin01...some experimentation may be required.Here are the values for the mappings...they can be used more than once, so you could, for example, map multiple input jacks for a couple mic inputs, or some other combo to fit your setup: 01 00 00 00 = Mic-in 02 00 00 00 = headphones 04 00 00 00 = Front speakers 05 00 00 00 = Rear speakers 06 00 00 00 = Center/subwoofer 07 00 00 00 = Side speakersThe actual hardware assignments for the jacks varies with the motherboard, too...for example, on my eVGA X58, Pin01 is the front speaker (green) audio jack, Pin02 is the rear speaker (black) audio jack, Pin06 is the front panel mic-in, and Pin08 is the front panel headphone jack.Lots of flexibility here...a fun tweak to play with.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO