Sound and panel combination problem

[Guest Charlie Hall]

I'm hoping that someone here can help who might have had a similar problem to mine. I have edited several existing sound sets that I downloaded for the 747-400 as I couldn't find any that were just right for what I have in mind and I am pleased with my finished result. OK no problem there so far. Last night I downloaded a different panel to the one I had previously downloaded and installed and there was no problem with the new installation and also it works very well as far as I can tell but since then I am only hearing flaps and wind sounds on the left channel. I then tried other panels again and I think it is only the latest one that has the problem. Then, with the latest panel in use I tried a different sound set as a test. To my surprise the relevent sounds were again from both speakers as they should be. All wav files in both sound sets are mono. All engine sounds are working properly regardless of panels or sound sets used. So, it seems that my new sound set and the new panel are having a difficult time running together. FS Sound Studio does not give any clues as to any problem with the sounds, nor does comparing the panel.cfg with other similar ones. I do not have Panel Studio as I never thought I would need it, and to be honest I don't think I could justify the purchase as I'm not a panel designer, though I have modified several to my liking and for my personal use only. I have commented out almost everything in the panel.cfg, leaving some basic settings. I then checked the remaining settings against an earlier panel from the same designer that is not so good as the later one but which does not cause the sound problem and I pasted the views settings from the older panel and commented out the existing ones, thus leaving the only running parameters identical with those in the older panel. Still the sound problem remained. I am at a loss to know how to fix it any further, the only difference I can see with the two panels in the basic state, is the way the bitmaps are named. The only other thing is that both the panels are given an extension name eg. panel.B747 (not really this name, just an example as I don't want to name designers) which has to be matched in the aircraft.cfg panel= entry. The only other thing I can think of trying now is to build a new panel.cfg from the earlier one and test it in stages, other than that I'm stumped. Perhaps the various combinations that don't work well just push system resources a bit too far? Although my system is not outdated by any means and it copes with most add ons based on comparisons from others' reports. I would like to make the sound set available to others but as you will appreciate I want to be sure they will work well for all users who try them.

[Guest Charlie Hall]

I have further investigated by process of elimination and found that by comparing with another panel and removing parts at a time, there was a gauge I think called FPDA Boeing Callout which, when removed, caused the same problem in the other panel. By installing it into the problem panel the sound problem has gone. The question now is, as this is an add on gauge, and assuming panels shouldn't really need it, certainly the default panels don't, why is it needed when I use my sound set? I have the FS Sound module installed in the modules folder and tried it while removed and it made no difference. Having narrowed down the problem I'm now hoping that someone might please figure this out. At the moment I'm assuming there is something amiss with the wav files (they are compressed to MS ADPCM format) so could this have anything to do with it? Or should I have limited the frequency bandwidth before compressing the files? I had assumed that the conversion process had already done that but I could be wrong. BTW I have since realised that the reverser sounds are also with the problem, and possibly others. The main engine sounds seem to be unaffected. I'd like to sort this out as I don't want to release anything that needs compromise set ups, in this particular case, sounds. I mean, I don't want to have to say "If you have problems with this sound set you might need to install this gauge."