Sound is usually one of the forgotten aspects by simulators users. Not everybody, of course, because a good sound is always telling us several things about the car, the road and the environment. iRacing has been regularly pointed as a weaker challenger than Assetto Corsa or RaceRoom when it comes to the sound, so the users and staff have written some extra advice. These notes from Aussie Greg Hill are indeed valuable. Remember to use recently introduced XAudio2 as default API setting it up from your sound/options screen.
Like a FFB wheel or graphics card AUDIO also needs some LOVE! Work the settings on offer 
As for 7.1 headset I don’t own one (donations accepted) but I’m guessing all the info on surround still applies. You will inherently have very little bass in a headset, if you do it’s probably exaggerated by cheap drivers and sounds like mud.
2.1 sound can sound awesome if setup right.
iRacing sounds best in a surround system with a big ass sub as do all other games.
- Make sure your soundcard is the default device in Control Panel/sound turn your Windows volume down to about 75% (over that can cause distortion when many sounds layer, so this will give you more headroom). Use your device to control the volume. If you still don’t have enough volume get an external amp.
- Run a setup in you soundcard software to ensure all speakers volumes are the same and no phase issues. Also make sure your soundcard is set to the correct array (2.1, 5.1, 7.1 etc) and that the number of audio channels is 6 or 8 (standard for gaming).
- Turn off all soundcard dsp auto volume eq compression reverb crap.
- Follow the info on app.ini setup in the above link. Note: If you have a good cpu run the “sampleRate” at 48000.
- Even if on a 2.1 system or headset (stereo) try running the sim in surround (select in the sim menu). Remember this…stereo is a foldown of surround and sometimes (surprisingly) allowing it to be surround in a stereo system pans the array out nicely from left to right.
- A lot of cockpit sounds are stereo and duplicated the rear speakers for a pseudo surround. If these incar sounds drown out your mono (positional) external sounds you can toggle/fade/balance between stereo and mono sounds in the app.ini. If the external cars or curbs are too soft reduce your “stereoStreamInSurroundBalance” I have mine set on 0.500000 but on my other machine I have it at 0.800000 and on a stereo only card I have it at 0.300000. So play with that.
- Lastly – no system is ever the same – I do my best to get something that will work on most. We have sliders in the menu, use these. I’m actually pushing for transmission and curbs on their own slider but for now tranny is on the engine slider and curbs on the tire slider.
- Lastly lastly – backfires and debris are part of the particle system – if you have particles set low you WONT hear them. Gear shifts are impacts (physics) if you have the crash slider turned down you WONT hear gear shifts very well.
Cheers, happy audio’ing!
An this is his app.ini
[Audio] allowHardwareStreams=1 ; try to use hardware streams if available devMicrophoneAPI=0 ; 0 = None, 1 = DirectSound devSPCCAPI=0 ; 0 = None, 1 = DirectSound devSpeakerAPI=1 ; 0 = None, 1 = DirectSound devSpeakerDevName=System Default ; Name of the sound device devVoiceChatAPI=0 ; 0 = None, 1 = DirectSound dimensions=3 ; 1 = mono, 2 = stereo, 3 = surround loudnessAmbient=-2.500000 ; Volume adjustment for ambient noise in dB loudnessCrash=-2.500000 ; Volume adjustment for scrapes and crashes in dB loudnessEngine=0.000000 ; Volume adjustment for engines in dB loudnessReplay=0.000000 ; Volume adjustment for overall replay volume versus driving volume in dB loudnessSPCC=-13.500000 ; Volume adjustment for spotter noise in dB loudnessTires=0.000000 ; Volume adjustment for tires in dB loudnessVoiceChat=0.000000 ; Volume adjustment for voice chat noise in dB loudnessWind=-2.500000 ; Volume adjustment for wind in dB masterVolumedB=0.000000 ; Master volume adjustment in dB, range is -120 dB to 0 dB micAlwaysActive=1 ; Set this to 0 if your graphics stutter when a microphone is configured, but doing so may cause worse stutters while recording for voice chat muteWhenFocusLost=0 ; set this to 0 to hear sim sounds when another program has the keyboard focus numSoundStreams=-1 ; Maximum number of audible sounds overrideSpccRate=0 ; If set to 1, the spotter sounds will be resampled to play back at the general sample rate. This is a compatibility fix for sound cards with limited playback rates and is not recommended for general use. overrideVoiceChatRate=0 ; If set to 1, void chat will be resampled to play back at the general sample rate. This is a compatibility fix for sound cards with limited playback rates and is not recommended for general use. sampleRate=48000 ; sample rate to run sound system at stereoStreamInSurroundBalance=0.800000 ; stereo streams (the engine) in surround mode need a system specific adjustment to match volume with surround streams voiceChatEnabled=1 ; Enable or Disable Voice Chat. voiceChatEnabledWhileDriving=1 ; Enable voice chat while driving. voiceChatMuted=0 ; Mute voice chat - overrides voiceChatVolume. voiceChatNotificationStyle=2 ; Voice chat notification style.
All the engine samples are 48K so please set this in your app.ini to sampleRate=48000. This is how it should be by default, but it isn’t – I complain about this often. Anyway, this will give you a better array and balance between the front and rear speakers. Note this will not give you more rear volume than the fronts as I said Direct Sound is broken.
Right, to get the exterior engines even louder in relation to the incar set the stereoStreamInSurroundBalance to something like =0.500000 if that’s is still not loud enough then try something ridiculous like stereoStreamInSurroundBalance=0.070000.
NOTE: the incar volume will drop as the exteriors rise so you need to find something in between to suit your setup.
Mark Pickford added these last findings:
Mr. Aussie Greg Hill asked me to mention the following in this thread, as it relates to sound.
Ignore the fact the following thread is on an ASUS ROG forum, as the discussion relates beyond any single manufacturer and ignore (to a degree) the thread title too. The following is not just to enable all drivers/speakers in a 7.1 system when the source is Stereo; this enables infinite fine tuning of all channels for any environment, or game/program.
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?99114-SO…ncluding-Sub-for-Stereo-output
In that thread, there are instructions (basic admittedly, but it isn’t difficult), to a separate EQ and plugin package for Windows, which essentially opens up a whole world of aural possibilities. In a nutshell, you don’t need to fiddle with everything, but the real beauty here, is that you can assign custom EQ’s and Pre-Amps and many other things such as reverb etc, to each channel individually mix the relative volumes to your liking between each channel and save your profiles for various games, or what-have-you. Especially useful if you run any kind of surround sound. Custom sound stages (profiles) can be opened automatically by the program when a process starts, which is super convenient.
I am having a blast with it, but fair warning, it is dangerous, if like me you are OCD about sound.
Nb. I am not affiliated with the thread I link to, or the two program and plug-in it recommends, but in my experience, the programs do not appear to secretly install adware or other crap. They work just like any other sound plugin you may use.
I hope this helps some of you get much improved sound.
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I’m finding this very interesting. What I’m hoping to achieve is to use a duplicate of the engine sounds and use them for tactile feedback through bass shakers. Could this be achievable? I’m currently using the tactile outputs through Simhub, but feel that this could compliment them and give more options. Any help would be appreciated.