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Neil Gould Neil Gould is offline
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Default Multi-Channel "Multimedia audio" for Windows

Mike Rivers wrote:

If I set it to the Mackie Satellite, then playing something with Media
Player or WinAmp comes out the Satellite's main stereo outupts (1-2).
The Windows control panel doesn't know about any other outputs that
are (physically) available on the Satellite. That could be a matter
of how the Satellite WDM drivers are written. That's a Mackie thing
beyond which we have no control. Are (for example) WDM drivers for a
SoundBlaster Audigy written so that six outputs are available to
Windows? And if so, where do they appear so they can be used?

You are very close to the answer, here. While WDM drivers are capable of
multi-channel I/O, it is up to the application to take advantage of that
capability and make them available to the user. Basic Windows applet
functionality may not have that capability (I didn't know about the Win98
Gold version, but I'm not surprised). Advanced audio applications are
expected to provide multi-channel capability, and thus have no problem doing
so with the same WDM drivers used by Media Player et al.

Best,

Neil