Multiple Audio Outputs

[cheeky16]

So I've been trying to get my computer to output multiple audio streams simultaneously. I'm going to be hooking up a tv as another monitor and will be watching blurays on it. I'd like to be able to play music or game sounds at the same time but through speakers or my surround sound across the room. Does anyone know if it is possible to have more than one program playing sound to be split across multiple sound cards or anything like that?

 

Cheers

[cheeky16]

Has anyone had any experience with this?

[Skill_Caster]

This seems so odd this simple question's gone unanswered for so long, but hopefully I can help.

 

If you're talking about what I'm thinking about (one audio source to multiple speakers) - the answer is fortunately very easy. Have you ever seen someone sharing an iPod but both users had headphones thanks to a headphone splitter? It's that simple! They come in a multitude of designs, styles (some even look like robots/animals) http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8V234-WHT-APL-Headphone-Splitter/dp/B0000UV2AW. If you need to output to more than 2 speakers, then you can just buy more splitters and hook them together (like a tree - that's what my band does during recording sessions). The Belkin one I linked you is partially priced due to the fact it's a Belkin. If you search around a bit more on Amazon or especially eBay, you can find them super cheap.

 

Now, still assuming you're outputting via 3.5 (the green/headphone jack type plug), a splitter isn't going to give you what you need, in terms of both distance and matching female/male ends. That's where extension cables come in - again, in all ranges of prices and lengths - such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-AUD-1100-06-6-Feet-Stereo/dp/B000SE6IV8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313621365&sr=1-1.

 

Hope I helped, let me know if this isn't what you've been looking for.

[Lord Diddy]

This seems so odd this simple question's gone unanswered for so long, but hopefully I can help.

 

If you're talking about what I'm thinking about (one audio source to multiple speakers) - the answer is fortunately very easy. Have you ever seen someone sharing an iPod but both users had headphones thanks to a headphone splitter? It's that simple! They come in a multitude of designs, styles (some even look like robots/animals) http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8V234-WHT-APL-Headphone-Splitter/dp/B0000UV2AW. If you need to output to more than 2 speakers, then you can just buy more splitters and hook them together (like a tree - that's what my band does during recording sessions). The Belkin one I linked you is partially priced due to the fact it's a Belkin. If you search around a bit more on Amazon or especially eBay, you can find them super cheap.

 

Now, still assuming you're outputting via 3.5 (the green/headphone jack type plug), a splitter isn't going to give you what you need, in terms of both distance and matching female/male ends. That's where extension cables come in - again, in all ranges of prices and lengths - such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-AUD-1100-06-6-Feet-Stereo/dp/B000SE6IV8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313621365&sr=1-1.

 

Hope I helped, let me know if this isn't what you've been looking for.

 

That was a great post (actually I just literally ordered a pair of headphone splitters myself because of reading this), but I think it missed the mark on what the OP wanted. It was not rather having more outputs on his speakers but being able to play two audio streams separately without the sound combining. So basically as said in the post being able to listen to music with one output and having the game sounds play on another. Or I just totally misread the OPs post and this is exactly what he wanted :grin:

 

I've tried some google searches but came up short, can't really find the best info that answers this directly. I know in windows 7 there is a mixer on the bottom where you can control different sounds playing from different applications. Theoretically using two sound cards you can simply mute whichever one you need or don't need, thus giving you two separate streams on different outputs. But im sure there's a program out there that does this effectively, ill search some more.

[cheeky16]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I am well aware of headphone jack splitters and unfortunately that's not exactly what I'm trying to do. Lord_Diddy pretty much has it right. Just think about running a cable to another room to be playing music constantly off the computer in the living room while playing games in the office and listening to the game sounds on a pair of headphones or the speakers.

 

Reading your post has reminded my that I do have an old soundcard sitting around somewhere that I may be able to use. I'm not certain this will work but I'm going to continue looking around when I have time.

 

Very well written post about the splitters though, I do hope that it does help someone.

 

Cheers.

[Lord Diddy]

Heres a few things I found that might help.

 

Assigning an application to different sound outputs

 

Also heres a picture when going in Reltek audio options and on the top right corner selecting advanced device options. It allowed me to play music from my speakers while having a movie play in the background. I also used this in conjunction with the windows 7 mixer, it allowed windows to recognize the headphones and speakers as different outputs.

 

[cheeky16]

Thanks, that's similar to the answer I got at the computer shop I was at yesterday. I'll play around and find a way to make it work.

[cheeky16]

So that did work actually. But it depends on the program whether you can set it to the non default audio output. Windows Media Player allowed me to change it to a secondary output but itunes would not. Does anyone know of a browser that allows you to choose the output? Also for those who game a lot are there options to change the audio output within most games?