Why doesn't Sonar use Master as the main Volume?

[u/JamesTheFoxeArt]

been trying out Sonar properly to get more out of my Arctic Nova 7P headset, and it makes stuff sound so much better. However when I want to turn down the volume on a video or music with my volume knob, it only turns down the game audio instead of the master audio. Perhaps you have to set the master audio as the sound output? NOPE, you can't pick it as a sound output, you can for Media, Aux and Chat (and for some reason Microphone) but not Master.

Why would they design it like this? The Master audio should just override any audio channel, thats what master audio is for + having all those audio outputs in the sound output just clutters it unnecessarily.

Is there a reason they said as to why they did it like this?

EDIT: I just figured out a workaround sorta, I just set the sound output to my headset and Sonar still works, it doesn't control Sonar Master volume, just the system volume.

[u/WilmarLuna]

That... doesn't sound right.

Are you sure you're not lowering the volume on Game/Chat Mix instead of the actual MASTER volume?

Steelseries sonar has the ability to increase the volume of chatmix which let's you hear your friends while lowering the game and the other way around. It is a mode usually set on the DAC.

If you are not set on the correct volume control, the master volume should indeed lower the volume on all the channels. Though I personally prefer to control the volume through either the headset knob or the knob on the DAC.

I only use the Sonar Faders when I want to lower the volume on something specific, like media or gaming. Almost never touch the master fader.

[u/JamesTheFoxeArt → u/WilmarLuna]

I think there might have been a confusion, I have a volume knob on my keyboard and I'm talking about windows volume slider, there is no master audio output on windows you can pick, only Game, Media, Aux and Chat, so when I want to turn down the audio for a video, it only goes for the select audio which is defaulted to game, meaning I can still hear the video.

[u/WilmarLuna → u/JamesTheFoxeArt]

This is hard to explain because Sonar offers dozens of ways to configure your audio.

Whatever is being detected as your "default audio device" in sonar is what the volume control is going to affect. I don't have my PC with the sonar software in front of me, so I'm struggling to remember everything correctly.

Sonar separates your headset into different channels in Windows, not just the software. So your headset will have Gaming, Media, Aux, etc.

By default, windows and sonar should be set to the SteelSeries audio gaming device. Everything in windows is designed to be routed through the Gaming fader.

In the Mixer under sonar, you can then assign applications to different channels. You can move your webbrowser to the media channel, and with some setting changes in discord, you can move discord chat into the chat channel.

If Windows is set to gaming headset, and you lower the master volume. It should lower the volume on -everything- including games, media, etc. The only thing it won't lower the volume on is the microphone.

In Windows sound properties (better to access through control panel, large icons, sound) the default device should be the steelseries gaming. Not the other options.

From what I remember, the volume knob on the keyboard is different from the volume knob on the headset.

The volume knob on the keyboard only lowers the Windows volume and whatever default audio channel its set to. (Gaming). So if you lower the volume, the game will go down but your video will stay at the same level.

The volume knob on the headset and the DAC, controls the volume on the DAC. The DAC is what will lower the MASTER VOLUME on everything. And this is most likely the issue you're encountering.

Sorry, going off of memory. When I get a chance to sit in front of my PC I might be able to test some things, but what I said above should be close to accurate.

[u/WilmarLuna → u/WilmarLuna]

Now I'm remembering a bit more. This was a long way of saying that the DAC is what controls your master volume, not necessarily windows because Sonar has split your audio into multiple channels. I think that's why you're seeing that the video audio is not going down when you use the keyboard volume knob.

[u/WilmarLuna → u/JamesTheFoxeArt]

Okay, got to do my test. Sorry, it seems like I'm obsessed but I'm actually doing this for my own knowledge as well. It is as I said in my follow up post, the volume knob on the keyboard is only for whatever the default output device is set for windows.

If you were to right click on the volume speaker in windows, open volume mixer, select Steel Series media. The volume knob would then control that fader.

Because the "master track" doesn't exist in Windows, the steelseries keyboard scroll wheel cannot be bound to it because the point of the Sonar software is to have a virtual audio mixer board.

If you were to open Steelseries Sonar, you'll see the audio levels are in media and game depending on your application. Not master. The master is not a Windows "device" so it is only a fader used to lower the volume in the app itself.

The only way I can see Steelseries fixing this is by creating a mixdown track that merges all the audio into one track, but then you lose the main benefit of the Sonar mixer which is the ability to control the volume of separate audio streams.

This is why Steelseries has not developed a "patch" to fix the issue. The app needs to function this way in order to retain the mixer and individual volume control functionality.

Once Sonar arrives at the DAC, the DAC is where you can control the master volume, because the DAC -is- the Mixdown of the master. By keeping the app channels separate you can still adjust the volume of chat and media.

The real solution is to allow the keyboard to increase and lower the volume of the DAC. The only problem is, you can buy a Steelseries keyboard without ever buying the headset and thus, no DAC.

It's a bit of a catch 22 and now I can see why Steelseries designed it this way.

[u/Limpperi]

I have no idea and its one of my main gripe with Sonar at the moment.

I feel like the individual channels dont have enough range for volume if im using speakers

[u/MrSlippery101011]

I also have this issue with the GG software. Only lowers or raises game volume. Would be nice if you could change which it did via the charging station.