[Idea] New hardware for mixing audio (for heavy multitaskers)

[kriegalex]

Hi everyone,

 

TLDR : create a new hardware device that is basically like a Mixamp TR from Astro and a Sennheiser GSX 1000 but better with as main feature 4 knobs/sliders for 4 channels that control the volume of at least 3 important sound sources in your computer : game, voice chat, browser and a bonus channel for misc sound source. It should work out of the box with major softwares that people use and output sound (games, browsers, voice chats, ...) and provide excellent sound signature and 7.1 immersion.

 

I come to you with an idea. Maybe it's stupid, maybe this is already existing or possible to do via software, but I don't think it exists in a beautiful and simple package. Here we go with two scenarios :

 

1) Do you happen to stream on Twitch or Youtube ? If so, it may have happened that you want to easily and quickly control the sound volume of everything. Maybe you want to lower the sound of *insert favorite voice chat*, the volume of music playing on Youtube, the volume of the game, ... You can of course do it with the mixer in Windows or manually in each software, but sometimes you don't want to alt-tab because your game runs in fullscreen and is a mess when you exit, or for some other reason maybe... I target this more at casual streamers, I think professional streamers like what we saw in this LTT video can do it no problem.

 

2) You are a heavy multitasker and you have often a game, a voice chat and a software that outputs sound (may be itunes, browser with youtube video, twitch live stream, ...), etc... that you want to quickly control.

 

I had this idea because when I bought the Mixamp from Astro, I found it extremely convinient to be able to lower the sound of my voice chat when my mates started to go crazy on some stupid video or when someone has low mic volume and game starts punching at you with insane sound FX for a moment (action scene, ...) while your friend tells you something. This little mixing knob is really handy.

 

What if you could have something similar to the Mixamp from Astro, but instead of creating a dedicated sound peripheral in Windows for your voice chat and allow to mix between chat and game/other software (you can't assign browser to sound peripheral), it has 4 dedicated knobs or sliders to control the volume of 4 channels by interacting in some way with the windows mixer or by doing the same calls to windows as the windows mixer does. Also it should provide an external output like the Mixamp to allow you to mix the sound and then send it to whatever is capturing the sound for the stream (input in your sound card, ...).

 

In my vision, it should pretty much be an hybrid between an Astro Mixamp TR, the Sennheiser GSX 1000 (hi hardwarecanucks) and a standard audio mixer with 4 channels. But it should also provide some nice industrial design and be targetted at gamers and streamers but without the "look at me I'm gamery" crap (GSX 1000 is ok). I would retain the nice sound signature and 7.1 from the GSX 1000, the idea of multiples sound profiles from the two but better and the stream port of the Mixamp. The 4th channel could control a sound source in Windows or control the volume of an auxiliary port (like Mixamp has).

 

On the software side, a nice yet simple software to control what channel controls what. Ideally, it should out of box be smart enough to link channel 1 to the current game (may need some "intelligence" here, like in Xsplit but for sound), channel 2 to current voice chat, channel 3 to current browser (youtube, twitch, spotify, ...) and let the user assign manually the 4th (software, auxiliary port, ...). Of course, everything can be adjusted in the software, like tweaking the sound profiles and the game detection should inspire itself from Geforce Experience. But basically, you would expect it to work perfectly out of the box by detecting your games, your voice chats, your browser, any meaningful software that can output sound and mapping them while also having beautiful game, music, movie and general use profiles.

 

What do you think ?

 

P.S. : If someone creates it after seeing this, please send me one, I'll be more than happy to test it  (don't take this too seriously please as I am not)

[Bananasplit_00]

you could just tie it to the windows volume controll center for most things tbh but deeper support would be cool. i prefer to do all my sound controll from my AMP and in program but this could be cool but id have to have it before my 50W AMP for my speakers wich would be more cables

[kriegalex]

6 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

you could just tie it to the windows volume controll center for most things tbh but deeper support would be cool. i prefer to do all my sound controll from my AMP and in program but this could be cool but id have to have it before my 50W AMP for my speakers wich would be more cables

it could also be an AMP but honestly I think that putting too much in it would make it really big or crappy if you try to keep size down...

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, kriegalex said:

it could also be an AMP but honestly I think that putting too much in it would make it really big or crappy if you try to keep size down...

please fit a 50W+ amp in a resonably sized packade, you will find that the heat will be a real problem pretty quickly and that you will end up with strange and cubic things if you size it down enough, which will be problematic because all amps and such are rectangular to be stacked ontop of eachother easaly and because of conectivity. and size isnt an issue if you like me need a 50W AMP to dive your crazy 18 5" drivers and 8 tweeters lol. you can probably get away with maybe 30W or so but not 50W