Windows OS, music is out-of-phase, need help

Factual Questions
1

My google-foo is weak (doesn’t help that there is a group named “Out of Phase”), and I cannot find the answer. Please help!

OS is Windows 7 (Home Premium)

Plug for speakers is fully inserted, so I don’t think it’s a physical configuration problem. And they used to work properly.

Symptoms:
No lead vocal
Lots of reverb
Occasional back vocal on L or R track

So it sounds to me like the stereo signals are out-of-phase. I’ve tried both Media Player and iTunes, so it’s not a setting in one of them.

This is the kids’ computer, so there’s no telling what they might have done, but they don’t have Admin rights, so their power to do damage is limited.

Help!

2

Have you tried:
1 Plugging the speakers into something else?
2. Plugging different speakers into the computer?

To see if the problem is the speakers? If one of the speakers had its leads swapped that would create a phase problem.

3

I don’t know if this will apply to your situation, but my sound card drivers provide different options for different configurations of speakers, such as stereo, quad, and “5.1”. If it is set wrongly for the speaker configuration you actually have, it might cause the sorts of problems you describe. Perhaps it is trying to send the lead vocal to a speaker that isn’t there. On my system, I can access these options from an icon im my “notification area”, but your system may be different.

4

Yeah, it’s almost certainly related to this.

In Control Panel select Sound, within that select Speakers, then click Configure and choose the appropriate choice.

Now, back where you selected Speakers, this time click on *Properties. (*Instead of Configure) There, under Jack Information, you should see which output jacks your speakers should be plugged into.

If you’re still having a problem, you may want to have a look at the “Enhancements” tab in that same Properties menu, in which you can safely uncheck anything that might be checked.

If none of that helps, you should look through the Control Panel for a manufacturer-specific audio settings/setup utility where the function of the various audio jacks can be modified. Set everything back to default, or look for some wizard or initial setup utility. Someone might have monkeyed around with the proper settings.

5

I am pretty sure this is not it. I have seen many times a speaker pair where one is reversed with respect to the other and the effect is nothing like you describe and, in fact, is barely noticeable. You can search for “test if stereo speakers are in phase” and find audio files to download and test.

At any rate, if the speakers were working correctly the polarity of the connections of one speaker cannot change by itself.

It is more likely related to the computer audio configuration or just a bad sound card or connections or something.

6

The reverb makes me think it’s not this (or, at least, not JUST this). Likely there is another setting set, perhaps an “environment” or “virtual surround sound” setting.

7

Cool tidbit I meant to add but got sidetracked:

One of the first people to review the MP3 had such a setting set on his sound card, and thus he reported that MP3s sounded awful compared to the originals.