Using BAE in conjunction with another audio enhancer

[quote author=”hostmax”]I searched over the forum but could not find anything that can help change BAE volume using my multimedia keyboard.[/quote]
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1102&p=7840&hilit=keyboard#p7840
But if (obvious) it does not work for you then try to use Volumouse the way I described in the linked topic, or if you want to have SRS post Breakaway (for quality comparison – one on an the other one off/bypassed !) this should work also.
I had SRS post Breakaway on my Win XP pro SP2 system.
[quote author=”hostmax”]For example, the output of BAE will become the input of SRS, and we can set SRS to be the default audio playback device (since I tried and got no problem with volume control from my multimedia keyboard with SRS)[/quote]This is correct.
But:
[quote author=”hostmax”]I could not do that at the moment since SRS does not recognize Pipeline as an input.[/quote]This is a wrong idea.
You always have to select "Breakaway Pipeline 1" as input inside the Breakaway settings (Breakaway Audio Setup).
If you want to use SRS (instead of the direct connection to your soundcard) you have to select "SRS Audio Sandbox" as output.
This works here (XP) – I have just tried it again.
The only problem is that you have to select in every application (winamp, foobar2000 or other multimedia/audio players) "Breakaway Pipeline 1" manually as output instead of "Primary Sound Driver" (because SRS is the primary sound driver or default system device).

So in the end Volumouse is the better alternative, because you can use "Breakaway Pipeline 1" as system wide default device (primary sound driver) and control the volume with the mouse wheel (I use "The cursor is on screen edges" in Volumouse options).
Important for the Volumouse setup: Do not select Breakaway Pipeline as mixer device (won’t work). You have to select your soundcard ! (for me it is: Realtek HD Audio output).
Or if you also use SRS you select "SRS Labs Audio Sanbox" as Mixer Device inside Volumouse options (instead of your soundcard).
SRS automatically connects to your soundcard.
But keep in my mind, that adding SRS post Breakaway also adds extra latency (an increased delay of audio – maybe annoying watching TV, movies, etc.).

[quote author=”JesseG”]Actually tho… BAE automatically changes what the primary soundcard is, depending on if it’s running or hard bypassed or closed. 🙂 so you shouldn’t have to change any apps from primary…[/quote]Yes, as long as the "Manage" box is checked (default).
I had forgotten to mention, that hostmax has to uncheck this box.
In this special case (having the odd wish to use SRS post Breakaway) it is necessary that Breakaway Pipeline is not the default audio playback device (because SRS Labs Audio Sandbox must be) !

And in this (strange) context (to enable the use of Breakaway Processing pre SRS) it is necessary to select in every application (winamp, foobar2000 or other multimedia/audio players) "Breakaway Pipeline 1" manually as output instead of "Primary Sound Driver" (because SRS is the primary sound driver or default system device).

Though I highly recommend to not use SRS at all:
1. The quality of it is processing is really a joke (or a shame for a company like SRS Labs – pro ? 😆 😆 😆 )
2. All versions above 1.9.04 (1.10.1 and 1.10.2) do not work on my XP system.
Even better: Some elements of its driver crashes my DVB application when I try to use a BDA driver based DVB-S card.
I had to delete the SRS driver manually.

➡ Forget this useless SRS Sandbox
and use Volumouse instead.
➡ "The cursor is on screen edges" option to enable the volume control using the mouse wheel !

[quote author=”hostmax”]though all other functional keys became just for "show"[/quote]

you might check to see if your particular media player has something that you can map other multimedia hotkeys with. i’m using one for winamp that allows any hotkeys including multimedia keys. 🙂 they are just keys really, they show up in windows as key presses. 8) never heard of the keyboard’s software itself hijacking them tho BY DEFAULT, that’s a new one. 😀 stupid crap. 😆

[quote author=”hostmax”]well… I mean the shortcut keys like Word, Excel, Mail, ….. 🙂[/quote]

Yep, me too. Those all show up across the regular APIs used for getting the key press statuses of all of the other keys. It’s nothing special for Windows to deal with at all. That’s how I knew right off that it was a 95% chance some other software on your computer was hijacking the key presses. 8)