Fix for uncomfortably loud sound effects

[Mattie104]

Hi!

I don't know if this is a problem for everybody, but in numerous cutscenes I find some sound effects are way too loud, they drown out the dialogue. Examples of this are;

• The boat pulling into the docks at the end of "Catching Up"
• The revving of cars in "Honour Among Thieves"
• The entirety of the cutscene "Taps and Tips"

Well, I found a fix for it today - after recently updating my computer, the audio in SRTT and SRIV sounded extremely tinny, it was uncomfortable. I fixed this problem, then tested SR2 to see if it caused a problem there. To my surprise, the awful bass (I assume that was why the audio sounded weird) was gone! I tested the 3 cutscenes listed above along with the final Ronin cutscene, and each one sounded normal. I could now make out what Shaundi and the Boss were saying in "Taps and Tips", whereas before it was impossible to make anything out. Anyway, here's the actual steps to fixing it.

• Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound
• Right-click on your audio device. For me it was listed as Speaker/HP. It's whichever one is listed when you click the speaker icon with headphones plugged in.
• Select properties
• Go to the "Advanced" tab
• Under "Exclusive Mode", uncheck "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" then apply the changes

Now test Saints Row 2, play a cutscene. It should sound much better.
Obviously this doesn't fix the low quality audio, but it's a step towards making the game more enjoyable.

Edit: This Windows update I did also fixed the speedup issue. Before I had to use powertools/set useplatformclock to true but now it runs at the correct speed. If you get a notification on your Desktop telling you that your current version (mine was from April 2018) stops being supported in November and it asks you to update, I highly recommend doing so.