Easiest way to swap left/right audio channels?

August 6, 2008 12:18 PM

What is the easiest way to readily swap the left/right audio channels on my PC?

I'm moving back to school in a few weeks and am very excited about my bedroom layout. My desk will be lined up along the foot of my bed such that I'll be able to turn around my monitor and speakers to face my bed (for movies, TV shows, etc...). However, the little audiophile in me recognizes that this will also swap the left/right audio channels, and this bothers me.

I have a Dell Inspiron e1505, running Windows XP Pro with a Sigmatel audio codec. I would think there would be a tiny freeware application that sits in your system tray and allows you to readily activate/deactivate a channel swap. Is anyone familiar with such a solution?

I have done a good deal of research and found similar questions asked on other forums. The answer is invariably, "Just swap your left and right speaker." As often as I plan on watching from bed, this is not an option I'm considering.

Note, I am an electrical engineering student and would probably be capable of creating my own physical switch. If you have schematics, I'd love to see those too, but I'm really hoping for a free software solution.

PS: My first question!

posted by FrostBite795 to computers & internet (9 comments total)

The Foobar audio player has a DSP that swaps stereo channels. As I thin does VLC.
Otherwise you'd probably need to do it at the driver level, perhaps using something like the kX Audio Driver.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 12:31 PM on August 6, 2008

Two sets of speakers and a $10 speaker switch.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 12:44 PM on August 6, 2008

This is actually a cool solution because you can run the speakers up the sides of your bed and put them on a nightstand or mount them to a head-board. If you have roomies, this may be greatly appreciated as you can watch TV at a lower volume and still hear everything as the speakers are both 2 ft away from your head.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 12:49 PM on August 6, 2008

I want to use the same set of speakers on both sides. But a switch like that would be perfect if it did what I needed.
posted by FrostBite795 at 12:52 PM on August 6, 2008

My computer speakers have two inputs. So I could get one of those speaker switches and connect both outputs to the inputs of my speakers, but cross connect one side. No idea if the speakers you have can do that.
posted by advicepig at 12:56 PM on August 6, 2008

I've used MatrixMixer to do (essentially) this.
posted by j.edwards at 12:57 PM on August 6, 2008

So would I be correct in assuming there is no "easy" way to do this with software? I can't believe such a simple application doesn't exist, but I don't know much about drivers.

Do any simple hardware solutions come immediately to mind? I have one set of speakers with one 1/8" input line. Very standard.
posted by FrostBite795 at 2:17 PM on August 6, 2008

You have a 1/8 stereo jack (female) on the computer connecting to the speaker cord plug (male) right?

So buy an Adapter, 6 inches long, Stereo 3.5mm mini phone plug male to 2 RCA female connectors. Then buy a 3.5mm stereo jack (female) to 2 RCA plugs 6" (male). Plug the first into your computer, the second into the first, and then the speakers into the second.

Just swap the left and right RCA channels when you want to swap the channels of your speakers. If it's hard to get at the back of your computer to do this put an extender cable in and tape it to your desktop.

You should be able to buy these same parts at your local Radio Shack, links are examples, not an endorsement of that vendor, which I found using Google.
posted by Jahaza at 4:10 PM on August 6, 2008

I don't know of any reason why you shouldn't just connect both pairs of outputs from the speaker switch to the single input of the speakers, with one pair crossed. The switch will then just select between uncrossed and crossed modes. You'll need some extra cable, of course.
posted by beniamino at 5:40 AM on August 7, 2008