Windows Reducing volume in my games when others are voice chatting

hey guys. I've been having an issue where something is reducing my headphone output when playing games when I'm chatting with someone in discord. here's some info/ troubleshooting i've done.

• it only happens when the other person talks
  
• i have attenuation in discord off
  
• in windows sound settings > communications > i have "do nothing" selected
  
• i have a sound blaster ae5, pcie sound card
  
• i have sound blaster connect 2 software installed selected is "headphones 7.1" from sound config options, and my amp gain is set to proper ohms for my headset (Sennheiser PC Game Zero)
  
• i am running windows 10 pro, 1803 64 bit all other drivers are up to date
  
• in windows sound settings > playback > speakers > properties > advanced.. i've tried turning off 'exclusive mode' settings and 'enable audio enchancements'
  
• game being used for testing is call of duty: black ops 4

hoping someone has seen this and has a fix. multiplayer modes are near unplayable with the audio pinging back and forth with friends trying to make callouts

Are you using headphones with the 7.1 Headphones option enabled?

I’ve tried many combinations of crystallizer, sbx studio settings, eq off etc and it’s still happening.

If i switch the headphone mode to “direct headphone” the problem is solved, but then my audio sounds (to me) very bad.

It has to be something induced by the post processing effects because direct mode disables them all when active, but i can’t find which. attenuation should be a completely separate option though. weird it only lowers when using “headphone 7.1” mode.

any other ideas?

In the sounder blaster connect app, check your active profile, there is something called Smart Volume which does what you described if its turned on.

that was it. thank you very much!