How to play sound with 7.1 audio system sfml? - c++

Question

I am trying to record some sound with sfml and then play it back. I have previously done this successfully with my old headphones that i believe had a 5.1 sound system. But now when i try to do the same thing with my new headphones (7.1 sound). The code throws this error.
AL lib: (EE) SetChannelMap: Failed to match front-center channel (2)
in channel map.
I have tried restarting visual studio. Restarting my computer. Resetting the cache in visual studio.
#include <SFML/Graphics.hpp>
#include <SFML/Audio.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>
#include <chrono>
int main()
{
sf::ContextSettings settings;
settings.antialiasingLevel = 8;
sf::RenderWindow window;
window.create(sf::VideoMode(800, 500), "Audio check", sf::Style::Close | sf::Style::Resize);
if (!sf::SoundBufferRecorder::isAvailable())
{
// error: audio capture is not available on this system
std::cout << "Something went wrong" << std::endl;
}
// create the recorder
sf::SoundBufferRecorder recorder;
recorder.start(44100);
//record the audio for 5 sec
std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(5000));
recorder.stop();
//get the buffer from the recorder and play it back
const sf::SoundBuffer& buffer = recorder.getBuffer();
sf::Sound sound(buffer);
sound.play();
sf::Event event;
while (window.isOpen()) {
while (window.pollEvent(event)) {
switch (event.type) {
case sf::Event::Closed:
window.close();
break;
}
}
window.clear(sf::Color::Blue);
window.display();
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Answer 1

Actually SFML doesn't support more than 2 channels recording. If we check documentation of the method setChannelCount() of the class SoundRecorder it only supports up to 2 (channels).
Edit
From openAL library, which sfml is based on (emphasis mine):
hexagon.ambdec
Specifies a flat-front hexagonal speaker setup for 7.1
Surround output. The front left and right speakers are placed at +30
and -30 degrees, the side speakers are placed at +90 and -90 degrees,
and the back speakers are placed at
+150 and -150 degrees. Although this is for 7.1 output, no front-center speaker is defined for the decoder, meaning that speaker
will be silent for 3D sound (however it may still be used with
AL_SOFT_direct_channels or ALC_EXT_DEDICATED output). A "proper" 7.1
decoder may be provided in the future, but due to the nature of the
speaker configuration will have trade-offs.
It seems the library doesn't count with a actual 7.1 decoder.