First of all, I'm not exactly sure what it is. But I've already tested that these popular solutions haven't worked:
- Having (Realtek) sound effects enabled
- Running other specific browsers instead
- Disabling the sound setting that lowers volume when it detects communication devices.
It only happens when I have more than one window/tab open with sound (but it doesn't always happen). E.g. Spotify and something else that it thinks have sound (games, specific websites or videos etc.). It lowers the volume of other applications until I close the window/tab. However, the values in the volume mixer don't seem to change.
Is there a setting to remove this feature? And what is it anyway?
I'm sorry if there's a duplicate, by the way. I expected this question to be asked by many already but I haven't been able to find this specific thing.
Best Answer
I finally stumbled upon the core of the issue. The program affecting it was "Dolby Digital Plus Advanced Audio". To turn some of it off, I could find it in the Control Panel and turn off an effect called "Volume Leveler". But to completely remove it I later found out that I had to disable Dolby from affecting the playback device:
Thanks BramMooij for your helpful suggestions.