long-time audigy annoyance

[Taurus]

i've had my Audigy1 practically since it came out and am pretty happy with the card itself. Creative's drivers, on the other hand...

i have a digital 4-channel speaker system hooked up to it. after a fresh boot any sound (music, games, anything) lacks bass and overall depth. what i have to do is open Surround Mixer, switch the speaker mode to 2-channel or headphones or whatever, and then back to 4.1 and the sound gets noticeably louder and clearer. this is the case no matter what mode it's set at when it boots (headphones/2/4-channel, digital/analog)... i have to change the mode to another and back again to regain the lost quality. Surround Mixer has been in my startup folder for years.

has anyone else heard of or experienced this? or better yet, know of a fix?

 

[Petros]

Does it do it with all drivers, or just the Creative-made ones? I have an Audigy 2, by the way, and haven't noticed anything like this.

 

[Taurus]

hm, are there modified drivers out there? i vaguely remember experimenting with some a long long time ago. i've only used the creative-made ones since then.

 

[Petros]

There's the KX Drivers, which are really nice. They also give a lot of gain without any distortion. Try them for a few days, and dig deep. They have more features than you'll know what to do with. Once you get used to how they work, you might like them.

I switch back to Creative's drivers from time to time for a couple of weeks at a stretch, which is just long enough to remind me why I don't use them.

 

[Taurus]

ah yes, the KX drivers. those are the ones i tried but there was something about them i didn't like. i don't remember what it was and it's been quite a while anyway so i'll give em another shot. thanks.

 

[dreamliner77]

Definitely go with the KX drivers.

 

[Taurus]

eh, it's not looking good. installed the KX drivers and audio hardware acceleration is messed up in the only two games i've tried so far. on top of that the controls are pretty confusing. i don't even see a speaker option for 'headphone', which is important for EAX when using headphones.

i'll give it another day or two of playing with it all.

 

[Petros]

Speaker options for "headphones" are under "ins and outs" (the green icon on the left). Make sure Windows is set to the number of speakers you have, too.

Under master controls (the speaker icon without a red dot), click the box with a question mark in it. From there, you can set up how your speakers work. Also, look at the the "swap front and rear" icon (two speakers with arrows going between them).

If you click the "4x DSP" button at the bottom you'll see a ton of options, the nicest of which is the 10-band EQ.

Finally, at the bottom is a button marked "test". That makes sure you have your speakers set to the right place by giving you a clear picture of where the sound should be coming from.

 

[Taurus]

i see the option to change between 2.1/4.1/5.1, but nothing for headphones. i also see the volume slider for "headphones" but the help says it only applies to the live! drive. what i need is an option that will change the spatial imaging so that surround effects sound proper through headphones.

like in 2.1 mode if there's a gunshot to my immediate left, the sound will only come through the left channel (really distracting when using headphones). in headphone mode, it will come primarily through the left channel, but also a little through the right channel with a miniscule delay, just like how sound enters our ears in reality, giving the same realistic effect.

it looks like there are some advance controls for timing and such, but i wouldn't know how to get the same effect manually. :crosseyed: