karel
Hi, I've become aware of a major problem when installing the latest creative labs sound blaster drivers as recomended by the staff at atomixmp3. this problem affects the overall sound quality that is outputted by the sound card under any software program. My gut feeling tells me EAX is to blame. what is EAX? it is the audio processor built into their new sound cards.
here are the steps...
1- do a clean install of windows xp, no sound card.
2- install a brand new sb live! 5.1 card
3- OS detects card and installs native drivers
4- play a excellent quality mp3 through windows media player
(here, i adjusted my hardware external mixer, and amp to their optimum levels(my equalizer component was not even plugged in). you should ensure that no equalizer or added effects are enabled in your hardware so that you get the purest raw sound. while listening to songs you should remember how they sound. )
ok, getting back to windows...
5- install just the driver from the creative labs CD
6- download and install the latest driver from the creative labs website.
7- play the same song through windows media player.
the sound quality is changed! the music now sounds like it coming out of a broom closet! ok, lets fiddle with some options to see who the culprit is.
8- allow the song to continue playing in microsoft windows media player.
9- run the audioHQ from control panel and run the 'speaker' controls (or left click the audioHQ icon on the taskbar and select 'speaker')
10- click on the tiny words that read 'speaker selection' , select headphones
Hey! the music playing sounds MORE muffled! it sounds like someone turned the treble all the way down!
11- play with the speaker selections (and laugh at creative labs for changing the way its soundcard output sounds for users with headphones) until you are bored, and go back to the 2 speaker, or 4 speaker selection.
12- click on EAX
13- change the task to (Custom) and select different presets to enjoy your favorite music being distorted in ways you never wished.
14- ok, lets go back to normalcy, and select (no effects)
the recent steps prove that EAX is modifying the sound output ... EVEN WHEN 'NO EFFECTS' IS SELECTED. ok the answer is simple, remove EAX! well, you can't. it comes tied in with the latest driver, much like IE is tied in with the OS. I'm sure there maybe be a way to hack into your system files and registry(any volunteers?) in order to completely remove EAX.
lets revert back...
15- uninstall audioHQ
16- uninstall SB live! driver
when the system is rebooted , it find the card and install its native drivers. the sound quality is back to the way i remembered it.
end.
but wait there is more!...
what does this mean for atomixmp3 users? have you ever used the built in record feature of atomixmp3 , burned a cd with your mix, and played it through your car or home system?
I had this problem with one of my songs containing noise and sounding tinny. i remembered that it sounded halfway decent through atomixmp3, so i went back to double check and sure enough it sounded ok.
whats going on here!? well, truth is, the original mp3 file of the poorly sounding song was infact poorly ripped and encoded to begin with. EAX was hiding that fact with its 'Advanced EQ Technology'. i play the original wav file that was outputted by atomixmp3 through my computer and it sounds ok. i burn it to cd and play it through my car, and it sounds like crap! all the sounds hidden by the EAX technology had revealed themselves once again.
my suggestion is. unless you want an EAX processor in your car system, home system, cd player, radio, mp3 player, whatever (and the muffled sound doesnt bother you) - i suggest you stay away from EAX alltogether, and encode your own mp3 files(when you want something done right, do it yourself). now if if you are not an audio enthusiast, and your pc is all you have as far as music playback, then EAX is ok.
- Karel
comments , questions, suggestions, and flames can go to:
bertin_karel@yahoo.com
here is a link to some EAX hype by Creative Labs:
http://www.eax.creative.com/musiclistening/
here are the steps...
1- do a clean install of windows xp, no sound card.
2- install a brand new sb live! 5.1 card
3- OS detects card and installs native drivers
4- play a excellent quality mp3 through windows media player
(here, i adjusted my hardware external mixer, and amp to their optimum levels(my equalizer component was not even plugged in). you should ensure that no equalizer or added effects are enabled in your hardware so that you get the purest raw sound. while listening to songs you should remember how they sound. )
ok, getting back to windows...
5- install just the driver from the creative labs CD
6- download and install the latest driver from the creative labs website.
7- play the same song through windows media player.
the sound quality is changed! the music now sounds like it coming out of a broom closet! ok, lets fiddle with some options to see who the culprit is.
8- allow the song to continue playing in microsoft windows media player.
9- run the audioHQ from control panel and run the 'speaker' controls (or left click the audioHQ icon on the taskbar and select 'speaker')
10- click on the tiny words that read 'speaker selection' , select headphones
Hey! the music playing sounds MORE muffled! it sounds like someone turned the treble all the way down!
11- play with the speaker selections (and laugh at creative labs for changing the way its soundcard output sounds for users with headphones) until you are bored, and go back to the 2 speaker, or 4 speaker selection.
12- click on EAX
13- change the task to (Custom) and select different presets to enjoy your favorite music being distorted in ways you never wished.
14- ok, lets go back to normalcy, and select (no effects)
the recent steps prove that EAX is modifying the sound output ... EVEN WHEN 'NO EFFECTS' IS SELECTED. ok the answer is simple, remove EAX! well, you can't. it comes tied in with the latest driver, much like IE is tied in with the OS. I'm sure there maybe be a way to hack into your system files and registry(any volunteers?) in order to completely remove EAX.
lets revert back...
15- uninstall audioHQ
16- uninstall SB live! driver
when the system is rebooted , it find the card and install its native drivers. the sound quality is back to the way i remembered it.
end.
but wait there is more!...
what does this mean for atomixmp3 users? have you ever used the built in record feature of atomixmp3 , burned a cd with your mix, and played it through your car or home system?
I had this problem with one of my songs containing noise and sounding tinny. i remembered that it sounded halfway decent through atomixmp3, so i went back to double check and sure enough it sounded ok.
whats going on here!? well, truth is, the original mp3 file of the poorly sounding song was infact poorly ripped and encoded to begin with. EAX was hiding that fact with its 'Advanced EQ Technology'. i play the original wav file that was outputted by atomixmp3 through my computer and it sounds ok. i burn it to cd and play it through my car, and it sounds like crap! all the sounds hidden by the EAX technology had revealed themselves once again.
my suggestion is. unless you want an EAX processor in your car system, home system, cd player, radio, mp3 player, whatever (and the muffled sound doesnt bother you) - i suggest you stay away from EAX alltogether, and encode your own mp3 files(when you want something done right, do it yourself). now if if you are not an audio enthusiast, and your pc is all you have as far as music playback, then EAX is ok.
- Karel
comments , questions, suggestions, and flames can go to:
bertin_karel@yahoo.com
here is a link to some EAX hype by Creative Labs:
http://www.eax.creative.com/musiclistening/
Posted Fri 05 Apr 02 @ 4:55 am
DJtalon
Or, you can do like I do, and take advantage of EAX.... by recording back from a mixer into line-in :D
Posted Fri 05 Apr 02 @ 6:24 am
trip_likeido
I find that recording through line-in from a mixer looses quality period ! When recording CD's ... I just use the atomix recorder .. that way everything is mixed digitally !
Posted Fri 05 Apr 02 @ 6:41 am
nate
I've noticed some bad sound quality problems with the SB cards when they are in 4-channel mode - the sound quality gets bad. as soon as it drops into 4-channel mode things go south.
soundblaster products in general have disappointed me. they are good for some applications, but are not very well suited to others. they were designed with a surround sound system in mind, for playing games and watching movies on your computer... a far cry from realtime digital mixing! they really never though much of two totally different programs on the front and rear channels, afterall how many home users would ever do something like that??
In my toying with atomixmp3 and an external mixer (or headphone monitoring w/ internal mixer), the best solution is simply two non-3d cards of the same make/model. you should use two cards of the same make/model for a reason - they will use the same drivers so the latency will match, and the internal latency of the soundboards will also match. this helps keep your beats locked on top of eachother. beware that some sound chips do not allow more than one device in the same machine. also be aware you will need an extra IRQ as both cards will want one. on some systems, you will need to play around a bit to get two soundcards to work - try different PCI slots, and you may have to use the BIOS to manually assign IRQ's to the cards and disable auto-IRQ assignment. remember that lower interrupt numbers have higher priority - assign the lowest IRQ to your hard drive interface and the next lowest ones to your sound devices. in my configuration, IRQ 3 goes to my SCSI card and 4 and 5 to the sound boards.
also, avoid software-based audio solutions (aka the AC97 standard) - they tax your CPU more than true hardware soundboards (yamaha opl3's, cmedia, etc etc) as they offload most the audio processing to your main CPU.
there's another plus to two simple non-3d cards... the cost of two of them is often less than a single soundblaster 4-channel card.
-nate
soundblaster products in general have disappointed me. they are good for some applications, but are not very well suited to others. they were designed with a surround sound system in mind, for playing games and watching movies on your computer... a far cry from realtime digital mixing! they really never though much of two totally different programs on the front and rear channels, afterall how many home users would ever do something like that??
In my toying with atomixmp3 and an external mixer (or headphone monitoring w/ internal mixer), the best solution is simply two non-3d cards of the same make/model. you should use two cards of the same make/model for a reason - they will use the same drivers so the latency will match, and the internal latency of the soundboards will also match. this helps keep your beats locked on top of eachother. beware that some sound chips do not allow more than one device in the same machine. also be aware you will need an extra IRQ as both cards will want one. on some systems, you will need to play around a bit to get two soundcards to work - try different PCI slots, and you may have to use the BIOS to manually assign IRQ's to the cards and disable auto-IRQ assignment. remember that lower interrupt numbers have higher priority - assign the lowest IRQ to your hard drive interface and the next lowest ones to your sound devices. in my configuration, IRQ 3 goes to my SCSI card and 4 and 5 to the sound boards.
also, avoid software-based audio solutions (aka the AC97 standard) - they tax your CPU more than true hardware soundboards (yamaha opl3's, cmedia, etc etc) as they offload most the audio processing to your main CPU.
there's another plus to two simple non-3d cards... the cost of two of them is often less than a single soundblaster 4-channel card.
-nate
Posted Sat 06 Apr 02 @ 9:52 am