Audigy 1 & 2 to support EAX 4.0!

[BoomAM]

Hi,
Im sure you all know that Creative are releasing their new cards soon, the Audigy2 ZS, which apart from native 7.1 support and DTS decoding, also support the new EAX4.0. Now we wern`t all sure wether Creative would provive us with a update to allow the Audigy 1 and Audigy 2 to support this as well.
They have.
According to their sound card comparison thing, all we need is a driver update!
See here:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2ZS_platinum_pro/compare.asp
The driver updates dont appear to be available yet.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Getting drivers out of Creative is never easy.

Does the Audigy1 support CMSS?

 

[BoomAM]

Yes.
The Audigy 1 has allways done CMSS.
But the thing is, that most of the "features" of the Creative cards, arnt actually hardware features, 90% of them are features of Creative Media Center, or whatever that player software of theirs is!. CMSS, Audio Clean Up, DREAM, ect; all done in Media Center, and not used, at all, in anything else.

 

[AndyHui]

The Audigy 1 has CMSS1, not CMSS2, which sounds far better.

The hard part is turning CMSS1 OFF. It's enabled by default in the latest A1 drivers, which makes everything a bit hollow sounding, and lacking bass. The only way to turn it off is through PlayCentre, and PlayCentre conveniently forgets your CMSS setting every time you restart.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Oh, no wonder I don't see any of that. I don't have PlayCenter or whatever even installed. I took it as bloat.

 

[BoomAM]

Never knew that.
I was wondering why a had to wack my bass on my sub up a bit when i installed the latest Audigy drivers a while back.
Anyway....Are we going to be seeing a review of the new Audigy 2 ZS here on AnandTech?

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Oh, no wonder I don't see any of that. I don't have PlayCenter or whatever even installed. I took it as bloat.

I only have the drivers + Audio HQ installed. Tryed MC when i got my Audigy, thought it sucked, and uninstalled it!

 

[GTaudiophile]

So, if MC is not installed, is CMSS enabled anyway through the driver?

 

[Trader05]

whatever happened to those performance beta drivers that supposed to be released by Creative in August? lol Seriously their drivers take forever!

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Trader05
whatever happened to those performance beta drivers that supposed to be released by Creative in August? lol Seriously their drivers take forever!

They`ve been out for ages! But after May 30th, they stop working, cos by then another, non-beta driver set will be out that has the performance optimisations built in.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Just used the Auto Update feature at Creative's site to install the .383 drivers. Not sure if I like them...

Think I lost some volume and the trebble seems jacked. The rear speakers seem to have lost a lot of volume.

 

[AndyHui]

With the latest .383 Audigy 1 drivers, CMSS1 is enabled whether or not you have PlayCenter installed.

Even then, you need to change PlayCenter to Player view (the smaller view), and not the big JukeBox view, in order to get to the CMSS Control.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Oh well, I guess leave the 5.12.1.383 drivers and hope that with the release of the ZS cards, Creative will have another driver update soon. I guess I can live with it.

 

[Mem]

Just download the latest Audigy PlayCenter update from Creative`s site and install it,you don`t need the previous PlayCentre to install the update ,then just select "CMSS OFF" once you have installed/rebooted and have the PlayCenter Panel opened.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I do not need a previous version of PlayCenter installed? It is listed as a requirement...

Does CMSS stay off after you reboot?

 

[Mem]

Does CMSS stay off after you reboot?

As AndyHui as said,you need to turn it off each time after reboot,since it forgets the "off" setting and always returns to the "on" setting after reboot.

 

[vailr]

Now working on Audigy1,
Only installed the drivers, so can't comment on the other apps.
Driver version is: 5.12.6.402, dated 7/10/2003.
Text

 

[Mem]

Core Driver Update - Aud_webupdate2_Drv.exe (7.2MB)
Audio HQ Update - Aud_webupdate2_AHQ.exe (3.44MB)
PlayCenter 3 Update - Aud_webupdate2_PC.exe (12.32MB)

Link .


When my ram went faulty lastweek and caused havoc on my HD ,after clean install I installed the Audigy CD driver files etc then just the above,I didn`t have any previous PlayCentre version installed and my version is 3.02.67( as listed in PlayCentre) works fine apart from the CMSS has to be reselected for "off" position everytime after each reboot.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Is that just for the Audigy 1? I've got a 2, and all that CMSS and effects junk seem to be off. I don't have anything called Playcenter though, but rather "Creative MediaSource". It's getting to the point where I wonder if I'd be better off just using a motherboard's onboard sound. I use Creative Labs stuff because I'm under the assumption that the CPU utilization in games is lower (but isn't it actually higher if you have EAX on?) and because the sound is cleaner.

I used onboard sound on an old BX board, and it was kind of "jerky" during games sometime, but it's probably better on newer boards.

 

[Mem]

JackHawksmoor,I`m talkng about my Audigy(first model not Audigy 2).

 

[GTaudiophile]

Updating to the 383 driver definitely turned on CMSS. I installed PlayCenter and turned it off and it's more-or-less the way I had it before. The trebble is still jacked up in the driver, though, so I had to use the Mixer to drop that a notch.

It's totally fubar that CMSS does not STAY off, though. Because of that, this is the FIRST time I've actually been pissed at Creative!

Edit: CMSS is total crap!!!

 

[Sid59]

sounds like Creative drivers are top notch! Glad to be Creative free.

 

[ViRGE]

Oh, and just an FYI to anyone worrying about CMSS, it's only for 4+ speakers anyhow, so 2/2.1/Headphone users can't have it enabled in the first place.

 

[Schadenfroh]

does EAX sound as good as A3D yet?

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
does EAX sound as good as A3D yet?

What's A3d? Haven't seen a game that supports that...

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
does EAX sound as good as A3D yet?

It has since EAX HD. As you might or might not know, Creative now own all of Aureals Assets, so they have access to all their technology and resources, and so, intergrated the A3D stuff into EAX HD.

Originally posted by: Nebor
What's A3d? Haven't seen a game that supports that...

Aureal 3D.
It was a competitor to EAX back in the day.