Creative announces X-Fi solutions

[Ghouler]

Many people here probably saw the news on The INQ already
INQ linky
Creative says they have further worked on solution for problems some people have with X-Fi Apparently enabling dual channel memory mode helps in some cases, but mobo bios update is the most recommended fix in many other cases according to their latest statement
My X-Fi works fine at the moment but I do NOT mind new driver is on the way!
😀

 

[Oyeve]

Hopefully they will also update the Audio creation SW too. The digital delay sucks on the X-FI. I miss the echo two-tap from my Audigy 2 ZS. If they dont fix this I will not buy another SB card ever again.

 

[Ghouler]

are you serious? Do you prefer sound of Audigy FXs to X-Fi FXs in Audio creation mode?
In Audigy software you had hardly any control over delay parameters,
in X-Fi Audio Creation mode you can fine tune any single parameter of digital FXs.
Having said that I do not use delay much, just a touch of reverberation and compression
at the end of a mix is more then enough for me. That's not pro hardware anyway.

 

[Oyeve]

The digital delay on the XFI is only 200ms and 400ms. On the Audigy it was over 2 seconds. I do a lot of DJing with my PC and the delay on the Audigy series was much longer than the X-fi.

 

[Ghouler]

I don't remember delay settings for Audigy 2ZS, but in fact 2 tap delay with X-Fi gives you control over 2 taps within 1-200 and 1-400 ms + HF FQ damping control, that's very handy. If you want longer delay you can use 2 digital delay lines on Aux 3 and Aux 4.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
I don't remember delay settings for Audigy 2ZS, but in fact 2 tap delay with X-Fi gives you control over 2 taps within 1-200 and 1-400 ms + HF FQ damping control, that's very handy. If you want longer delay you can use 2 digital delay lines on Aux 3 and Aux 4.

But the delay is too short. Other SB iterations of the delay software allowed you to have a repeat of of, say, a vocal length repeat at a certain length of time to match the BPM exactly. It was great for mixing and was a great effect. The Xfi's digital delay two tap is much too short and depending on the speaker config and all the aux setups just sounds like crap. I just want a simple delay like the old cards had. Playing an old school disco song like Funkytown on the old cards and having the delay repeat at the same BPM was great and the Xfi cannot to this, not even close. HERE is a CL forum thread about this.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I used to have many problems with my old DFI nforce 4 board. Now I don't have that many...

Still randomly get pop clicking that's remedied by a restart and sometimes the sample rate somehow becomes something that sounds like 11000 -- also remedied with a restart.

Kinda sucks. This is my last creative sound card.

 

[Ghouler]

Creative published a list of bugs that new driver fixes. It will be next month if I follow them correctly, see link on the bottom for more info.

"Web Update 3 - Fixes implemented in this release

Game Bugs Fixed
Lockup issues in Prey
Game (Quake 4 [ver 1.04]) Frequent, but random crashes to desktop with error "Quake 4 has encountered an error and needs to close"
Game (Quake 4 [ver 1.04]) All positional audio only plays from one speaker
Game (Quake 4 [ver 1.04]) No audio once OpenAL X-Fi is selected as the audio driver
Game (Quake 4 [ver 1.04]) Sounds not playing out of correct speakers
Battlefield 2 Ultra-High Audio setting crash in multi-player game
Game (Battlefield 2 [ver 1.12]) No audio heard once X-Fi is selected as in game audio driver
Game (Doom 3 [ver 1.3]) No audio is heard once EAX 4.0 is enabled
Game (Doom 3 [ver 1.3]) Chainsaw attack sound effects has lots of audio pops
Game (Doom 3 [ver 1.3]) Hiss coming from front left speaker. Also game sounds not panning
Game (Doom 3 [ver 1.3]) Ambient sound effects fail to play correctly
Game (Unreal Tournament 2004 [ver 3369]) No audio at all when running in hardware OpenAL mode (i.e. "System Driver" check-box un-checked)
Game (Unreal Tournament 2004 [ver 3355]) No reverb in native OpenAL mode
Game (Unreal Tournament 2004 [ver 3355]) In game music does not work correctly in Native OpenAL mode
Game (Dungeon Siege [ver 1.11]) Benchmark crashes with BSOD in ha20x2k.sys

Music/Movie Playback Bugs Fixed
BSOD occurs while playback DTS audio cd with CMS in driver decode.
CMSS-3D Speakers distortion playing DivX stereo content

Recording Bugs Fixed
ASIO audio stops when inputs turned on in Cubase LE
ASIO: Sample Rate change in cubase causes BSOD
ASIO @ 1 MS: crackly playback and monitoring
ASIO: change Sample Rate in Cubase LE or SX3 and signal is lost
Recording to 44.1k multi-channel wave file in Audio Creation Mode with 44.1k MSR causes distortion
WXP64Bit-Play some 3D Midi files no sound
Creation Mode: Pops and crackles while 'record monitoring' and changing sample rate
(Cubase LE 1.09) Faster playback of midi tracks when changing SR
44 kHz m-channel recording: 'recording process aborted'
(WinXP 64Bit) All modes-Missing instruments when playing midi file.
System will hang during starting record use CMS Player.
SoundFont issues during playback & recording where notes distort and change pitch

General Bugs Fixed
Enabling "Automatically Enable Headphone Settings" keeps the system from being able to return from Suspend mode (S3) if Headphones are not connected to the drive.
Game Mode-No audio output when test the CMSS-3DHeadphone on the Game mode console.
Loud noise when system resume from Standby

Developer Bugs Fixed
No effects will load in EAX4.0 Mode of EAX50ShowDSound
Loading a 2D Sound crashes system in DSound50_OpenAL1.1
Upmix Lost When Switching Effects
floating point offset bug in OpenAL
Bluescreen in CCrmSrcNode while using syncstart interface via native OpenAL"

Source:
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs...d=soundblaster&message.id=62915#M62915

 

[Fraggable]

I can only hope this will fix the weird problem I've been having that I suspect are related to mobo/x-fi compatibility problems, though I don't see anything in the list of fixes that indicates it will.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I can only hope this will fix the weird problem I've been having that I suspect are related to mobo/x-fi compatibility problems, though I don't see anything in the list of fixes that indicates it will.

I really doubt most mobo/sound card compatibility problems can be resolved with a driver update. It's either in the motherboard BIOS or the sound card EEPROM, or both. The BIOS update would be the easiest route to take, but the EEPROM would be the surest

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: Ghouler
Many people here probably saw the news on The INQ already
INQ linky
Creative says they have further worked on solution for problems some people have with X-Fi Apparently enabling dual channel memory mode helps in some cases, but mobo bios update is the most recommended fix in many other cases according to their latest statement
My X-Fi works fine at the moment but I do NOT mind new driver is on the way!
😀

Its' finally here! Download the new X-Fi Driver with OpenAL support. Version 2.09.0001.