New Audigy 2 drivers...........

[Brian48]

Well, at least I think they're new. They're dated 11 Feb 2003 and the list of changes seem different from I what I remember from last time.

Creative Asia download site.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Brian48
Well, at least I think they're new. They're dated 11 Feb 2003 and the list of changes seem different from I what I remember from last time.

Creative Asia download site.

Nice, thanks Any updates of note? I'll check em out tonite; with the 3.1's and now new A2 drivers, gonna be a lotta tweakin.

Chiz

 

[Brian48]

Primarily fixes as far as I can tell, but they're pretty prominent fixes though.

Fixes


Improved front panel headphones support.
Correct surround-channel response when using EAX Effects presets.
System lock-up issue on dual processor and Hyper-Threading enabled systems resolved.

Improved MIDI playback.
Compatibility issue with NVIDIA® nForce(TM) onboard gameports resolved.

 

[Chad]

My new Audigy 2 will be here any minute now... can someone tell me, are these the only thing I need to install to get the card working properly? Do I *NEED* to install anything from the CD? I don't care for fluff programs and mp3 players. I just want my card to work, have 3dsound in my games.

Also, is there an install process I should or shouldn't do?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Chad
My new Audigy 2 will be here any minute now... can someone tell me, are these the only thing I need to install to get the card working properly? Do I *NEED* to install anything from the CD? I don't care for fluff programs and mp3 players. I just want my card to work, have 3dsound in my games.

Also, is there an install process I should or shouldn't do?

You need to install any modules you want to update from the disc first, as the updaters "patch" the existing drivers.

Its easy to avoid the bloatware, just do a custom install of each and you can decide what to install. For a minimal install, I would stick with the drivers, control panel, EAX panel (req'd for CMSS2 + sound cleanup), AudioHQ, and the speaker diagnostics.

If you have DVD-Audio discs install that as well, otherwise leave it out as its of no use to you. All that mediasource stuff is big-time bloatware that is pretty redundant. I guess it wouldn't be too bad if you wanted to consolidate some apps, but its up 2 u.

Chiz

 

[Chad]

Wow, cool, I very much appreciate it man!

 

[techfuzz]

How is the stability of the A2 drivers these days? I was thinking about buying a new card and one of my choices in the A2. Any feedback on drivers is appreciated! Thanks

techfuzz

 

[Brian48]

Both the A2 drivers and software are much better than anything that was ever released for the A1. Very stable with much less bloat.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Brian48
Both the A2 drivers and software are much better than anything that was ever released for the A1. Very stable with much less bloat.

I never used the A1, but I agree, the Audigy2 drivers/SW is excellent compared to the Live! I was using before. No more random crackling/popping or distortion, and the drivers don't taint your Windows install for eternity like the Live! drivers on my Via mobo. The items I listed above are seamlessly integrated into the control panel, and don't seem cumbersome at all. For those minimalists out there, you will need to install the modules I listed to get all the benefits of the A2 though.

I've only had 2 issues with my A2. One was with smartdisks (MW4 Mercs); you need to disable the Creative splash screen to fix it. The other was Windows system sounds would cease if you opened a disc drive while PVCRII was in use. You would then need to hit settings and "OK" to get the tuner sound back, but system sounds were still disabled. This only happened with PVCRII's patch, so I just left the patch out and all is OK.

Chiz

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: chizow
For those minimalists out there, you will need to install the modules I listed to get all the benefits of the A2 though.

Really? I just installed the drivers and one other option (can't remember which). I want to get everything out of my card, but I cannot stand things working in the background. Is there a specific way to minimize the impact of these things? Faster FSB? Faster RAM? Faster CPU? Tweak some settings in those consoles?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Ilmater

Originally posted by: chizow
For those minimalists out there, you will need to install the modules I listed to get all the benefits of the A2 though.

Really? I just installed the drivers and one other option (can't remember which). I want to get everything out of my card, but I cannot stand things working in the background. Is there a specific way to minimize the impact of these things? Faster FSB? Faster RAM? Faster CPU? Tweak some settings in those consoles?

No performance tweaks per se, they're just options to enable some of the features, like multi-environmental EAX HD, CMSS2 (Dolby Digital EX 5.1/6.1 upmixing from analog sources), timeshifting, EAX HD support in games, and audio cleanup. If anything, enabling the options will eat some CPU cycles, but its worth it IMO. Also, if you want to easily switch between digital s/pdif output (for movies) to an external decoder, you'll need to install audioHQ and the control panel. Much of the other settings in control panel will also work using the vanilla Windows DLLs, but the A2 CP integrates them with the other modules and also offers a few other tweaks (like setting your speaker balance as well as sound field using the graphical display or through the sound tweaker).

The most important features I've found though are the CMSS2 upmixing for analog signals and the sound clean-up, both found in the EAX control panel. The sound tweaker is also a nice touch, and yields very noticeable and precise differences in the sound field.

Chiz

 

[Ilmater]

You know, what I should have said is, what is most important for those that will only use their Audigy 2 for music (mp3s) and sound in games? I don't watch DVDs on my PC (see my OTHER god box in my sig for what I watch DVDs on) and I don't encode any video (yet). I RARELY edit audio, and by rarely, I mean like once a year, so I'm not worried about that either. I currently only have the ACS-495 from Altec Lansing. They're a 2.1 set, with two drivers in each of the two front speakers. The top driver in each speaker is set at an angle and the bottom driver is set directly ahead. On my old Turtle Beach Montego II, I could get some pretty decent sound effects from A3D games (for a 2.1 setup, that is).

Sounds like the drivers and EAX panel are good to have, but what else.

 

[Davegod]

I suppose it's very unsurprising that Creative choose to send out some decent drivers for something they already have decent drivers for, rather than sort the pathetic POS that are Audigy1 drivers

never ever buying anything creative again.

 

[Auric]

Here's the Audigy 2 software on Audigy instructions for W9x-ME and W2k-XP. WinRAR or similar will be required to expand archives with paths.


Get these three files:

Audigy 2 Apps & Drivers 5.12.1.283
http://users2.ev1.net/~dallasstar/sb_install_multilang.rar

Compatibility Patch
http://members.aol.com/dvdking2001/Pub/ctcomp.exe

Audigy 2 DriverPack 5.12.1.324 - 7 Feb 2003
http://files.creative.com/Drivers/Others/1890/AUD2DRVL11030205.exe


And optionally the app updates (recommended):

Surround Mixer 3.00.57 - 10 Feb 2003
http://files.creative.com/Applications/Others/1894/SURMIX030206.exe

EAX Console 1.00.54 - 12 Dec 2002
http://files.asia.creative.com/files/creative/drivers/sbaudigy2/EAXCONSP021213.exe

Speaker Settings 1.00.56 - 10 Feb 2003
http://files.creative.com/Applications/Others/1893/SPKSET030206.exe

MediaSource 1.00.57 - 10 Feb 2003
http://files.creative.com/Applications/Others/1891/CMSP030127.exe

MediaSource Go! - 20 Dec 2002
http://files.creative.com/Applications/Others/1840/CM021119.exe

SoundFont Bank Manager 1.00.14 - 20 Dec 2002
http://files.asia.creative.com/files/creative/drivers/sbaudigy2/SFBMSP021213.exe


Uninstall all previous Creative apps & drivers. Reboot and cancel automatic driver install. Make certain nothing is left by searching system for old Creative files and folders and cleaning the registry of all Creative entries with RegCleaner.
http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/programs/RegCleaner.exe


Expand sb_install_multilang.rar and run ctcomp.exe pointing to Setup folder then run Setup to install that driver and the apps you choose.

Install updated apps as required by running them.

Expand AUD2DRVL11030205.exe and run ctcomp.exe pointing to its Setup folder then run Setup.

The only potential drawback is the SPDIF pass-through may not work so it is not recommended for use with an external amp/decoder for DD/DTS. Please report if it does work. Otherwise the new drivers and software have much superior features and functionality. Enjoy!



P.S.

If you actually have an Audigy 2 there is one more update:
DVD-Audio Player 1.00.60 - 10 Feb 2003
http://files.creative.com/Applications/Others/1892/DVDAPATCH030206.exe

-
Edited from earlier because more new updates have been released.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Yeehaw, they finally fixed the EAX problem when selecting Advanced EQ, the sound would change from 4.1 to 2.1 when selecting a preset. About time too.

 

[pillage2001]

A few q's.

1) I was told that the output for the CMSS feature is 16bit, thus when selected, all sounds would be 16bit?? Since there's noway to configure our speakers for 2.1 o4.1 or etc, we're stuck with CMSS1 or 2. Is it true that the output sound of the CMSS feature is only 16bit??

2) Is the Audigy Live Drive IR compatible with the Audigy2 card?? I really wanna get the Live Drive to work. CAn't afford a Platinum one.

3) The sound clean up only works in a particular player and not in winamp??

 

[Enoch2001]

I tried installing the patch (WinXP Pro, all other patches installed) and it kept locking my system up during install. Tried to install in Safemode, but it didn't detect my card. Finally went back into a normal boot but when I ran the installer, it claimed that the drivers were WDM and I had VXD installed. Anybody know what that is, how I got it installed, and what the heck is going on?

The other patch released at the end of last year patched fine; I'm aching to be able to use EAX effects (like the friggin' EQ) in 5.1 mode - getting bumped to 2.1 is a bug that their techs have known about since its release!

 

[Winifreid]

I have read (don't know where) that it is possible to use audigy drivers with SB Live 5.1 cards. Is this true and if so, what are the advantages? If this is true, what are the best drivers (1 or 2) to use. I have a SB Live 5.1 and Win 98 and driver version 4.12.01.0248. The only real problem I have noticed is that if I use either scanreg or Norton to optimize the registry (remove space), I loose all sound after reboot and have to restore from a backup. Not really a problem since registry optimization doesn't really make much difference. I use my card to record music for mixing via microphone and line in, and playing and ripping mp3s, but not much else. No games. Any advice would be appreciated.