jayelectric
New Head-Fier
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This is a simple tutorial that covers a cheap method of getting incredible binaural sound over headphones with two old creative cards and two sets of drivers in win 7. I stumbled upon this method while trying to get an old soundblaster live emu10k card to support good surround in openal/directsound 3d games, and ultimately it led to me creating a dual card setup that provides, imho, much better results than any of the software solutions like cmss3d and dolby headphone.
The two soundcards I used are the software driven audigy se and the dsp driven soundblaster live! Value card. Both are fairly old cards that can be gotten for ten bucks a piece if you know where to look. The plan is to simply use the audigy for openal/ds3d, to lay a foundation for the live card which uses kx drivers for programmable dsp effects like crossfade, surround+, timedelay, etc. KX drivers do not support either openal or ds3d in win 7, not even software versions like openal soft, so for games that use these api, the kx drivers are mostly useless on their own. But they allow for personal hrtf creation through plug-ins, that can overlay other cards in win 7.
Now the hardest part is setting up kx drivers. Install kx drivers on the second card. You have two options at this point, master dsp routing in kx and create your own hrtf environment that works to suit your needs, or hunt down a pre-configured dsp map for 3d sound on the internet. Also note that emu10k has less dsp resources than 10k2 so certain config's won't work on older live! boards. A simple start is the plug-in surrounder+, plus timebalance v2 configured to allow for the user to move rear and side channels to whatever positions sound best and two stereomix plugins to provide the crossfade (this is a cludge and not what the plugin's were meant for but works)
https://picasaweb.google.com/116880027998939681507/June232013?authuser=0&feat=directlink# (setup the dsp lines and settings exactly as shown in the pics. refer to kx driver website for guides)
. Use an 8 channel source to verify sounds are where they should be and add reverb and eq to enhance the affect. KX drivers are great for this.
A couple things of note. When not playing openal or ds3d games, use kx mixer as default card. The reason is that "what u hear" only outputs stereo, which is fine for openal and ds3d because they use an api that sends positional cues over stereo channels. Modern games software audio engines send independent channels that will be lost on the "what u hear" output. Also, in kx keep surrounder+ as 2.1 for headphones, and use kx master mixer, not wave out devices in win 7 audio panel. Master mixer is setup as 8 channels as far as windows and newer games are concerned, and surrounder+ will downmix to stereo over headphones in newer games. Finally, don't use other openal implementations like openal soft or rapture 3d, they do software hrtf that muddies up the kx final output.
This should work for any sound card combinations that support both kx drivers and openal/dsound3d, provided the openal card can 'stereo mix' in win 7, and learning dsp in kx is easy as there are tons of resources online (kx is more than 10 years old at this point).
Thanks for your time.
Jay
The two soundcards I used are the software driven audigy se and the dsp driven soundblaster live! Value card. Both are fairly old cards that can be gotten for ten bucks a piece if you know where to look. The plan is to simply use the audigy for openal/ds3d, to lay a foundation for the live card which uses kx drivers for programmable dsp effects like crossfade, surround+, timedelay, etc. KX drivers do not support either openal or ds3d in win 7, not even software versions like openal soft, so for games that use these api, the kx drivers are mostly useless on their own. But they allow for personal hrtf creation through plug-ins, that can overlay other cards in win 7.
- First you need a soundcard that supports stereo mix recording or in creative's case, "what u hear". The audigy se has a vista beta driver that allows what u hear (stereo mix) "locate driver 0065a" on creative's website. No driver after that will allow stereo mix for that particular card. Next install the card in your system and with the driver installed enable 2.1 or headphone mode. Cmss3d will not work with this driver, but it won't be needed. For better sound cards I would still recommend using the second card to create the reverb and hrtf effects. Finally, close the system and install the emu10k or emu10k2 series card (live or audigy 1-4).
Now the hardest part is setting up kx drivers. Install kx drivers on the second card. You have two options at this point, master dsp routing in kx and create your own hrtf environment that works to suit your needs, or hunt down a pre-configured dsp map for 3d sound on the internet. Also note that emu10k has less dsp resources than 10k2 so certain config's won't work on older live! boards. A simple start is the plug-in surrounder+, plus timebalance v2 configured to allow for the user to move rear and side channels to whatever positions sound best and two stereomix plugins to provide the crossfade (this is a cludge and not what the plugin's were meant for but works)
https://picasaweb.google.com/116880027998939681507/June232013?authuser=0&feat=directlink# (setup the dsp lines and settings exactly as shown in the pics. refer to kx driver website for guides)
. Use an 8 channel source to verify sounds are where they should be and add reverb and eq to enhance the affect. KX drivers are great for this.
- Once kx is configured, attach headphones to the rear output of the kx card (best signal quality on older cards), and make sure "swap rear for front" is enabled in the kx mixer. Under windows 7 audio control panel set the audigy se as the default device. Then go to recording tab and set 'what u hear' as default recording device. Open what u hear and under the listen tab, check 'listen to this device". Output the sound to the kx master mixer (your second card with headphones). You should be able to hear the audigy playback in the kx card. You now have access to all openal/ ds3d games (use alchemy for the latter), and on top of the audigy headphone downmix, your kx card allows you to set the virtual speakers where you want them in relation to binaural perfection. The quality is only a limit of the user's ability in kxdsp. Any range of effects can be added to create a great soundstage that creative drivers do not allow.
A couple things of note. When not playing openal or ds3d games, use kx mixer as default card. The reason is that "what u hear" only outputs stereo, which is fine for openal and ds3d because they use an api that sends positional cues over stereo channels. Modern games software audio engines send independent channels that will be lost on the "what u hear" output. Also, in kx keep surrounder+ as 2.1 for headphones, and use kx master mixer, not wave out devices in win 7 audio panel. Master mixer is setup as 8 channels as far as windows and newer games are concerned, and surrounder+ will downmix to stereo over headphones in newer games. Finally, don't use other openal implementations like openal soft or rapture 3d, they do software hrtf that muddies up the kx final output.
This should work for any sound card combinations that support both kx drivers and openal/dsound3d, provided the openal card can 'stereo mix' in win 7, and learning dsp in kx is easy as there are tons of resources online (kx is more than 10 years old at this point).
Thanks for your time.
Jay
