[duranxv]

So I tried Redscape tonight and I don't know that I like it. Just like Atmos everything is much more...spacy, airy sounding and distributed. It's like the center channel is MIA and all the other speakers are really far from you. Creative's virtual 7.1 somehow brought everything much closer to you (comparatively) while also managing to create a sense of space. I'll give it another night or two and fiddle with settings more than I did but thus far I'm not quite feeling it, so to speak.

I definitely don't like what Redscape does to music, even on the music pre-set. Fortunately this Beacn Mix Create lets me assign my music applications to a different virtual device that Redscape isn't outputting to. That lets me apply spatial effects to game audio while skipping it for music applications and then ties it all together to a single output device.

Set the room setting to 25% on Redscape. I find that works best. Also, in the options, you can set the dB levels of the different speakers. I like to reduce the dB for the rear channels so that they're more obvious to me. You can also mess with the ear size and head width settings as well.

For music, turn the power button off on Redscape (but don't close it). That will make it go from 7.1 surround to 5.1 surround. Music sounds much better on it that way. The reason why people mistakenly believe music sounds better on Atmos or Creative is because they force your sound device to go into Stereo and then they emulate 7.1 surround. Redcsape does true 7.1 surround, so music can often sound a bit strange on it.

 

[JdeFalconr]

Set the room setting to 25% on Redscape. I find that works best. Also, in the options, you can set the dB levels of the different speakers. I like to reduce the dB for the rear channels so that they're more obvious to me. You can also mess with the ear size and head width settings as well.

For music, turn the power button off on Redscape (but don't close it). That will make it go from 7.1 surround to 5.1 surround. Music sounds much better on it that way. The reason why people mistakenly believe music sounds better on Atmos or Creative is because they force your sound device to go into Stereo and then they emulate 7.1 surround. Redcsape does true 7.1 surround, so music can often sound a bit strange on it.

Thank you! I'll definitely try and fiddle with those settings tomorrow night. What's your experience been with latency? I see that it's asking for a requested latency value. Even the minimum 10ms concerns me.

 

[duranxv]

Thank you! I'll definitely try and fiddle with those settings tomorrow night. What's your experience been with latency? I see that it's asking for a requested latency value. Even the minimum 10ms concerns me.

As long as your latency is below 25-30ms, you'll be fine for gaming. Generally you should go for the lowest latency possible unless you're noticing pops or dropouts in your audio.

 

[Chastity]

Don't forget to go into Redscape's settings and adjust the Anatomy Customizations to best match yourself. (Experiment with it in a game) For music, I output my music apps direct to my DAC and bypass Redscape.

If you use an actual 5.1 or 7.1 system then I guess a sound card is ok, but only if you use a multimedia system. If using your own multichannel system, then just HDMI to your AV receiver.

 

[JdeFalconr]

So I played with settings a bit more tonight. I was able to improve things for Redscape, improving the clarity and immediacy of some of the effects. But I just can't shake a slight airy, high-frequency sound to all of the audio. The spaciousness is there and it's immense, which could be cool. But everything has a very processed, artificial sound to it. Even dialog and other sounds right in front of your face are seemingly rendered through the left and right channels instead of a center-channel effect. Alternatively I could describe it by almost everything coming through with a tiny amount of reverb.

Altering Head Width all the way up helped some as did playing with the volume knob and the Room setting. But I just couldn't quite get it right-sounding. I compared against the X4 outputting optical to the Atom+ and so far I think I prefer that route unless you guys have some magical suggestions.

I may give the AE-5 a shot in the interest of having less physical gear outside my computer to deal with. But on the other hand I noted that the X4 stacks nearly perfectly on top of the Atom+ which is nice for footprint reasons. Given how long I've been working on getting things just right I am tempted to just keep the X4, use that and spend my energy enjoying my setup.

EDIT: I'm going to ask the dumb question here to make sure I get it right. I've never used Creative's "Acoustic Engine" (see https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=200282&c for an example) or the surround features there; I frankly thought it sounds terrible. Even without it, though, in all the games I've played I've had positional audio that sounded just fine. Is this Acoustic Engine thing just some additional processing that enhances virtual surround? Or is it the entirety of virtual surround for Creative products and I've had it turned off somehow the whole time? If so then I have no idea how I've been getting positional audio in my games. This evening I was able to switch between output direct to my Atom+ DAC and output via my X4 and I could swear they sounded identical.

But then again maybe this is more of a terminology issue: Am I conflating "virtual 7.1"/"virtual surround" and "positional audio"/"spatial audio"? Is the situation really that the Creative product basically just provides upmixing of a source to 7.1 if it isn't already presented in that fashion and the "Audio Engine" feature just adds spatial effects? If so that would explain why my DAC and X4 both sounded the same from BF2042 if the game had its own virtual surround implementation.

 

[Chastity]

If your game (console or otherwise) is generating it's own HRTF stereo mix, then you should NOT be using SBX / SXFi as you will be processing it twice.

 

[JdeFalconr]

If your game (console or otherwise) is generating it's own HRTF stereo mix, then you should NOT be using SBX / SXFi as you will be processing it twice.

That was my concern as well, but I tried fiddling with audio settings a bit and had trouble getting a result. I normally have this set to the Surround option. I would think Mono would be ideal - output it in "native" 5.1 and let my other stuff deal with the processing. But for whatever reason my setup just treats that as a truly one-channel source and outputs it as such. Which option would you suggest here?

 

[Leberkassemmel]

Im also trying Redscape with Apex Legends and my DT1990 (analytical pads) for a few hours. In the beginning i was really disappointed, I really didnt like the default settings. After I changed the settings a bit (Head Width all the way to the left, Room to 0 and LFE to -10db) it got better, but im still not really happy, even on the smallest room setting it still has too much reverb for my liking.

I usually run HeSuvi with oal_dflt and for me its much better than Redscape for competitive play. Well, I can hear where sounds are coming from with redscape, i also think i can hear better if an enemy is above or below me with redscape, but as soon as the action starts (gunshots, rockets, grenades) i really struggle to pick up footsteps and other sound cues of enemys. I also feel like its harder to pick up sound cues of enemys, which are a bit further away, than with Hesuvi.


Some other thoughts about Redscape:

Its a bit annyoing, that there is no number value on the volume/room wheels and turning it with the mouse can also be a bit awkward. Yes i know that u can use your mouse wheel too, i would still prefer it to be able to put in an exact value. Not being able to put in numbers is also annyoing in the Equalizer, its basically impossible to put in the the exact number you want just with the wheel.

I really like its ability to output to Asio tho. So even if im not happy with Surround-Sound simulation it does, i can just deactivate it, install HeSuvi on it and use it as a low latency bridge to my DAC.

 

[JdeFalconr]

OK I played with settings again during my lunch break from work and I think I have a better grasp on all of this now. I get that while virtual surround provides n virtual channels that are right "on" your head spatial audio virtually moves all the sounds "outside" your head and positions them in a virtual "soundscape" around you. I see too that BF2042 was indeed creating its own 5.1 mix, including positioning.

I was able to get Creative's spatial audio working on top of the virtual surround and compare it against Redscape. Very interesting hearing the differences! Creative to me sounds more focused and closer to you while maintaining the large soundscape. Redscape, meanwhile, felt like it extends all sounds farther "outside" your head. I think Redscape did a better job of creating an expansive soundscape but the cost was that I felt all of the sounds it creates were less focused and had more of a spacy, processed sound. To be fair both solutions had that spacy, processed quality to them, with a hint of high-frequency sound added, with the Creative one to my ears having less of that for sounds that played closer to you. I did feel in both that position cues from the audio were more precise though I didn't get a handle on which one I felt offered higher precision.

I noticed while looking at Redscape's channel monitors (super-handy, by the way!) that in BF2042 and Valheim that it almost exclusively used the left and right channels, using some of the surround channels for atmosphere and it only seems to use the center channel for dialog. For a time I thought maybe it was only doing 5.1 but nope, it was 7.1 but not using most of the channels. Interesting. I wish I had a monitor like that which would evaluate the audio for any application so I could compare to Creative's solution.

Turning off that spatial audio indeed brought all the sounds much "closer" to my head. I'll have to decide whether or not I prefer that to a spatial solution and to what extent I can deal with that spacy, processed sound of spatial audio.

 

[Chastity]

Redscape isn't a VSS that you typically encounter. Things like Dolby Access, SBX, etc are an open field surround, where the distance and cues are in an open space. Redscape is simulating a room with speakers, replete with wall reflections, with the number of speakers according to how many you set. So yes, it will not sound like SBX, as Redscape is recreating a 7.1 speaker system in an ideal room environment on your headphones. So the left and right fronts along with the center channel will sound "ahead" of you. It can still do positional audio, and do it really well, but just remember that it's a room simulator and you will get audio reflections too.

 

[Viggen66]

Has anyone notice here, but whenever I turn on SXFI, the volume of the GC7 just goes down considerably when comparing to non SXFI modes, also most of the details are simply gone after SXFI is working, which is very weird.

 

[JdeFalconr]

Well schitt, my beautiful Asgard just developed a buzz in the left channel. Time to test their customer service.

 

[deafenears]

Does the GC7 work well with an LCD-GX or LCD-XC (being same sensitivity and impedance)? Both 15Ohm impedance where the GC7 spec says 32 - 300Ω with output impedance 10Ω. Also, does it provide enough output power for these HPs? @Mad Lust Envy, maybe you've tried and know?

 

[Playstation]

hello

short of learning about condenser mics and phantom power. does anyone know if an at2020 plugged directly into a ps4 would work? on the amazon questions and answers, someone said yes.

thought i would double check here before making a purchase


thanks

 

[AxelCloris]

An AT2020USB+ can be plugged directly into a PS4 and it'll recognize it as a "headset," yes. If you have the XLR AT2020, then you're going to need a driverless interface for it to be compatible. I've had luck doing that with the MicPort from CEntrance. If you've yet to buy a mic, buy this version: https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT2020USB-Cardioid-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B00B5ZX9FM