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Software Creative Releases New Value Sound Blaster Vista Drivers
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - June 26, 2007 1:51 PM

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37 comment(s) - last by Garreye.. on Jun 27 at 5:55 PM

Sound Blaster Audigy LS, Audigy SE, Audigy Value and Live! 24-bit users receive advanced features in Windows Vista

Sound Blaster Windows Vista users rejoice as Creative Labs has released new drivers for Sound Blaster Audigy LS, Audigy SE, Audigy Value and Live! 24-bit sound cards. The new drivers introduce Creative Labs applications to Windows Vista. With the new drivers, value Sound Blaster users have access to the Creative Audio Console, Device Control, EAX Console and Speaker Settings applications.

Using the applications, Creative Labs grants access to output audio quality, S/PDIF input/output sampling rate, speaker configuration, sound effects and CMSS settings – feats previously reserved for Windows XP users.

Sound Blaster Audigy LS, Audigy SE, Audigy Value and Live! 24-bit users can download the new drivers for Windows Vista/XP 32-bit and Vista/XP 64-bit.

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Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By therealnickdanger on 6/26/2007 2:24:48 PM , Rating: 2

Doesn't look like there's any support yet. C'mon CL, don't fail me!

RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By RamarC on 6/26/07, Rating: -1

RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By FITCamaro on 6/26/2007 4:05:43 PM , Rating: 4

Because Creative won't write a driver for it? How again is that Microsoft or Vista's fault?

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By pixelslave on 6/26/07, Rating: -1

RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By FITCamaro on 6/26/2007 7:01:48 PM , Rating: 4

That argument is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. A poorly designed product is the result of a company being too big. Vista has proved itself to be a capable, secure OS. Yes you might think it sucks too much resources and don't like the interface, but it is still capable and secure.

A hardware manufacturer not writing a driver is the issue here. A driver that Microsoft is not responsible for writing. If anyone has grown too big, its Creative since they can't keep up with drivers for their products.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By hadifa on 6/26/2007 9:26:02 PM , Rating: 2

"That argument is the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Right, it is too dumb to be true. I guess he is being sarcastic!

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By oTAL

(blog) on 6/27/2007 5:48:40 AM , Rating: 3

quote:
Right, it is too dumb to be true. I guess he is being sarcastic!

Yeah, right... LOTS of very sarcastic people around the world... :roll eyes:

(See the difference? =P )

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By Screwballl on 6/27/2007 12:56:56 PM , Rating: 1

Honestly, BOTH are to blame.
MS has forced too strict of a regulation on their drivers so the manufacturers have to pick and choose which of their best selling lines get the drivers and then piece the rest in later on.
As a PC tech, my view is that Vista is WinME version2. another way to look at it is Vista = XP SP3 that you pay for.

Sure it has some security updates and capability upgrades but the underlying coding is nothing new, simply modified XP coding. It is something that is just enough to make a few extra bucks for MS when XP was more than capable and able to be patched.... where is SP3 that has been promised since SP2??? MS saw that they could make money rather than release something for free so they are charging for SP3 in the form of Vista. At least when XP was released it was an upgrade of 2000 but was different enough to be a new OS. Vista is XP with a new skin (thus SP3).
Way to shaft the customer once again MS!

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By Garreye on 6/27/2007 5:55:40 PM , Rating: 2

I think it's great that MS is being strict with drivers. Everyone, especially the non-tech people (who probably don't know what a driver is), gets upset when windows is at all unstable and a lot of the time it's a bad drivers that are the problem. The only way MS can fix this problem is to have strict driver regulations.

Vista had been out for several months now, and was in beta for months before that, Creative has had lots of time to get drivers out. Creative has been horrible the last few years with driver releases in general, not just with Vista.

As far as Vista being XP SP3, have a look at this article, I think you'll reconsider:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/pretty-vista.ars
Also, not sure if it's mentioned in that article, but Vista is based on the Windows Sever 2003 code, not XP.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By RamarC on 6/27/07, Rating: -1

RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By FITCamaro on 6/27/2007 9:26:27 AM , Rating: 3

Oh god no. Microsoft changed something to move forward with its products.

Again. Don't blame Microsoft and Vista because hardware manufacturers waited until after Vista was released to start writing drivers for it. It was in beta since 2005. They had more than enough time to look into the new driver model and write drivers that would work with it. They choose not to.

I worked for a company that made fingerprint sensors. We were working on a driver for Vista in June of 2006. And the only thing that didn't work on Vista with the XP/2000 driver were the power states.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By arazok on 6/26/2007 4:15:11 PM , Rating: 2

I was thinking the same thing.... I'm STILL waiting for a working driver for my Audigy 2, so CL releases drivers for the value cards? I've been using my integrated audio since Vista came out. I swore I'd never buy a CL card again after seeing how well the 1st Audigy drivers performed (they don't work at all). This just reinforces my decision.

But hating Vista is just nonsense. I'm 100% satisfied with Vista. It's not Microsoft's fault Creative can't bother to put enough resources into driver development.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By hellokeith on 6/26/2007 4:17:13 PM , Rating: 2

My Audigy 2 works fine in Vista using the Creative Vista Audigy 2 series driver. What specifically is the problem you're having?

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By arazok on 6/26/2007 5:57:23 PM , Rating: 2

Works fine until I play any game. I get about 30 seconds of sound, and then everything gets this garbled echo like sound. Completely unusable.

From what I have read in CL forums, I'm in good company.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By hellokeith on 6/26/2007 6:09:03 PM , Rating: 2

I guess you're doing something wrong then. All my games work fine, except for BF2, which I had to turn off EAX. Nice to have but no biggie though.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By GlassHouse69 on 6/26/2007 8:02:55 PM , Rating: 3

no biggie? this is why you own an audigy, for its eax support and offloading of cpu utilization. I hear vista doesnt do either very well if at all.

GI JOE!!!!

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By Samus on 6/27/07, Rating: -1

RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By dgingeri on 6/26/2007 5:55:44 PM , Rating: 3

I won't buy another Creative card, either. So far, I have an Audigy 2zs, and when that wouldn't work right in WoW, I got an Audigy 4, which also didn't work right. I went to my on-board sound and got better performance than the CL cards.

I finally install Vista and try out the creative cards again, only to find they they, yes both of them, pick up major static somewhere and have it constantly going when the system is supposed to be inactive with the screen saver going. The only way I can get the static to stop is to send the system into standby or shut it completely down.

As of last night, I gave up on the Creative cards, again, and went back to my on-board sound. I haven't had better sound performance in WoW. the on-board, standard AC97 sound on my Asus A8N-SLi Premium, a cheap ALC850, is better than the Creative cards.

CL has taken their monopoly on sound cards way too far and gone totally sloppy. This is a monopolistic practice at its worst. MS at least still takes care of their stuff. CL doesn't seem to even care to try.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By arazok on 6/26/2007 6:00:42 PM , Rating: 2

Funny. I have the same MB, same problem, and find the AC97 just as good as you do.

To be honest, I've been buying CL cards since the 486, and recently I have just been buying them out of habit. My experience has shown me that I am perfectly happy with on-board sound.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By Aquila76 on 6/26/2007 10:50:35 PM , Rating: 2

Yet another A8N-SLI (Deluxe, though) owner here. I just ditched my Audigy and Creative / Cambridge SoundWorks DTT3500 speaker set for on-board and a Logitech Z-5500 set. I'm done waiting for Creative to release proper drivers for ANY OS, let alone Vista. Unless they come out with some card that sounds like God yelling at Moses ala 'The Ten Commandments', fsck Creative.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By Rampage on 6/26/2007 9:49:35 PM , Rating: 2

Took you that long to figure all this out?

I gave up on CL after I "experienced" the Audigy.
Onboard for me, if I need a high quality sound card I'll buy an Auzentech.

The X-Fi from AZ looks ok.. but even though its not officially Creative, it has CL tech in it.. which scares the bejeezuz out of me.

I never was terribly impressed with EAX anyway.
When I miss that, I put my head in a steel barrel and pound on it with a hammer.
Reverb effects FTW.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By killerroach on 6/26/2007 10:49:44 PM , Rating: 2

Hmm... I have an X-Fi Platinum in my Vista Business rig, and it seems to do just fine, with significantly better performance than my integrated stuff. Granted, YMMV, but some of us actually haven't had problems with their Creative Labs stuff in Vista.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By Axbattler on 6/27/2007 6:05:19 AM , Rating: 2

As much as I dislike some of CL's past business practice (Aureal anyone?), I would not pick an onboard card over a Creative one under XP (can't speak for Vista since I've not made the leap so far). And it's not that I've not given them a good chance.

I am not sure how many people realise this, but the Audigy 4 is much more like an Audigy 2 (rebranded) than the Audigy 4 Pro (which uses a 'decent' DAC as far as consumer sound card goes). So it does not surprise me at all to hear that the Audigy 4 has the same issues in your PC than the Audigy 2.

Given that you are experiencing issues with your Creative card, I can understand why you would favour onboard over the Creative card, but all the AC97 based onboard sound card I've experienced do not hold a candle compared to even an Audigy 2ZS when used with a somewhat revealing/hard to drive source (mid-range [+/-] headphones). Having compared onboard with/A2/X-Fi Elite Pro using the the Beyerdynamic DT880/AKG K701 and the Sennheiser HD650, I can confortably say that onboard sound still has ways to go to replace a dedicated sound card in sound quality.

Now it is also fair to say that if SQ is a priority (and computer as source preferable) there is always the option of using a cheap-ish sound card (Chaintech AV-710) with bit-perfect optical out and get an external, dedicated DAC and amp - or an USB DAC if you do not mind some performance hit. Or even an EMU/M-Audio/[other I've not tried] sound card (though it's worth pointing out that the X-Fi Elite Pro is much like an EMU-1212 with EAX/CMSS support).

You'd give up EAX/CMSS that many do not care for anyway.. although I must admit being impressed by the X-Fi's implementation of CMSS (which by the way is different from the one in the A2ZS) when used for watching movies with a good headphone.

Anyway, I do find it regretful that Creative has been slacking in their support.. but as far as general use + gaming goes, I do not find them behind the 'competitions'.

What might be interesting to know is that Auzentech (and probably other sound card manufacturers) have recently acquired the right to use the X-Fi chips (combined with their own feature set). I am not sure if it means that they will work on their own drivers (they will have to at least for their own features) but it would certainly be interesting if they do.

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RE: Audigy 4 Pro... :(

By nidomus on 6/27/2007 10:37:29 AM , Rating: 2

I <3 my Chaintech AV-710

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Now time for exclusive mode

By Screwballl on 6/26/2007 2:59:22 PM , Rating: 3

Now they need to release drivers that force all sound for the computer to be played in exclusive mode instead of through Vista half-baked cpu/memory hogging API crap.
Once they get the exclusive mode down then it will truly act just like it did in XP (audiophiles rejoice!)

RE: Now time for exclusive mode

By dgingeri on 6/26/2007 5:57:44 PM , Rating: 5

act just like it did in XP? Constant errors, interfering bloated programs and control panels, half the games not working right, and no further driver updates to even attempt to fix anything? That would sound about right.

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RE: Now time for exclusive mode

By Screwballl on 6/27/2007 12:46:10 PM , Rating: 2

That must have been user or security software related errors because with my multiple systems with different Creative cards including X-Fis, never had a single issue on any of them. Plus as a PC Tech, I saw the issue each and every time was a security program not letting the drivers and software install properly.

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RE: Now time for exclusive mode

By smut on 6/27/2007 1:29:26 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know what your problem has been but my X-fi extreme music card and X-fi gamer cards have worked perfect in XP, games sound great with EAX 3/4/5+!

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Did hell freeze over?

By inorganicmatter on 6/26/2007 2:09:16 PM , Rating: 5

Creative actually updated the drivers to fix something instead of just telling their customers to buy a new product? Tell me it isn't so!

Audigy ZS 2

By Novaoblivion on 6/26/2007 4:03:32 PM , Rating: 2

Now if only they would release some newer Audigy ZS 2 drivers.

RE: Audigy ZS 2

By dgingeri on 6/26/2007 5:58:59 PM , Rating: 2

I seriously doubt that will ever happen.

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Its about time......

By fyahman on 6/26/2007 2:11:12 PM , Rating: 2

Finally I can remove those makeshift drivers they released earlier this year......

wavert

By kevinkreiser on 6/26/2007 2:27:22 PM , Rating: 2

does anyone know of any sound card vendors adding waveRT support to their devices? i'd be interested to see how it performs.

EAX, Alchemy, and OpenAL

By niaaa on 6/27/2007 6:03:42 AM , Rating: 2

I've read on other websites that EAX as it was designed on WindowsXP will never work on Vista, due to the video/sound data protection crap they introduced with HD standards (shortened version).

Creative found a way around to get us an EAX like eXperience by using OpenAL with the Alchemy soft, which is still in beta stage and works only With the audigy4 series if I remember well. The problem is that CL did know they cards wouldn't work under vista monthes (even years ?) before its official release and they still didn't act at that time.

The worst is that they intend to make Audigy 2 users pay for their version of Alchemy (about 5$), thats simply pure BS, customers shouldn't pay extra money for stuff they already payed for ! (the card cost includes the driver/functions delivered with it right ?)

This is my first post here so be nice, and excuse my bad English please.

Linux

By danrien on 6/27/2007 9:16:43 AM , Rating: 2

Hopefully they'll release their linux drivers for the x-fi now.

Nothing New

By SavagePotato on 6/27/2007 12:19:56 PM , Rating: 2

Bad driver support is nothing new for creative labs. I recall the days of XP's arrival..

You know what? people said the same things as Vista, Windows 98 forever! etc etc.

Creative labs did the same thing with XP. The drivers were HORRIBLE. I had an audigy gamer that I could not make work period in XP for like a year after XP came out. Only after a few driver revisions and carving their driver package open with winrar for a forced install did it work finaly.

I also will never buy another creative labs card again.

so much for fixing

By AvidDailyTechie on 6/27/2007 12:44:32 PM , Rating: 2

I downloaded the drivers windows update recomended and had my Audigy 2 working well enough to listen to music. I then installed these new drivers and now I can't disable the distortion 'enhancement' that's enabled by default.