Great settings for the X-Fi Audio Console

[Natalia]

Any chance I could trouble someone for a breif overview of the audio console for my X-Fi? I'm not sure what I should be messing with and what I should be leaving alone.

I remember you saying the following:
-Run audio creation mode when not in game.
-Run game mode when in game.
-Disable Crystalizer
-Disable CMSS 3D

I guess on the equalizer, I'll mess around with that till something sounds best, but I feel a little in the dark.

Any pointers would be awesome.
Using some Denon D2000 headphones.
Thanks!

[cadaveca]

Sounds like you got it straight already.:up: EQ is to personal taste...I leave it off.

[JackeShan]

I always run on Entertainment mode when not in game.

ENABLE crystalizer and Enable CMSS3D, improves the sound quality A LOT.

[Strafe]

I always run game when in game and entertainment when not. If you have 5.1+ speakers and are listening to a game or movie in Dolby or DTS, disable CMSS3D.

[Stanley Pain]

I always run on Entertainment mode when not in game.

ENABLE crystalizer and Enable CMSS3D, improves the sound quality A LOT.


I usually have them both disabled (X-fi Prelude). It really depends on the source. I have few MP3s, most of my music is FLAC based.

[Donnie27]

I usually have them both disabled (X-fi Prelude). It really depends on the source. I have few MP3s, most of my music is FLAC based.

QFT!

I've found that with better systems, less is better for either of the X-Fi's.

The very same thing that enhances old MP3's suck for higher quality source material.

[Natalia]

This is good help so far:up:

[BrokenWall]

Since we are on the topic of what not to use.

I hooked up my Logitech Z-5300s which I got from a friend for $20 used.

I have my console setup for Entertainment using the 5.1, and the Game to use my Headphones, since I only game with headphones.

When in Entertainment mode if I set defaults all 5.1 speakers work, but if I turn the volume up the Center and Surround speakers go very very low, to the almost off volume. If I leave it alone then it works fine, but If I switch to game and back again, I have to reset the defaults once again.

[Donnie27]

Any chance I could trouble someone for a breif overview of the audio console for my X-Fi? I'm not sure what I should be messing with and what I should be leaving alone.

I remember you saying the following:
-Run audio creation mode when not in game.
-Run game mode when in game.
-Disable Crystalizer
-Disable CMSS 3D

I guess on the equalizer, I'll mess around with that till something sounds best, but I feel a little in the dark.

Any pointers would be awesome.
Using some Denon D2000 headphones.
Thanks!

First, never sync with Windows doesn't matter if it is WinXP or Vista.

Headphones for Games. Make sure you check mark both boxes and to Mute Speakers when Headphone is enabled. Do this even if you don't have speakers connected.

Game Mode
CMSS 3D Enabled
24-Bit Crystalizer Disabled for Newer Games, Enabled for older ones
EQ to taste but generally same as above.
Mixer Mute all devices not in use. It is very important to Arrow down, check each device and mute them, Line-In, Mic, Aux and etc.....
Games with Voice Chat, enable MIC Environment, EAX effects move slider to 0.0 and adjust up or down, Enable SVM (Smart Volume).
Speakers should be on Headphones
Bass Boost Enabled if you need more bass but you shouldn't. Maybe use it on low.

Make sure any Game you play is set to 5.1, Hardware, EAX enabled and etc.. CMSS 3D will do a great job of making the Cans produce 5.1 sounds. This is technology Creative got for Aureal/A3D and Sensura.

With Cans, there's no need to run in Creation mode. I use Creation mode for Bit Match Digital Out and @ 96KHz. With 96KHz material. Another reason I'd never drop speakers for Cans only.

Entertainment mode will do just fine. Just like with Games, Most newer music doesn't need the Crystalizer, it works great with old or low grade MP3. If you do use it, move the slider to 0 and then slowly move up or to the right. I can't stand it at more than 40% with even average source material. My modes sound different because I have games set completely different that the rest. If the sound doesn't change with the modes, something ain't set right.

If some of your music is flat, play with the EQ some. Again, more isn't always the best but not enough can suck as well. Experiment and find the sweet spot! It's personal and what someone else likes, might suck for you!!
I can't stand it when Mozart sounds like Monsters of Miami Bass;)

BTW, nice cans:) It's late, I'm sleepy so I'll make corrections tomorrow.

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

So you got the D2000's eh?

Great choice. Hope your enjoying them.

Personally for the best music experience, i use audio creation mode, with bitmatched playback enabled.

100% pure music, no extra stuff that colours the sound.

Also, since they are new headphones, the sound will change slightly over the first few hundred hours of use.

You can help the burn in (membranes loosening up) by running pink noise through them when not in use. Download http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html

You can use it to create pink noise.


How do you like them? They feel great on the head eh?

[lochabar]

For listening to music, i leave the THX console and entertainment console open and set to entertainment mode. I use Winamp to play the music and tweak the creative controls depending on what i am listening to. I use the Winamp EQ btw, and leave the creative eq off. Tweaking the cutoff frequency and boost sliders on the THX console bass boost tab helps with a lot of music. I find that mp3's sound better with less cmss, and higher quality audio files, like flac or ape, sound better with more cmss. personally, i leave the crystalizer set at around 95. flat sounding audio benefits from going up to 98-99 on the crystalizer. To me, winamp sounds much better than the creative media player, or any other. if you use winamp make sure you set it to playback in 24bit mode. I have yet to find anyone that enables EAX for listening to music, it just doesn't sound right, IMO.

[SuporterPoli]

A great description of X-Fi settings has made acrh2 at [H] (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1273486&page=2).

Here's how it works with X-Fi.

You set windows audio control panel to 5.1 (Advanced Audio Properties). This is required for some games. Newer games might ignore this settings completely and use whatever settings are in the options. I always have my windows control panel set to 5.1 though (it always works and I've not personally tested otherwise).

Then you need to enable CMSS-3D in X-Fi control panel. Two options are now viable when using headphones.

1) If you set the speaker settings to Headphones in X-Fi, you get perfect 3D emulation, in all 3 dimensions. You can hear sounds from left/right/front/rear/above/below. And not just hear them. The emulation makes the sounds with such tones that you actually can "feel" where the sound is coming from. I have a good and expensive set of 5.1 speakers, and this CMSS-3D headphones on X-Fi does 3D better.
There's a drawback with these settings. The emulation algorithms change the sounds to be so different from originals that they appear boomy and muddy. In fact, these changes often make good expensive headphones sound like a pair of cheap ones, primarily in clearity of the sound.

2) Another possibility is to set X-Fi control panel to 2.1 speakers, while still using headphones. This completely eliminates the muddy sound problem with CMSS-3D headphones mode. The sounds are perfect, as if no CMSS-3D was ever enabled.
There's a drawback to this setting as well. You completely lose the above/below 3D emulation. Sounds are still perfectly emulated in the horizontal plane. You can hear left/right/front/rear, but there's no distiction in elevation.

Another drawback, which can be fixed, is that by default, the speaker positions can only be set at -60 to +60 degrees in the X-Fi control panel (THX console). Obviously, to get correct 3D sound positioning with headphones, the speakers would have to be set at -90 to +90 degrees.
This can be accomplished by hex editing 2 X-Fi configuration files. I usually set the angles at -89 and +89 degrees, as I've had some problems with X-Fi mode changer overwriting to the original limits of -60/+60 in some instances at -90/90.

Even though you lose the 3D emulation in the elevation axis, you still get perfect emulation in the horizontal plane + clear sounds. This is what I use all the time on my X-Fi, and it's wonderful.

I have to make a special note that the X-Fi 3D emulation through headphones is absolutely brilliant. It's far superior to anything I've seen before X-Fi in software emulation (HRTF), older creative cards hardware emulation, and (as I've heard from others) Dolby Headphone.
And I mean FAR SUPERIOR. Like I said before, it's better than the real 5.1 setup.

[Donnie27]

A great description of X-Fi settings has made acrh2 at [H] (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1273486&page=2).

First, never sync with Windows, doesn't matter if it is WinXP or Vista. Windows doesn't support Bit-Matched and hell Vista blocks it whenever possible. This could have change since the last time I played with it.

CMSS 3D is truly/really not meant for Music. It doesn't Muddy sounds it was made for, namely Games and or Movies. If it copies/expands Front sounds to the rest of the speakers, the sound doesn't change. It just messes up the sound stage. Using surround expand changes it.

Again, 97% of Music is recorded, mastered, optimized and remasted for 2 Ch stereo. That's where you get the best performance. Here again, more power to the folks who like in surround:up: The exceptions are DVD Audio and DTS Audio Discs.

[Natalia]

So you got the D2000's eh?

Great choice. Hope your enjoying them.

Personally for the best music experience, i use audio creation mode, with bitmatched playback enabled.

100% pure music, no extra stuff that colours the sound.

Also, since they are new headphones, the sound will change slightly over the first few hundred hours of use.

You can help the burn in (membranes loosening up) by running pink noise through them when not in use. Download http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html

You can use it to create pink noise.


How do you like them? They feel great on the head eh?

Ah great to know!

Yeah, they are heaven :up: Feel fantastic, great build quality. The other two that I was taking about with you I had a chance to test them in a show room. They didn't have the Denons there, but man, they sure are a ton better in comfort, sound, and build quality.

[One_Hertz]

First, never sync with Windows, doesn't matter if it is WinXP or Vista. Windows doesn't support Bit-Matched and hell Vista blocks it whenever possible. This could have change since the last time I played with it.

CMSS 3D is truly/really not meant for Music. It doesn't Muddy sounds it was made for, namely Games and or Movies. If it copies/expands Front sounds to the rest of the speakers, the sound doesn't change. It just messes up the sound stage. Using surround expand changes it.

Again, 97% of Music is recorded, mastered, optimized and remasted for 2 Ch stereo. That's where you get the best performance. Here again, more power to the folks who like in surround:up: The exceptions are DVD Audio and DTS Audio Discs.

Exactly... CMSS 3D basically ruins the music

[SuporterPoli]

First, never sync with Windows, doesn't matter if it is WinXP or Vista. Windows doesn't support Bit-Matched and hell Vista blocks it whenever possible. This could have change since the last time I played with it.


Did that guy say to sync with Windows?

[Donnie27]

Did that guy say to sync with Windows?

You set windows audio control panel to 5.1 (Advanced Audio Properties). This is required for some games. Newer games might ignore this settings completely and use whatever settings are in the options. I always have my windows control panel set to 5.1 though (it always works and I've not personally tested otherwise).

No matter where the Windows Control panel is set, it will not matter to the X-Fi if it is not in-sync with it.

[Natalia]

Did that guy say to sync with Windows?

How do I know if it is sync'd with Vista?

[SuporterPoli]

Cant help you there Natalia, i've got just plain old XP+SP2.

[Donnie27]

How do I know if it is sync'd with Vista?

Sorry, I don't use Vista either.

[Donnie27]

Exactly... CMSS 3D basically ruins the music

But that's also personal as well. I know folks who love Matrixed sound.

I have folks try to tell me if my Center Channel speaker were playing. 0ne out of 11 got it right. The sound stage on my rig is so nice that the Center Ch speaker always seems to be playing. This, even if 98% of the time when I'm Listening to music, it is off. The one that got it right was asked how could he tell when the rest couldn't. His answer was, "No way in hell that Center Channel Speaker sounds that good. He then says great sound stage" and gives me a Hi-Five.

There are tons of Phantom speakers in my room. Or sounds sound like they're directly from speaker in parts of the room where there aren't any. Like right front upper corner or rear lower left, on either side LOL! That's just with the Xtreme Music and stock everything. This is much more pronouced with the Prelude. After burn in, it has gotten even better:up:

[SuporterPoli]

I tried your settings Donnie in CS1.6 but the positioning is really awful. With speakers on 2/2.1 i get better positioning sound than with headphones setting.
EAX enabled in game,sound quality on high. You have more detail,the sounds are nicer but you cannot really pinpoint where others are.

[Donnie27]

I tried your settings Donnie in CS1.6 but the positioning is really awful. With speakers on 2/2.1 i get better positioning sound than with headphones setting.
EAX enabled in game,sound quality on high. You have more detail,the sounds are nicer but you cannot really pinpoint where others are.

That's the way it should be because the headphones should out perform the 2.1 when it comes to postioning. Try this? Re-Position your 2.1 speakers to your sides and at Ear level if possible. Now switch the settings to Headphones? A bud showed me this when the X-Fi first launched with hsi pro medias. Though not as sweet as Cans + CMSS 3D can clearly hear the sound be munipulated. This happens even in Games like Half Life 2 that has its own None-EAX sound engine.

[Soulburner]

I remember liking Headphone when trying Headphones with Call of Duty 4. 2.1 sound just wasn't right - something was modifying the sound, and it wasn't pretty.

I use CMSS-3D Surround for music because I prefer my music to surround me. It just adds a lot of atmosphere compared to blaring from the two speakers in front of me. Personal preference.

I also use the Equalizer, set for games and music both. This will need to be tuned differently for everyone for two reasons. One, everyone has different preferences. Two, not everyone's speakers are the same. Different speakers produce different sound, therefore the EQ adjustment needed is different. Mine sound extremely flat and unexciting without an EQ. These are the Athena S.5 (Point 5) speakers with a Velodyne 10" sub. Music and games sound insanely powerful with my setup and I couldn't go back to no EQ ever again. CoD4 and Bioshock are just plain awesome when cranked up on this system - we're talking floor rumbling home theater quality with amazing mids and highs.

Crystallizer - off at all times. I just don't like what it does to music. Never tried it in games, but I don't think I want to bother.

SVM - Off. Don't like what it does.

Enable EAX Effects - On, but set to 0.0dB. This will not modify your music.

Enable Bass Redirection - I have to use this for my sub or I don't get anything out of it.

[Donnie27]

I remember liking Headphone when trying Headphones with Call of Duty 4. 2.1 sound just wasn't right - something was modifying the sound, and it wasn't pretty.

I use CMSS-3D Surround for music because I prefer my music to surround me. It just adds a lot of atmosphere compared to blaring from the two speakers in front of me. Personal preference.

I also use the Equalizer, set for games and music both. This will need to be tuned differently for everyone for two reasons. One, everyone has different preferences. Two, not everyone's speakers are the same. Different speakers produce different sound, therefore the EQ adjustment needed is different. Mine sound extremely flat and unexciting without an EQ. These are the Athena S.5 (Point 5) speakers with a Velodyne 10" sub. Music and games sound insanely powerful with my setup and I couldn't go back to no EQ ever again. CoD4 and Bioshock are just plain awesome when cranked up on this system - we're talking floor rumbling home theater quality with amazing mids and highs.

Crystallizer - off at all times. I just don't like what it does to music. Never tried it in games, but I don't think I want to bother.

SVM - Off. Don't like what it does.

Enable EAX Effects - On, but set to 0.0dB. This will not modify your music.

Enable Bass Redirection - I have to use this for my sub or I don't get anything out of it.

I found on my Prelude that if I set Bass Redirection in Game Mode, It seemed to stick in Entertainment mode. Maybe a driver glitch?

No matter what's said by some here, I'd be much happier with my Prelude if it had all of the Creative Bloatware. I could then choose what stays and what doesn't. I don't know what they were thinking by dumping the THX Console LOL!

[Natalia]

Anyone able to tell me how I make sure my Audio Console isn't sync'd with Vista?

Thanks ;)

[Donnie27]

Anyone able to tell me how I make sure my Audio Console isn't sync'd with Vista?

Thanks ;)

Entertainment Mode, just click on the Speaker Icon, the Sync Check Box is right next to the THX Console on the Creative X-Fi. In the same place on the Prelude but next to the Speaker selection box since it doesn't have a THX console. If it is checked, uncheck it and then (important) Restart your computer.

When you switch to Creation Mode always answer MS attemp to sync with a Fat NO!

[Kondik]

X - Fi Elite Pro ->
When playing -> game mode
when listening to flac [ or for god sake Mp3s ] -> audiocreation
movies -> entertainment mode

EQ -> Flat

And i turn on and off CMSS + Crystalizer with the IR or Console based on my personal taste but usually with older 5.1 movies i turn on the CMSS and Crystalizer. Ambient music Crystalizer and CMSS on, different music CMSS off and Mildly set up crystalizer

[Soulburner]

My problem is, in the Auzen driver I am stuck in Game Mode 100% of the time, even for music. It offers me all of the controls I need. Entertainment mode doesn't let me use Bass Redirection, which is required to use my sub.

What gives, Auzen?

[cadaveca]

Anyone able to tell me how I make sure my Audio Console isn't sync'd with Vista?

Thanks ;)

It isn't. Changes in Creative console does not transfer over to the Vista console.

[Donnie27]

My problem is, in the Auzen driver I am stuck in Game Mode 100% of the time, even for music. It offers me all of the controls I need. Entertainment mode doesn't let me use Bass Redirection, which is required to use my sub.

What gives, Auzen?

Yup that sucks. Note* For surround sound just make sure the speakers on your Receiver is set to small and at least your Sub should activate. Yes, it will not be a LFE but a Matrix-ed or Filtered Bass and not as good.

The sucky thing is that my game adjustments are much different than my Music Playback settings.

I'll one say thing though, the DSP, AMP in stereo mode and Opamps in the Harmon Kardon ain't Frakkin' bad at all:up: I'm up loading pics in about 15 minutes. I'm trying to get my Buddy Phil to test my system.

[XS2K]

Xtreme Music + Senn HD 595

Music-Audio Creation + Bit matched and altough this setting disables the impact on music of the X-Fi processor I consider it's best for me.
Games-Game Mode + Headphone and CMSS 3D

Movies-Microlab X4 + EQ + Bass redirection + AC3

For users with 5.1 speakers: When you play music using CMSS 3D surround do you have problems with the front or the rear channels?
For example if I play music only my rear channels are working + the sub/center the front speakers are almoust muted but there is stil a low muddy sound coming from them...