Recommended sound card for CF 1.6?

dune · 04-11-2006, 04:36 AM

I'm about ready to ditch my Extigy in favor of a true 5.1 card with better controls. I know the CF mixer has built-in sliders for tweaking the audio but they don't work because most drivers don't put them in the Windows volume control (ie. rear, sub, etc..).

Is there a clear choice on a good card right now, or should I wait until future revisions of CF come out and a compatibility list is formed?

P3rv3rt B3ar · 04-11-2006, 05:30 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by dune

I'm about ready to ditch my Extigy in favor of a true 5.1 card with better controls. I know the CF mixer has built-in sliders for tweaking the audio but they don't work because most drivers don't put them in the Windows volume control (ie. rear, sub, etc..).

Is there a clear choice on a good card right now, or should I wait until future revisions of CF come out and a compatibility list is formed?

I always thought they didnt work cause they werent implemented yet... how silly of me...

Lum · 04-11-2006, 10:27 AM

Don't get the M-Audio Sonica Theatre if you want this to work. It has this issue.

Personally I would like to see CF gain the ability to up-mix stereo audio into 4.0 or 4.1. It doesn't need to have any surround sound crap, just simple duplication of channels (with a crossover if .1) then the sliders can become software based.

I made a thread about this issue and someone suggested that I can use ac3filter to acheive this, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

Floatingpi · 04-11-2006, 10:36 AM

I would like to see that as well. I am surprised it hasn't done that since the sound is already being somewhat altered via the mixer, just not the channels...

Not only with it being controled software it gives the thought of multiple monitors much more powerful. Allowing the rear channels to be seperate from the front. I would love to play DVDs in the back while listening to mp3s/gps directions in the front...

veetid · 04-11-2006, 10:39 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Floatingpi

I would like to see that as well. I am surprised it hasn't done that since the sound is already being somewhat altered via the mixer, just not the channels...

Not only with it being controled software it gives the thought of multiple monitors much more powerful. Allowing the rear channels to be seperate from the front. I would love to play DVDs in the back while listening to mp3s/gps directions in the front...

that would not be possible if it was controlled through software, this is the exact reason that I don't... You would have to either have two soundcards or atleast 2 hardware independent channels to accomplish this...

david

Floatingpi · 04-11-2006, 11:17 AM

I guess that makes since, I just assumed with varioius software (like games) making a 3d sound enviroment that it would be possible with CF. Just never thought that most of the sound is hardware based and not software based.

RPM_VR4 · 04-11-2006, 12:47 PM

The best quality would be to get a sound card that supports Dolby Digital Live (up-samples all PC audio to SPDIF 5.1/7.1), and then have a hide-away car-audio box (or a head-unit) that converts SPDIF to 3 pairs of RCA.

Personally I just have stereo out as a line-in to my head-unit. Then I can do Balance/Fade/Time-Alignment/DSP-Effects/Mixer/etc. via my head-unit before it goes to my amps.

Lum · 04-11-2006, 02:48 PM

You realise that DD Live and DTS Live are both lossy codecs right. I would much rather have 6 channel PCM which is far easier to acheive on multi-channel codecs and then a soundcard with a good quality DAC, and a bunch of normal 2channel amplifiers.

This should work out better and cheaper than going via some lossy multi-channel digital codec.

Shame CF doesn't support this though.

dune · 04-11-2006, 03:08 PM

I've never ventured outside of Sound Blaster for PC sound cards, they seem to be the standard aside from on-board chipsets. The Extigy has CMSS mode which upmixes stereo, but it sounds like crap and there is no way to tweak it. The newer X-Fi series has CMSS-3D (hardware based) with more customization that I will try, but it still doesn't add rear and sub sliders to the volume control

.

PhatMo · 04-11-2006, 10:16 PM

yea I have the X-fi and I love it, the only problem is that I have no control over the rear channels and the sub in Centrafuse. I know its not possible, but it would be great if centrafuse could work around the windows volume controls and control the card.

RPM_VR4 · 04-12-2006, 12:45 AM

If you have control in the windows mixer, it is more than possible, it is easy. You just use the mmsystem API. What is hard is making CF work with all sound cards. Maybe it is time the mixer controls were put into an XML so that people can configure CF to work with their sound card.

(Again, personally I just use stereo out to a real head-unit. ...I still believe that is the best way to go. I have no need for a mixer nor volume control in CF. I let real car-audio hardware take care of that stuff.)

eelector · 04-12-2006, 02:47 AM

Add support for this directx plugin:
http://convolver.sourceforge.net/

It has channel mixing, scaling re-routing and delay.

" * With a suitable impulse response generated by a tool such as DRC you will be able to play sound corrected for your room response. For more details, see Ed Wildgoose's Duff Room Correction site.
* You can also use Convolver for bass management, cross-overs, cross-talk cancellation, equalization and other purposes that require the source signal to be filtered and redirected to different output channels."

Lum · 04-12-2006, 06:20 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by eelector

Add support for this directx plugin:
http://convolver.sourceforge.net/

It has channel mixing, scaling re-routing and delay.

That program looks bloody good and I second this request. Assuming that CF is using DirectX anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to do.

Have you tried it on an EPIA board though? 30% CPU hit seems like something that could upset CF somewhat.