Soundblaster Audigy to Sony Reveiver Problems

[mattrick1980]

I recently reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled XP Pro. Upon reinstallation of device drivers, I noticed that I was only getting intermittent sound. I have a Soundblaster Audigy Gamer that I connect to the Multi Channel Direct ports on my Sony STR-DE885 receiver. None of the physical settings have changed (cables, receiver settings, etc.). I labelled all cables and I'm 100% positive that everything is hooked up correctly. After reinstalling the card's drivers, and after a couple of restarts, sound is now output from the rear left, rear right, and the center channel. I also have two front speakers as well as a subwoofer. Before, sound output from my computer did not even use the center channel. I read my receiver's manual just to be sure, but I am certain that nothing has been changed. I'm assuming, therefore, that it is a software issue with the Audigy Gamer. Any ideas?

 

[franklin97355]

Make sure you are running the latest drivers for your card, get them from the net.

 

[mattrick1980]

Thank you for your response...

I have installed the latest drivers from the net. I think it has less to do with the drivers and more to do with software specific to the Audigy Gamer.

 

[mattrick1980]

Does anyone know anything about CMSS Upmix? Or SPDIF?

 

[norty303]

With the Audigy you'll need to first install the original app and drivers from the disk THEN update to the latest drivers. You don't get all of the tweaking apps bundled in the driver update.

I had the same thing with midi functionality until I went back and installed the Midi file library from the disk. It assumes if you don't want the library you won't be using midi files and doesn't install the relevant part of the driver.

 

[mattrick1980]

norty303, you had the same problems in terms of sound only coming from the rear and center speakers?

I first installed the drivers from the CD, then the applicable updates from the web. I even plugged in a pair of headphones to the output jack on the card (and changed the relevant settings in speaker output settings) and got no sound. Is this output (which controls the front speakers and the subwoofer)toast?

 

[danomac]

If you are using the digital outputs of the audigy gamer, make sure the sample rate is something the digital receiver can understand. If the rate is too high (my older Pioneer reciever only understands to 48KHz), you will experience these sorts of problems.

I can't remember where exactly this setting is, but there *is* a place to set this sampling rate.

In my case moving it from 96KHz (default) to 48KHz solved all my problems.

Believe me, this had me utterly stumped for 2 days, before I figured it out.

I have an Audigy Gamer I and a Pioneer VSX-D606S (from memory...)

D

 

[mattrick1980]

Thanks for the tip... Unfortunately, the sampling rate was already at 48KHz. I simply can't understand why sound is coming out of the rear speakers but not the front. If you have any more ideas, please let me know. I'm going nucking futs trying to figure this out. The digital output is the same as the analog output, if I'm remembering the setup correctly. The card looks like this:

Firewire port o (1) o (2) o (3) o (4) o(5)
The rear speaker outut is the first "hole," the input is the fourth "hole," and the digital/analog (plus subwoofer) output is the fifth "hole." A roommate actually set this up for me last year. I do remember him having a heck of a time getting it to work, as well. Unfortunately, that roommate no longer remembers exactly what he did. If you have any more tips, please let me know. Thank you!
By the way, Creative's support is laughable.

 

[mattrick1980]

Boy, I am never touching the settings on my computer again!! Anyway, I now have sound coming out of all four speakers and the sub. The problem now is that it seems like I can hardly hear the vocals. When using Winamp to play music files, if I change the balance to either all left or all right it sounds much better than when I have it on center. Any ideas?

 

[mattrick1980]

Holy nuts...I really am a moron. I figured that the vocals were being sent to the center channel (in 5.1 settings - which I have turned off.) So, I switched the setup to a 4 speaker setup, and now I'm getting nothing from the sub. What gives?

 

[danomac]

The ".1" is your subwoofer, so when you switched it from 5.1 to 4-channel mode, the subwoofer would be turned off.