X-FI sound settings

[duckbilled 310]

I was going to post this in the other thread I started but I thought a new thread might help with specific settings for my sound card.It seem like the swooshing sound that I mentioned in another thread is still there with the CLS 747 and I do believe the QW757 sounds still seem muffled - they just don't have the richness that you will find with some other sounds. Everyone is raving about them but I am just not hearing what I think everyone else is hearing. They really captured a lot of the elements of the sound but they just don't envelope you. It is so hard to explain - it is like trying to explain the color yellow to a blind person.I am also having trouble finding a good all around setting for FSX. Some aircraft sound great on some settings and some sound terrible. The CLS 747 sounds are atrocious - lots of crackling in the exterior sounds even when I play the .wav's separately. I really don't remember having issues like this in FS9 with the AC97 on-board sound on my old system. When I replace them with the freeware PW sounds I have I still get the swooshing sound. It almost sounds luike an exterior sound that is meant to simulate an aircraft passing by. I have tried to isolate the .wav but I can't find it.My TSS 737NG sounds are way too powerful with a lot of crackling but the CRJ sounds are perfect. My TSS A320CFM sounds are good.Believe me, it sounds a lot better than it did with the Soundmax drivers but the old problems are still there - they are just louder now. I have tried playing with a few settings:I have tried 24bit and 16bit sounds but they don't make much of a differenceI am using game mode and I like the CMSS-3D effect but it seem to accentuate imperfections. QW757 needs it, CLS is hopeless no matter what I do.I can't figure out what combination of windows/Creative settings to use. I fly with headphones only. Do I want stereo in Windows and Headphones in Creative?Google searches return a ton of different settings that are geared more towards shooters. FSX is 5.1 right? If I set windows to Stereo, I need the CMSS setting? It seems to sound better with it but the imperfections are still thereI don't know, I'm pretty confused and I am surprised that I can't find any FSX specific settings for headphones. BTW, I am using 2.1 speakers that plug in to the system through one port and the headphones plug in to the speakers.Any Ideas

[duckbilled 310]

BTW, I tried the recommended CLS settings (1/8 engines, 1/8 navigation, 8/8 for everything else) and everything is just as loud and obnoxious as it was before. Good sounds should provides a nice hum when in flight. If it sounded like this the last time I was on a 742 I would have banged my head against the overhead bins the entire flight. Two notes to developers:1. FSX is not FS9. Write your manual for FSX if you are selling a FSX product.2. Why can't everyone that makes payware sounds adjust their volumes accordingly rather than asking the end used to change their volume for their specific aircraft? You can adjust the properties of the .wav files - at least you used to be able to but I can't find sound recorder in W7 to do it myself. Someone talented enough to make sounds for FS should be able to adjust their sounds for a standardized volume level. In the end, I'm not sure what is causing it. Sound card or onboard is the same. FS9 was ok, FSX not so good XP32 ok, W7 not so good. Some sounds are ok and some are really off.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Sorry to hear that your still having issues with the sounds. Maybe it's something to do with Win7? I am still on XP so I don't have anything to compare it too. Have you spoke to the developers of the planes that you are having sound issues with? Is it possible that the sound files could have been corrupted during the download or install?Maybe they could send you a zip with another set of the sound files to try, just to be sure youre aren't damaged since some of your sounds in the other planes are working fine.Since I changed to my SB the only crackle/static I sometimes hear faintly is ATC, but I think that is how it's supposed to sound.

[Guest CryogenicPilot]

One thing I read on another thread (here on AVSIM) is users should make sure their sound settings are 16-bit by 4100Hz -- The lowest possible setting in the Windows Audio Control Panel configurations. This is said to reduce crackling because of how MS redesigned sound in Windows Vista and 7 compared to XP. There is no more Direct X sound acceleration that all Soundblaster cards were built on.The other problem you might be experiencing is what is called phasing. That is, the way the sounds were recorded (stereo) are at too high a frequency, so the channel separation bleeds from one channel to another. It sounds like what you are describing resembling a flyover of a plane and not the normal sound (both channels balanced) you should be expecting.If the latter is the case, the only thing you can do is e-mail the developers support and tell them this is problem is occurring on your setup. They may, or may not have a solution (how to adjust your hardware), or they might have to reissue the sounds if they get a lot of complaints from multiple users. Ariane has this exact same problem with the stock sound set that ships with their planes. So, they issued new sounds that reduce the amount of phase; phase is a product of bad audio production and processing. The only way to avoid this is with better source material. That of course, means more expenses for developers...

[duckbilled 310]

Thanks for the advice.Sean, don't get me wrong -music sounds a lot better on this card and I don't regret the $70 expense. I think Cryo had nailed the problem with the CLS sounds. I didn't find any complaints on their forums and I can easily replace the sounds with something else. Their 747 was the only one that sounded terrible. I ended up doing an update of the Creative software and I may have had the wrong driver anyway (how, I have no idea). Something I noticed last night was when switching from game to some of the other modes it didn't make any difference. Finally, I switched back to game mode and the sounds drastically changed for the better. It made me think something was up with the drivers prompting the reinstall.In the end,Lowering the settings to 16/44100 sees to have helped or maybe some of the imperfections are less noticeable. Reinstalling may have also helped things. CMSS-3D helps the QW sounds but I don't like it for others. The TSS sounds seem to sound better with the new drivers and the lower settings.I still wish developers would created standardized recommendations for their engine sounds. Having to change for each aircraft is annoying

[snave 0]

Thanks for the advice.Sean, don't get me wrong -music sounds a lot better on this card and I don't regret the $70 expense. I think Cryo had nailed the problem with the CLS sounds. I didn't find any complaints on their forums and I can easily replace the sounds with something else. Their 747 was the only one that sounded terrible. I ended up doing an update of the Creative software and I may have had the wrong driver anyway (how, I have no idea). Something I noticed last night was when switching from game to some of the other modes it didn't make any difference. Finally, I switched back to game mode and the sounds drastically changed for the better. It made me think something was up with the drivers prompting the reinstall.In the end,Lowering the settings to 16/44100 sees to have helped or maybe some of the imperfections are less noticeable. Reinstalling may have also helped things. CMSS-3D helps the QW sounds but I don't like it for others. The TSS sounds seem to sound better with the new drivers and the lower settings.I still wish developers would created standardized recommendations for their engine sounds. Having to change for each aircraft is annoying

Standardized based on your card? Or someone elses? What a facile remark. If you don't like sounds or they don't fit with your expectations they are basic .wav files that can always be altered. There is even sim-specific software that will do the same thing. How can you possibly `standardize` something in FS which is designed to run on innumerable variations in equipment and software? There is NO `standard` for FSX other than the hardware minimum requirement.You are aware that not all `X-Fi` cards are the same..?

[duckbilled 310]

Standardized based on your card? Or someone elses? What a facile remark. If you don't like sounds or they don't fit with your expectations they are basic .wav files that can always be altered. There is even sim-specific software that will do the same thing. How can you possibly `standardize` something in FS which is designed to run on innumerable variations in equipment and software? There is NO `standard` for FSX other than the hardware minimum requirement.You are aware that not all `X-Fi` cards are the same..?

Hello snave. I am sure you are aware that most aircraft add ons come with recommended sound settings. Let's take two examples.QW757 recommends that their engine sounds are set at 40%CLS747 recommends that their engine sounds are set at 1/8 (I'm assuming that they mean 12.5%)By making recommendations, they are actually introducing their own standard. The problem is every aircraft has different recommended settings. Of course, everyone's system is going to sound different and sound preferences are subjective to begin with.What I am saying is they should design their sounds so that they are at the same volume level across the community. If i was to set the standard, I would ask developers to design their sounds so that the best setting is at 50% for the sounds controlled by their sound packages. Of course, people will have to adjust from there according to their preferences. Once you find a good level on your system, you will not need to make drastic adjustments from aircraft to aircraft.The cockpit of a DC3 is likely louder than a cockpit of a MD80. What they ask the end user to do is to turn down the volume for the MD80 engines to make them quieter. It seems logical that they could just design it to be quieter to begin with so that people don't have to fuss with their sound levels all the time. As you mentioned, they are basic wave files and they can be adjusted. It is my responsibility to adjust them to my specific preference but they could help things along if they all started from the same place. Just a little bit of standardization across the industry can't be a bad thing.This was tried with ai aircraft radius/wingspan settings for add on airports and it took rather well. Not everybody adhered to it but many did. It shows that there can be industry standards. Of course, sound is much more subjective than parking specs but I still think this could work. The only reason they don't is probably no one has asked developers to do so.Oh, I am aware that every system is different. This thread proves that as Sean and I have the same card but different operating systems providing different results. I simply posted the card type so that people familiar with the software would be more likely to respond. BTW snave, you seem to be very angry. Maybe I didn't take it the way it was intended but the tone of your post was not very pleasant. I sincerely hope your day improves.

[snave 0]

Hello snave. I am sure you are aware that most aircraft add ons come with recommended sound settings. Let's take two examples.QW757 recommends that their engine sounds are set at 40%CLS747 recommends that their engine sounds are set at 1/8 (I'm assuming that they mean 12.5%)By making recommendations, they are actually introducing their own standard. The problem is every aircraft has different recommended settings. Of course, everyone's system is going to sound different and sound preferences are subjective to begin with.What I am saying is they should design their sounds so that they are at the same volume level across the community. If i was to set the standard, I would ask developers to design their sounds so that the best setting is at 50% for the sounds controlled by their sound packages. Of course, people will have to adjust from there according to their preferences. Once you find a good level on your system, you will not need to make drastic adjustments from aircraft to aircraft.The cockpit of a DC3 is likely louder than a cockpit of a MD80. What they ask the end user to do is to turn down the volume for the MD80 engines to make them quieter. It seems logical that they could just design it to be quieter to begin with so that people don't have to fuss with their sound levels all the time. As you mentioned, they are basic wave files and they can be adjusted. It is my responsibility to adjust them to my specific preference but they could help things along if they all started from the same place. Just a little bit of standardization across the industry can't be a bad thing.This was tried with ai aircraft radius/wingspan settings for add on airports and it took rather well. Not everybody adhered to it but many did. It shows that there can be industry standards. Of course, sound is much more subjective than parking specs but I still think this could work. The only reason they don't is probably no one has asked developers to do so.Oh, I am aware that every system is different. This thread proves that as Sean and I have the same card but different operating systems providing different results. I simply posted the card type so that people familiar with the software would be more likely to respond. BTW snave, you seem to be very angry. Maybe I didn't take it the way it was intended but the tone of your post was not very pleasant. I sincerely hope your day improves.

Rubbish, your're taking advice from developers who have no clue what they are talking about. Listen, Learn, Expedite. I am not angry with your assumptions, stupidity is easily overcome. But assuming developers in this market actually know what they are talking about is really a dangerous game. Check recent topics for proof.