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Creative Sound Blaster USB
Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:01 am
by noisy1
[newbie!] What a great product - Thanks !! just starting to get to grips with it. Tried plugging in a Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster unit but was unable to successfully "address" each of the 6 channels available on the 5.1 outputs the unit provides. Am I doing something wrong .. or using the wrong piece of hardware?

Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:19 am
by Mike Daniell
For some reason, speaker assignments not being recognised seems to be a common problem with Creative Labs products, notably Sound Blaster and Audigy. So far I haven't been able to find out why. Can you give me an example of some device and speaker settings you have tried, and the results you get?
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:08 am
by noisy1
Mike - working away from base at present so I'm unable to give specifics. As soon as I return I'll run some more tests and let you know the results. Thx
Sound Blaster Live 24 bit USB
Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:13 am
by noisy1
I ran some tests and came up with the following results :
Signal output was present at the "Front" speaker jack of the SB USB when FRONT or PAIR1 selected in SCS
I could get no signal at all out of the SB USB "Rear" or "C/Sub" jacks - no matter what speakers I chose in SCS (except a
very low output from the CENTRE speaker when FRONT speakers selected in SCS.)
Hope this helps ...

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:25 pm
by Mike Daniell
Signal output was present at the "Front" speaker jack of the SB USB when FRONT or PAIR1 selected in SCS
That's good.
I could get no signal at all out of the SB USB "Rear" or "C/Sub" jacks - no matter what speakers I chose in SCS (except a very low output from the CENTRE speaker when FRONT speakers selected in SCS.)
That's what some others have reported. I've had people run test programs and the test programs work OK, but I regret I cannot identify why the test programs handle the speakers correctly but SCS doesn't, and apparently only with Creative Labs devices, afaik. For example, the onboard C-Media 7.1 chip on my PC handles speaker separation perfectly, as do my M-Audio, Echo Gina and Edirol devices.
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:05 am
by noisy1
.. that's ok thx Mike ... I guess I need to go out and invest in an M-Audio unit for the laptop ..

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:51 pm
by Mike Daniell
It's been a long time coming, but a new option has been added in 9.2.6 that I hope will fix this problem.
If you find you are getting issues like those explained in this topic, which I believe only occur with Creative Labs cards, then click on View / Options and select the Audio Driver tab. In 9.2.6 there is a new checkbox, labelled "Do NOT use floating point for audio channels". Tick that checkbox and then click the OK button. You may then need to restart SCS as this change will not affect currently open audio files. After restarting SCS your speaker assignments should now be working.
Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:56 am
by noisy1
Thanks Mike ... I'll get myself upgraded and give it a whirl ...
Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 6:47 pm
by Mike Daniell
I've had one report so far that says the new non-floating point option doesn't make any difference. Anyone else had a chance to test this?
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:13 pm
by noisy1
Mike,
Tried again with the Creative USB on Version 9, still the same issue. Irresepctive of which output pair is selected, I can only get an output from the "Front" pair.
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:13 pm
by Mike Daniell
If you are using SCS 9.1.6a or 9.2.7a then you need to set the Audio driver Options in SCS as follows for Creative Labs cards:
You should find these settings will give you correct speaker outputs.
Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:35 am
by noisy1
... thanks all OK now .. problem with driver, too