This is why I dont buy Creative

[sjbuck]

Interesting article, thanks

[DataMatrix]

I'm glad most of the money spent on my card went to Auzentech but obviously because it's a Creative chip they will have had a share too.

Needless to say, even though Auzentech tried their best, the card is SEVERELY hurt by the drivers because Creative won't allow Auzentech to make their own.

If Auzentech were able to make the drivers, then this card would be perfect, but unfortunately, they can't - so I have to put up with occasional cracking/popping and if I have my volume too high (inside Windows) the subwoofer goes mental and lets of a great whopping THUD (more like a bang) during bass.

[Biscuit]

no........... your quality is not worse with a USB mic

The question is... with the advent of USB microphones and speakers which keep the signal digital for longer... what use is a sound card?

Now, if the sound card had USB pins/plugs and was able to accept the USB microphone and process it FOR the cpu, THEN, a sound card would be good to have still

It doesnt work like that, if your sound card had USB ports on it then the signal would still get sent via PCI to your CPU unless the microphone and soundcard has their own special little version of usb.

You understanding of analogue to digital converters is quite confused...

A USB mic converts the analogue wave form which it records into a digital signal to be sent to your system via usb.

A soundcard converts the analogue signal from the microphone into a digital signal to be processed.

If you want the soundcard to do all the processing then just use a normal microphone!

I think my next sound card won't be Creative - with Vista, OpenAL and games shifting away from EAX there's likely to be more choice. Creative's drivers are shockingly bad (even now) and I guess we should be glad MS have shunted them out of the kernel.

I ended up using modded Auzentech drivers on Vista64 - because with 4gb of RAM I just got five channels of constant white noise. Quality.

Where do you get modded Auzentech drivers from?

[dangel]

Where do you get modded Auzentech drivers from?

Waaaaay back in the mists of time http://forums.hexus.net/operating-sy...ay-nicely.html

Although that's probably out of date now but it solved the problem at the time for me.

[Biscuit]

are there only the Auzentech XFI drivers cuz i wud quite like some to make my Xplosion work fully under vista

[latrosicarius]

A Brazilian developer threatened with legal action by Creative for making its soundcards work better with Vista has had his work reinstated on the company's website.

Read more.

No, that will not solve their problem. I want a tearful apology (with actual tears) ending with Phil O'Shaughnessy getting sacked and Daniel_K being given a million dollars and a life-time supply of Creative sound cards to write drivers for. And he will have a dedicated team at Creative Labs to assist him in writing and debugging drivers.

And then I MIGHT think about buying from them again. They have been nothing but trouble. They are so out-of-touch with their customers.

[derchris]

Everybody talks about it.

[Agent]

Ohhhhhh, BUMP

Gone for good - Windows Vista - Creative Labs

Seems he's gone for good now (and removed all his drivers )

[kalniel]

"Hi guys,

Regarding the e-mail:





Referring to the post by Daniel K with an email concerning redistribution of Creative software:

the email appears to be a fabrication; it was not written or authorized by Creative.

Thank you
The Sound Blaster Team "

?

[SiM]

Well whatever happens, all this software will live forever on bittorrent somewhere... and maybe someone else will continue to develop...

[Agent]

"Hi guys,

Regarding the e-mail:





Referring to the post by Daniel K with an email concerning redistribution of Creative software:

the email appears to be a fabrication; it was not written or authorized by Creative.

Thank you
The Sound Blaster Team "

?

As far as I can tell, that applies to the 2nd email, but they sent the first?

It's all a bit confusing and the reason I didn't mention the emails. Either way, he's gone

[WoLFe]

This reminds me of how difficult it was to install my creative speakers and soundcard from a machine that originally had ME onto windows XP. They certainly tried to prevent me getting them working, it seems.

[aidanjt]

If you think the Vista X-Fi drivers are bad, you should see their pathetic attempt of Linux/ALSA drivers, they were an utter flop, CL ended up throwing their arms up and releasing the specs to the ALSA team so they could do a proper job, too little, too late for me.

[TooNice]

It's a shame. They have a competent team of engineers who could I believe could come up with very good hardware with a bit of healthy competition (RIP Aureal - yes they had the better tech at the time). But for whatever reason, the management think it is a good idea to resort to petty tactics, ignoring the resulting PR disasters. Actually, I still believe that they make good hardware. I still prefer the Gigaworks to Logitech's offerings, I still find the X-Fi to be great all-rounded sound card under XP. Basically, capable engineers, lousy drivers, and terrible management.