Weird X-Fi Volume Shifting Problem

[svet-am]

First off, system specs:
ASUS K8NE-Deluxe
Athlon64 @ 3400+
2x512MB Corsair TwinX
eVGA nVidia 6800GT
Promise SATAII150 PCI SATA Controller
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
OS: WinXP Pro (x32)
Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 Surround (only using front speakers)

My primary problem is that whenever I'm listening to music (through WinAmp or Sirius stream through WMP), the volume randomly and erratically changes volume. Sometimes it goes from being very very soft to very very loud (and vice-versa).

I Googled a bit and found people who thought that it might be a WinAmp issue, so I disable WinAmp's volume control and that hasn't had any effect. I've also noticed that whenever this problem occurs, it's not actually affecting my Windows Mixer settings. My mixer settings are still maxed out.

I recently moved and everything worked beautifully with no hint of this problem prior to the move. However, now that I've reconnected my rig, this problem has been occuring.
As a note, I am NOT using the Crystallizer effect or the X-Fi's Dynamic Range control.

I have not yet tried using different speakers, but I've had these speakers for years and I'm pretty trusting of them.

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jyi786]

So when you say that you are not using Creative's Dynamic Range Control, does this mean that you have SVM disabled?

And another thing to note. It's not generally a good idea to max out the Windows volume sliders, be it the main or the wave control volume. The reason behind this is that by maxing it, you are raising the chance of introducing clipping and bottoming out due to overwhelming the output and possibly increasing the chance of blowing out your sound card much earlier than usual. Longshot, but still very possible. I've heard from the mods around here at one time or another, to keep the main Windows volume at about 56%, and the wave volume at about 75%. This has the best balance, and should help you iron out things.

Now when, coming to the variation in sound, go into your THX console and make sure it's not doing anything funky. Also, try reducing the speaker output to 2.1 and see if it does the same thing. You may want to try with headphones to eliminate the possibility of it being the speakers.

 

[svet-am]

So when you say that you are not using Creative's Dynamic Range Control, does this mean that you have SVM disabled?

good question. I've looked and cannot find a toggle for this in Creative Audio Center, so I honestly don't know. I'm using the latest bare drivers from the Creative Web Site (bare drivers without extra stuff from the CD). If you can give guidance to check this, I'll look into it. The only thing I've found remotely close is Dynamic Range and it's disabled.

And another thing to note. It's not generally a good idea to max out the Windows volume sliders, be it the main or the wave control volume. The reason behind this is that by maxing it, you are raising the chance of introducing clipping and bottoming out due to overwhelming the output and possibly increasing the chance of blowing out your sound card much earlier than usual. Longshot, but still very possible. I've heard from the mods around here at one time or another, to keep the main Windows volume at about 56%, and the wave volume at about 75%. This has the best balance, and should help you iron out things.

Not heard this about how Windows handles audio. I generally max out the Windows mixer and control volume with speaker control. Thanks for the heads-up. This makes me wonder, though, if the X-Fi doesn't have an Automatic Level Control (ALC) circuit onboard that is automatically kicking down the volume level when things get too loud (ie, the output voltage gets too high) (I listen mostly to Heavy Metal). I'll check into this for sure.

Now when, coming to the variation in sound, go into your THX console and make sure it's not doing anything funky. Also, try reducing the speaker output to 2.1 and see if it does the same thing. You may want to try with headphones to eliminate the possibility of it being the speakers.

The speaker count is already 2.1 (That's the default) and my Audio Console (from the latest bare driver set) doesn't have a THX console that I've found. I'll try headphones, but since this happens without any warning or noticeable 'trigger event', I don't know if headphones alone would help.

EDIT: found the SVM option and it's disabled. I've adjusted the volume levels and will test things to see if it's fixed.

 

[svet-am]

tried all of the suggestions and it seemed like things were fine. Then, in the middle of my evening last night (just listening to music via Sirius stream), the volume went funky and cycled itself up and down repeatedly for about 30 seconds.

at this point, I had SVM off, crystallizer off, the SB audio control decoupled from the Windows mixer (per the Audio Console setting), and I had adjusted the Windows mixer so that it was no longer maxed out. Still, I had the exact same problem.