X-fi Titanium - Link between crackling and console settings

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shazzmoe

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Dec 30, 2010
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I've had the X-FI titanium fatal1ty since shortly after its release and as many others have complained it doesn't seem to work well with win7 x64.

So I was/am getting crackling on various games/youtube clips. I didn't notice it too bad b/c my previous speakers were failing and I just assumed any crackle i heard was b/c of them.

I just bought a new surround sound system Yamaha rx-v467 receiver and Energy Take classic 5.1

They sound great with everything I plug in except my computer. I had read all kinds of tips about limiting ram and 3rd party drivers but nothing seems to help much. I even tried putting the card into a different slot away from the graphics card because I thought it might be overheating since it was resting on top of the card before.

For the past few days I was running "entertainment mode" from the audio console. I had the encoder set to Dolby Digital Live (as this and DTS are the only ways i know of to make the 5.1 work with the receiver). Crystalizer set to off and EQ set to the default flat. CMSS-3D is on.

With these settings I would hear a ton of scratching when playing Black OPs (mostly the cut scenes) or listening to some youtube songs. Well I tried reinstalling all the drivers and software multiple times and this time I set it to "game mode" The sound still scratches but not nearly as bad.

It also sounds like "game mode" comes through at a lower volume. This makes me think the volume level being sent to the card is too loud. There is no way for me to adjust this through windows or the control console. I can move the volume from 0 to 100 and everything sounds the same. Youtube MediaPlayer and other similar programs allow me to adjust the volume. But windows and creative do not. Only way I can figure out is to change console modes.

I think this is because of the Dolby Digital setting (or maybe the Digital out?)

Can anyone tell me how to fix this?
 
I think the volume issues with windows is because your using optical cable. I think this is a limitation.

As for the issues with the sound card, I think there have been some compatibility issues with different motherboard chipsets. I have the PCIe XFI tanium Fatality and haven't had any issues with Win7 x64.
 
thanks for the input. I've figured out a few more things in these past few hours.

I switched to audio creation mode and the sound was the worst of the three. However I found the panel for adjusting channel volume. This worked to some degree but I've realized that lowering the system volume is only making the scratching harder to hear and when I turn my receiver way up I can hear it still.

COD Black OPS also helped me discover something else. When I set SPDIF out to the Default device it would cut the sound from the cutscenes (aka the sections that are scratchy)

This has been a very frustrating few days and I think I might get a new sound card. Though it sucks I wasted about $100 on this one.
 
I decided to disable the x-fi card and use the coax connection to my motherboard. This is also having the same scratching.

So now I'm even more confused. Could the receiver be bad (it was a refurbished model)? Could I just have crappy audio cables (they are pretty old)?

I've read people saying the sound effects in black ops are bad but no one saying it scratches for them (or at least none that sound like my issue)

Here is one example of a youtube clip that is very scratchy when turned up. Is it just a crappy clip? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ_riKPAEug

I have an Asus p6x58d premium mobo if that could matter. I doubt the speakers or receiver are at fault but i guess i never know


EDIT:--------------------------
I just tried hooking up my old klipch promedia set to see how the sound difference was. It is certainly not as hard to hear the scratching but it is there. I can rule out my receiver as being bad because using the energy speaker with the klipch sub i get the same scratching. When using the klipch speakers it actually sounds cleaner but not crisper (as in I think the energy are nicer but the klipch doesn't have as much scratching going on)

I guess i just need to keep the volume down and pretend I don't hear its imperfections.
 
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There is definitely some noise in that youtube song.

You wouldn't happen to be cranking the treble all the way up on your sound card software and receiver, would you? If you're getting the noise from various devices then that's the only thing I can assume unless you've just got bad-quality songs you're testing with.
 
Thanks for telling me that song has some noise.

I'm not cranking the treble as that was my first assumption. I have reduced it and it has helped some. I only have 18 AWG speaker wires on 8 ohm speakers. Could this be an issue? The front wires aren't more than 10ft so I'm doubting it (I also just tried re stripping/cutting them)
 
I've found most sound cards develop crackling if the EQ is turned too high, as this causes signal clipping This is most noticeable with bass frequencies.

I have an X-Fi Titanium in my desktop and it was stuttering and crackling; EXTREMELY annoying and distracting. Onboard audio was fine. I was beginning to assume the card itself had failing onboard components. I found the Creative drivers were having DPC latency problems. Turns out my BIOS was the problem, and tweakforums revealed many users were having DPC latency problems with my mobo affecting various things. Updated BIOS, sounds great.
 
W7 64bit, X-fi Titanium Fatality Championship series
Using optical cable to Logitech Z-5500.

I get massive crackling and hissing when in entertainment or audio creation mode. In game mode, everything is perfectly quiet. I am using the Dolby Digital Encoder, though it also happens with DTS. I manually went through and tweaked everything, and so far disabling X-Fi CMSS-3D has had the biggest impact with regards to noise reduction...however, its still not perfect.
Turning SVM on makes things completely unbearable...which is odd, as SVM should only take effect when there is audio output, not simply at idle with no audio source...but more on that later.

When playing around with the EQ, 4k and 8k have the biggest impact. Reducing them completely results almost a complete noise reduction...as does adjusting the overall level to -10db.
So what does this tell me? Its picking up some sort of noise/interference, because as far as the card is concerned, there is some sort of audio output it has to process.
So I immediately went to my microphone control settings (Mixer tab), and muted the front panel mic connector. VIOLA! No more background noise! Now I'm not sure if you are using the front panel, but if you are...disable the mic. If you aren't, then disable whatever inputs you have enabled. Hopefully this does the trick for you.
I later found out that my front panel mic volume adjuster was maxed...and this was the source of the issue. It turns out that that volume adjuster isn't just software based (I thought it was), but actually controls some internal gain setting on the front panel device. Having it maxed caused all kinds of feedback even though there was no mic plugged in.


The reason this only impacted audio creation mode was because I had muted the FP mic input in order to get my rear mic input working. Anyways...live and learn with creative drivers I guess. BTW...I also get crackling on some Youtube videos...and that has more to do with the audio quality of the video and not the sound card. Good quality audio on YT doesn't cause any issues. Oddly enough, my realtek audio chip had no issues playing "garbage" files...but apparently the creative doesn't like playing such trash :p.
 
JohnleMVP said:
I think the volume issues with windows is because your using optical cable. I think this is a limitation.
Click to expand...

You would have us believe that there is a limitation in the volume levels that optical cables are capable of??????
 
Snufykat said:
You would have us believe that there is a limitation in the volume levels that optical cables are capable of??????
Click to expand...

No, just a limitation in the creative hardware. The Optical out is a fixed gain...i.e, you can't adjust it on the card, and by association, through the windows slider tab. Has nothing to do with any inherent limitation in the cable itself.

You CAN however adjust it within a piece of software, such as WMP, Youtube, etc. This is done interdependently from the Sound card...basically you are adjusting the level of the source material, not manipulating the gain on the card.
I have the same card, and the same issue. Using an optical cable, you can't adjust volume from either the cards control panel, or through windows. But you can do it though peripheral pieces of software...but obviously just for that particular instance.

In the end, its not that big of a deal...my speakers have a remote control, and any software that outputs audio usually has its own volume slider...allowing fine tuning if necessary.
 
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