Soundblaster x-ae5 plus sometimes switches center channel to other channels.

[maramsp]

Hey all.

I own the card in the title for a while now, and its definitely an improvement over my old x-fi fatal1ty (ye, the one with the long name and the black cover on it)
But, the card does a weird thing once in a while, like what i descirbed in the title.

95% of the time when this occurs its switching the center channel output of my home theater system to either the front left, or the rear left.
Only once or twice i noticed that it had switched my front left channel to one of the rear speakers.

Firstly i noticed it while playing horizon zero dawn, and when i first noticed it, i thought i had to reboot the pc, which indeed solved it.
Later it started to happen more, and then i found out myself that if i switch from the speaker setting in sound blaster command, to the headphone setting, and back, that it also solves it. Even while im ingame.

Still though, while its only a minor setback, i prefer a permanent solution to it, in which i, ofcourse first googled for it.

I find out that others had this problem too with windows 11, and that it should be fixed by updating the bios on the mobo.

So, i updated to the last bios (v3607) but it didnt solved the problem, but it does appear that it happens not so much anymore.

I also tried another slot on the mobo, which also didnt help at all.

So, maybe does someone here know something that i can do more?

Btw, before i finish, this is my system again, cause if i forget to type it here, i certainly get asked about it:

Asus rog strix b550 gaming wifi II
Amd ryzen 7 5800x3d
Gigabyte RTX 2070 Windforce 8g (finally going to upgrade at the end of this month )
32gb corsair vengeance rgb ram (3600mhz)
Windows 11 installed on a 250gb kingston ssd
500gb kingston m.2 drive for gaming
1tb samsung 870 ssd for gaming
1tb WD blue and 1tb hitachi hdd for storage
And ofcourse the creative soundblaster x-ae5 plus soundcard, with the rgb strip connected as well, set in 5.1 mode, and my home theater system is connected by an optical cable.

Btw, for the record, although i personally dont think it has any to do with it, but my home theater system is the Edifier s760d.

Also for the record the settings in sound blaster command are as follows:

SBX profile: Gaming
Surround: 75
Crystalizer: 75
Bass: greyed out (cause of speaker output)
Smart volume: Off
Dialog+:Off
Custom equalizer: 12, 9.5, 7, 4.5, 2.5, 2.5, 4.5, 7, 9.5, 12
Output: Speakers (surround 5.1, full range speakers for front left and right, and surround speakers)
Crossover: on (150hz)
Subwoofer gain: on
Direct mode: off
Filters: Quick roll off
Audio quality: 32bit 48khz
Scout mode disabled
Encoder: Dolby audio

Oh, and i also set the control panel speaker thingy to have full range speakers on all speakers.

I know technically my speakers are not full range ones, but i found the sound "sounding" better when i have them on full speaker mode.

So, again, is there something that i can do more, to prevent sound blaster command swapping the channels once and then?

Again, its no real big deal, but still, if it can be solved, then that would be awesome!

Thanks in advance.

Greetings from Martijn

 

[Ferather]

Interesting, "my home theater system is connected by an optical cable", so you are using optical and I guess you are using Dolby or DTS to get 5.1? (nvm I see Dolby)
I have seen, had, a few complaints about Horizon and optical output, do you know if the issue effects all games or just some?

A single speaker does not have to be full range for the entire sound system to be full range. Your AVR is probably 20-20kHz (full range).

----

I would say this issue is more exclusive to the device or app, I really doubt Windows is changing the channel config or the audio engine (not without a runtime bug).

Edit: Do you know if there is an upmixer turned on? I guess it's possible for something to go wrong there, although I am not sure why.
Maybe 'There is a bug in the matrix, Neo-PC', which for some reason causes it to swap channels.

 

[nicegirl05]

Hey all.

I own the card in the title for a while now, and its definitely an improvement over my old x-fi fatal1ty (ye, the one with the long name and the black cover on it)
But, the card does a weird thing once in a while, like what i descirbed in the title.

95% of the time when this occurs its switching the center channel output of my home theater system to either the front left, or the rear left.
Only once or twice i noticed that it had switched my front left channel to one of the rear speakers.

Firstly i noticed it while playing horizon zero dawn, and when i first noticed it, i thought i had to reboot the pc, which indeed solved it.
Later it started to happen more, and then i found out myself that if i switch from the speaker setting in sound blaster command, to the headphone setting, and back, that it also solves it. Even while im ingame.

Still though, while its only a minor setback, i prefer a permanent solution to it, in which i, ofcourse first googled for it.

I find out that others had this problem too with windows 11, and that it should be fixed by updating the bios on the mobo.

So, i updated to the last bios (v3607) but it didnt solved the problem, but it does appear that it happens not so much anymore.

I also tried another slot on the mobo, which also didnt help at all.

So, maybe does someone here know something that i can do more?

Btw, before i finish, this is my system again, cause if i forget to type it here, i certainly get asked about it:

Asus rog strix b550 gaming wifi II
Amd ryzen 7 5800x3d
Gigabyte RTX 2070 Windforce 8g (finally going to upgrade at the end of this month )
32gb corsair vengeance rgb ram (3600mhz)
Windows 11 installed on a 250gb kingston ssd
500gb kingston m.2 drive for gaming
1tb samsung 870 ssd for gaming
1tb WD blue and 1tb hitachi hdd for storage
And ofcourse the creative soundblaster x-ae5 plus soundcard, with the rgb strip connected as well, set in 5.1 mode, and my home theater system is connected by an optical cable.

Btw, for the record, although i personally dont think it has any to do with it, but my home theater system is the Edifier s760d.

Also for the record the settings in sound blaster command are as follows:

SBX profile: Gaming
Surround: 75
Crystalizer: 75
Bass: greyed out (cause of speaker output)
Smart volume: Off
Dialog+:Off
Custom equalizer: 12, 9.5, 7, 4.5, 2.5, 2.5, 4.5, 7, 9.5, 12
Output: Speakers (surround 5.1, full range speakers for front left and right, and surround speakers)
Crossover: on (150hz)
Subwoofer gain: on
Direct mode: off
Filters: Quick roll off
Audio quality: 32bit 48khz
Scout mode disabled
Encoder: Dolby audio

Oh, and i also set the control panel speaker thingy to have full range speakers on all speakers.

I know technically my speakers are not full range ones, but i found the sound "sounding" better when i have them on full speaker mode.

So, again, is there something that i can do more, to prevent sound blaster command swapping the channels once and then?

Again, its no real big deal, but still, if it can be solved, then that would be awesome!

Thanks in advance.

Greetings from Martijn

turn direct mode on see if that helps besides that it may be a problem in hardware not software im useing a very simple usb to optical connection and iv neva had that issue i assume that the eq is messing with your speaker placement in the audio engine of the applications your running useing direct mode well give u the pure audio from the application enedited so if the card is applying a weird upmixer or changeing speaker placement it wont be able too anymore keep in mind that means youll have to set your windows settings aswell as game settings to 5.1 due to direct mode bypassing alot of windows junk hope this helps

 

[maramsp]

First of all, sorry, cause it took longer then expected to reply, cause of unexpected real life things.

Interesting, "my home theater system is connected by an optical cable", so you are using optical and I guess you are using Dolby or DTS to get 5.1? (nvm I see Dolby)
I have seen, had, a few complaints about Horizon and optical output, do you know if the issue effects all games or just some?

A single speaker does not have to be full range for the entire sound system to be full range. Your AVR is probably 20-20kHz (full range).

----

I would say this issue is more exclusive to the device or app, I really doubt Windows is changing the channel config or the audio engine (not without a runtime bug).

Edit: Do you know if there is an upmixer turned on? I guess it's possible for something to go wrong there, although I am not sure why.
Maybe 'There is a bug in the matrix, Neo-PC', which for some reason causes it to swap channels.

Yes indeed, 't is like you said. I connected it via an optical cable, and get dolby digital output therefore.
About Horizon, yes, me too, cause I had to buy this new soundcard, cause with the old one, it had the problem of sound looping.
Still though, i wanted to buy a new sound card anyway, and i'm glad i did.

For the full range thanks for clarifying this up, and yes, it must be the AVR indeed, since like i said i get much better sound out of my speakers when setting it to full range instead of limited range.
If the AVR that comes with the edifier is full range, i dont know, but it must be then.

About what you said that it must be exclusive to the device or app, yes i think that too. If i research online, i find that it is the mobo doing this for some reason, and therefore the card is doing it itself. At least its doing so according to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlasterOfficial/comments/ugumwo
For the rest, there could be an upmixer active yes. But as far as i know this only applies to when a stereo source is being played, it converts it to multiple speakers. And while im gaming, as far as i know, i always set the games to be 5.1 output if that specific setting is available, which is ofcourse for most of the games out there.

But when i play only stereo source content, for example some music, then it works fine as far as i can tell. But please read my comment on the other message here in this thread, which i will type below. But yes, could be also a bug ingame, but for now it have happened on 3 games. HZD, HFW, and Disco Elysium final cut.
I beat the last one 2 days ago, and now am playing Persona 5 royal. So i will keep an eye out if it happens there too.

turn direct mode on see if that helps besides that it may be a problem in hardware not software im useing a very simple usb to optical connection and iv neva had that issue i assume that the eq is messing with your speaker placement in the audio engine of the applications your running useing direct mode well give u the pure audio from the application enedited so if the card is applying a weird upmixer or changeing speaker placement it wont be able too anymore keep in mind that means youll have to set your windows settings aswell as game settings to 5.1 due to direct mode bypassing alot of windows junk hope this helps

Thank you also for this.

But if i turn on direct mode, i can only hear sound from 2 speakers, as it seems that the dolby/dts isnt working anymore to get 5.1 sound then.
I dont have the cables to connect it the classic way, to test if direct mode then works in 5.1 sound, cause i think its not needed, and also.. I dont think its possible with the inbuild decoder then to get dolby/dts sound, and get just normal 5.1 sound instead.

So yes, it might be the upmixer then, but still that upmixer should be disabled automaticly, when the source is a 5.1 not? I mean, thats what google tells me what an upmixer does.

And aye, i have set windows as well to 5.1, but still when i do direct mode, then i only get sound from the front left and front right.

But.. All in all, its not a major setback. It happens once or twice per day, and can easily be solved. Was just curious what caused it, and 'if' it can be solved at all.

But nevertheless, thank you both!

 

[Ferather]

Indeed normally the upmixer will detect 2 channel audio and activate upmixing, true multichannel will (or should be) unchanged. If there is a bug with it, maybe it causes multichannel issues.
The frequency range is, 35Hz - 20kHz for the Edifier S760D set, same range as the Logitech Z906 THX set. You would still set full range even though its 35Hz.

Edit: I thought you had an AVR without looking up the model, turns out its a set, kit.