SteelSeries Acquires Nahimic Maker & Audio Software Leader A-Volute

[VSG]

SteelSeries, the leader in gaming and esports peripherals, today announces its acquisition of A-Volute, the leading independent developer of 3D sound solutions for gaming, including its flagship Nahimic software. The acquisition of A-Volute will continue to bolster SteelSeries' reputation of industry-leading gaming audio performance across both hardware and software.

For nearly two decades, SteelSeries has been a frontrunner in the gaming industry, offering high-quality gaming peripherals to pro and enthusiast gamers. Its SteelSeries Engine software platform has millions of daily users and is integrated with games and applications. Over the years, the company has built a strong brand and has leveraged this to outpace category growth globally. The award-winning Arctis line of gaming headsets redefined the category as is the new standard in excellence in gaming audio hardware.



A-Volute is the leading independent gaming audio software developer with more than 150 man-years of research and development, and more than twenty dedicated audio, DSP, driver and software engineers based across France, Singapore and Taiwan.

A-Volute's software development roadmap includes unique and relevant features that fit strongly with SteelSeries' current and envisaged offering for its SteelSeries Engine platform. Acquiring A-Volute's talented engineering team will significantly accelerate SteelSeries' vision for its gaming software platform. Additionally, A-Volute's existing customer base, including leading gaming laptop manufacturers, is a strong testament to the quality of their current solutions.

"With our award-winning innovations that have redefined the gaming audio experience, and our best-in-class SteelSeries Engine software, bringing A-Volute into the SteelSeries family seemed like a natural fit and we are extremely excited about partnering with Tuyen and his team," said Ehtisham Rabbani, CEO of SteelSeries. "With their excellence in audio software, they'll help us improve gamers' audio experiences even further."

"We are incredibly excited to be joining the SteelSeries team," said Tuyen Pham, CEO of A-Volute. "Our focus has always been to create outstanding audio experiences, and we could not think of a better partner than SteelSeries."

"SteelSeries' acquisition of A-Volute will add even more tools to its arsenal to continue to lead the way in gaming audio," said Lars Cordt, Partner at Axcel, SteelSeries' controlling shareholder. "A-Volute's team have done an excellent job in creating new tools to enhance audio, and we see them adding tremendous value to SteelSeries' software efforts moving forward."

A-Volute is a private company being acquired by SteelSeries ApS. The parties have agreed not to disclose any financial terms. The transaction is expected to close later in the spring. Additional information about the acquisition can be found on the SteelSeries blog here.

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[Fergutor]

I have Nahimic 2+ in my PC because my motherboard support it...you can't set surround sound speakers in windows with headphones in driver...almost no game allows you to set speaker type output so that's essential!
And that's the 2+ version.
Anybody having the 3rd version: can you do that with it?

But at least I have my old Audigy SE with CMSS-3D that allows me to do that and has a great virtual surround.

 

[holyprof]

My motherboard's soundcard supports Nahimic3. Never bothered to install that crap.
Like Fergutor said, I miss the old CMSS 3D software that came with previous motherboards - small program that "just works".

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I have Nahimic3 and nothing works right because of the stupid software and my mic sounds like pure trash without it...I'm forced into using it.
I have to disable every other sound device or audio gets split....Like I get game music from my speakers (headphones) and sound effects and discord through my monitor....
I was using a SB Audigy but sound lags in game with it...
If I wasn't using headphones exclusively...I dunno..I'd probably get a different motherboard...
So anyways Congrats Steel Series...LoL

 

[Fergutor]

I have Nahimic3 and nothing works right because of the stupid software and my mic sounds like pure trash without it...I'm forced into using it.
I have to disable every other sound device or audio gets split....Like I get game music from my speakers (headphones) and sound effects and discord through my monitor....
I was using a SB Audigy but sound lags in game with it...
If I wasn't using headphones exclusively...I dunno..I'd probably get a different motherboard...
So anyways Congrats Steel Series...LoL

Haha! Yeah, but I guess it can work as intended?
Probably they see the potential in it. When I tested the virtual surround, it was good.
Now, your issues are weird. That should not happen. That's what you should get when you configure each program to use certain device. Weird if that's not the case.
In my case, I have 2 mics (and 2 sound cards, the Audigy SE and the integrated ALC892 from the mobo) and the best solution is certain mic with the integrated, by far (there's something wrong with this Audigy's input/outputs, I had a X-Fi Xtreme Music and was perfect) so I use the normalizer effect at 50% and nothing more and sounds great. I just let it like that and never touch anything.
Problems are that:
-If I have to open the Nahimic panel, which I don't usually, it takes around 3 minutes to do so (!!!!!!)
-It's useable as long as the game has:

--good sound (CS:GO only game like that as it has it's own great virtual surround)​

--if it doesn't have good sound, configurable audio output options (company of heroes 2, only game I play that has, also have a "headphones" settings and SUCKS), so I could set it to 5.1 or 7.1 and use the Nahimic virtual surround (never did it yet though but I guess it should work)​

--game in which you can use the mic from one device and audio output to another so I can use the WAAAAY more useable Audigy SE audio (don't have any game that can do that, and not always is better, for example in CS:GO I tested and sucks compared to the in game virtual surround, as it mess up the sounds that are suppose to be stereo like, players voices, music and other sounds and probably it's less effective too)​

--irrelevant audio​

On the other hand it's better a soft that barely has an usage than the usual totall lack of useful software on integrated sound devices (or "DACs")...which sadly is the norm...

About your Audigy, I use the Daniel_K software, it works perfectly. If your card is an Audigy SE like me, the "console" is incomplete, and you have to turn on and off CMSS-3D from the Creative's "Control Panel". If you download it, be sure to get the correct package for your card.

And what about what I asqued, can you set Windows to 5.1 or 7.1 and Nahimic to headphones so games detect 5.1/7.1 output and Nahimic processes that into virtual surround for headphones as it should damn be?

 

[INSTG8R]

Interesting acquisition considering all I hear is horror stories. The posts here already reflect that...