SS2 Headphones Sound Upgrade

[6791267fd2e57Al_B]

This works really nicely - thanks, Marvin. 

[6791267fd3051duchU]

I have a question. There is no "resampler=" in alsoft.ini you provided. With OpenAL Soft Configurator you can choose from 5 different resamplers + default one. So if there is no "resampler=" line in the ini file then is default resampler used? And if so what is the default resampler?

EDIT: the default one is linear.

## resampler: (global)
#  Selects the resampler used when mixing sources. Valid values are:
#  point - nearest sample, no interpolation
#  linear - extrapolates samples using a linear slope between samples
#  sinc4 - extrapolates samples using a 4-point Sinc filter
#  sinc8 - extrapolates samples using an 8-point Sinc filter
#  bsinc - extrapolates samples using a band-limited Sinc filter (varying
#          between 12 and 24 points, with anti-aliasing)
#  Specifying other values will result in using the default (linear).
#resampler = linear

Now the question is if it's worth to set bsinc (the best quality vs performance)...

[6791267fd33b2Marvin]

I doubt you would notice a drop in performance given current CPU performance values, but more importantly, setting a non-default resampler is not needed and choosing a non-linear one might even degrade the sound quality. System Shock 2 uses 22.05 kHz sound files across the board which can be upsampled to the HRTF table's 44.1 kHz without loss - that is, as long you use pointwise or nearest-neighbour (linear) upsampling. Non-linear filters will introduce aliasing artifacts such as ringing. So unless you are, by some bizarre reason, limited to non-integer multiple sample rates such as 48 kHz, don't other about interpolation.

[6791267fd34bdduchU]

Ok. But I was wondering if setting resampler to bsinc allows to use 48 kHZ HRTF with SS2...

[6791267fd35c2Marvin]

If you set your sound card to 48 kHz and choose the 48 kHz HRTF table, this should be done automatically. But again, it makes zero sense.

[6791267fd36b9duchU]

Well, I use 24 bit 48 kHz in Windows sound settings so this way I would not have to change it to 44,1 kHz every time I want to play SS2...

[6791267fd37e9Marvin]

Well, in that case, sure, go ahead and use the 48kHz table with whatever interpolation works best for you. However, almost everything not related to movies is usually encoded in 44.1 kHh and most Windows applications work in exclusive mode anyway, meaning they override the driver setting with whatever suits them best, such as 48 kHz for DVD playback. So having a default setting of 48 kHz doesn't make as much sense as you think it does.

[6791267fd38d9duchU]

I have SB X-fi and from what I know it resamples sound to 48 kHz so I thought it may be better to let OpenAL Soft to do it.

[6791267fd39efMarvin]

Older Creative cards do that, yes. I'd assume that their specially designed DSP chip does the best possible job already but who knows. You'd probably have to have golden ears to notice a difference, if it's possible at all.

[6791267fd3bb3duchU]

I've read some more and it seems that band limited sinc is the best algorithm for resampling. But Wiki says "A bandlimited signal can be fully reconstructed from its samples, provided that the sampling rate exceeds twice the maximum frequency in the bandlimited signal" so it should work good with 22,05 kHz sounds resampled to 48 kHz (if I read it right) but the thing is music in the game is 44,1 kHz (at least mod music)... So I stay with 44,1 kHz I guess.

And one more thing. It doesn't matter what version of EAX your sound card can support cos everything is done by OpenAL Soft, right? I am asking since I've noticed something. I cannot fully disable CMSS-3D influence in either Entertainment or Game mode. If I disable CMSS-3D then still some distortion is left and I cannot get rid of it until I switch to Audio Creation Mode where distortion is gone and sound is clearer (I think it's related to CMSS-3D cos in Audio Creation Mode CMSS-3D tab is gone too). At least this happens on Widnows 7 64-bit.

And with default OpenAL game support it matters what EAX version your card supports, right? Cos I think in Game mode you can have EAX 5 and with two others it's limited to EAX 3.

[6791267fd3ce9Marvin]

OALSoft uses EFX, not EAX, so yes, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, Creative is not the only manufacturer which force-enables some of their products' "amazing" effects. If you can disable it, do so. I cannot say what the Creative driver does with the sound after it's been processed by OALS.

SS2 only has EAX 1.x effects afaik which basically every soundcard on the market supports for 10 years or something.

[6791267fd425cduchU]

Yeah, Creative is not the only manufacturer which force-enables some of its products' "amazing" effects. If you can disable it, do so. I cannot say what the Creative driver does with the sound after it's been processed by OALS.

I think they rather fucked up disabling CMSS-3D in Win 7 or something. Cos if you disable it then you can hear a difference but still there is some filtering left LOL. Switching to Audio Creation mode helps probably because it doesn't support CMSS-3D at all.

SS2 only has EAX 1.x effects afaik which basically every soundcard on the market supports for 10 years or something.

So every X-fi mode will do then. Thx.

[6791267fd45e1RocketMan]

I've read that audio creation mode is the best for accurate sound reproduction because it not only uses a chip with a higher SNR but also has bit matched audio.  That's what I read...

I like my old X-Fi because it works with XP and has 90% of the quality/features of the newer cards.  That's why I bought another one off Ebay when I upgraded my computer.

[6791267fd486fMarvin]

I've read that audio creation mode is the best for accurate sound reproduction because it not only uses a chip with a higher SNR but also has bit matched audio.  That's what I read...

Pretty much. My Essence STX from Asus also has a ton of different DSP modes but they're all shit. Otherwise it's a fine card, probably won't need another one till the capacitors blow.

[6791267fd4afaOlfred]

If they blow, give me a call, I can repair that.

[6791267fd4bf7RocketMan]

You repair caps on boards?

[6791267fd4d16Olfred]

I'm a trained electrician and currently going to college for electrical engineer.
So it's not only limited to changing capacitors.

But I'm in germany, so if you have any broken boards I might give you advice. Otherwise the shipping might get a bit expensive.

[6791267fd4e5cRocketMan]

Oh... we'll get along just fine.  My desk is literally littered with electronics (though I'm a MechEng by trade).  Just the other day I tried soldering pins onto an SMD chip for FM radio and failed so hard I broke down and bought a board 8x bigger from ebay just so I could work on my project.  Blast these club hands of mine.

[6791267fd4f5cOlfred]

Actually SMD isn't that hard when you have the right tools. If you want we can get into a private discussion and I might give you some tips and tricks.

[6791267fd519cMarvin]

If they blow, give me a call, I can repair that.

If this forum's still alive in 15 years, sure, why not.

[6791267fd539dOlfred]

15 years? Pretty optimistic.
I've just checked the type of capacitors they have built on them. Luckily they did a fine design and used ones specifically for audio design from japan (japan produces the best capactiros worldwide), and not just some cheap ass chinese ones.
On the other hand, they go out of their specified values at about 1000h of usage.
Doesn't mean they will explode after the 1000h, just that you might get a loss in quality.

[6791267fd54c7Marvin]

Only 1000h? Wow, that's a lot less than I thought. With about 3h of computer use per day, those would last only a year at maximum efficiency. Then again, it would probably take a lot longer to hear a difference as you said.

[6791267fd55e2Olfred]

Well, it's hours of usage. If you don't listen to music the whole time they go for a lot longer. Also it's if you fully use them. Just a guesstimate. You probably would get a significant loss in quality after 2000h of listening to music.

[6791267fd5749RocketMan]

Caps continue to filter even after they drift out of spec.  It's just that your transfer function changes... you get attenuation or gain at different frequencies than what you spec'd, which in most cases isn't a problem for the piece of electronics in question to keep functioning.  I've had exactly 1 motherboard stop working on me and fail to boot and that was because ALL the caps actually bubbled and blew.  The damage was quite severe before I noticed the computer consistently fail.  Shitty chinese caps indeed.