Why is side left and subwoofer swapped for 7.1 in windows 7 ? BUG BUG !!!

[skybu...@hotmail.com]

I connected pretty much everything as described here:

https://www.creative.com/oem/resources/soundcards/sb046x.pdf

And all connections connected to the proper inputs on the denon receiver 1909.

I am not sure about the subwoofer/side left connections.

There are two configurations possibly.

1: Subwoofer sound goes to SIDE LEFT.

2: Swapping them: No sound.

The subwoofer is missing though, perhaps the denon receiver detects this ?

But it's more likely a weird situation in windows 7.

"Configure Speakers"

Instead of simply asking the user what kind of system is connected.

It does something stupid like:

Large speakers/subwoofer present yes/no

Depending on the answers giving windows re-assigns the outputs/jacks etc.

This is driving me crazy.

Or it could simply be a bug in windows 7/audio stack or creative drivers.

Somehow the left side and subwoofer channel is swapped ?!

Unless goldwave is buggy or a test file is buggy.

I will upload test file so anybody out there with a 7.1 surround sound system connect to windows 7 can test it out if you like too.

Or at least check if file is correct.

I have a 7.0 surround sound setup ?! So how the fuck should I setup these shitty speakers in windows 7 ?!

If I tell windows the subwoofer is missing... then it will play the subwoofer sound via something else it seems... which is very weird.

Basically I hate this speaker configuration bullshit in windows 7, it's super fucking weird.

HERE IS MY QUESTION:

How to re-assign speaker outputs without THX setup console ?!?!?!?!?

IS there perhaps a registry hack for creative tech or windows 7 ?!?

So I don't have to install this thx setup console ?! I can do that... but still... shouldn't be necessary.

Perhaps need to use 7 channel file or so ? Or disable subwoofer channel... don't think this is necessary though... hmm weird.

Test file is here:

Folder:

http://www.skybuck.org/Media/Sounds/7.1%20Surround%20Sound/

Direct link to test file:

http://www.skybuck.org/Media/Sounds/7.1%20Surround%20Sound/8_Channel_ID.wav

Seems like somebody at microsoft/creative did some really sloppy testing and fucked things up...

Or my denon receiver swaps channels on detection basis or something... or maybe I should disable subwoofer on it...

Very strange.

When subwoofer was disabled swapping left side/subwoofer connections didn't even help... the signal would still be played on other speakers... but that is probably misconfiguration by windows... it re-channels subwoofer to front speakers.

Currently configuration is:

All optional speakers checked v

Full range speakers checked v

Result is: Left side/subwoofer channels swapped or no sound at all if connections swapped.

I will try one more setting:

Currently configuration is:

All optional speakers checked v

Full range speakers unchecked.

Same result.

I know pretty much 100% sure some strange bug is now in windows simply because I disconnect front left/front right and rear left, rear right and side right cables (two of them).

So only 1 cable is connected which should be producing center, side left and subwoofer...

But clearly side left and subwoofer are swapped on speakers ? WTF ?!

There is no subwoofer connected.

The LFE channel is playing through the SIDE LEFT ?!

WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ?!

Perhaps bug in creative labs audio driver ?!?!?!?!?!

SIGH.

All creative labs drivers were removed and only a fresh web release installed !

This is default configuration !

I will try one more test:

subwoofer disabled in speaker configuration in windows 7:

NO SOUND.

I ll try swapping cables see if that matters.

NO SOUND.

One last thing I could try is not connect one of them

Re-enabling subwoofer

Only side left connected

Anyway I am done with testing...

It's pretty clear to me that somebody fucked this up in the driver settings or in windows.

IT'S A FUCKING BUG SOMEWHERE/WRONG SETTING.

FUCKING IDIOTS.

TEST PROPERLY !

Also way to many configuration possibilities/options reassignments in all of these softwares.

Keep things simple oh well.

I would not be surprised if there is a registry entry somewhere already searching for it. "Creative Tech" might turn up something.

Bye for now,
Skybuck.

[skybu...@hotmail.com]

I did come across audio objects in the registry editor so perhaps a configuration issue is there.

However I also come across some more interesting things:

A guy claiming that this tool might could be used to swap audio channels via a text file... I think this tool probably installs some driver/filter... doesn't work for asio and other more direct sound apis but it might help some out there:

The software in general seems kind interesting... apperently it can do some effects or channel mixing or something not sure exactly what this is yet:

1. equalizer apo

https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/

2. Description from Microsoft:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/audio/audio-processing-object-architecture

For now I will first try to get as much of creative x-fi software working by carefully installing via web release and then updating from that as much as possible and only install missing components from original cd/nero image.

I am starting to wonder if maybe the nero image has bit errors.

Or if the installation program has a race condition where installing from harddrive happens to fast... because dvd/cd was much slower.

So this might be a problem with deamon tools... it does not slow down the harddisk enough to make a true virtual cd/dvd drive behave the same as a real one.

Bye for now,
skybuck.