save my Aureal Vortex2 (8830)

M

MetalDwarf

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2002
Messages
1,072
i dont want to give it up
you cant make me its been my best friend for years
we did everything together, she showed me half life and told me where to shoot the monkies in system shock 2, she shook my room in movies shes a dear old precious friend and i would hate to loose her

but mean old windows 2000 doesnt like the copmetition

he wants all the loving to himslef,
they dont get along and they fight often. to complete the love triangle is my 4.1 pro audio quality home theater system, who has a fetish for spdif optical outs and quadrophonic digital surround sound outputs.

my aureal wont play nice and give the digital candy to the home theater, she only wants to give 2.1

someone out there please tell me how to make them all get along

i reallt want 4.1 spdif output in win2k
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

as far as im concerned there still is/are no better soundcard to the vortex2, i just wish she would play nice
 
If only Aureal was still around, maybe Microsoft would have adopted A3D instead of basic EAX for Directsound3D. And maybe we'd have real positional audio in games. Oh well. We'll see what nVidia pulls out of their hat, they did hire all of the engineers.
 
Problem is, no one implements A3D 2.0 into their games anymore, too much work apparently. But hey, I'll be happy if they ditch pseudo 3D sound altogether and do real time 5.1 instead (Doom 3?)
 
"This" being the hyperlink to a set of drivers for the Aureal AU8830 audio controller, including hard-to-find Windows 2000 and XP drivers.

As you might or might not know, Aureal declared bankruptcy prior to the completion of Windows 2000 drivers, and certainly before Aureal development of Windows XP drivers. A group of Aureal devotees wrote Windows 2000 drivers, and the Windows XP drivers were supposedly written by Microsoft programmers. Since the main portal for Aureal aftermarket development, Vortex of Sound, is now closed, these drivers have become quite rare.
 
drivers for the Aureal AU8830 audio controller, including hard-to-find Windows 2000 and XP drivers.
Click to expand...

Cool.... it always helps when you don't have to click the link to find out what it is. ;)
 
i get an error on driver install

it also asks for a file aurealgm.arl which is not included in that driver pack
however i did have it from another driver i had previously DLed but alas it still errored

when i try to open vortex control panel i get the error

au30cpl
Failed to open the audio driver file
 
You do realize of course that you will only get two speakers playing over a SPDIF unless the digital signal is encoded into something other than stereo (such as dolby digital), right?
 
basically i want it to do spdif 4.1 out for possitional sound in games this is all

i have a reciever capable of dolby digital, DTS, and all the rest
so interpreting the digital signal is no problem

an example is that i want to play farcry with 4.1 audio
currently i cant get more then 2.1
i have heard this is an issue with the vortex 2 and win2k
or is it as you say that unless its encoded in dolby digital that it wont ever go above 2.1?

im confused

help
 
Far Cry with "4.1 audio" is going to require an algorithm or encoding scheme in order to create separate channels. With some speakers and soundcards, you can also have the rear speakers use the 2-channel front left/right signal to replicate a 4-channel output. Otherwise, you'll need an algorithm like A3D, EAX--something that will create a 4-channel output.

You're not going to be able to transmit whatever you want over S/PDIF. Most receivers only accept AC3 (Dolby Digital), DTS, or PCM over S/PDIF because those are the only encoded streams that they can decode. You'll need to encode to one of these formats if you want to use S/PDIF. That said, the Aureal Vortex series does not encode to any of these formats, except PCM (for music only). Don't get me wrong; they can pass a pre-encoded AC3 or DTS stream over S/PDIF just fine, but it won't do the encoding.

In summary, the Vortex series can

output 4-channel sources in 4-channel analog
output 6-channel (5.1) encoded PCM/AC3/DTS streams over S/PDIF

It cannot

turn a stereo source into 4-channel content without software suport
pass non-PCM/AC3/DTS streams over S/PDIF
encode audio to AC3/DTS streams
 
farcry has a dolby digital output mode though...
shouldent this just send the dolby out the spdif and into my reciever which can deal with dolby?

what about running the quadrophonic setting? will this just output via the analog jacks?
or can it also send 4 digital signals along the spdif

im normally really good at this stuff but spdif eludes me....

if what im after isnt possible what cards would you recommend as the sucessor to the vortex2?
 
MetalDwarf said:
farcry has a dolby digital output mode though...
shouldent this just send the dolby out the spdif and into my reciever which can deal with dolby?
Click to expand...
Yes

MetalDwarf said:
what about running the quadrophonic setting? will this just output via the analog jacks?
[/QUOT]
Yes.
MetalDwarf said:
or can it also send 4 digital signals along the spdif
Click to expand...
Nope... can't do it.

MetalDwarf said:
im normally really good at this stuff but spdif eludes me....
Click to expand...
Don't sweat that cause it eludes a lot of people. Most of the threads we see here deal with educating people about how and why S/PDIF either works or doesn't.....that is why I think it it would make the foundation for a good sticky.

Anyone care to write a thread outlining the whole topic? :)
MetalDwarf said:
if what im after isnt possible what cards would you recommend as the sucessor to the vortex2?
Click to expand...
Anything.... but the best solution for you would prolly be soundstorm but that mean switching to a legacy AMD platform.
Click to expand...
 
The only way currently out there for a computer sound card to encode 5.1 channel sound over SPDIF is through the soundstorm DICE encoder on an nforce2 motherboard's onboard sound. Otherwise to get more than two-channel sound you will need to either use the analog outputs or use pre-encoded digital content.
 
use pre-encoded digital content
Click to expand...
does farcry's dolby digital mode count? ive been trying it and can still only get 2.1 from the spdif, or is this a driver issue?

The only way currently out there for a computer sound card to encode 5.1 channel sound over SPDIF
Click to expand...
are there any real time software encoders?

im sure the question has been asked but is there anything on the market that approaches the quality of the aureal cards in their hayday? now they are old/antiquated/decrepet but they were amazing in their day. they still sound "better" then every modern soundcard ive heard.

ive never been a fan of creative, and i dont like their sound. they color thier sound a lot. im more of a purist what i look for in an amp/preamp is it takes the sound that goes in..... and wait for it.... *SHOCK* makes it louder, i dont want no stinking optinimations or bass enhancement or reverb or any other crap i want exactly what went in only louder, and no sound card company seems to offer this

aureal used to, but they are dead and gone so no use mourning anymore.
a3d was awesome it took the sound and threw math at it, what is the surfance its reflecting off, what is the geometry of the room, what objects are in the room, what is the decay time etc. all math
same signal just augmented with what the level design sound make it sound like
and yet at the same time it left music the hell alone.
from my understanding creative uses preprogramed reverb effects

programer: this needs to sound echoy.....ill use creative reverb #12, done.

this method sucks in my opinion

are there any sound cards out there barring creative (they would have to do something REALLY cool to impress me) and soundstorm (as its part of a chipset and not a soundcard) that can do what im looking for? anything? it doesnt have to be consumer level, im more then willing to spend a couple hundred bucks on it IF its worth the money

ive got thousands of dollars worth of pro audio gear a couple hundred bucks to make all my digital music and to a further extent games sound good is a drop in the bucket at this point

thanks for listening/reading my little rant
 
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