rishooty wrote:

For the most part, I use high-quality APTx-LL Bluetooth headphones with its accompanying adapter and it works fine.

Off-topic: what do you prefer for this?

Soooo.. after doing some digging, it looks like maybe only the original Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 USB (SB1090) is hardware accelerated.
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/multimedia/crea … ound-51-p2.html

The SB1095 is the "Pro" version of which I can not find any real info on the chipset. It is interesting that the earlier release of this carried the THX moniker while the later release carries the SBX moniker. Something to do with licensing.
So.. this version reportedly doesn't have hardware acceleration though the Recon 3d USB does:
https://pixelsandwidgets.com/2014/04/usb-soun … s-x-fi-5-1-pro/

The Creative X-FI HD USB (70SB124000001 or SB1240) uses the CA0189 whicch doesn't list anything about being hardware accelerated though it does use a RISC processor so maybe it is.
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/09/20/cr … d_card_review/2
https://www.creative.com/oem/products/chips/ca0189.asp

The X-Fi Go! (SB1100) may be hardware accelerated according to this: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Labs-Blaster- … m/dp/B0017QQQAE
The X-Fi Go! Pro (SB1290) is apparently glitched and also has lower output quality and worse software than the non-Pro version)
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sound-blaster … 8/#post-8788665

For me, I like Alchemy to restore EAX to older games. The X-Fi PCI and PCI-E cards (CA20K1 and CA20K2 based) sound great. Supposedly the newer cards that don't use those chips don't sound as good but I haven't personally compared them.

Isn't the Extigy what you're looking for? It even has the MIDI connectors in addition to EAX and CMSS. IIRC, the only thing that is not legit is the Dolby, which is emulated.

The extigy doesn't seem to have drivers for Windows 10. I also noticed it has performance issues from being an early USB product.

As for my regular audio, I use the avantree leaf + avantree audition pro. Great sound and battery life, next to no lag. Best you can get short of sony's LDAC compatible sets, which only works on Android at the moment. Just of course know it will never be as good as wired, but it comes close and it's very convenient.

Thanks so much for the digging, it's good to know the ones I was looking at are probably accelerated. Now if I remember correctly, not even the card xfis have real midi/wavetable hardware right?

pretty much any usb thing these days is going to be class compliant with no drivers.

myself I run a schiit bifrost (its an upgraded uber bifrost) as usb or as optical depending what I'm messing with.

https://www.schiit.com/products/bifrost

(mine is an original that has its insides upgraded twice). currently it has the gen5 usb and the AKM4490 dac in it.

Just get the X3M A, I would say; soundcard and external MIDI device in one.

(I think the Buran soundbank is way better than the unofficial SC soundbank.. SC is quite a bit overrated IMO)

BloodyCactus wrote:

pretty much any usb thing these days is going to be class compliant with no drivers.

I'm sure the extigy would run as a regular DAC no problem. I'm just pretty sure that you need creative's drivers in order to use ALchemy and mess with soundfonts.

appiah4 wrote:

Just get the X3M A, I would say; soundcard and external MIDI device in one.

(I think the Buran soundbank is way better than the unofficial SC soundbank.. SC is quite a bit overrated IMO)

TBH this is what I was leaning towards. Either just getting the X3M, or getting an X3M and a X-Fi Go Pro! to switch between them as I need midi+good DAC or EAX+CMSS.

As for the buran soundbank, I do like it a lot. It kinda reminds me of Arachno. I just hate that Doom Engine games just never quite sound right to me on anything other than an SC-55-Like. For example, e1m1 - at dooms gate just has VERY echoey and heavy guitars: https://soundcloud.com/user-470084971/doom-e1 … at-dooms-gate-3

rishooty wrote:

TBH this is what I was leaning towards. Either just getting the X3M, or getting an X3M and a X-Fi Go Pro! to switch between them as I need midi+good DAC or EAX+CMSS.

Just be careful, if you would go for Dreamblaster to buy X3MA, since X3MB cannot be used as external sound card.

rishooty wrote:

As for the buran soundbank, I do like it a lot. It kinda reminds me of Arachno. I just hate that Doom Engine games just never quite sound right to me on anything other than an SC-55-Like. For example, e1m1 - at dooms gate just has VERY echoey and heavy guitars: https://soundcloud.com/user-470084971/doom-e1 … at-dooms-gate-3

Those recordings are by me. I have since then altered the EQ preset used in that recording so that it sounds less boxy and has less reverb/chorus.

http://serdaco.com/downloads/X2/X2_SoundbankP … PPIAH4_v2_0.DXP

I don't have recordings at hand but it sounds punchier and drier.

Ohh nice! Yeah I'll probably just get the X3MB. It does look like the original X-Fi Go! and X-Fi Surround are in fact hardware accelerated. The later dacs, such as the Play 3 or X G1 7.1 do support alchemy, but I'm pretty sure it's software accelerated. I looked at the list of EAX games and it seems like near every game either has a solution or has been remade in some capacity, so I'd rather not spend $50 on something I'll rarely use. At least the X3MB is also a modern/decent 24-bit DAC. Thanks everyone!

Again, X3MB cannot be used as a USB sound card, you have to buy X3MA.

Ohh, my apologies. Yup I see the difference now. Thanks for pointing that out.

OK, so looks like your asking for a lot of stuff here....
Fist off what OS you using this with?

If it's Windows 10, than hardware acceleration doesn't matter as audio based hardware acceleration isn't allowed in operating systems past Vista. It's ALL software emulated now.
Just get a good quality usb dac, don't worry about "3D" this or "EAX" that as it's all either borked in Windows 10 or not as good as the Dolby Atmos one that's built into Win10 (It has something like a $5 licencing fee though).
EAX is sadly pretty broken in Win10 across the board. It does work in somegames, but it's not quite the same as true EAX in Win XP.
MIDI in windows 10 is pretty easy, just use LoopMidi and Falcosoft MIDIPlayer. It sounds better than coolsoft does, and it'll work with .vst plugins like the Yamaha XG50 and the Roland VirtualSoundCanvas synths. Those sound 99% the same as the real things, and are MILES better than the SC-55 soundfont.
X3M is pretty handy for easy of use though, so that's still pretty valuable there.

Hardware acceleration or Hardware Based MIDI devices are really only worth the money for Operating Systems that are XP or Lower.
Don't get me wrong though. Hardware MIDI devices are fun to play with and they'll give you a sound that you just can't replicate in software, so I'll never discourage you from getting one. I'm just saying that they're not really needed on newer OSes anymore.

t9999clint wrote:

MIDI in windows 10 is pretty easy, just use LoopMidi and Falcosoft MIDIPlayer. It sounds better than coolsoft does, and it'll work with .vst plugins like the Yamaha XG50 and the Roland VirtualSoundCanvas synths. Those sound 99% the same as the real things, and are MILES better than the SC-55 soundfont.

I'm not sure what the rationale here is; Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth sounds just the same as Falcosoft MIDIPlayer when using soundfonts to me. As for VST plugins, yeah if you want to use those then the setup you offer is a good alternative, but the XG and SC VSTs are not necesserily better than what 1GB+ SF2s like Musyng Kite can make your game sound, so they are not objectively 'better', but can offer a more authentic sound I suppose. Bu then if you want authentic SC-55 you may as well get a real soundcanvas, as the SC VST is (IMO) horrendously expensive anyway ($125 wtf..) and I would rather buy an X3M for less than that price.

appiah4 wrote:

I'm not sure what the rationale here is; Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth sounds just the same as Falcosoft MIDIPlayer when using soundfonts to me. As for VST plugins, yeah if you want to use those then the setup you offer is a good alternative, but the XG and SC VSTs are not necessarily better than what 1GB+ SF2s like Musyng Kite can make your game sound, so they are not objectively 'better', but can offer a more authentic sound I suppose. Bu then if you want authentic SC-55 you may as well get a real soundcanvas, as the SC VST is (IMO) horrendously expensive anyway ($125 wtf..) and I would rather buy an X3M for less than that price.

Falcosoft has better compatibility with the different MIDI standards. It's also better at pitch bends and certain DSP effects. The difference is subtle but it's there.
A 1gb soundfont will easily beat those .vst's but that's not what I was comparing it too. I was comparing it to the SC-55 soundfont, which sound's pretty weird IMHO.
My main soundfont project is a really good one to use for games. (It's 2GB+ large)
the Yamaha vst is abandonware and fairly easy to find. The Roland one I think is only available now as a monthly subscription. But there's a Demo of it floating around if you'd like to try it out.
The Roland .vst does a far better job at SC-55 emulation than a X3M is capable of so again that's not exactly a fare comparison, and compared to the price of a real SC-8850 $125 isn't that bad. (I agree that it's still not worth it)
For SC-55/88, I agree your probably better off finding a real roland synth if you're going for accuracy.

t9999clint wrote:

the Yamaha vst is abandonware

What are the real terms under which it's licensed (abandonware isn't legally existent)?

gdjacobs wrote:

t9999clint wrote:

the Yamaha vst is abandonware

What are the real terms under which it's licensed (abandonware isn't legally existent)?

That's actually a very good point. It's still a commercial product, it's just one Yamaha doesn't sell anymore.
There was a version of it that they gave away for free, I'm not sure if that included the .vst though. (I think it was included with FF8)

t9999clint wrote:

That's actually a very good point. It's still a commercial product, it's just one Yamaha doesn't sell anymore.
There was a version of it that they gave away for free, I'm not sure if that included the .vst though. (I think it was included with FF8)

Wasn't a version also bundled with a few different sound cards and apparently Toshiba laptops as well?

It's certainly widely available in driver cds and such, so I don't think we have to worry too much in passing this around, but we're probably depending a bit on the grace of Yamaha and the licensees to keep doing so.