http://preview.creativelabs.com/alchemy/Lists … pForm.aspx?ID=5

Title: ALchemy for Audigy Development Started Body: When we released the first beta of ALchemy for X-Fi, we hoped customers wo […]
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Title:
ALchemy for Audigy Development Started
Body:
When we released the first beta of ALchemy for X-Fi, we hoped customers would appreciate our efforts. Within only a few months, the response from users and the press has been overwhelmingly positive. Many of our customers have asked if we could adapt ALchemy to Audigy series sound cards. The X-Fi and Audigy series sound cards are built on different hardware architectures, and therefore require separate development efforts. However, based on the requests to date, we are pleased to announce that we have begun development of an implementation of ALchemy for Audigy series sound cards, and hope to offer this product as a low-cost upgrade to interested Audigy owners later this year

WTF??!! Here's to hoping this "low-cost upgrade" gets leaked to the net or that someone decides to reverse engineer Alchemy.

Fuckin' Creative.

I've dropped Creative since the Audigy driver debacle - they keep obsoleting the card I purchase a scant 12 months after it's heyday. My Audigy 2 and SB Live!s have all been given away since then and I've done nothing about replacing them I thinking about replacing the A2Z with an M-Audio or X-Mystique but found better use for the money in buying an M-Audio 'O2' USB MIDI controller instead. I've used Realtek's HDA onboard in two different motherboards since via SPDIF (AC3 Filter and ASIO4ALL own) and have never looked back. Sure I sacrifice 1 or 2 fp/s performance very occasionally but I have no headaches whatsoever in the driver or support departments....Creative have a long way to go to get my dollar ever again. I've been reading up on the whole ALchemy issue for Vista and all I can say is that Creative have quickly become one of the greediest and most socially irresponsible companies I've ever known - how they can charge even an insignificant fee for ALchemy is beyond me - they were notified of OpenAL quite some time before Vista was even in mid-beta and Creative even did an OpenAL launch that coincided with a Doom III update. As an aside, one wonders how what's the environmental impact of their obsoleted OEM cards, which almost every PC owner has come across in at least one or two revisions.

Creative be teh suck.

DosFreak wrote:

http://preview.creativelabs.com/alchemy/Lists … pForm.aspx?ID=5
WTF??!! Here's to hoping this "low-cost upgrade" gets leaked to the net or that someone decides to reverse engineer Alchemy.

Fuckin' Creative.

Indeed! I was surprised/pleased at the announcement until I got to that bit 🙁

@dh4rm4 I don't actually blame them for trying to make some money back - after all they have to write something. It also wasn't their fault that Microsoft did what they did with Vista. This thread is about Alchemy support on Vista (i.e. running games with EAX on Vista) and if you're happy with an onbaord/MAudio solution then you're obviously not running any games with EAX so why would you care about this anyway? 😀

I care about it enough to have pissed around with shoddy Audigy2ZS driver support for ages in order to keep EAX 3/4 compatibility. EAX 2 is supported by most onboard/non Creative sound systems since CL made it public domain almost 10 years ago.

I have downloaded all manner of driver variants from the original Creative packs (which are annoyingly distributed in dribs and drabs - mixer and extra features separate from the driver itself - get a driver and wait up to 6 months for the CL mixer - pathetic!) to the NGO and chinese compilations.

I ignored the A2Z's poor ASIO performance - even though it was a factor of my purchasing decision - and hoped they would fix things...which they never did.

Eventually they just obsoleted the card and that was enough for me. I'd been through almost exactly the same issues with the SB Live, of which I'd had 4 and recommended all my customers, friends and family to purchase too. The only difference with that experience was ASIO support, which was never a real factor on the Live! as CL didn't actively support ASIO on that card.

CL suck major ass and all their overtures about better sound quality and performance are utter marketing hype. I know what I'm talking about as I make music semi-professionally and I have speakers that individually are worth more than most of my PC gear put together. My on board ALC 880 output via SPDIF and AC3Filter gives better ('truer') sound quality in all manner of audio soruces like RAW Wav, mixed audio in professional audio apps, recorded audio in compressed and non compressed forms, DivX, DVD, HDTV and HDV than my A2Z or SB Live! ever did.

EAX was CL's only saving grace and Open AL is the final nail in their coffin.

CL are nothing but corporate thieves who market extensively in order to get quick uptake dollar but never actually support their customers at all. They delay support and obsolete their hardware in such a fashion as to deter anyone from being able to make decent complaint. Their forums are ignored by their staff and yet said forums are filled with complaint and technical discussions as to how CL's hardware and software fails repeatedly.

For CL to charge for this wrapper at all, no matter how little it might be is literally adding insult to injury.

I love Singapore but I hate Creative Labs. I will never buy another product from them and I will never support them in the open market in any way whatsoever.

You do realize that Creative are behind OpenAL? Originally started by Loki but now pretty much maintained by Creative, OpenAL is definitely the way to go.. Alchemy is all about legacy games on Vista.

Sure, what choice did they have when Longhorn specs detailed no hardware buffers for DS and DS3D? They made a business decision in supporting a standard that allowed them to stay in the game in licensing and manufacture. Meanwhile other soundcard/soundchip/DSP vendors will also be able to support this open standard and eventually CL's sound cards will become pointless.

Here's hoping....

Creative Alchemy for Audigy
http://www.buy.soundblaster.com/_creativelabs … 2X767VHL73GYR38

Features: […]
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Features:

1. Enables DirectSound3D game's audio to be processed by your Sound Blaster Audigy to deliver EAX effects, 3D audio, sampling rate conversion and hardware audio mixing on Windows VISTA.
2. Software update feature to download latest list of games supported by Creative ALchemy.

Product description:

In Windows Vista, Microsoft removed the Vendor Extension mechanism from Vista's DirectSound implementation. With previous Windows Operating Systems, the Vendor Extension enabled the Sound Blaster Audigy to provide accelerated audio for DirectSound3D games.

Without Creative ALchemy,most DirectSound games running in Vista will be reduced to stereo output without any EAX effects.

Creative ALchemy (Audigy Edition) restores your Sound Blaster Audigy's ability to process EAX effects, 3D surround sound, sampling rate conversion and hardware audio mixing for DirectSound3D games in Windows Vista.

Only $9.99. BUY NOW!

Or this 😉