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Creative SB Live! X-Gamer 5.1 - Part I
By Len "Viking1" HjalmarsonArticle Type: Review
Article Date: October 05, 2001
Supercallifragilistic Expialidocious!
Creative has finally done it! They can now claim the longest name in the world for any sound-board.
Apart from that dubious distinction, the X-Gamer is the original improvement on the original SB Live! The major changes from that benchmark product are probably more software related than hardware related, but the X-Gamer did do away with the Digital I/O daughter card that was necessary for digital output, incorporating the output on the board itself.
While I had owned the original SB Live! a year ago, I had eventually replaced it with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, the WIN ME driver caused me some problems in IL-2 Sturmovik, and I eventually replaced the board with the X-Gamer 5.1.
X-Gamer Box
Welcome to the new SoundBlaster
Even as I write this review, the X-Gamer passes into history as the last great SB product. Creative's new "Audigy" is also being released as I write and will soon find its way to a motherboard near you.
The changes that are about to manifest in sound hardware are legion, however, led notably by that famous graphics chip designer, NVIDIA. It’s tough to say what will happen to Creative in the next six months as the nForce chipset makes its debut. NForce, in case you haven’t heard, will integrate sound hardware at least as advanced as the Audigy, but at much smaller cost.
So much for futurology, let’s move on to the X-Gamer.
The SB Live! X-Gamer 5.1
The X-Gamer carefully targets the gaming community, and includes three complete game titles and a couple of demos. The 5.1 in the title reflects the latest Dolby Digital support. Let’s take a look at the technical specs.
Wave-Table Synthesis
Personally, I have never used downloadable sound fonts. While the X-Gamer is targeted at gamers, it does have these additional abilities which appeal to the audiophiles out there. If you are a sound font user, you'll find 32MB to be a great deal of space!
- E-mu® Systems EMU10K1™ music synthesis engine
- 64-voice polyphony with E-mu's patented 8-point interpolation technology
- 48 MIDI channels with 128 GM & GS-compatible instruments and 10 drum kits
- Uses SoundFont® technology for user-definable wave-table sample sets; includes 2MB, 4MB and 8MB sets
- Load up to 32MB of samples into host memory for professional music reproduction
Effects Engine
Ok, that’s a pretty impressive pedigree. It’s worth noting that the EMU10K1 is a 1000 MIPS digital signal processor. It is fully programmable, and is almost twice as fast as the Vortex 2 chip.
- E-mu Systems EMU10K1 patented effects processor
- Supports real-time digital effects like reverb, chorus, flange, pitch shifter or distortion across any audio source
- Capable of processing, mixing and positioning audio streams using up to 131 available hardware channels
- Customizable effects architecture allows audio effects and channel control
- Full digital mixer maintains all sound mixing in the digital domain, eliminating noise from the signal
- Full bass, treble, and effects controls available for all audio sources
The variety of effects that you can configure is quite impressive. I've experimented a bit, and my kids have had some fun with this, though for simming you will find the "No Effects" setting to be typical.
Speaker Setup
Environmental 3D Positional Audio Technology
Combine the above with the specs on the effects engine, and you begin to get a sense of the power and flexibility built into this sound hardware. This is not your Momma’s sound board!
- User-selectable settings are optimized for headphones and two or four speakers
- Accelerates Microsoft® DirectSound® and DirectSound3D
- Support for Environmental Audio™ property set extensions
- Creative Multi Speaker Surround™ technology places any mono or stereo sound source in a 360° audio space
- Creative Environments - user-selectable DSP modes that simulate acoustic environments like Hall, Theater, Club, etc. on any sound source
Practically speaking, many of these features are transparent to the user, though the newer simulations like IL-2 Sturmovik specifically allow you to turn on and off certain environmental features if you are short on horsepower. Once they are turned on you may find yourself amazed at the lifelike sound reproduction, particularly if you have a 5.1 surround system or a good set of headphones.
Environmental Effects
32-Bit Digital Audio Engine
I don’t know how many out there have fully digital sound, but when I plugged my X-Gamer directly into the digital input of my FPS2000 system I was suitably impressed. The crisp and clean reproduction of digital audio in my 12x10 office is outstanding.
- User-selectable bit rates from 8- to 16-bit
- User-selectable sample rates from 8kHz to 48kHz
- All sound sources are handled with 32-bit precision for highest quality output
- Analog and Digital I/O modes supported
- Hardware full-duplex support enables simultaneous record and playback at 8 standard sample rates
- Utilizes AC97 audio codec
Full duplex is a standard feature these days, but an important one. It allows you to use a utility like Roger Wilco and transmit at the same time as you receive.
MIDI Interface / Joystick Port
The list of connectors is comprehensive, but no longer unusual. Note that the joystick port is a digital one, and very good. I tested three of my sticks on the port, including the Logitech Wingman Force, the old SUNCOM Eagle, and the ThrustMaster F22/TQS with CH Pro Pedals. I had no problem with recognition or configuration of any sticks under WIN ME.
- Supports MPU-401 UART mode
- IBM® compatible 15-pin joystick port with analog support
- Support for digital and DirectInput™ game devices
- On-Board Connectors
- Microphone in
- Line in
- Line level out (front)
- Line level out (rear)
- Mic input
- Digital Out
- Joystick port
- MPC-3
- CD Audio in
- Auxiliary in
- Digital CD in
Installation
To my surprise, the X-Gamer came with a printed manual. There are an awful lot of games and even some video boards that no longer include printed manuals, instead relying on PDF files. In other cases the printed manuals are so basic that they are almost useless.
The Launcher Bar on WIN Desktop
The manual supplied with the X-Gamer is one of the better ones I have seen with an audio product. Roughly fifty pages (in English) cover installation, hardware setup, software installation and trouble shooting. The fourth chapter covers Advanced configurations, where you might connect Optical Digital devices or make use of the SPDIF or MIDI connections. If you purchase the Platinum version, you’ll be making connections to the Life! Drive, that lovely piece of hardware that resides in a drive bay and enables you to make front case connections to various pieces of audio hardware.
Even more surprising, chapter five contains notes on MS-DOS setup and utilities. You have to hand it to them, this is going beyond the call of duty!
When it came time to remove my TB Santa Cruz, I shut down the system and removed the old board. I installed the X-Gamer in the same slot and rebooted the system, connecting the DIN adapter to my FPS 2000 system for fully digital output. Installation was faultless and after the various drivers were loaded I rebooted again.
The X-Gamer worked as advertised, and the Auto Update utility even informed me that there was new software available. I downloaded a 19MB update and ran the install. I then discovered that Play Center had an update available, so I updated to version 2.5. Let’s talk about Liveware and some of the other features of the X-Gamer.
Liveware 3.0
All of the drivers for Liveware 3.0 are included on two CDs, so you won’t need to purchase the Liveware 3.0 CD from Creative Labs.
Sound Setup in 'IL-2 Sturmovik'
Liveware offers the user incredible control over the soundcard. You can tweak and try out various environmental presets, super environment presets and equalizer settings. Changing the environment can make the artist sound live, transport them to a concert hall, or transform their voice to a synthetic Mickey Mouse.
Why would the average gamer want to do this? Heck, I don’t know. But my kids seem to like it!
