Need help setting up my 5.1 speakers

[AceChilla]

I need a little help on setting up my 5.1 speakers. My room forces me to place the left aft speaker on a shelf behind me, about 1.5 meter away and half a meter above me while the right-aft is set right behind me right ear.

The result is that I can hardly hear me left-aft speaker when playing games or movies. I can't set it on a pedestal because that way it would be right in the middle of my room.

Do any of you guys know a program to change the volume of individual speakers, or any other way to adjust my settings so I can let the speakers in place but still find a way to get proper surround sound?

I have a Creative Live 5.1 sound card and Logitech X-530 speakers

 

[CruddyLeper]

Surely you adjust them with the amplifier?

 

[stormbind]

Creative surround sound control panel has positioning options. It looks like a guy in a chair and you drag the icons (representing sound) around to ballance them.

You should try to get the satelites the same height as your head - maybe mount them on a wall or something?

 

[AceChilla]

Creative surround sound control panel has positioning options. It looks like a guy in a chair and you drag the icons (representing sound) around to ballance them.

You should try to get the satelites the same height as your head - maybe mount them on a wall or something?

That sounds like exactly the kind of program I need. However I can't find something like that anywhere. It definitly does not come with the sound card. The only thing I can adjust is the number of speakers, the bass, treble and subwoofer crossover and some other complicated stuff I don't get . I do have a fader option which is a dot moving around in a square representing sound, but that doesn't really help. But nothing that looks like your discription.

Any idea where I could download something like the control panel you mean? I checked the creative website, and I already have all the stuff installed that they offer.

 

[Zelig]

You should be able to find a modded set of drivers with what you need here.

However, there's quite a few downloadable packages there, and it can get confusing. If you can't figure out what exactly to do, I'll outline it step by step for you when I get up tomorrow morning.

 

[AceChilla]

You should be able to find a modded set of drivers with what you need here.

However, there's quite a few downloadable packages there, and it can get confusing. If you can't figure out what exactly to do, I'll outline it step by step for you when I get up tomorrow morning.

That site is pretty huge, if you can't point me to a particular package that can help me it would be hugely appreciated

 

[stormbind]

Downloading and installing drivers is a really bad idea. There are so many different Creative cards and using 3rd party drivers is a risk: I had come promised to work with my card (but no guarantee) and they caused damage to the card with a terrible squeeking.

The tools do come with official Creative drivers. Check your Start Menu for installed extras.

You may need to select 5.1 surround (in speaker setup) to unlock all the options.

 

[stormbind]

If you seek a driver update, use the CT0000 number printed into your card's PCB.

The same PCB might be used for many different cards (this applies to OEM models which may share the same description with a different CT0000 ) but if you stick to official drivers you are still safe.

Use the CT0000 code to get the right drivers on Creative's website.

 

[AceChilla]

I have installed the latest drivers from the creative website already. I also installed "Creative Audio HQ" , "Creative Surround mixer" , "wavestudio" etc. But it won't help me adjusting my settings to the particular position of my speakers.

I can't adjust that anywhere. A guy in the shop where I bought the speakers said when I asked him about the position of the speakers in my room that there was a program that could adjust that but not in the new version or something like that.

BTW. installing creative drivers on a windows xp system isn't easy because it won't recognise that you have a sound card and thus won't install. I'm starting to dislike creative a little bit because they won't solve that problem that thousands of other costumers have like me.

But third party drivers can never permanently damage your sound card can they? I am willing to try them out, at a certain risk but if there is a chance they can damage my hardware i'd rather not.

 

[stormbind]

Creative Surround Mixer should solve your problem. Just make sure you have set it to 5.1 in Speaker Setup.

 

[stormbind]

Third party drivers can cause a lot of problems. I don't know if the damage is permanent, but it 'feels' like my card never sounds as good since.

In addition to the serious audio problems, the drivers may also cause a fault in windows and make startup difficult.

The problem is caused by there being so many different cards and third party drivers are not tested with every varient. There are many more varients than are listed on Creative's website because OEMs customise them - and third party coders don't check or don't care!