Question / Help Stuck with audio problem; Creative SB XF-I Titanium

[ITPalg]

I have a problem trying to hear game sounds in playback of my test recordings.

I can hear my voice just fine from my headset mic, and hear the game fine in my headset, but upon playing back the recording, I can barely hear the game itself.

I tried first a Twitch test listening to the past recording there, then a local recording. Both have the same problem.

I have also the onboard Realtek sound that I didn't have a problem with last I knew, but I decided to give my soundcard a try again, re-enabling it.

I have the headset jacks plugged into the computer audio front panel, which is where the SB is connected to as well.

There you see the mic options I have in OBS.

In Windows 7 the Recording Devices, "What U Hear" is set to 100, while Microphone FP 2- Creative SB X-FI default device mic level is at 50. I don't really understand what the "What U Hear" is for. It seems Creative is the only company that uses that thing and so using the onboard Realtek audio made more sense to me.

 

[ITPalg]

I just did a test where I switched the mic settings around from the mic FP to What U Hear.

The opposite occurred.

I could hear the game sound loud this time and instead now my voice can barely be heard.

...another test done where I put the Windows setting for the mic volume to 100 like the What U Hear volume and that didn't change my voice being a tiny whisper.

 

[Nirrudn]

Is your volume lowered via in-game settings? If you're doing something like lowering the in-game volume because it's too loud in your headset, that can explain why it's too low in playback.

 

[ITPalg]

Is your volume lowered via in-game settings? If you're doing something like lowering the in-game volume because it's too loud in your headset, that can explain why it's too low in playback.

If the in-game volume was too low then I wouldn't be able to clearly hear the game in my headset.

As I said in my post, I can hear the game fine. It is in the live broadcast or local recording that if I have my mic selected and not What U Hear, then I hear my voice fine but not the game. If I set What U Hear in the mic settings in OBS, then I hear the game but barely hear my voice.

 

[H4ndy]

Hi,

"What U Hear" is the so called "Stereo Mix".
This is pretty much a sum of all sounds occurring on your computer and is usually used to record sound for screen recordings. This usually does not include your mic except when you turn on "monitoring".

I, for my part, do not have any sound issues with my X-Fi, settings below:
I am running my X-Fi in Game Mode, SVM Off, Crystalizer Off and CMSS3D Off. I also disabled the voice comm stuff from Windows (see screen below).

Speaker Level is at 100%. Microphone level is at 100% in Windows and 90% in OBS (it's slightly too loud on stream with 100%).
All devices run in 24 bit, 48000 Hz ("Studio Quality") in Windows.

 

[ITPalg]

Hi,

"What U Hear" is the so called "Stereo Mix".
This is pretty much a sum of all sounds occurring on your computer and is usually used to record sound for screen recordings. This usually does not include your mic except when you turn on "monitoring".

I, for my part, do not have any sound issues with my X-Fi, settings below:
I am running my X-Fi in Game Mode, SVM Off, Crystalizer Off and CMSS3D Off. I also disabled the voice comm stuff from Windows (see screen below).

Speaker Level is at 100%. Microphone level is at 100% in Windows and 90% in OBS (it's slightly too loud on stream with 100%).
All devices run in 24 bit, 48000 Hz ("Studio Quality") in Windows.

I don't have the option to view the Creative control panel now. I am getting the message that I have no devices detected. This message has been around for a few years apparently from searching Google. I uninstalled the panel and reinstalled the drivers, using the most recent updates on their website that give Windows 8 compatibility as well. I never really understood much about things in that panel anyway so never touched it before aside from Game or the Theater mode or what ever.

I also have Do Nothing checked.

 

[Nirrudn]

Is your volume lowered via in-game settings? If you're doing something like lowering the in-game volume because it's too loud in your headset, that can explain why it's too low in playback.

If the in-game volume was too low then I wouldn't be able to clearly hear the game in my headset.

As I said in my post, I can hear the game fine. It is in the live broadcast or local recording that if I have my mic selected and not What U Hear, then I hear my voice fine but not the game. If I set What U Hear in the mic settings in OBS, then I hear the game but barely hear my voice.

I get that the volume is acceptable for you to hear, but what I'm asking is how you arrived at that volume level. Did you adjust the volume level via in-game settings, or Windows settings? In general I advise leaving the game's volume at 100% and lowering via the Windows mixer if it's too loud.

 

[ITPalg]

Is your volume lowered via in-game settings? If you're doing something like lowering the in-game volume because it's too loud in your headset, that can explain why it's too low in playback.

If the in-game volume was too low then I wouldn't be able to clearly hear the game in my headset.

As I said in my post, I can hear the game fine. It is in the live broadcast or local recording that if I have my mic selected and not What U Hear, then I hear my voice fine but not the game. If I set What U Hear in the mic settings in OBS, then I hear the game but barely hear my voice.

I get that the volume is acceptable for you to hear, but what I'm asking is how you arrived at that volume level. Did you adjust the volume level via in-game settings, or Windows settings? In general I advise leaving the game's volume at 100% and lowering via the Windows mixer if it's too loud.

I haven't done anything to the game volume.

My headset can be at max while the Windows slider is at 40% and it is almost too loud for everything.


edit...another test done, resetting the OBS settings to the previous defaults of my mic and speakers. It goes back to hearing myself fine but the game volume can barely be heard.

It is quite obvious this has nothing to do with in-game volume when the game sound can clearly be heard on the recording if I switch to What U Hear.

edit: I set OBS desktop boost to 6 and that changed nothing. Volume was very loud with the game sound with my inline volume at max and volume in Windows set to 42. I can hear myself very clearly in the local recording but barely hear the game.

 

[H4ndy]

I have a feeling that this might be hardware-relative since I never got this error message in the panel.
And it enables all those "enhancement" features by default thus I stated to disable them since they mess around with the windows sound alot (in a negative way imho).

 

[ITPalg]

I have a feeling that this might be hardware-relative since I never got this error message in the panel.
And it enables all those "enhancement" features by default thus I stated to disable them since they mess around with the windows sound alot (in a negative way imho).

Those things never touch this issue. It isn't new. It is just the first time I have posted about it since I have mostly used the onboard audio but thought I would try the X-FI again.

I uninstalled all Creative items and restarted. The computer installed off of the driver database the most recent version that is also available on the Creative website. I also installed the detection module update there as well to see if that fixed it, which it didn't.

I think now I will have to completely remove all Creative software and remove the card from the computer, restart the computer, and start again.

edit: Did a test before doing anything and a few runs later putting the Mic FP level in Recording Devices from 49 to 100 I can hear my voice and the game volume but the game volume tends to make my voice hard to hear or lessens my voice. I can't access the Creative Control Panel still but at least there is some progress in making myself and/or the game audible. I suppose I will just have to turn down the game volume with OBS or elsewhere to be heard.

edit: I lowered OBS volume to 25% with Windows still at 100 for mic FP and OBS mic at 100. I was able to hear my voice better. Perhaps a mic boost in OBS would help...

edit: boost at 6 was a bit loud making the game volume low so changed to 3 boost with the OBS speaker slider to 100 again. It has a more balanced volume with game and voice so if I leave it at this level I just need to try not to speak during voice overs and other loud areas, or just turn down the OBS volume. It seems to be "fixed". I don't need to get into the Creative Control Panel but it would be nice to have access to it. There are posts dating back several years about that issue if you search for that error message.

The odd thing now is that I have more options listed in the drop down box for the mic in OBS.