FSX sound is annoying

[PRB]

What is it with so many FSX sound packages anyway? I get this weird effect where as I advance the throttles, the sound sharply changes, and also the volume goes way down. Sometimes this also happens when I move the view point left and right with the hat switch to “look around”. If I go to external view, then back in the cockpit, all the sound is normal again, for a while, until “something” triggers it back in to “wacked out” mode. It's to the point that I'm getting FS9 sound sets for the “offending” planes, which are growing in number. No FS9 plane does this...

[ryanbatc]

I get this in the default Goose.

I have no idea what causes it.

I have Creative X-fi with Vista x64

[FAC257]

Yup, I get it that effect constantly now with what I think is a small percentage of my FSX hanger. It happens during the entire flight on that certain group of aircraft. On other aircraft I don't believe I've ever had the problem occur.

I know exactly when the issue started on my end and that was when I switched to W7. At first I was pretty sure it was the notorious W7 + Creative X-Fi issue, but even after switching over to the small SoundMax card that came with the mobo it's still an issue. Nothing scientific to go on, just me trying to interpret what other folks are seeing and thinking.

My cure for the problem while on the fly is to hit the "Q" key to kill the sound for a second and then hit the key again. It cures the issue 100% of the time and it last until something triggers the problem again. It can be something as simple as panning the VC view or clicking over on to my second monitor and back again.

FAC

[Daube]

I get the same problem in Windows XP 32, with a lot (if not all of the) planes in my hangar.
In fact, if I stay in the VC everything is fine, but if I jump to the external view and come back to the VC, the engine sound gets back to some kind of default intensity, which sounds like max RPM or something.
It stays at this level until I move the throttle enough to make a significant RPM/torque change, then the sound jumps to the value it should have.
I think it's a bug in the handling of the 3D sound.

[Quixoticish]

I have a problem in FSX (on Win7 and XP) where a few aircraft (Captainsim C-130 and VRS Superbug spring to mind, along with the IRIS Vulcan) are noisy at idle and then when I advance the throttles the sound becomes very muted and I don't hear the full range of sounds that I should be hearing.

It's obviously a compatibility issue somewhere along the line but I've no idea where and I've tried multiple operating systems and various sound cards.

I think the FSX sound cone system broke more things than it fixed, and I wish there was a way to just disable it and go back to FS9 style fixed sounds that didn't vary as you panned around the aircraft.

[peter12213]

I have this problem also with Soundmax digital, my problem is that with some aircraft I have no engine sound while looking dead ahead in the VC, moving my head left or right or up and down I can hear it, but leaving my view dead ahead and it disappears very frustrating!

[guzler]

I have a problem in FSX (on Win7 and XP) where a few aircraft (Captainsim C-130 and VRS Superbug spring to mind, along with the IRIS Vulcan) are noisy at idle and then when I advance the throttles the sound becomes very muted and I don't hear the full range of sounds that I should be hearing.

It's obviously a compatibility issue somewhere along the line but I've no idea where and I've tried multiple operating systems and various sound cards.

I think the FSX sound cone system broke more things than it fixed, and I wish there was a way to just disable it and go back to FS9 style fixed sounds that didn't vary as you panned around the aircraft.

I have this with the CS C130, stunning aircraft, but having flown on Hercs in the Air Cadets, they are noisy and this model is just too quiet !

[dswo]

I have this with the CS C130...

Me too. Till now, though, I was just blaming the dratted X-Fi drivers for W7.

[Quixoticish]

Out of curiosity with the CS C-130 have you tried plonking in the sounds from the FS9 model? I imagine you'd loose the "sound cone" effect but it might clear up the obvious bugs?

[FAC257]

I didn't mean to post such a short message last night leaving it sound like it did when I re-read it this morning. It came off as though I was blaming Windows 7 as the guilty party. That's actually the farthest thing from where all my amateur detective work over the last 5 or 6 months has left me at this point in my thinking.

I wasn't exactly sure what direction I wanted to go with a follow-up post when I got home today. Watching the thread responses through the day, actually makes me think even more in the direction I've been leaning.

The interesting part to me is the reference to the CS C-130X several times. This was actually the very first aircraft that I started seeing the problem crop up to the extent I'm seeing it now on several aircraft.

------------------------------

Here's my non-scientific interpretation of all the internet BS I've waded through, added to what I've actually experienced on my system. I'm not an expert by any measure so I wouldn't put any more weight into any of it than I did reading any of the mostly useless info I've run into myself. :)

In no logical particular order.......

1. I never remember having any issues like the ones mentioned in this thread using WindowsXP.

2. I never remember having any of the issues like the ones mentioned in this thread through final 5 or 6 months of the Windows 7 betas and RC.

3. I started noticing the problem just after I installed the retail version of Windows7 Ultimate.

4. Many searches on the net using word combos like "Windows 7 + Creative Problems", "Windows 7 + X-Fi Problems", "Windows 7 + Sound Card Problems" and then some wacky ones in the vein of "Windows 7 Changes To How Sound Is Handled" turned up what seem to be some common themes that resulted in my list of "things" that it may be.

5. Windows 7 did change the way it uses or processes sound or sound cards or sound drivers over previous versions of Windows, including some small incremental improvment changes over Windows Vista. The only thing this finding lead me to think was that it may be behind why some of the trouble shooting ideas of falling back on Vista drivers did not work for me. This article was the most interesting article I found during this line of searching for answers.
http://blog.cakewalk.com/how-windows-7-will-effect-your-music-production/

6. Possible Commonality - Newer or fancier FSX aircraft that lean on OpenAL to perform their magic are more prone to showing issues. My entire FSX hanger is made up of payware aircraft including what I call some of the "heavy hitters" like the CS C-130X. This particular aircraft had well known OpenAL issues right from the start. The problem was cured very early, if I remember right, when Creative finally released some newer drivers. When I personally was experiencing the CS C-130X + OpenAL problem was back when it was first released and I was still using WindowsXP. Even then the only real problem was that when trying to load the original aircraft up from the FSX FreeFlight GUI in certain aircraft configurations it caused FSX to crash. On XP I never experienced any actual sound issues like I'm seeing now in the C-130, FSX just crashed.

7. During the W7 beta & RC days and since installing W7 retail, the aircraft that I've found myself flying most often are some of the newer fancier FSX aircraft as well as the older FSX classics and heavy hitters like the CS C-130X and the A2A B377. I've been logging very few hours in default aircraft and I have no freeware aircraft. My wacky tie-in logic here is that I'm almost always in aircraft that are capable of putting the most stress on my system resources.

8.The first component of my system that seems to start showing signs of a resource overload is my sound.

9. For the longest time I've read that there is the FSX dark side of a memory leak that eventually cripples extended FSX flights. I personally can't say that I buy this. I'm a real-time long hauler in the majority of my FSX flights. I personally find any flight of less than 2 or 3 hours almost not really worth my time to start up FSX. Pre-W7 I've logged flights in the 10 -18 hour range without issue. Post-W7, I've now found flights in the same aircraft breaking down after as few as a couple of hours.

Memory leak possibly, but is the leak coming from FSX or the Creative/ X-Fi/ OpenAL + W7 combo?
http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/7596-openal.html

10. Possible Commonality - When I was still using my Creative X-FI with W7, I never actually found any sound card drivers that actually installed correctly. Creative finally released a set for my particular card but the only thing the installation does is to install the drivers. The up front Creative GUI control apps do not install or function. This seems to be a pretty well known problem. I tried every suggestion and trick that folks have been suggesting to work around this.
Without access or control over the X-FI's advanced features makes me wonder if the card is actually working correctly and in turn leading to issues with OpenAL and EAX ( FSX 3D sound cone?) problems.

None of the ideas from various forums ever worked for me and is largely why I finally gave up on Creative and went to my mobo's SoundMax. The SoundMax drivers that I found seem to be genuine made for W7 drivers and the control GUIs work correctly but it doesn't actually cure the problem. On top of that, the normal sound when the SoundMax card is working sounds aweful compared to my W7 crippled X-Fi card.

11. FSX is not the only entertainment title where I've run into sound issues since installing W7. After I installed the W7 retail version I went back and played through Crysis, Crysis Warhead and the entire Half-Life2 series. All of them now have sound issues that I never ran into before installing W7.

12. Possible Commonality - In my net searches Creative based cards seem to have more W7 issues than others. I think this appearance may be largely be due to my thinking that the largest percentage of computers making the XP/Vista to W7 transition are running on Creative based sound. I also think I read somewhere that my SoundMax card is actually a faux Creative card underneath. If this is a fact, then it may be the reason why the SoundMax doesn't really work any better than my X-FI did.

13. Possible Commonality - On Creative cards, I've run into ideas or suggestions that the regular X-Fi cards are not quite as W7 crippled as the X-Fi series that have the wording "Extreme" in the card's name. My X-Fi is one of the "Extreme" versions.

14. Possible Commonality - The last time I went onto NewEgg or doing a net search using "Windows 7 Sound Cards" I have not actually run into a new card that shouts "Made For Windows 7". I found it interesting that on my last search on NewEgg at cards that I thought I might like, none of them actually listed Window 7 under the tab that brings up the "Operating Systems" specs. They all stopped at Vista. I was even surprised to see that even the Xonar cards that folks are suggesting as the W7 alternative to Creative, didn't list W7 in the OS specs. The Xonar line also stopped at Vista. My last search along this line was about a week or so ago, so this is old truely usless info. Spec info from a retail site could have at least a couple of reasons why W7 is not listed. Info not being correct or updated would not surpirse at all on any retail site.

15. Some of the stuff I've tagged in searching for answers that I found interesting:

http://connect.creativelabs.com/windows/Lists/XFi%20Issues/AllItems.aspx

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7music/thread/4bccb8a6-cc85-40c2-86cb-cda4017c32b5

No trouble shooting info, I just read this to learn something. It left me thinking that OpenAL is very cool but if my sound card and it's control GUI aren't actually functional with W7, how can I be sure that my system is really handling OpenAL correctly.
http://www.creative.com/soundblaster/products/gaming/article.asp?articleID=62367&categoryID=13

-----------------------------------

I like W7 better than any OS I've used and I don't think this is really the problem.

I like FSX better than any version of MSFS I've ever used by a long shot. It worked without issue pre-W7 and I don't think this is really the problem.

Creative seems to have everybody by the balls with OpenAL. They just seemed to have basically dropped the ball or fallen behind the curve with W7 in their sound hardware and drivers.

So where does all the wading the net, reading & comparing info for months and experiencing ever growing sound issues leave me at this point?

I just need a new system. Windows got better, FSX keeps getting better, the newer FSX aircraft are far better than when FSX first came out, I'm just trying to enjoy it all on a system that hasn't kept up.

My current one is a first generation purpose built FS flying computer. When I built it, I chose parts that I liked the most at the time for putting together a flying computer. It's performed like a champ all the way up to the install of W7 retail. With the W7 betas & RC it was fine, but I started seeing good reasons why it's time to upgrade.

95% of my thinking is that most or all of my sound issues are tied to resource overload from pushing my hardware far past it's time. Couple that with what I think is Creative's strange W7 behavior.

All the parts and pieces that it has now are still parts I like, but there is not a piece, except my Raptors, that I would want or choose to put in a computer I would build at this time for FSX + W7.

FAC

PS - Just think, I could have stuck with my original short post and left it at that but.... :)

[PRB]

Well, my FSX is running on a Vista64 box. Chris H descibed what I'm hearing well: When at idle, the sound is ok. When the power is brought up, the sound gets quiet.

MB: Asus P6T Deluxe (LGA1366)
CHIPSET: Intel® X58 / ICH10R
CPU: Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (LGA1366)
RAM: 8 GB DDR3/1333MHz Non-ECC Non-Registered Memory Module
VIDEO: NVIDIA 9800GTX+ 512MB Dual DVI (PCI-E) Video Card (2)
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
SOUND: ADI® AD2000B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

[Navy Chief]

I too, had sound problems, but not just with FSX.

Windows 7 played havoc with my Creative X-Fi installation. I finally chucked it, after the front connection panel crapped out.

I replaced that sound card with a Striker Omega card. A WHOLE lot cheaper, and sounds great!

And NO problems with Windows 7, period.

NC