Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI128 sound-card software prob

Question

Blast it all! Where can I find the necessary software to make my Creative Labs PCI28 sound card work? (I hope that "Blast it all!" doesn't offend... )
The background
I bought a used PC from a PC-idiot (a PC-idiot being a PC user who chucks out floppy-disk and CD-ROM software integral to the PC ? I will hazard a guess that there are a lot of these types out there!), and what's worse, the idiot had "ripped out" much of the installed software rather than uninstalling it properly, with the result that the PC ran very unstably, requiring a lengthy start-up procedure in order to compensate for the ripped-out files (start-up often crashed and had to be restarted). In the end I had to run fdisk and rebuild the software system. I took the trouble to save the installed Creative program under Program Files, not that this could be inserted into C:\Program Files of course, but in order to know what I should see when I eventually found the proper software and got it installed. But finding the proper software has proven to be a hard nut to crack, which is why I bring the problem up here...
My PC has two Creative Labs cards, a SoundBlaster PCI28 card (CT4700) and a PC-DVD Encore Dxr-3 card (CT7240). I found software for both (the latter only with the help of Creative Labs' technical staff) on Creative Labs' download site, but the driver application that eventually got my PCI28 card to work (some wouldn't even do that much) has snags to it, with the result that my sound card doesn't work properly. The problem is that the CL software download was only an <I>update</I>, and was also devoid of waveset files. The MIDI wavesets cannot load, so this parameter is missing from the installed sound mixer (this problem is well-known and is in fact listed in CL's Knowledgebase under the title "Error ? Can not load MIDI Wavesets, MIDI Playback has been disabled").
Unfortunately the "fix" suggested there subsumes that the user has access to the original sofware medium (floppy or CD-ROM) so that the complete program can be reinstalled. Which software I don't have, thanks to the PC-idiot from whom I bought this used PC (actually I bought it from his son). The driver-file download that works with the CT4700 (this is the only one that I found that could even come close to working), a certain <B>e28up9x.exe</B>, is only an update, as I said above, and although it is touted as a "stand-alone" application that works with the CT4700, <I>as an update, it is no substitute for the original program itself (it won't stand on its own).</I> What I need ? and cannot find ? is the original program itself.
To the matter at hand, then
In the hope that somebody out there (CL staff are more than welcome to participate!) might recognize the animal in question and can therefore point me to a relevant download, I list here the Creative folder that was installed under C:\Program Files on my harddisk before I formattted it (I will try to list the contents of this folder so that it reflects the actual hierarchy ? for example, all folders listed under a plus sign are subfolders to the main folder (or subfolder) in question):
CREATIVE
+ CTsnd
Bitmap (contains a .bmp and a .txt file)
DOSdri've (contains a lot of exe files, most beginning with "ap": apconfig, apinit, -legacy,
-load, -mixer, -test)
Help (full of ? what else? - help files)
Media (full of MS Media Player files ending in ".mid")
+ Program (the meat and potatoes full of exe files, a handful of which begin with "ct"
and end with "32" (before the ".exe" suffix): ctcd32.exe, ctmidi32.exe,
ctwav32.exe, ctwave32.exe, remote32.exe, sndole32.exe, as well as some
dll files, all ending in "32.dll"
Plugins (three dll files)
+ Product Registration (contains only the subfolder English)
English (empty)
Share DLL (contains only one file: ctres32.dll)
Yours,
Blastit

Answer 1

Too <i>much</i> bass? I always end up turning mine up.
But anyway, to do this you'll want to do a little equalisation. Make sure you've got the full application suite for Vista (ie: not just the audio console on Creative's site):
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&message.id=0493
And then go to the equaliser in the main Creative control console. You'll eventually find something like this:
[img"]http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/2720/equalizer2gk.png">
What this does is allow you to adjust the volume of specific frequencies in the music: the slider on the left adjusts the deepest frequency, and the slider on the right adjusts the highest.
The best way to do general equalisation is to do it gradually. Since you want to take out the bass a little, what you'll want to do is drag the left-most slider down to something like -5dB. Then, drag the one to the right of that down to about -4dB, then the next one to -3dB, etc. Once you hit 0dB you should be at roughly the middle of the equalizer (mid-tone frequencies).
If this sounds confusing, just drag some of the sliders up and down a bunch while music is playing and you'll immediately see what's happening.
Although there is also a bass and treble thing in Windows and such, all these do is adjust about fi've sliders at once. They can be pretty useful, but they're basically just watered-down versions of a proper equaliser. I believe the Creative software's bass/treble options also are unavailable in game mode.
Note that you can also bring out the higher frequencies by doing the same thing over on the other side; this will make your sound a lot crisper, and might even negate the need to lower the bass since you'll be able to hear that higher detail without turning the volume up so much.
Although there're endless possibilities with equalisation (EQ), the best rule of thumb for general use is to make sure the centre is at 0dB, and then adjust gradually outwards from there.