Sound Blaster Cinema v1 Alternatives for GE Notebooks?

Question

Hello everyone,
    For a few months I've been using a GE60, and I've been more satisfied than I was expecting to be by far (for someone who is afraid to put money into a more-than-decent notebook because of lack of upgrades), however one department in which this notebook lacks has to be audio software. Sound blaster Cinema has become one of the only banes in my daily use with this notebook. Pretty much all I do is either play CubeWorld or listen to music.. and when doing either of these two things, both, or anything else involving audio, the automatic volume leveler, at least with any pair of headphones or earbuds, is far too under-intelligent to be considered anywhere near convenient. Even on the Quiet setting it will slowly raise the volume of anything without constant bass to the point that, in the default mixer, 3% volume sounds like 70-80% volume. This can become annoying if I'm doing something IRL while listening to music and cannot instantly correct the volume, or whenever I don't want to continually correct the volume to suffice for changes in songs, for example when a bass line in a song ends, Sound Blaster starts to slowly boost the volume of the song to what (very) closely amounts to full volume, regardless of distortion.
   Additionally, this software is of a novice level since, in replacement of an actual equalizer, it has a 'crystalizer' which is not very useful to someone who wants to tune their audio. I've searched for any feasible alternatives to no avail, and made this post to ask, are there any alternatives to Sound Blaster Cinema compatible with the GE60 that at least include an actual equalizer?
   Thanks for your time in at least reading this lengthy post.

Answer 1

Hi nevrean,
It's been said by others that audio driver and audio system management software for computers is some of the worst in the industry and I agree. I don't have a GE60, but if I did, the first thing I would do is find our what audio DSP is on the motherboard. You can get an idea from the Windows Device Manager. Look for your main audio device under "Sound, video and game controllers". Ignore the ones for your video card (which work via its HDML and/or mDP outputs).
For example, my MSI GT80 Titan-001 lists the following:
Sound, video and game controllers
----NVIDIA High Definition Audio
----NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
----Realtek High Definition Audio
In my case, the motherboard audio DSP is from Realtek and it's their high-definition part which is good. Hopefully you have a Realtek part also.
If you do, go to the Windows Control Panel and select Programs > "Uninstall a program" and remove your Sound Blaster Cinema software. It should restore the Realtek HD Audio Manager to its original state which includes a graphic EQ.
My GT80 came with Sound Blaster Cinema v2 and, in my opinion, it is pure junk. The sound quality is terrible (I've worked in the pro audio industry since the early 1980s) and it's user interface is beyond awful. This isn't new---Creative Labs (or Creative Technologies) has consistently turned out lousy audio software. It's a shame because their hardware isn't bad.
But the Sound Blaster Cinema v2 software took over part of the Realtek HD Audio Manager in my GT80 and removed it's acoustic environment settings, EQ presets and graphic equalizer options in favor of its own. Uninstalling the Sound Blaster Cinema software restored the Realtek stuff. Perhaps this will work for you as well.
If, on the other hand, you have a different audio DSP on your motherboard, you'll need to do an online search for audio drivers and managers for it (usually the audio management software comes with and is installed with the audio driver). And you'll probably need to find out the specific model and version of your DSP.
Kind regards, David