Workaround for metallic / distorted notification and system sounds on Sound Blaster X4
Hi guys,
I'm not sure I can share it here, since this is an official sub and this is not affiliated with Creative at all. Anyway, the mods will delete this post if it is against the rules.
There is an issue in the X4's drivers (or firmware) which makes the system and notification sounds distorted, mainly on Windows 11, but I could replicate the issue on Windows 10 as well (with the built-in voice recorder app as test).
u/kujuXI recorded a video about this issue in this thread:
Creative Sound Blaster X4 Sound problems
I've noticed that if any sound is playing on the device, the issue is not there, so I made a simple Windows Service which plays a silence, inaudible wave file in a loop and runs as a background service. Wave file because during the development I've noticed that with generated signals NAudio (it's a .NET Library for audio) is leaking memory.
You can find the software here if you want to use it:
Nothing fancy, made it in a few hours.
At a later time I have plans to extend it with UI and selectable playback devices, that way it could also prevent some speakers to go into sleep mode.
I don't know if the X3, X5 or other device is affected by this issue or not, currently it's filtered for X4, so it won't have effect on other devices.
Posted Apr 11, 2023, 11:10 AM UTC · edited
The X3 was (is?) affected as well.
Thanks for the info. I will add X3 then. I wasn't sure because it uses a different driver package (it has a different DAC chip as well ofc) and I found X4 posts in reddit (my fault that only after buying).
I like the sound of the device, but how on Earth this is still an issue is beyond me, it affects basic functionality, even W11 21H2 is affected and these are neither new hardware, nor new OS. And the last driver dated Apr. 2022 (for X4). Anyway, I hope Creative will fix this.