Enable CMSS of Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-Bit External in Vista x86 and X64
Creative MultiSpeaker Surround (CMSS) is a feature in Sound Blaster audio cards as part of EAX technology which allows stereo upmix from various sources such as MP3, WMA, or Wav to become 4.1, 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channels surround sound, depending on speaker setup and sound card model. CMSS works regardless of whether the typical stereo sources are Dolby Surround encoded or not, and works well with Dolby Pro Logic, WAVE, AVI and MIDI program material. Unfortunately, with latest Windows Vista driver from Creative for Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit External sound card, CMSS is not supported. Here’s a little trick that allows SB Live! 24-bit External to support CMSS.
The hack should work in both 32-bit and 64-bit of Windows Vista, and is good as a workaround at least until Creative releases a proper Vista driver for the sound card.
- Disable integrated onboard sound.
- Remove all sound cards installed.
- Uninstall all drivers of previous installed sound cards, including Vista driver for SB Live! 24-bit External if it has already been installed.
- Remove all Creative software.
- Restart computer.
- Download the Basic Audio Applications for PC (consists of Device Manager, EAX Console & Speaker Settings).
- Download the audio driver for SB Live! 32-bit External for Windows XP:
- Extracted both the drivers and application setup installers downloaded with WinRAR or PowerAchiver.
- Plug in the Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit External sound card. Windows Vista will detect the sound card and install it as USB Audio Device.
- Run the following setup program (setup.exe) in the sub-folder of the unpacked Basic Audio Application folder. Do not restart computer until you have finished install all three application:
/setup/DevCon/setup.exe
/setup/EaxCon/setup.exe
/setup/SpkSet/setup.exe - Restart computer now.
- After Windows Vista boots up, go to Device Manager in Control Panel -> System and Maintenance. Expand Sound, video and game controllers and right click on USB Audio Device, and choose “Update Driver Software”.
- Select “Browse my computer for driver software”, and input the following location path inside the unpacked WinXP SB Live! driver folder:
x64: /Drivers/Win2k/SBKS64.inf
x86: /Drivers/Win2k/kscombo.inf - After the driver is updated, reboot.
- After booting up, go to Control Panal again, select Hardware and Sound -> Sound. Highlight Speakers and then select “Configure”. In the Speaker Setup configuration wizard, select Stereo and Front left and right.
- Run Creative Speaker Settings and select the correct speaker type under Speaker/Headphone Selection section. Do not sync with Control Panel.
- Run the Creative EAX Settings. Under CMSS-3D, select (tick) Enable, and choose CMSS. Do not select Stereo Surround as the sound channels won’t come out from every speaker, and make sure Stereo Focus is 0%.
Enjoy CMSS surround sound in Windows Vista.
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Entries (RSS)
April 28th, 2007 06:37
you are my hero!
thanks for this article, its absolutely fantastic, I thought I never will hear THIS sound,but with that it’s great!
June 3rd, 2007 00:23
hey… i got a dell laptop….and as u say in the instructions…i’m supposed to dissable all sound card drivers…but that would dissable my in built sigma tel sound card…and what if i’m on the move i wont be able to use the in built speaker would i?
June 3rd, 2007 02:08
Mohamed, are you using Creative sound card?
June 3rd, 2007 07:47
yea i got a creative 24 bit live external usb sound card thats connected to my 5.1 creative speakers…but the thing is….if u follow ur instructions completely…then i’ll be able to use my creative sound card…but what if i take my laptop somewhere else…i wont be able to use the internal soundcard of the laptop??
June 3rd, 2007 11:05
Yes, you need to re-enable your internal sound card.
September 9th, 2007 18:24
dear admin,
I am trying to connect my SB24 live! external with a headset HS400 and my microphone is not seen anywhere, even though I intalled typical windows application - sndvol32.EXE, I don’t get it… maybe you could help me. Regards.Ania
October 3rd, 2007 04:16
I hope that this solutions helps me to have full 5.1 sound with sb live! 24bit external. I do everthing by your tutorial. But in step no: 16. Windows show me a message:
The audio device supported by this apllication is not netected. The application will exit.
And now none of my audio player programme cant inialize the audo device.
I’m use: Vista bussines 32bit CS (in czech language)
Do you know where is the promleme? If you know, please help me. Thx and sorry for my bad english.
October 3rd, 2007 14:52
Dear Krumpacz,
Creative has already prepared the special Vista application for SBLive! 24 external to work with CMSS and the rest of the things, so if you choose the creative support and software you will find the programme for your card. Best regards
October 3rd, 2007 14:56
Dear Krumpacz,
Go to the link:
http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?MainCategory=1&nRegionFK=&nCountryFK=&nLanguageFK=&sOSName=Windows+Vista+32-bit®ion=1&Product_Name=Live%21+24-bit+External&Product_ID=10702&modelnumber=&driverlang=1033&OS=26&drivertype=0&x=27&y=15
and choose the first download for your 32bit Vista.
Rgds
October 5th, 2007 13:09
I’ve just installed the Vista drivers and latest creative audio application. The playback is very jerky. Anyone else install them and have good playback ?
October 5th, 2007 14:17
Yes, after chcecking speakers configuration, I checked and after installing creative application for Vista - I chceked absic Vista configuration of speakers in control panel and it hat 2+1 as default value - you need to change it into your configuration manually - like 5+1 or 6 +1 or whatever you have
December 5th, 2007 07:36
Thankyou so much, it was gettin me so frustrated that I couldn’t set up my speakers, thankyou so much!
January 13th, 2008 10:07
also have the problem in step 16… same message: “he audio device supported by this apllication is not netected. The application will exit.”
=( after about 10h trying it still doesent work… getting crazy^^
January 21st, 2008 04:04
Any Solution for EXTIGY drivers for Vista bro ?
January 22nd, 2008 00:50
also have the problem in step 16… same message: “he audio device supported by this apllication is not netected. The application will exit.
i have this too dont know why can anyone help us?
March 2nd, 2008 19:07
This guide even solved the problem I’m having. I’m trying to hear my tv sound through my sound blaster live! 24bit external. This seems not to be possible with creatives driver for windows vista, the option to un-mute the line in is removed.
The driver for windows xp reinserts this option. The only problem is that I also get stuck at step 16. So I can use my line in, but only with 2 speakers (not 5.1 because of my failings at step 16).
Any solutions?
April 1st, 2008 07:19
i think most of you who got it wrong need to look at the part that says extract the files… extract them not run the installation…
July 9th, 2008 08:24
This works great! It is the only one that works! Go for it. And yes, be careful. The person said “extract using winrar” or the other programs, this means put it in a folder(s) that you can find and link back to.
July 17th, 2008 23:51
Ok, so I followed this guide through to the letter, and it was working fine up until step 16. (”The audio device supported by this application is not detected.”) I definitely extracted rather than the installed the basic audio package. From what hellangel77 said, I tried to find the Vista application for the SB Live External card, but the line seems to have been discontinued; the only software that I found that seemed remotely close to what had been suggested specifically said “DO NOT use with SB Live External”. Help!?!?
July 17th, 2008 23:52
Thanks in advance.
July 18th, 2008 03:16
“the audio device supported by this apllication is not netected. The application will exit.”
this is what I receive while launching the reative speaker settings.
so this hack does not work for me . does anybody know the workaround ????
July 24th, 2008 14:53
Thank You So much for posting this. It took me days to get Traktor 3 DJ software to rechognize all channels of the Creative Soundblaster Live!, but thanks to your help I figured it out and have a step-by-step on how to configure Traktor to work with this card, here:
Traktor 3 and SB Live!