Thinkpads Forum

Happy New Year!

I finally setup a W7 system on this T61.
It seems that either W7 or Creative (their drivers) don't allow Line-in or What You Hear recording.
Where we have BOTH available in XP, we don't see anything at all in W7.
We've tried 'show disabled devices' in the audio properties, but those are not there.

Can anyone confirm whether or not these recording capabilities should be available in W7?
It would be ridiculous if this was not possible in W7, but the way things are going, i doubt if it would surprise me.

If anyone has those options w/this card, could you let me know what driver version or link it for me?
P.S. I used the latest they have (1.04.0000) and also the separate Console Launcher app.

Thanks for any help and\or info on this.

I can't thank this Forum (esp eecon) enough for providing the heads up for this enhancement.
It's been a real help!

Creative is a difficult company.

#1 Their 'Cambridge Soundworks' division makes fantastic speakers
#2 Their drivers are terrible & rarely updated
#3 Their hardware--even their high end--contains questionable components from a quality stand point

That about sums it up in a nutshell.

As for drivers (I'm assuming you're running a PCI X-FI in a T6x dock?), I would recommend using the unofficial fan-made Windows 7 ones if you're having problems.
A) http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/x-fi-drivers/
B) http://www.hardwareheaven.com/community ... ivers.174/
C) http://danielkawakami.blogspot.ca/

If you can provide more info on the hardware and configuration being used, I might be able to provide a better response-- it definitely sounds like a driver thing. Creative does have some recording applications which might potentially have to be installed as well.

I assume he's using this:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/Creative- ... ook-review

micrex22 wrote:Creative is a difficult company.

AGREED. Their lack of ASIO support for ALL X-Fi cards is testimony to that in itself!

As for drivers (I'm assuming you're running a PCI X-FI in a T6x dock?),

While I'm using the Adv dock, the PCMCIA card is installed directly into the laptop.
It's the very same card referenced by dr_st.
We don't have the extra speaker connector, only using it with two bookshelf spkrs.

I would recommend using the unofficial fan-made Windows 7 ones if you're having problems.
A) http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/x-fi-drivers/
B) http://www.hardwareheaven.com/community ... ivers.174/
C) http://danielkawakami.blogspot.ca/
If you can provide more info on the hardware and configuration being used, I might be able to provide a better response-- it definitely sounds like a driver thing. Creative does have some recording applications which might potentially have to be installed as well.

Exactly what I was curious about.
Thank you very much for providing links for alternate drivers.
As far as other recording apps, perhaps you mean their WaveStudio or MediaSource 5 player?
Sure would like to stick with what we already use on XP (Audition or Audacity).

We had to install the Console Launcher separately from the drivers, unlike our Audigy desktop cards.

THANKS FOR THE RESPONSES AND LINKS TO THE DRIVERS!

P.S. As an alternative and if I decided not to utilize the Dock pcie slot for video (my first choice),
I guess I could always use it for a decent sound card which provides ASIO support like the new ASUS line:
http://www.amazon.com/Xonar-DSX-Engine- ... B007TMZ1MY
It's low profile and seems like it would work with that slot.

micrex22 wrote:I would recommend using the unofficial fan-made Windows 7 ones if you're having problems.
A) http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/x-fi-drivers/
B) http://www.hardwareheaven.com/community ... ivers.174/
C) http://danielkawakami.blogspot.ca/

If you can provide more info on the hardware and configuration being used, I might be able to provide a better response-- it definitely sounds like a driver thing. Creative does have some recording applications which might potentially have to be installed as well.

Howdy micrex22!
Unfortunately, I'm not able download correct driver package for this pc card. Seems the servers are down:
received "can't find the server at dl.technewshw.com" for just about every file we tried.
Another problem is being able to find the file that would handle this particular card.
The "nomoregoatsoup" site and it's author seems incredible, but we can't see anything for this card.

Are we missing something here?
Most of the offerings for Xfi do not include support for Extreme Audio and esp. the Notebook version.
I even tried looking for a PAX driver alternative offering.

Thanks to the WASAPI driver I'm able to record 'WYH', but lacking a clear Line-in device in audio properties is not good.

Not sure what other hardware & configuration info you need. T61 14.1 (Standard 4:3) card in PCMCIA slot. W7 Pro SP1.
Card is same one as dr_st showed.

If you need more I'll be happy to provide what you need.

I'd be happy if Line-in was present in audio record properties like it is in XP.

Thanks again for the help!
Again thanks for the help!

Found this website which seems to agree that it is a driver limitation with Creative cards:
http://awesometoast.com/recording-what- ... windows-7/

Specifically they recommended locating this driver version which should have "What U Hear": SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0065A.exe

Since the Xtreme Audio is really an Audigy in disguise, it just might work.

dr_st wrote:Specifically they recommended locating this driver version which should have "What U Hear": SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0065A.exe

Thanks. I had read that article long ago. In fact it was one of the very first we ran across.

Tried that driver set but no amount of 'compatibility tweaks' will allow it to install.
HOWEVER, I was able to get the Line-in to show in recording devices. Here's how:
In the Console, there's an area [that I hadn't noticed before] called "Jacks".
I was able to click the Line-in and bingo, there it was.

Now my only questions are:
Why is there no 'What You Hear' [shows up in XP] or 'Stereo Mix' like we have in XP?!
It would appear that the drivers have crippled this ability, since it exists in XP.
We've even tried earlier Vista drivers but still those do not show up in recording devices.

Audacity does give us that ability with the WASAPI driver.
But is that the only audio recording\editing prog that allows this ability or use of that driver?

Used the amazing Wavosaur to record line-in with no problem. Haven't figured out if that will allow use
of the WASAPI driver. Or at least couldn't [yet] figure it out.

Well, at least I'm making some progress.
----------------------
EDIT: The reason I never noticed the "Jacks" section is because it doesn't exist in the XP UI.

Ah yes, the Windows 7 mixer has removed things that the XP mixer once had. Windows 7 also removed the MIDI mapper as well (which is insane as MS just chopped off a large chunk of their market of musicians). There's a work around for the Win7 MIDI mapper, but I presume you don't use it.

When you go to control panel, 'sound', 'recording'-- do you see any line-in devices? You'll have to manually select the line-in recording option each time you want to switch to it.

micrex22 wrote:Ah yes, the Windows 7 mixer has removed things that the XP mixer once had. Windows 7 also removed the MIDI mapper as well (which is insane as MS just chopped off a large chunk of their market of musicians). There's a work around for the Win7 MIDI mapper, but I presume you don't use it.

When you go to control panel, 'sound', 'recording'-- do you see any line-in devices? You'll have to manually select the line-in recording option each time you want to switch to it.

Thanks for the info! Yes, I figured out (as per my post above) how to get the Line-in to show up.

Your info goes a long way to confirm our feelings that they are assaulting our capabilities with our sound equipment (esp recording).
We have a colleague that has "Stereo Mix" in his W7 system using an Asus Xonar (pcie) with his small mini desktop.

So this still points to Creative doing something to the drivers from Vista onward for this PC card.
No matter, using Audacity we can record streams even with onboard Soundmax via WASAPI driver.
Latency is decent and it sounds terrific.

We still wonder if Audacity is the only available wasapi client out there (other than Virtual Audio)?
We've found the amazing virtual VB-Audio software from Vincent but feel that's overkill for us.
With Audacity working for this task and figuring out how to use Line-in properly on this X-Fi card, no doubt it's the best we can do.

Creative forums were no help on this issue. I sincerely doubt they'll ever own up to driver crippling.

Thanks again for your info!

micrex22 wrote: If you can provide more info on the hardware and configuration being used, I might be able to provide a better response-- it definitely sounds like a driver thing. Creative does have some recording applications which might potentially have to be installed as well.

I just upgraded my W500 to Win7 Pro and discovered the lack of a 'stereo mix'/'What you hear', etc.. I use the W500 for audio recording and mastering and had I known the difficulties of getting line in and 'what you hear' to work I never would have upgraded. After confirming there were updated win 7 drivers for my (PCMCIA) Audigy 2 ZX notebook soundcard I just "assumed" it would work as it always has. Silly me. It never crossed my mind that M$ would have neutered audio recording as it seems to have done.

None of the advice to "Show Disable Devices and Show Disconnected Devices, enable Stereo Mix" is applicable as a Stereo Mix entry simply does not exist. I'm looking at the user drivers you offered as a possible solution as well as uninstalling everything Creative and reinstalling the old original drivers from the original install CD.

I'm really PO'd as my previous DAW setup worked so well I just bought another W500 (because it is the last Thinkpad with a PCMCIA slot) and a couple Audigy 2ZX's as a backup. It may have been better to just buy a newer model W something and an outboard USB DAW but now I'm in for a pound.

Hello westsailor!
Thanks for confirming that they did the same thing to the Audigy card (was originally looking at that one).

I totally agree that IF they crippled these drivers (and it surely appears they did*) it's reprehensible.
* Also noted that unlike the desktops (using Audigy 4 Pro), the console only has one mode.
Strangely the drivers seem to offer other Modes but only has one (Entertainment). Or perhaps I'm missing how to switch them?

I can switch modes in the other systems directly from the Console. But can't do that with Win7 drivers?!
Can you confirm this with your Audigy card?

Thank you

EDIT: As You Were! I just now confirmed my suspicions were correct.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArti ... ?sid=10838 reads in part:
"The Audio Creation and Gaming mode is not available for the Sound Blaster X-Fi Notebook. It only has the Entertainment mode."

Man these guys play rough. Is it the same with your Audigy card?