How to fix SoundMax on board audio

[neutron7]

Ok, so i got an emu 0404 to replace my old SB live and i ended up having to also use the onboard "soundmax" chip to play games, no trouble but it sounded horible even compared to the old sb live

so i did a rightmark RMAA test and discovered this:

[neutron7]

I spent ages searching for an equaliser in the driver, searched the web etc etc

I even found a few reviews complaining the "bass boost" can not be turned off. and similar RMAA graphs to mine.

anyways it turns out that you can improve it a great deal
its not audiophile or anything but now it is at least useable and bf1942 sounds normal again the soundmax even has EAX and all that stuff that games use.

the pictiure which will explain how.

1: open the windows mixer
2: select "properties" in the menu
3: make sure "bass boost" is turned on
4: mute the "bass boost" slider

now you will have the green response above and not the white one.

I have no idea why they would deliberately do something so awful to their sound chip! i can see adding a small boost at lower frequencies for crappy pc speakers but this is totally rediculous.

i believe this works for some earlier versions of soundmax (ad1885 etc) as well as the one i have (soundmax 4 ad1985 chip)