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)