Sound Blaster Live! 24-Bit External with CMSS (X86 / X64 SOLUTION)

[RedZot]

Yesterday I was asking about whether vista drivers would arrive with CMSS support for the SB Live! 24bit external. Today after some experimentation I have done this myself!

And one little extra, this solution works for Vista X64!

1. Disable any onboard sound / remove any other existing sound cards (including SB Live if you were using it with vista drivers). Also remove any other existing creative software to prevent errors

2. Reboot.

3. Download the basic applications (Device Manager, EAX Console & Speaker Settings)

4. Download the Windows XP Driver for SB Live:

X86 / 32-bit

X64 / 64-bit

5. Open and extract both the drivers and application setup file using Winrar / PowerArchiver.

6. Plug in the sound card and let vista detect it as "USB Audio Device".

7. From the extracted application folder run setup.exe in the following folders (ignore all requests for reboot until you have installed the last application):
1. [application folder]/setup/DevCon/setup.exe
2. [application folder]/setup/EaxCon/setup.exe
3. [application folder]/setup/SpkSet/setup.exe

8. After the reboot, go into device manager and choose to update the driver.

9. A. x64 / 64-bit is [driver folder]/Drivers/Win2k/SBKS64.inf
B. X86 / 32-bit is [driver folder]/Drivers/Win2k/kscombo.inf

10. After installation reboot when told too (or if not reboot anyway).

11. In control panel, select sound and configure the card as you like. For speakers you will only get (at least in my case) mono or stereo. Don't worry about this! Just select stereo and front left / right in the next page of the wizard.

12. Run Creative Speaker Settings and under speaker selection set the correct mode for your speakers (ensure sync with control panel is OFF).

13. Run the Creative EAX console and under CMSS-3D, select enable (if not already) and choose CMSS (do not use stereo surround as it won't come out of every speaker). Finally ensure stereo focus is 0%.

14. You’re done! Enjoy full CMSS out of every speaker!

Hope this helps as many people as possible (at least until Creative release Vista drivers with CMSS support)

[Computer_Freak]

Hi, I’ve tried your guide, but I’m stuck after this part:

11. In control panel, select sound and configure the card as you like. For speakers you will only get (at least in my case) mono or stereo. Don't worry about this! Just select stereo and front left / right in the next page of the wizard"

I get this error (the lower one, the upper one is the driver panel) when i try to open speaker setting, eax console or device control. By the way sound comes from all the 5+1 speakers and the green cmss light is on

[CodGuru]

Hello,

i keep getting the same error and I have not installed any software before. My Vista installations just found the card the first time I plugged it in.
I followed the procedure listed above a couple of times, i even tried to install the drivers from my original Creative cd but i got an error message stating that the .inf-file had a bad sector. (?) Tried it in XP Pro SP2 and it worked. I got tired of trying with this method so I downloaded the new software for Vista. After installation everything worked fine. I can get the Control panel to recognize my 4.1 system (I know, time to upgrade), i can test the speakers with no problem, the green light for CMSS is on but when i try to play a mp3, DVD or video it just doesn't work. I know this software has no support for CMSS but I still wonder what the problem can be with my doing this fix. Can somebody tell me the best way of sweeping all the installations? I have uninstalled from both control panel and from device manager so it should be gone. But, every time I plug the card after reboot the system recognize it as a SB Live USB.

[windows_user]

I think you didn't install the drivers correctly or maybe partially correctly because your CMSS light is on. If installed correctly, you shouldn't have the option of 4.1 in the Control Panel (I mean the Windows Control Panel not the creative one). You should only have the option of stereo and mono in the windows control panel. Also remember to uncheck the "Synchronize with control panel" box in the creative speaker settings.