Does the "Realtek High Definition Audio Driver/Manager" also work with internal NON-realtek soundcards?

[Gabriel_West]

Just curious..
Since my current "ESI Maya 44ex" internal soundcard has no own application to activate special effects + surround sound etc., I'm looking for alternative apps, that can enhance its soundcard functions. And if this not works (which I suppose), what can I use/install in order to emulate surround sound on my Win 7 64 bit / ESI Maya 44ex Setup??

[BertKoor]

If your motherboard features a Realtek chip, then use built in audio instead of the external interface. It might even do proper 5.1 surround on 3 stereo outputs.

I read recently about software that enables insertion of VST plugins on Windows sound. Had a quick look, cannot find it alas.

I can understand you want a bit of EQ. I don't know of any surround simulators. I don't know what it does apart from mixing it down to stereo, maybe add a tiny bit of delay (Haas effect). You should get a stereo mixdown when you only have a stereo card anyway, so imho you gain not much.

[Gabriel_West]

Ok, thx for your answer, @BertKoor, will consult my internal soundcard's manufactor company "ESI" and Realtek aswell now in order, to find out if there's any satisfying solution for my issue and let you guys know what I could figure.

P.S.: Of course I dont wanna stick with my old Realtek 'cheap quality' Onboard Soundchip, only to get a surround sound simulation nor some Reverb adding. As an audiophile I can confirm, that Internal ESI Maya soundcards still sounding way better without Rev-+surround sound simulation, than Realtek Onboard Audio chips with added Rev.+surround sim, which not means, I dont prefer Surround Simulation on a 2.0 Stereo system at times or some extra reverb-

sound in general simular to Win Xp's its own OS reverb sound, anyway, there must be an option for 150 Euro expensive ESI Maya 44ex soundcards, to increase Reverb on reverb lacking Win 7 OS's, something like a certain high definition Audio Driver/Codec made for several soundcards, specifically made for that purpose. (Just wanna make 100% sure in downloading/installing the right software before messing up my computer respectively installing some shit whatsoever, u know)

And as for all these guys who were declining added extra Reverb at all on their OS settings,

you guys maybe just have a great soundcard (worth more than 200 Dollars/Euros) with integrated Reverb by default, which leads to the outcome, that additional extra reverb coming from the OS or special apps would just exaggerate and overfill your hall with the result of having terrible & dirty sound, simply because of toooo much Reverb.

So it's obvious, that its not only our personal taste what matters in terms to this debate question; "more or less reverb is better?", no, its most likely mainly a matter of the right 'Reverb-balanced' combination of your choosen Soundcard + Hardware/OS/settings incl. optimized EQ settings, etc. because we all want decent sound and as long as it sound quite decent, we get use to it and tend to stick with our first decent setup for soem reason, independantely, if we have a more-or-less strong taste for a pretty 'reverbish' sound setup.

Believe me, back in the days, I always needed a pretty reverbish-hall sound, to find my intonation on singing to music, like having a perfectly tuned Nylon guitar on my side, while picking some strings + singing to it and ta-da .. immediately found the right pitch/note, after somewhat 'inhaling' the 'quintessential' perfect pitch hall sound coming out right from the guitar sound hole, which again allowed me, to produce and reflect the ultimate pitch with my voice,

(Well, only when having the perfect tune on all of my guitar strings) since optimally, PC Speakers should behave in a way, like that way, as if they are able to somehow give you the Hall which comes out from the soundhole of a perfect tuned guitar in that case.

Same applies with PC Audio acoustic properties, but the thing is, without the right acoustic in your speakers (not enough reverb for ex.) it is just way more difficult to find the perfect intonation on singing attempts, well at least, if you have a rare disease like me, who needs to tension up his diaphragm first to be able to sing crystal clear without nasaling. (My diaphragm somehow stretches only through a deep, absolutely harmonious tuning, which I breathe in or inhale through a perfectly vibrating and absolutely 100% tuned hall sound coming out from the guitar sound hole. I'm sure there are a few less people who share the same experiences, there are rare but they are there, definitely)

[BertKoor]

You think your ESI card is expensive? Then look at RME cards. I chose a MAYA1010 interface because for what it does it's very cheap.

Regarding sound quality of Realtek: it's good enough for playing games and such. But you do get some RFI on them you don't hear on better interfaces. With onboard audio you can hear static noise with disk activity, or when moving mouse or resizing windows, most noticeable when using headphones or with volume cranked up. There are supposedly "hi-end" studio monitors that produce more hiss than that, so it's possible non-audiophiles can live with that sort of imperfections.

The whole point of professional audio interfaces with ASIO and all, is to get rid of all the things inbetween the DAW and your speakers, offering the lowest possible latency.

Windows offered SoundGoodizers with XP. There were no audiophiles needing it. I had a graphical EQ installed in my car back then. When I upgraded my speakers, then I did not need it at all anymore. I had a reverb on my hifi, was fun for a while but finally decided things ultimately sounded better how it was intended: without added reverb.

I can totally understand though, as a singer you want some reverb on the monitoring. This can likely be done within your DAW. Just add it on the channel, monitor that channel instead of the interface input.

Also when playing retro games, nothing wrong with adding reverb to taste.

There are small mixers you can plug inbetween the audio interface and speakers that have built-in effects like reverb. The dry signal should be sent to an input of the interface and recorded in the DAW. Switch monitoring of that channel off in the DAW to prevent feedback.

[Gabriel_West]

You're right, ESI Maya 44ex cards for 150 Euros aren't even 'expensive', compared with real professional high end cards, like these ones, from RME for instance; this counts for people with a high budget though, for people on a low budget, even 150 Euro cards are quite expensive and the pretty much highest quality cards they can afford. And if I would have the option to purchase a great RME card, thrust me, I would buy it, but around 300-500 Euros are just too much atm for me, you know.

Thanks also for some great tips you gave me there. Will see, if I can make use of them, Bert.

Curious about, if these Win XP Sound Goodizers are also available as a patch version for other newer OS's like Win7. If so, it really would make a lot of sense. If not, then the Microsoft company definitely needs to fill out some gaps here. (Did an extensive google research but found nothing relevant)

[BertKoor]

I read recently about software that enables insertion of VST plugins on Windows sound. Had a quick look, cannot find it alas.

Found it: viewtopic.php?t=580773

And perhaps this still works: http://www.virtualaudiocable.org
send all system sound via VAC to a DAW, there add whatever plugin, output directly with ASIO to your speakers.

[Gabriel_West]

@BertKoor Interesting, will look into it right now, thx for linking