Audigy owners to get DSP back

OWNERS OF Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy cards will be pleased to know that the hardware sound processing they paid so much cash for will, after all, be enabled under Vista.

The new Microsoft OS changes up the way sound is processed through DirectX, and this has busted hardware DSP solutions like the Soundblaster series. Creative released an application, dubbed Alchemy, late last year to enable X-Fi owners to get their hardware DSP running under Vista.

But Audigy owners were left out in the cold, with the vague promise of support if there was enough 'demand'. Now Creative has said that they've heard the cries of tortured Audigy owners everywhere, and will be releasing ALchemy for Audigy before the year is out. However, expect to pay some cash for the privilege - Labs dubs the offering as a 'low-cost upgrade' to Audigy owners.

Alchemy works by translating Directsound calls into Open AL, which can take advantage of the DSP hardware inside the Audigy and X-Fi cards. It works on the fly, and appears to work pretty well. However, we're expecting to see a Vista-native solution from Creative before the year is out, so stay, hilariously, tuned. µ