Ruining It For Everyone Else Since 2004
Windows XP still has better sound.

Windows XP still has better sound.

As soon as I get a hold of a couple drives for my Steam RAID array I will be doing a dual installation of XP and 7. Windows 7 does a wonderful job handling tasks and gaming. However, XP still offers more options for sound. I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that windows 7 does a great job neutering my X-FI elite pro. The PAX drivers I installed recover most of that via emulation, but when it comes to soundcard hardware control XP is still superior.

When I use FRAPS to record something I can just press a button and it selects what u hear by default. Pressing the same button turns off recording and puts me back to the device I was using before. Under windows 7 however, you have to set what u hear manually before gaming. Otherwise you will only get either your own mic or game sound recorded. Before anyone tells me that I may have an extremely dated card, let me tell you that I have a SoundBlaster X-FI elite pro. If I wanted to I COULD get a soundcard designed for Windows7/Vista. But then even the newer cards have lower DACs (digital-to-analog converters) than the one I currently have (and a must for voice recording). Thank you Mr Bill…

Of course I have no issue running two operating systems on one computer. It wouldn’t be the first time.