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Sounstorm Guide

Widely regarded as the premier onboard sound solution on the market today, Nvidia's Soundstorm APU can deliver a rich, clean and crisp audio output that will please even the most demanding user. This section will hopefully give you a complete understanding of how it works, and more importantly, the correct way to configure it.

Disclaimer: The information furnished below is believed to be accurate and reliable and is a regurgitation of information from various sources. However, no responsibility is assumed for the consequences of use of such information.

Overview and Features

Soundstorm Tutorial Provided by jkesa

With the nForce2 MCP-T, the APU (Audio Processing Unit) delivers Dolby Digital 5.1 cinematic-quality sound and 3D positional audio to your home PC. With Soundstorm (TM) technology, the NF7-S supports Real-time audio encoding delivering up to 256 simultaneous audio streams making games and applications come to life. As a part of the chipset, the APU uses five internal processors for work with audio streams. Such complex hardware solutions are intended for hardcore gamers and multimedia fans. In a recent test comparison with an Audigy2 dedicated pci soundcard, using the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo as the benchmark, the onboard NF7-S Soundstorm averaged only 1 to 2 frames per second less than the Audigy2. That's very impressive for an onboard sound solution and shows that the NF7-S Soundstorm is using minimum cpu power to produce quality sound. Sound quality is subjective, of course, but most users are pleased as to the quality of sound, especially those with digital speaker systems. This is one reason Microsoft chose to use the Nvidia APU in their X-Box systems.

The NF7-S features the Dolby Interactive Content Encoder (DICE). Encoding into the Dolby Digital format is not new. All film studios do it for recording the soundtracks for movies. However, software processing of this content consumes a lot of system power. Dolby Digital audio should be pre-prepared to be reproduced along with the video. With weak CPU resources, you will have the sound lagging behind the picture. That’s where the DICE is interactive. This APU processing section is responsible for fetching the digital stream during DVD playback on the fly, converting it to Dolby Digital 5.1 format and outputting it through the digital S/PDIF or Toslink optical output onto an external hardware decoder. Here, the APU from NVIDIA is much more powerful than the Audigy2 from Creative. The Audigy2 audio pci card cannot yet decode Dolby Digital in real time and only pre-encodes this digital content.

General Sounstorm Tips

The Soundstorm APU is located on the NF7-S southbridge and gets quite warm. It is highly recommended to place a heatsink on it from the beginning. This can prevent many sound related problems in the future. Ideas for the heatsink and its attachment can be found on the Abit website case modding and cooling forums as well as in the nvidia chipset forum.

If you experience no sound coming from the rear motherboard jacks, check the jumpers on FPIO2. Pins 5 and 6 should be jumpered together as well as pins 9 and 10. These allow sound output to the rear motherboard audio jacks.

To use the Soundstorm onboard audio, it must be enabled in bios. It is located under Integrated Peripherals > Audio Controller > set it to Enabled.

Besides the Nvidia control panel setup, do not forget to set up and check the Windows audio setup options. These are located at Start > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices. In the Volume tab > Speaker settings > Advanced > Speaker tab, set it to the speaker setup you have. Under the Performance tab, set Hardware acceleration and Sample rate conversion quality to Full and Best respectively. Under the Audio and Voice tabs, make sure all devices are set to a NVIDIA(R)nForce(TM) type device.
Install Direct X 8.1 or later. Preferably Direct X 9.0b for optimum performance. To test the sound in Direct X, click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information > Tools > Select Direct X Diagnostic Tool > Select Sound 1, Sound 2, Sound 3, and Test Direct Sound. Make sure the Hardware Sound Acceleration Level slider is all the way to the right.

If you experience sound glitches, you may want to use a program called Driver Cleaner, available in the utilities section of this site, to completely remove the old nvidia drivers and then install anew. Also for glitches do not overlook the possibility of corrupt Windows system or Direct X files. A repair install will fix these.

No DB15 game port is provided on the NF7 as all the new devices are moving to USB. Yet many of us have investments in older gaming devices. One solution is a USB to game port adapter available available at Radio Shack. It supports only 3 axis and 4 buttons. I hate sounding like a shill for Radio Shack, but unfortunately all the good local electronic parts stores are gone. Another solution is to use the game port from a soundcard. Unfortunately, the NF7-S hogs the addresses from 200h to 207h, which are the most commonly used addresses for the game port. Sound cards with game ports that are known to work on the NF7-S are the Creative Sound Blaster Live and Audigy series cards as well as the Turtle Beach Montego 2.

Nvidia NVSwap Utility

Nvidia provides a utility called NVSwap. NVSwap 1.0 sets up and optimizes your audio experience when you use NVIDIA® audio products such as the NVIDIA SoundStorm™ audio solution. This software helps you configure your speaker setup on NF7 series motherboards equipped with the Soundstorm audio processing unit (APU)(MCP-T) or the ALC650 standard soft audio. NVSwap tests and configures the setup of a 4 or 5.1 speaker system attached to one of the following qualified NVIDIA audio products:
    * NVIDIA nForce2 with SoundStorm the NF7-S.
    * NVIDIA nForce with MCP or MCP-D.
    * NVIDIA nForce2 with MCP or MCP-T.
    * nForce-supported AC’ 97 audio codec ALC650 the NF7 & NF7-M.

To use NVSwap, you will need one of the following operating systems:
    * Windows 98 SE with WDM Hotfix and DirectX 8.1 or greater.
    * Windows Me with DirectX 8.1 or greater.
    * Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 and DirectX 8.1 or greater.
    * Windows XP with DirectX 8.1 or greater.

Also to use NVSwap you will need one of the following speaker configurations:
    * A 4 speaker or 5.1 speaker system.
    * A home theater amplifier or receiver with Dolby® Surround, Dolby Pro Logic, or Dolby Digital decoding capabilities with four or more speakers.

NVSwap is a self-contained application that requires no installation in order to function. Locate where you downloaded NVSwap and double-click its icon to start it. Immediately after you run the application, the application begins cycling through the speakers with white noise. You see a visual indication of where audio should be coming from. If you do not hear audio coming from the highlighted speaker, check the connections between the sound jacks at the rear of your PC and your speaker system. Immediately after you run the application, the application begins cycling through the speakers with white noise. You see a visual indication of where audio should be coming from. If you do not hear audio coming from the highlighted speaker, check the connections between the sound jacks at the rear of your PC and your speaker system. If you want to test a specific speaker, left-click on the appropriate speaker icon. This action causes white noise to play on the selected speaker for up to 5 seconds before returning to the cycling pattern. The three toggle buttons on the right side of the screen are for special features that may or may not be supported in your NF7 series NVIDIA nForce2 audio product. These allow for swapping between the line in jack or microphone jack and a speaker out jacks. As well as for between front, rear or center/sub output jacks.

Analog Speaker Tips

DO NOT FOLLOW THE COLOR CODING. Follow the manual or the included sticker. Color coding was only invented to mess with your mind, which it has successfully done. The color codes for the center and subwoofer jacks are usually reversed. If you want to use the rear output jacks as well as front case jacks, there are several options. One is to use a 1/8 inch mini stereo Y splitter cable. Another option is to replace the front case normally open jacks with normally closed jacks. The splitter cable and jacks are available from Radio Shack. Yet another option is provided by Abit forum member bob2469, the post can be found HERE. The normal initial speaker setup in the nvidia control panel for analog speakers is to set the number of speakers you have and disable everything except analog output and then test tone. If you have 5.1 speakers, set it for 6 speakers.

Digital Speaker Tips

The optical Toslink digital jack can be used to connect the NF7-S to a Home Theater System or Digital Dolby Receiver as well as to digital computer speaker systems such as the Logitech Z-680. Radio Shack sells a variety of Toslink adapters such as a 4-way Toslink switch, Toslink extension amplifier, Toslink to RCA cable adapter, Toslink to S-Video adapter. As well as an assortment of Toslink straight optical cables, connectors, adapters and splitters. The normal initial speaker setup in the nvidia control panel for digital speakers is to set the number of speakers you have and disable everything except digital output and then test tone. If you have 5.1 speakers, set it for 6 speakers.

Application Program Setup Tips

Winamp setup tips - To use all speakers in Winamp, Select Options > Preferences > Plug-ins > Output > Direct Sound output > Configure > set it to NVIDIA(R)nForce(TM)Audio.

PowerDVD setup tips - Click Configuration > Audio > Audio Output > Set it to 2 speakers for analog speakers (it will output to 5.1 speakers with this setting) and SPDIF for digital output. Set the 2 Speaker Mode to Dolby Surround Compatible Downmix. This example is set to the DVD movie "Grease" and the setting will depend on the movie you are playing.

Half-Life setup tips - Patch to latest 1.1.1.0 or higher. Select Configuration > Audio > Select Play CD Music, High quality sound, Enable EAX hardware support. Settings for Counter Strike are similar.

Need for Speed Underground - Games such this will auto-detect the proper sound settings from the Windows operating system settings. All that is left to do, is to adjust the sound effects to preferred levels.

Nvidia Control Panel

The Nvidia control panel software helps you configure the audio capabilities of the NF7-S motherboard equipped with the Nvidia Audio Processing Unit (APU), the MCP2-T. The Audio Control Panel software illustrates some of the unique features and functionality available using NF7-S hardware audio. Users of the standard NF7 and NF7-M non-APU, the MCP2, enabled nForce motherboards can use the built-in Windows mixer and control panel applications as well as the Realtek panel. After installing the latest nForce unified driver package (available from http://www.nvidia.com/ content/drivers/drivers.asp) or remixed packages (one is available from http://www.envynews.com/index.php?ID=626#start) from the Web, you are able to access the control panel from either the system tray using the supplied icon or from the Windows Control Panel > NVIDIA nForce Control Panel. In the tabs descriptions below, the jpegs are from a working analog setup using the Logitech Z-640 5.1 speaker system. Th
e control panel has 6 tabs.

Main Tab

The Main tab includes the primary sliders for adjusting the volume of all sound sources, recording input levels, equalizations settings (and presets), as well as a signal meter to visually verify that sound is being produced. It shows peak levels in yellow and overloads in red. If you want to modify the loudness of your CD audio playback, game audio, or MP3 music, this is the area where you would make such changes. There are sections for recording (what goes into a recorded WAV file), for digitized input (what analog sources get passed on to the digital speakers), and for the various outputs. It should be noted that the sliders for recording and digitized input are not levels like the volumes, but are instead gains (boost) that go from 0 db (at the bottom) to infinity (at the top). The equalizer allows you to load any preset from a long list of options.

Speaker Setup Tab

The Speaker Setup tab helps identify how the speakers are connected to the audio device, as well as what format to use when sending audio signals out of the PC. Here the number of speakers can be set-up, the type of connection (digital or analog), individual volume levels for each speaker (balancing), and a host of specialty features. A wizard is also available to help guide you through the process. Here is a short overview of the specialty features:
    * Dolby® Surround Encoding - Enables audio to be encoded for playback on home theater receivers using analog stereo outputs only)
    * Dolby® Digital Encoding - Enables audio to be encoded for playback on 5.1 home theater receivers (using digital SPDIF output only).
    *Create Center Channel - Generates a center channel for audio content that does not have it natively (like MP3s, WMA's, etc).
    *Create Channel 3D Pan - Allows game sounds to be panned through the center speaker when they pass between the left and right speakers (only works for DirectSound 3D games).
    *Create LFE Channel - Generates a subwoofer signal for speaker systems that require it (like Dolby Digital receivers or home theaters with discreet subwoofer inputs). If enabled, the user can change the crossover frequency below.
    *Rear Speaker Phase Shift - Adjusts the output of the rear speakers so that sounds don't 'cancel out' and remove the bass channel or cause a 'tinny' sound (primarily older 4 channel PC speakers systems).
    *LFE Crossover Frequency - Adjusts the amount of bass signal removed from the main speakers and sent specifically to the subwoofer output (increments are in hz)

Midi Tab

This tab allows you to change settings specific to MIDI playback. A MIDI song can be tested at the Audition section using all available effects or just the highlighted effect. The Downloadable Sounds section allows the loading and unloading of DLS or SoundFont sample banks from system memory. These banks provide the instrument sounds for any MIDI files played on the system. Finally, at the bottom we have the effects panel. Since this panel is nearly the same as the Environment tab, it will be explained in greater detail in the next section.

Environment Tab

The Environment page is the most powerful and confusing section of the application. Like the MIDI page, a song or WAV file can be tested, and an environment can be applied using a preset at the Environment Presets drop down box. The power comes in the next section, where you have the ability to add or
remove effects to construct an environment of your own liking. The effects enabled in this area are Chorus, Compressor, Distortion, Echo, Flanger, Gargle, ParamEq and Reverb.

Routing Tab

The first sub tab, Routing, shows how the various effects can be mapped to either the speaker output directly, or they can be hooked (routed) together to create more complex effects. There is also a slider to control the amount of each effect to be applied to the sound. Shown are the default settings.

Source Levels Tab

The next sub tab is Source Levels. This area allows you to decide which sounds will have the effects applied to them. Think of this area as the traffic cop that directs which sound effects get added to what types of sounds. You can also set what MIDI controller triggers which effects. Shown are the defaults.

Parameter Editor Tab

The final sub tab is Parameter Editor. This area is really designed for the most experienced of users due to the terminology and settings used. Basically, this is as close as the end user can get to tweaking the hardware registers, DSP settings, mixers, and memory routing on the APU without working for NVIDIA. Any changes to the sliders happen in real time on both the GUI and the DSP underneath, giving the user the ability to immediately hear what things sound like to anything that might be playing. There are presets at this level also, not to be confused with the environmental presets mentioned earlier, as these apply only to a single effect (like reverb, echo, etc) and not to the entire effects group. Shown are the defaults.

Applications Tab

The Applications tab is used to put on your audio application shortcuts. It is just a quick way to get at your favorite audio applications from within the Control Panel. Applications can be added or removed by using the buttons in the lower right hand corner of this tab.

Information Tab

The Information tab shows the details of the APU, hardware and software revisions, driver revisions, current DirectX version, and in "Advanced" mode the DSP and voice utilization. This is the first place to look when you are verifying what drivers are running and the place to look to know what is going on at the lower levels of the APU.

Hopefully this section on Soundstorm will make your audio experience more enjoyable and easier to use. Enjoy!