Razer Surround. FREE for 2013.
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 11:53 pmUntil December 31, 2013, you can download Razer Surround for FREE. You can also choose to donate to 'Child's Play', a charity supported by Razer that gets Children's Hospitals toys and video games, of an amount between 50cents and 100dollars US at the time of download. Starting in 2014 the software will be $20. As of now it works with Windows XP and up.
About the software: this program will give you virtual surround on any headset, regardless of brand name. The many reviews I have read over various sites have been mostly positive, of course dependent on the quality of headphones you use. Most of the higher quality headsets work nicely with the audio input modern AAA titles deliver and give great positional audio for being stereo, usually much better than gimmicky 'gamer' headsets or 'surround' headsets. While it will probably give you better results used in a pair of cheap headsets, I encourage everyone to at least give it a fair try while it is free, even if you are satisfied with your current headphone quality.
Just remember, there are many different games and many different headsets out there, so test it out with a few games before you dismiss it. Also, this is intended for games, and maybe movies, that have a surround (5.1 or 7.1) output, and in most cases make stereo or mono sound distorted, so take that in mind if you decide to give this program a try.
Edit for Update: I have given this a trial tonight. I have played Marvel Heroes and PlanetSide 2 for a few hours with this program and it is excellent. I was pretty doubtful, with most other programs and hardware that offer virtual surround sound usually being quite mediocre, including Razer's own headsets, but this works well on my setup. This software seems to basically tell your game that you are using a surround sound setup, and outputs this to your stereo headset with positional audio, better than my normal headphone setup. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who plays FPS games with low-to-medium-quality headsets.
About the software: this program will give you virtual surround on any headset, regardless of brand name. The many reviews I have read over various sites have been mostly positive, of course dependent on the quality of headphones you use. Most of the higher quality headsets work nicely with the audio input modern AAA titles deliver and give great positional audio for being stereo, usually much better than gimmicky 'gamer' headsets or 'surround' headsets. While it will probably give you better results used in a pair of cheap headsets, I encourage everyone to at least give it a fair try while it is free, even if you are satisfied with your current headphone quality.
Just remember, there are many different games and many different headsets out there, so test it out with a few games before you dismiss it. Also, this is intended for games, and maybe movies, that have a surround (5.1 or 7.1) output, and in most cases make stereo or mono sound distorted, so take that in mind if you decide to give this program a try.
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http://www.razerzone.com/surround
Edit for Update: I have given this a trial tonight. I have played Marvel Heroes and PlanetSide 2 for a few hours with this program and it is excellent. I was pretty doubtful, with most other programs and hardware that offer virtual surround sound usually being quite mediocre, including Razer's own headsets, but this works well on my setup. This software seems to basically tell your game that you are using a surround sound setup, and outputs this to your stereo headset with positional audio, better than my normal headphone setup. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who plays FPS games with low-to-medium-quality headsets.
