SBX Pro Studio is a suite of audio enhancement technologies that was created to bring out the absolute best in your gaming audio. And when we say “absolute best”, we mean that this takes your audio all the way to 11. With its seamless controls and intuitive user interface, SBX Pro Studio puts you in total control of how you want your audio to sound.
High-end gaming rigs of today span across entire desks, with multiple monitor setups displaying ultra high resolution graphics and triple-digit frames per second. What is usually lacking is a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound speaker setup to complete the immersive gaming experience – and no, stereo headphones do not cut it.
This is where SBX Surround comes in. SBX Surround processes game audio through highly optimized algorithms to recreate virtualized surround sound even through a 2.0 speaker setup, or even headphones. This means that you'll be able to feel as if you're part of the action, be it dodging enemy fire in Just Cause 4, or slaying the otherworldly armies in The Witcher 3.
SBX Surround features an algorithm that provides spatial audio enhancement to the sound source. It optimizes the listening experience for both two-channel and multi-channel source content, regardless of the output configuration. This means that SBX Surround will intelligently provide the best surround sound experience for multiple speaker setups and even for headphones. It does this by identifying and enhancing the spatial information of the incoming audio and optimizing it for the chosen output format.
SBX Surround consists of two core technology components – Upmix and Virtualizer.
Upmix processes stereo and multi channel ambience content as well as center channel information to match the active output configuration. Virtualizer then takes the audio that has been processed through Upmix and spartializes it over headphones, stereo and multichannel speakers using optimized head-related transfer function (HRTF) filters. This gives you an extremely realistic surround sound experience that immerses you directly into your game. SBX Surround can also provide an expanded field for two channel stereo sources.
Audio and sound effect files in games are often compressed to maintain a smaller installation footprint, with more real estate being afforded to graphics files to deliver a better visual experience. What SBX Crystalizer does is that it enhances the dynamic range of compressed audio, effectively restoring the highs and lows that are often lost during the compression process, to deliver a more realistic and impactful audio experience.
SBX Crystalizer improves the dynamic range of audio by applying an audible but comfortable effect to transients and lower and higher frequency regions. This is achieved by constantly monitoring the current audio stream and rapid amplitude changes in real time. The dynamic equalizer then applies the audio boost to perpetual frequency regions on demand and then releases the boost when the audio stream normalizes.
SBX Bass extends the low-end frequencies of your game audio input to enhance and deepen the bass response. Explosions and the chug of machine gun fire in Battlefield 4 and the roar of ancient dragons in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim will come to life and rumble your very bones.
SBX Bass allows for the optimal use of the frequencies over various speaker configurations as well as for headphones. For speaker
configurations with a subwoofer output, it provides control for the bass redirection and filtering.
On stereo speaker setups without a subwoofer, or on headphones, it provides bass redirection and amplification as well as psycho-acoustic processing for a fuller, deeper low frequency response.
Gamers of today are an active, multi-tasking bunch. If you are someone who plays a game in windowed mode, while streaming music on Spotify in the background, simultaneously alt-tabbing out to YouTube to check on walkthroughs, all while communicating on Ventrilo with your friends, SBX Smart Volume is a godsend.
What SBX Smart Volume does is that it automatically and continuously measures volume across and within different programs, and intelligently applies gain and attenuation to compensate for those sudden changes. What you get is a consistent listening experience across the board, without spikes in volume change.
SBX Smart Volume is also great at controlling the dynamic range of audio. As a result of this, listening fatigue is reduced, allowing you to keep gaming comfortably even over long sessions.
Smart Volume utilizes a series of processing modules to analyze audio content up to 7.1 channels. It also uses an algorithm to control the attack and release of the overall volume of the content with a smart ramping process.
In multi channel content, the center and low-frequency effects channels are also factored in as these channels contain a significant amount of the loudness in a typical game. In addition, the Loud mode is designed to boost overall signal levels to allow maximum volume without clipping the overall frequency response, while the Night mode adds a gentle equalized curve to compensate typical human hearing at low volumes.
Games with immersive, well designed audio are great, but it’s a total downer if the dialog and emotions get lost and drowned out amongst the explosive sound effects and music. Imagine straining your ears just to listen to your platoon mate’s commands, or to the voiceover narration of the game’s lore – that’s not exactly the most desirable experience in a game.
This is where SBX Dialog Plus comes in. SBX Dialog Plus was designed to intelligently bring up the volume of the vocals and spoken dialog, allowing you to clearly hear each and every syllable, without compromising on the other ambient effects.
SBX Dialog Plus works by analysing centre channel information and dialog content by means of relative channel analysis, before processing the stream through a series of filters. The vocal and dialog information is extracted through an algorithm that processes the frequency and time response in real-time and amplifies the stream to provide clearer dialog in games.