Creative uses the same app for desktop and mobile Sound Blaster GC7 access, which is a much better approach than using different apps to do the same. The new app is simply called "Creative App." It comes with a significantly cleaner interface than its predecessors.

Creative App (PC)

The Device screen is split into different categories where we can access and configure various features of the Sound Blaster GC7. On the left side of the interface, you can navigate to Playback, Recording, and Settings menus. Here, you'll also find quick toggles for output selection (headphones, speakers, or both) and sound volume and microphone gain sliders. The main purpose of the Playback and Recording menus is to set the Sound Blaster GC7 as a default playback/communications/recording device. Of course, you can also change the input and output resolution here. The Settings menu is used to reset and repair the device and upgrade its firmware.


The Sound Mode section is where you configure and select your sound profiles. Creative offers a ton of premade profiles, such as Gaming, Music, and Movies, but also many other game-specific ones, such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty Series, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, Fortnite, Cyberpunk, and so on. You can of course create your own and add them to the mix. The sound profiles are essentially a combination of your preferred Super X-Fi and Acoustic Engine settings (more on them in a moment). They are mutually exclusive, meaning should you turn the Super X-Fi on, all Acoustic Engine settings will be disabled. You can apply different settings, including the equalizer, to the headphone and speaker output.


Assuming it is installed, clicking on the Super X-Fi option opens up the Super X-Fi Windows app. Hovering your mouse over this tile lets you select the Super X-Fi mode—Super X-Fi, Super X-Fi Battle Mode, or off. The Super X-Fi technology can only be applied to the headphone output.


Acoustic Engine is essentially what Creative previously called "SBX Profile." You can play with various DSP parameters which span far beyond regular equalization, such as Surround (aims to create a perception of being surrounded by speakers), Crystalizer (tries to enhance the dynamic range), Bass (expands low frequencies), Smart Volume (minimizes sudden volume changes), and Dialog+ (enhances voice audibility). If you're not a purist, you'll have a blast experimenting with all of these settings and their combinations. All of them can be adjusted on a scale from 0 to 100, and you can easily assign different Acoustic Engine settings to the headphone and speaker output, which is a nice touch.


The Equalizer section contains a system-wide 10-band equalizer with an additional preamplifier, bass, and treble sliders. All sliders work in a ±9 dB range. No special DSP effects are added to the sound, like in the Acoustic Engine category of the Creative App. Creative gives you 10 frequency bands to play with: 32, 62, 125, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 8,000, and 16,000 Hz. Equalization applies to headphone and speaker outputs separately.


The CrystalVoice menu contains the microphone filters and effects. The Noise Reduction feature aims to reduce static background noise, while Smart Volume tries to keep the volume of our voice constant. The Voice Morph feature alters your voice in real-time to make you sound like a dwarf, emo, demon, robot, person of the opposite sex, and so on. Finally, there's a microphone equalizer with 11 different presets which can in theory help you sound better if your voice is otherwise problematic; very high-pitched or exceptionally deep and boomy, for example.


According to Creative, "Scout Mode" is designed to help you hear beyond what you see. When activated, Scout Mode significantly boosts the audibility of quieter sounds, such as footsteps and reloading guns. This should (and will) help you hear them much easier, but comes with an obvious drawback: You will lose the ability to accurately determine the distance of your targets. You'll also be more paranoid than usual since you'll constantly feel as though someone is close by. This is one of those features you simply have to try for yourself to decide if you like it. In Call of Duty, especially in its non-Warzone modes, where there's constant chaos all around you anyway, using Scout Mode felt almost like cheating. In Apex Legends, it made me too twitchy, but also definitely helped me hear my enemies sooner than I would otherwise be able to. In Rocket League and other games outside of multiplayer FPS offerings, using Scout Mode yielded no noteworthy benefits. It is also largely overshadowed by a more advanced technology with the same goal: SXFI Battle Mode. More on it in the sound-quality section of this review.


The Decoder section is where you can adjust the dynamics when playing Dolby Digital content. This is only possible through the optical interface of the Sound Blaster GC7.


The "Mixer" category is where you can individually adjust the volumes of every output and input the Sound Blaster GC7 has to offer. This includes the microphone-monitoring feature, which will surely interest anyone using an analog closed-back headset.


The C1-C4 buttons are fully customizable, and this is where you determine their exact purpose, as well as the color of the glowing ring surrounding each. As I've already pointed out earlier in the review, these buttons can be used to cycle through equalizer presets, activate or deactivate microphone monitoring and Scout Mode, switch outputs (headphones, speakers, or both), play/pause music, skip between songs, write custom text or emojis, launch an application, or activate keyboard shortcuts.

During my testing, the Creative App was stable and nice to use overall, although I did run into several bugs. One of the more annoying ones was that the microphone regularly stopped responding after I'd apply a filter in the CrystalVoice section of the driver. After power-cycling the sound card, the microphone would come back to life with the selected filter applied and active. Thankfully, issues like these are easily fixable through future software and firmware updates.

Mobile Apps

Creative offers two mobile apps for the Sound Blaster GC7 sound card: Creative App and SXFI App. Here's a quick overview of both.

Creative App (Android, iOS)

Creative App is the mobile equivalent of the desktop app by the same name, whose features I've just described. By offering this app, Creative found a great way to get around a common issue with external USB sound cards: the inability to use their features on consoles as their functionality is usually highly dependent on the PC driver. The mobile version of the Creative App, available for Android and iOS devices, contains every feature available in its desktop variant, so you can use it to fully configure the Sound Blaster GC7. The mobile app communicates with the sound card via Bluetooth, and the one-time pairing process is extremely simple. It comes down to pressing the C1 button on the sound card when asked to by the app. Do note that the Bluetooth connection cannot be used for audio streaming.

Super X-FI App (Android, iOS)

The second mobile app supported by the Sound Blaster GC7 is SXFI App. You have to install it if you plan to use the Super X-Fi technology because configuring it requires the app. The general idea behind this technology is to create a feeling of being surrounded by speakers. Before you can use it, you need to own a pair of headphones from Creative's list of supported devices, which you can check out here. You then have to use the app to create a map of your head—scan your left and right ear, as well as your face. You'll need a friend or a family member to help you with this step of the process. After head-mapping is done, Creative creates your personal "audio map," imports it into the Creative App (both desktop and mobile), and lets you try it out. I'll get to the acoustic characteristics of the Super X-Fi technology on the next page of this review.

Here's an official video that covers the Super X-Fi technology and head-mapping process in more detail.