Sound Blaster Command (PC)

In the past, Creative was somewhat infamous for their lackluster sound card drivers. I'm happy to report that is no longer the case. The official driver for the Sound Blaster X3 is Sound Blaster Command, and it's both powerful and feature-rich.


On the left side of the Sound Blaster Command interface you can navigate through everything the Sound Blaster X3 has to offer in terms of features and audio technologies. The first category is "SBX Profile". Here, you will find various audio profiles, such as Gaming, Music, and Movies, but also many game-specific ones, such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty Series, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, Fortnite, and so on. The factory profiles are crafted by Creative's own Sound Blaster Team, but you're welcome to add and save your own. These profiles aren't mere equalizer presets. They let you play with various parameters which span far beyond regular equalization, such as Surround (aims to create the perception of being surrounded by speakers), Crystalizer (tries to enhance the dynamic range), Bass (expands low frequencies), Smart Vol (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 SBX profiles to the headphone and speaker output, which is a nice touch.


The "Super X-Fi" category lets you turn the Super X-Fi technology on and off, log into your SXFI account, and select your Super X-Fi profile and headphones. Setup of this technology happens inside the SXFI mobile app.


The "Equalizer" is just that: a system-wide equalizer you're welcome to use to sculpt the sound of your headphones or speakers to your liking. Unlike SBX Profile, no special effects are added to the sound. Creative gave us ten frequency bands to play with: 32, 62, 125, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 8,000, and 16,000 Hz. If you're not into audio equalization and just want to quickly add or subtract bass or treble, there are sliders for that. All sliders work in a ±9 dB range. Many equalizer presets are available (Flat, Hip Hop, Jazz, R&B, Rock, Pop, etc.), and you can, of course, create your own. Up to three presets can be assigned to the sound card, and you can toggle between them by pressing the Mode button on top of the Sound Blaster X3. Speakers and headphones can have separate equalizer settings.


In the "Playback" category you'll find everything relating to audio playback. Here, you can choose if the sound is going to play through your headphones or speakers (you can do the same by holding the SXFI button on the sound card). You can also configure the size and setup of your speakers, headphone impedance and headphone amplifier gain, type of DAC filtering you want to use, and audio resolution for the analogue and digital (optical) interface.


The "Recording" category is where you'll configure everything related to your microphone, starting off with its recording and monitoring volume. Microphone monitoring works with no perceivable delay and is a pleasure to use. If you prefer to be able to hear your own voice even when using closed-back headsets, you'll love this feature. Creative also offers a couple of ways to reduce background and static noise. They even threw in a microphone equalizer with eleven different presets, which can help you sound better if your voice is otherwise problematic—very high-pitched or exceptionally deep and boomy, for example. The Voice Morph feature alters your voice in real time to make you sound like a child, dwarf, alien, demon, robot, person of the opposite sex, and so on.


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. While this will help you hear them much easier, it 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 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 it 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.


If you want to use S/PDIF out to connect the Sound Blaster X3 to an AV receiver that supports Dolby Digital Live, the "Encoder" section of the Sound Blaster Command software is where you'll activate this feature. Only 5.1 Dolby Digital Live is supported—there's no way to fully utilize it on a 7.1 speaker system.


The "Mixer" category is where you can individually adjust the volume of every output and input the Sound Blaster X3 has to offer.

Mobile Apps

One of the biggest issues with console-compatible sound cards is that you inevitably lose everything but the most basic features, as their functionality is usually highly dependent on the PC driver. Creative found a great way to get around that. They made many of the features of the Sound Blaster X3 accessible through Sound Blaster Command (Android, iOS), a mobile app. Once you download and start up the app, you have to press and hold the volume button until the glowing ring changes from blue to white, which indicates that you've successfully initiated Bluetooth pairing. The app will then connect to the sound card, and that's pretty much it—from now on out, you can use your phone to control the sound card. Do note that the Bluetooth connection cannot be used for audio streaming. By having this ability, the Sound Blaster X3 is an interesting proposition to anyone who is using the PS4 or Nintendo Switch (in docked mode).


As you can see in the screenshots, the Sound Blaster Command app is split into five sections: "Dashboard", "Sound Experience", "Playback", "Microphone" and "Mixer". Dashboard gives us quick access to Super X-Fi, the equalizer, output selection (speakers or headphones), and input and output volume. Super X-Fi and the equalizer can also be fully controlled in the Sound Experience section of the app (there's no difference between the mobile and desktop app feature-wise). The Playback menu lets you switch between outputs, adjust headphone gain, activate or deactivate Direct Mode, and choose from among various DAC filters. The Microphone section is where you can adjust the microphone recording and monitoring volume. Finally, Mixer has all of the options I mentioned in the corresponding category of the Sound Blaster Command desktop app. Features that remain inaccessible to console users are Dolby Digital Live, 5.1 and 7.1 playback, Scout Mode, Audio Balance mode, and microphone filters and effects.


The second mobile app supported by the Sound Blaster X3 is the SXFI App (Android, iOS). You have to install it if you plan to use the Super X-Fi technology because the app is actually what's needed to configure it. The general idea behind this tech is to create a feeling of being surrounded by speakers. Before you can use it, you need 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 Sound Blaster Command app (both desktop and mobile), and lets you use it. 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 where you can see this head-mapping process in action and learn more about the Super X-Fi tech.