Razer Releases Free Virtual Surround Sound Software for Stereo Headphones

[Shawn Zipay]

Promised to work on any stereo headphones is a new piece of 7.1 virtual surround sound software from Razer. Even better is that it's free until the end of the year (at which point it becomes $20 if you haven't yet registered). They do provide you with the chance to make a donation towards the Child's Play Charity when you download since this software is free.

Razer Surround is a state-of-the-art audio engine that provides 7.1 virtual surround sound with any stereo headphones. The current generation of virtual surround technology often provides inaccurate listening experiences because individuals perceive sound differently based on their distinct ear sizes and shapes. As such, virtual surround sound traditionally falls short compared to discrete surround sound setups.

With the patent-pending Razer Surround audio engine, users have the option to calibrate their personal surround sound settings through a series of listening tests to match their preferences, giving them far superior positional sound over traditional virtual solutions. Razer Surround gives gamers a truly individualized 7.1 surround sound and attuned 3D audio experience, allowing them to acoustically pinpoint exact locations of opponents in game, providing “the unfair advantage” in gameplay.

Razer Surround is available as a complementary software add-on, integrated within Razer’s Synapse 2.0 application, offering virtual 7.1 surround sound and storing individual audio signatures in the cloud. These settings can be accessed anytime and will automatically update new systems to previous calibrated settings.

The team from Razer have a specially dedicated page set up for this software. They even have a demo that gives a small hint of what the software can do a bit down on the page. You should probably check it out and see for yourself.

This does supposedly work on non-Razer headsets (hence them saying it works on "any" stereo headset), so I'm giving it a download to find out for sure.

[jimykx]

I never really understood how this audio thing works.. If you have 5.1 audio already will this improve anything?

[Shawn Zipay]

Of course not, you already have surround sound with 5.1. This is for virtual surround sound in stereo headsets...

[cikame]

Took me long enough to get my audio equipment the way i want it so i'm not willing to try anything which will mess with settings.

[jimykx]

It's wierd because my real 5.1 headset can try to mimic 7.1 but I never thought if there was any advantage to having emulated sound or real one

[Shawn Zipay]

I must say... It's not bad at all. The only drawback is that I had to re-install Razer Synapse software back onto my computer. It seems better than when I last used it at least.

The surround seems almost as good as most other virtual surround sound headsets, which is kind of amazing given that I'm using an analog stereo headset and most virtual headsets are USB with their own software setup.

[K-16]

It's almost strange how long it took to provide universal audio enhancements since the days of SRS Labs' Wow Thing (started off as a Winamp plugin that was later natively integrated with Windows Media Player). I don't trust the audio demo Razer provided as it reminds me too much of Creative Labs Soundblaster demos (it doesn't sound like the same source file was used in my opinion). Which is of course, all the more reason to give this a spin and find out what I've been missing out on all these years (I remember yearning for 4.1 back when it was a thing).

[CptainCrunch]

Man. I remember back in the day you just need Creative Labs or Turtle Beach and you had all the awesome sounds you needed :/

[Anarchy1]

Don't some games have emulated surround sound built in now? I'm pretty sure BF3 does.

[Thortok2000]

I actually have an old Razor Chaceras headset, I think is the name, and a Lycosa keyboard. I'll give this a whirl and see how it turns out.