SPU2-X

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Tagged as "the reverberating SPU2 plugin", SPU2-X is the latest, most supported, and best sound plugin[1] for the PCSX2 emulator. Written by Air of the PCSX2 development team[2], as of December 2010 the current version (v1.4.0) is considered usable and mostly complete. It is the only sound plugin so far that supports effects processing (like reverb) and Dolby if your sound card properly decodes Dolby Pro Logic.

As of 1.7.0 this has been merged and renamed into SPU2.

Quick guide to the settings

When configuring the SPU2-X plugin, these are the following settings[1] which you can change:

  • Interpolation: Here you can select 1 out of 5 options:
  1. Nearest: As the description says, no interpolation made in this mode and is the fastest one.
  2. Linear: Doesa linear interpolation on sound.
  3. Cubic: Another type of interpolation, with better highs.
  4. Catmull-Rom: Close to an actual PS2 sound.
  5. Gaussian: Even closer to PS2 sound than Catmull-rom and the current recommended option.
  • Disable effects processing: Checking this will disable any emulation of effects like reverb, lowering sound quality but increasing speed.
  • Module: Here you can select 1 out of 4 settings, which are different ways of outputting sound in your system:
  1. No sound: Will not produce any sound (mute) resulting in best speed.
  2. XAudio 2: This is the recommended method, works better under Windows Vista so Windows XP users might want to try the third option.
  3. DirectSound: Should be slightly worse than XAudio 2, use it if it works better for you. (Removed in 1.7 due to issues)
  4. Wave out: Not recommended, option 2 or 3 should always work better.
  5. PortAudio: Cross-platform and works pretty well with low ms.
  • Latency: The lower the latency value the smaller audio delay you will have. Note that setting latency too low WILL cause cracks and pops in sound, so change the values until you find the lowest one that works with your game without causing cracks.
  • Disable Time-Stretching: This will disable the time stretching feature which keeps in sync audio and video but also helps eliminate cracks and other sound problems. Gives a small speedup if disabled.
  • Disable audio expansion: Configuration dialogue covers what it does.
  • Use a Winamp DSP plugin: If you don't know what this is, leave it be.

Alternative sound plugins

SPU2-X is not the only sound plugin for the PCSX2 emulator. According to the official guide[1], there are two other known sound plugins, ZeroSPU2 and PeopsSPU2. These names will be familiar to people following the emulation scene from the days of the original Playstation emulation.

As of 1.7 you can't use other plugins.


References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 taken from the official English PCSX2 configuration guide at the PCSX2.net forums
  2. extrapolated from his posting as seen on the official SPU2-X thread at the PCSX2.net forums

If credits are not being attributed to the correct persons please edit the information here. Any misattribution is accidental and largely due to there not being a Who's Who list of PCSX2 developers and contributors.