Editing DirectSound (section)

== Replacement implementations ==
After the removal of DirectSound in Windows Vista, a few replacement implementations have appeared.

Sound Blaster's ''Creative ALchemy'' (2007) provides hardware acceleration of DirectSound3D and Audio Effects, such as EAX.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.soundblaster.com/alchemy/ |title=Creative ALchemy website |access-date=2008-12-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217081648/http://www.soundblaster.com/alchemy/ |archive-date=2008-12-17 }}</ref> Creative ALchemy intercepts calls to DirectSound3D and translates them into OpenAL calls to be processed by supported hardware such as [[Sound Blaster X-Fi]] and [[Sound Blaster Audigy]]. For software-based Creative audio solutions, ALchemy utilizes its built-in 3D audio engine without using OpenAL at all.

[[Realtek]], a manufacturer of integrated [[Intel High Definition Audio|HD audio codecs]], has a product similar to ALchemy called 3D SoundBack. [[C-Media]], a manufacturer of PC [[sound card]] chipsets, also has a solution called Xear3D EX, although it works instead by intercepting DirectSound3D calls transparently in the background without any user intervention.

IndirectSound is a freeware library that emulates DirectSound 3D using XAudio2, without using hardware acceleration.<ref>[https://www.indirectsound.com/ IndirectSound]</ref>

DSOAL is an open source library that emulates DirectSound 3D and EAX using OpenAL. Either a hardware-accelerated OpenAL implementation or OpenAL Soft (which provides HRTF) can be used.<ref>{{cite web |title=DSOAL: A DirectSound DLL replacer that enables surround sound, HRTF, and EAX support via OpenAL Soft |url=https://github.com/kcat/dsoal |website=GitHub |date=20 April 2023}}</ref>