Creative Alchemy for Audigy is going free

Creative has decided to make the Alchemy software for its Audigy and X-fi sound cards available for free. Anyone who previously paid ten dollars is entitled to a refund.

The Alchemy software recovers the eax capability of Audigy sound cards that produced only stereo sound in older games under Vista. With the move from Directsound to Openal, older games that used the Directsound standard couldn’t use hardware acceleration to produce sound. The Alchemy software, released in July 2007, solved that problem by providing a translation between Directsound and Openal, but Creative charged its customers ten dollars for that privilege.

However, the company says it will release a new version of Alchemy based on user protests and offer it for free. The new version will be available for free download in the week of May 19, according to Creative. The sound card manufacturer is also meeting its customers who had already bought Alchemy: they can save their data provide, after which Creative will refund the purchase amount. Alchemy owners will have to be patient though: Creative will allow a maximum of 30 days to return the ten dollars and give its customers until June 30, 2008 to complete the form.