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September 1999Live!Ware 3 Information
Creative has also put up information on Live!Ware 3. Seems like there will be some minor upgrades with the apps, a time-scaling feature for PlayCenter to let your speed up audio without increasing the pitch, a bundled LAVA! player, MP3 encoder which allows adding of Environmental Audio, a Live!Task feature in the Launcher and of course, the good stuff is only available when you buy the CD. The web version will be available soon. By the way, there's no EAX 3.0 in Live!Ware 3. I wonder if the sound engine has changed from Live!Ware 2.
And finally, Creative acknowledges the existence of the Platinum to the rest of the world. The it is the standard SBLive! card with the Live!Drive front panel. The bad thing is that it does not have any optical input or output! How could they do this?! I also can't understand what "5x MP3 acceleration" means. Are they trying to imply the card does hardware decoding, when it cannot? SBLive! Platinum Official Info
Creative posted a PR in their Asia site on the SBLive! Player.What's new in this card? A MP3 encoder and decoder, encoding MP3 with Environmental Audio, bundled MediaRing Talk internet telephony application and LAVA included. Most probably its based on the same cards as the X-Gamer and MP3+ for the US market, with the additional digital output on the back. The price is good - US$79.99.
Thanks to the kind few people have responded to our call for gaming editors! Watch out for our gaming section to come up soon. Of course, you can expect that with our game reviews and articles, ALive! will give you that all-important focus on 3D sound and EAX implementation in the games. Unlike the majority of reviews out there which barely mention sound! Tell us what else you want to see in the gaming section!
Brian Scanlon sent us this: It seems the clowns at Creative are at it again. They have purposefully prevented users of Athlon based systems from installing the Live! and Liveware updates. Drop us a mail if you got a workaround!
Zeke and Lee (not our webmaster, ES Lee) informs us that the X-Gamer and MP3+ are now available in the US at stores like Best Buy and CompUSA for $99.99. The specs for the MP3+ claims that it can speed up MP3 encoding & decoding by up to 5 times. I wonder how true is that. If you got one of these babies, we'd love to hear from you!
Mark over at 3DsoundSurge has put up a preview of Aureal's latest retail product: In our preview we take a close look at the Vortex2 SQ2500, which carries a MSRP of 99 dollars. We also look at just what might have lead to Aureal’s decision to go retail and some of the possible fallout of their new business strategy. The SQ2500 is apparently not just another Vortex 2 card. It includes what Aureal is referring to as a "new optimized Vortex2 chip" and has a coaxial S/PDIF out instead of optical. The specs I have seen also mention an improved s/n ratio of 98 dB (vs the 95 dB listed for the SuperQuad). Included with the card are several audio applications, including their new Aureal Vortex Player and Techland Software’s Future Beat 3D as well as full versions of Drakan and Heretic II and a demo version of Slave Zero.
Creative posted some PRs announcing their new multifunction chips for notebook and handheld PC manufacturers. These chips are pretty cool and can support DirectSound 3D, EAX and can even work as a modem, thus saving space inside a portable machine's design (which is already very crammed). At the same time, Twinhead announces support for the new chips in their notebooks. Expect many others to follow. There aren't chips in the market offering so much functionality in a neat package. Also Compaq Presario PCs will use the SBLive! Value!
Maximum PC posted a news report on the new cards from Creative and Aureal. It seems Aureal is following 3dfx's and Creatives footsteps by producing and marketing their own products. One is based on the old Vortex 1 chipset and the other uses an upgraded Revision B Vortex 2 chipset which was optimized to save some CPU cycles. If you're not aware, benchmark comparisons between the EMU10K1 and Vortex 2 have consistently showed that the SBLive! drivers are more efficient and use less CPU cycles than Vortex 2 Revision A cards. Though Aureal has done a pretty good job in optimizing their drivers, I guess a small hardware redesign was needed to bring down CPU utilization. (I still remember the horror when Unreal slowed down terribly on my PC when I used a Vortex 1 sound card and enabled A3D.) Expect a flurry of SBLive! vs Vortex reviews to pop up all over the net! Let the sound card wars begin! :) (but let's hope there'll be no lawsuits)
Jeremy Allford at AGN Hardware nabbed an interview with Dave Sparks from Creative on the new cards! Some facts on the new cards I gathered:
Ethan who informed us about his purchase of the new OEM cards mailed me about Creative's digital output at the back of the card: Here is what the manual says about the Digital Output: "DIGITAL OUT (Front and Rear S/PDIF digital outputs) via 4-pole 3.5mm minijack on rear bracket." It looks like a regular headphone jack, except that it has 4-poles instead of 3. It seems Creative is utilizing the non-standard design found in their Optical Digital I/O Cards (see our Japan SBLive! products feature for pictures). To get coaxial/optical digital output from the card, you will need to buy a break-out-box which may look similar to the one pictured in our Japan feature. Nenad Kulas also sends us information on the new OEM cards: I bought Live! Value about month ago, but the card was defective - so I return it. It was bulk version (no box & other goodies). Yesterday, after 4 weeks of waiting I got the replacement: same name (Live! Value), bulk version, but the card is different: different board layout, 5 connectors (4 analog + 1 digital out), smaller EMU10K1 chip, full AUD_EXT connector on board, Live!Ware 2.0. This means the full digital output connector (AUD_EXT) which was only available on the original full SBLive! version but not the old Values - now they are available! Most probably, the X-Gamer and MP3+ will be similar in specifications to this OEM version. Let me know if you have info!
Chris Booth sends us some information on the UK products: A major UK trade distributor is listing two cards:- SB Live! 1024 PCI 32bit 0MB 3D - RRP - £58.72 SB Live! Platinum PCI 16bit 0MB - RRP - £152.43
Mark from 3DsoundSurge informed me about a review of TerraTec's Vortex 2 card. TerraTec is most famous for their EWS soundcards. EWS is an acronym for EierlegendeWollmilchSau, a German idiomatic expression literally translated as ‘Egg laying, wool covered milk giving sow’ or, in other words, ‘multifunction’. Multifunction here means a single soundcard that includes the most common requirements for MIDI and music production in a PC environment so it's not a product line aimed for gamers. For the gaming market Terratec decided to launch a new brand called XLerate which used the Vortex1 and now XLerate Pro that uses the Vortex2 chip.
Zeke sent in the following specifications right off the display cards on the shelf! Thanks Zeke! Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer Of interest to me if the mention of Fast X4 MP3 Acceleration. I wonder what it means? It would be great if MP3 can be decoded in the EMU10K1, as mentioned in the Editorial.
3DsoundSurge has posted more information on the new cards! They've got the press release for the Sound Blaster Live! MP3+ and the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer. Here are some facts:
It was also mentioned that Creative Europe has put up a page on the Sound Blaster Live! Player 1024. It doesn't seem to be available in the US market, where the MP3+ and X-Gamer will be marketed. SBLive! MP3+ PR | SBLive! X-Gamer PR | Creative Europe SBLive! Player 1024 Page
Ethan managed to grab one of these: I picked up one of the "New" SB-LIVE! Value OEM cards yesterday. The model number it 4830. It has the connector for the Creative Optical/Digital I/O card and it also has digital out (for connecting a DAT or MD recorder via a Digital Output Module (available seperately) or FourPoint Surround Digital Speakers). CD-S/PDIF is missing though. And the card has a jumper on it labeled "JP1". It also came with an updated CD. The Liveware and drivers are both newer than what comes with Liveware 2.1, yet Liveware only shows 2.0. The PDF manual is new also. It is: version 1.00 August 1999
KnowOne sent me a page he came across at iBuyer.net. The sound card pages lists 2 products, the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer and the Sound Blaster Live! MP3+. This is the first time the MP3+ product name has surfaced. Will we be seeing three new cards instead of 2? LAVA! Updates New LAVA! textures are available. A player which works with all sound cards will be released soon.
Saw this in AGN3D - Games on Line has an interview with Ron Hubbard, a game music composer. Read his thoughts on standards in the sound for games, and where the industry is moving in future.
Yep, another comparison over at 3D Wars, just in case you haven't had enough!
Chih-Hao Kung over at 3D Hardware managed to get a preview of the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum. Some interesting facts are in there! Thanks to Brandon and Rod Rehn for informing us too. Here's a summary:
This is getting overwhelming. Another reader has pointed me to a site on the net listing yet another SBLive! by the name of Sound Blaster Live! MP3+. Maybe this card will do hardware MP3 decoding? New Sound Blaster Feature | Reports from our Readers
Mark from 3DsoundSurge informed me that they have posted the net's first review for the very first THX-certified multimedia speakers available in the market. The review goes through the usual introduction to the specifications then quickly delves in to greater depth by offering an overview of THX, a detailed overview of the speakers specification, installation procedure and extensive performance tests where we even use a sound level meter to find out just how loud 400 watts RMS is!
Mike Tasker points us to a review over at Ars Technica on the SBLive! Value vs Aureal's new SuperQuad card. Guess which card won in their comparisons?
There will be two new products! The Sound Blaster Live! Platinum which retails at US$199.99. Also the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer at US$99.99, replaces the Value edition. The Platinum will come with a digital I/O card (no Live!Drive?) plus the new drivers, most probably Live!Ware 3. And yes, you have the option to get the digital I/O add-on separately, if you decide to get the X-Gamer version first. 13 September in Best Buy folks! For those of you elsewhere, you can expect to see the new products in store pretty soon too. Creative is a monster when it comes to marketing. :)
Some cool info from Zeke who works at Best Buy: Ok I got it all ironed out at work today. We are recieving two new products on Sunday September 12. They are the Sound Blaster Live! Plantinum which will retail for $199.99 The other is the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer which will retail for $99.99 The Plantinum version will be with all the new drivers and such, it will include the add on card which has both optical and coaxial digital outputs/inputs on them, the X-Gamer looks to be similar to the Value except that it will contain all the new drivers and the availabilty to add the extra add-on card that comes with the plantinum. Best Buy will be putting them on the selves the 12th now aparently along with the much anticipated AMD Athlon. There'll be 2 new products as I suspected. You also have the option to upgrade to the digital I/O card when you buy the X-Gamer version. No Live!Drive?
This is directly from 3DsoundSurge. Cwy from Hong Kong mailed Mark and here's what he had to say: I live in Hong Kong and found this card for sale (OEM VERSION no box - model is CT4830). I compared this to the old one (CT4620) and the new EMU10K1 chipset is much thinner than the old one. May be the chipset die change form 0.35 to 0.25 but I am not sure. The card has 5 connector for use, which are line in, line out, speaker1, speaker2, and a digital out, if I remember correctly (note: quote slightly edited for ease of reading) The cool thing about these new cards are the inclusion of digital output! But he did not specifically state if it is optical, coaxial or the Digital-DIN for connecting to the FPS2000 and DTT2500.
Lots of readers have mailed us on the new SBLive! cards. According to the mails I've been getting, most likely there'll be a cool front panel with digital connections for mounting in a 5.25" drive bay, as well as other interesting stuff. Confused about what's to come? Check out our take on the new cards...
Shipping in September? Comes with optical I/O card? Overclocked EMU10K1? Bundled with Live!Ware 3.0? Thanks to everyone out there for sending in these tidbits. I've updated the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum feature. Keep checking back!
An "EAX-compatible" sound card by Taiwan manufacturer Skywell. These people are smart. They even ripped out the "Live!" branding for their own sound card. Check out the review at HardwareZone.
Creative has been polling some people on the box art for the latest revision of the Sound Blaster Live! Check them out! No technical specifications are known yet, but these are some of the questions which come to mind:
Sound Blaster Live! Platinum Coverage
Sennheiser has a cool gadget for those of you on the ultimate quest for realistic 3D sound. Check out 3D Gaming's review: Chances are, when you bought your computer it only came with 2 speakers, yet we keep hearing so much about 4 speaker outputs on all of these new soundcards. So what gives? Why is this surround sound so much better then the positional audio we get with 2 speakers? What are we supposed to do if we don't have the resources or ability to get one of these 4 speaker or 5.1 systems? Sennheiser, the manufacturer notorious for the best headphones in the business, has stepped up to offer a surround system that doesn't require a spacious living room, a sound proof room (you know that music irks the rest of the family), or a loan to buy. As a matter of fact, the whole system sits right there on your shoulders! What's it called you ask? The Sennheiser Surrounder...
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