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June 2000
Creative News
HardwareCentral has a review on this SBLive! version bundled with the Creative Digital Audio Center. For more information on SBLive! products, check out this page.
Creative's Sound Blaster Live series was named the best sound cards in a PC World roundup.
This news story mentions that Creative will be attending the Macworld Expo to introduce a Sound Blaster Live! product for Macs.
Creative has a Live!Drive article titled Simplifying Connections which explains the basics of the Live!Drive and what you can do with it.
Our former webmaster, ES Lee, used to do quite a few rants on ALive! Now its my turn. About two weeks back, Mike Byrns sent me a mail containing his interpretation of Creative's Windows 2000 driver support for Ensoniq based SB PCI products. To pass on this information to SB PCI owners who visit ALive!, I decided to post it, not realising that by doing that I would be brought into this whole cat fight that has been going on between SB PCI owners and Creative. You can check out the creative.products.sound_blaster_pci128 newsgroup. Subsequently, I have been bombarded with angry e-mails from both sides (including Creative) who offered their own take on this issue, and accusing me of posting inaccurate information (referring to *both* Mike Byrns point-of-view, as well as Creative's point-of-view in their clarification sent to me by Harvey Fong). A few irresponsible people have also took this chance to gloat by labeling me as "gullible" for "trusting" Mike Byrns. At this juncture, I have no intention to conduct any investigation into this matter like Judge Jackson. My take?
As in most arguments, be it with another person, a group people or a large company like Creative, there is no clear-cut right or wrong. Everything is brought about by circumstances, and unless we are honest and are willing to accept responsibility for mistakes, and talk the whole matter out instead of viciously attacking one another, nothing would be solved. I have quoted Mike Byrns' point-of-view in the news without verifying the truth of his statements, and I have also posted Harvey Fong's (Creative's) official statement without question. The information provided was posted ad-lib in the news as a quotation and does not represent the views of ALive! or its webmasters. I believe I have been fair to represent both sides of this issue. ALive! is a Sound Blaster Live! site, and I don't intend to deal with older SB products as they are being phased out in the market anyway. My goodwill to maintain this web site to pass along Sound Blaster-related information for everyone was exploited. This issue is now considered closed, at least on ALive! Do read the newsgroups if you would like to find out more.
Not long after we put up a link to Robert Jensen's Oasis CD, made with the SBLive!, Tom Acosta sent us this: I saw your note on Robert Jensen and his Oasis CD, in fact I have It. It sounds Great! I have the Sound Blaster Live Sound Card as well and I have had it over a year. it is the only thing I have not hat to file A trouble ticket on . Acid, Cakewalk. While I still us those, I prefer to go with my tape four track into SB live Wave Studio. Simple but effective. I have had thousands of hits as well as a # 1 on mp3.com on a sound card that I bought for 69 bucks the o.e. version. Amazing! Miko also discovered another band that lists the SBLive! as one of their studio gear: check out deep blue records.....they make dance music under many different names such as SOLAR STONE, Z2 and more.....(all very famous names in the dance world and have achieved very high success club wise) solar stone - seven cities is an amazing tune.... anyway, if you look in their kit list section, you'll see a soundblaster live!! If you use the SBLive! for making music and would like us to link to your site in the musician section, do drop us a note.
FFSF has some updates, including a new version of FF8Configurator, and also mentions a FF8 orchestral DLS.
Randy informed me that the article mentioning the next drivers is in the May 2000 issue of Computer Music magazine, and not the June 2000 issue. It is a magazine in the UK and Franco De Bonis (European Brand Manager) and Neal Legget (Product Marketing Manager) were interviewed. It mentions that the new driver is termed a UDA (Unified Driver Architecture). It also talks about how Creative plans to respond more to the musicians needs, and adding ASIO functionality is top priority. The beta drivers are said to be down to 40ms latency. Harvey Fong informed me of the release of these drivers with ASIO support have been pushed back to "sometime in September". We'll have to wait patiently!
I have set up a new troubleshooting page in the tech info section for sound quality problems relating to clicking and popping. Please send in any thing you have tried that is able to solve these problems! I have also been experiencing clicks and pops and I agree that its very frustrating. The main problem is that there is no clear-cut solution to this range of problems, as it can be caused (and solved) by anything.
Robert Jansen sent in the following: Want to hear what you can do with a sub-100 dollar sound card? With all the digital audio recorded on a Sound Blaster LIVE! card, Robert Jansen's debut CD "My Oasis" is receiving thunderous reviews for its professional sound quality and production. The music features multi-layered guitars and vocals with a pop/rock edge. Dreams of recording in a monster studio are now a thing of the past, thanks to the LIVE! card. Visit http://www.mp3.com/robertjansen to hear some FREE mp3s and examples of what can be achieved with the Sound Blaster LIVE! If you use the SBLive! for making music and would like us to link to your site in the musician section, do drop us a note.
John Schaap informs us of a new version of the LiveControl Studioware for Cakewalk. What's new in LC3.1:
3DsoundSurge has a review of these mounting kits that work with satellite speakers that have a threaded wall mount insert. There's also a contest at the end of the review with some attractive prizes. 3DAI also has a review at their web site.
Harvey Fong from Creative sent in the clarification of a previous news posting on Windows 2000 support for Ensoniq products, which was provided to us by a reader. A recent posting to the Creative News Server may have led customers to believe that Creative Labs has dropped Windows 2000 support for Ensoniq based products. Creative Labs has not dropped support for Ensoniq products, and remains committed to continuing support to the extent possible for all of their Ensoniq based products. The posting was generated based upon a lack of a released Windows 2000 driver for models of the SoundBlaster 128 PCI and SoundBlaster 64 PCI based upon Ensoniq's 1370 chip (Models CT4700 and ES1370). Windows 2000 drivers were not originally planned for these models since they cannot be submitted for WHQL certification like other WDM drivers. However, due to user requests the development of WDM drivers for Windows 2000 is currently under consideration. It should be emphasized that only the CT4700, and ES1370 models are affected. Windows 2000 drivers for other Creative products branded as SoundBlaster PCI 128 have already been released and are currently available from Creative's Web Site.
Crasher informed me that Winamp 2.64 is out. That was fast, since 2.63 was just out last week. Grab it from winamp.com.
Johnny mailed in to inform everyone that there is an update available for Cubasis VST that is bundled with the European version of the Platinum. There is no mention on what this patch fixes, so if you discovered something, do let us know.
This article from ZDNet GameSpot talks about the coming of games to the Linux platform. It mentions the OpenAL 3D audio initiative that Creative and Loki Entertainment have embarked on.
GamePC has a review of the Cambridge SoundWorks PS2000 speakers, which are able to virtualize Dolby Digital 5.1 into 2 speakers. The article also mentions that there is a PS2000 Premium Set that includes a 12W subwoofer. I presume the PS2000 doesn't come with any subwoofer. From the shots of the PS2000, I gather that there is no Mini-DIN connection, so it only works when the AC-3 passthrough is used with DVD player apps like WinDVD and PowerDVD. If you are short on space and would still want 5.1 sound when watching DVDs on the PC, this speaker system may be worth your consideration.
Winamp is up to 1.63 with several bug fixes. Get it from winamp.com.
Randy sent in news that the next Live!Ware will be cross-platform compatible, that means it will work on both Win9x and WinNT/2000. It will also include ASIO drivers, which means support in Cubase VST. This information was taken from an interview with Creative done by Computer Music Magazine. The interview also mentioned that these drivers will be released in July, although at this point I am very skeptical due to the numerous delays.
Mike Byrns informed me that Creative will not be supporting the advanced features of Sound Blaster products based on Ensoniq technology, including the SB PCI128, PCI64, AudioPCI, and other products using the ES1370 or ES1371 chipset This is a pretty drastic move considering the proliferation of these cards in the market. For more detailed information, I've put all the information that Mike sent me on this page. It can also be accessible from the drivers section. SBLive! users - this will not affect you in any way! Just thought I would keep this important information available to everyone. SB PCI owners: maybe its time to get a SBLive!? :-)
Karel wrote this great utility to replace the SF Bank Manager that comes with Live!Ware. Musicians will dig this one! Its in beta right now, but do give the author some feedback so that it can be enhanced.
Sound Control Plus v1.76 Beta is released with a bunch of bug fixes and new features.
In light of the late drivers, I've changed the poll. What's your stand on the delayed drivers? Voice your opinion with the new poll. If you have any opinions or suggestion to air, you can send them in to be included in the wish list.
The newsgroups have been buzzing since E-MU has been sending autoreplies to people who wrote to them regarding the APS 2.0 drivers: The development of Version 2.0 Drivers and Applications for the APS that was unofficially announced on the newsgroup has been indefinitely postponed. Naturally, many APS owners feel cheated by this unexpected cancellation of the drivers. If you take a look at the APS 2.0 feature list that I have mirrored here, it sounds kinda ambitious and I wonder how soon they can pull this off. Tod Shires from E-MU/ENSONIQ had this to say to those who e-mailed to request information on the APS 2.0 drivers: E-MU / ENSONIQ would like to apologize for our unofficial statements which were pre-mature regarding Version 2 drivers and applications. E-MU / ENSONIQ will continue to work hard to bring quality products to you, our customers. In the future we will exercise more caution with announcements we make to our customer base. Sincerely, However, another person claims that Creative UK's tech support says that the drivers are in alpha, and due to be released in August.
3D Gaming World has a review of the FrontX CPX Multimedia Port that allows you to move all the connectors behind the sound card to a drive bay, like the Live!Drive.
More suggestions added to the wish list:
CHAN Lancelot has a workaround to eliminate latency in the current drivers. Check it out in the musician section.
GA-Hardware has a writeup on what they saw at Creative's showing at the recent E3. It covers the PlayStation 2 speakers from Cambridge SoundWorks, the 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 (GeForce 2 GTS) and the NOMAD II portable MP3 player.
This news article from CNET Singapore talks about Creative's internet investments, PDE products and how they plan to leverage on these investments to increase sales.
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