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August 2000
New Double Density CD Format Sony and Philips have introduced a new 1.3GB double density CD/-R/-RW format by making enhancements to the current CD standard so that it can still be cheaply manufactured. How soon this catches on remains to be seen though, as you will need new equipment to playback these discs. Check out this press release.
WinAmp is now up to version 2.65 with some bug fixes.
Harvey Fong replies to a query in the newsgroups regarding WDM drivers: There was never any announcement about WDM drivers for Windows 98. There is work currently in progress on WDM drivers for Windows Me/2000, and there are currently .wdm drivers available for Windows 2000. I'll post availability information when it gets closer the release date. Harvey Fong
Vortex of Sound has an update on Creative's bid for Aureal: Received a phone call today from an acquaintance at Creative Labs regarding the posts of the past two days. During the conversation, he mentioned that he was unable to find anyone at Creative to verify that the information we posted was correct. He also used the word legal several times, in regards to Creative's legal department and their "concern" over the postings.
GameSpy has a 2 part interview with Blizzard's composers, behind the fantastic music of Diablo II and Starcraft. Find out the background of these composers, how they write the music, and the equipment used.
If you're still not an expert in the art of CD auido ripping, and MP3 encoding, do check out this guide at FiringSquad.
Lars Ahlzen from Live!center informed me of interviews with SBLive! musicians that first popped up in the musician section. Check out interviews with Ethan Winer and Chan Lancelot.
Mark from 3DsoundSurge sends news of their brand new review of the MidiLand 7100 5.1 Ready Speaker System. TechGear has a review of the SBLive! Platinum European Edition with Live!Drive 2. It got a 9/10 rating.
Harvey Fong from Creative posted this bit in the newsgroups. Let's hope the release is on schedule. Not much going on since the W2K software. Next LiveWare release is currently targeted for late October (may have been September on your last visit.) --
The Live!Ware for Windows 2000 FAQ has been updated to reflect the fact that SMP is "not supported". Let's hope the next release will fix these bugs and other problems that users have been encountering. Q11. Does "Live!Ware 3.0 for Windows 2000" support SMP? A. Although it is not a supported feature, "Live!Ware for Windows 2000" will work on multiple processor systems running Windows 2000. However, some users with Live!Ware 3.0 for Windows 2000 have been experiencing difficulties with various Direct Sound and EAX applications using SMP systems. Creative has verified this situation and is currently researching possible solutions for future Live!Ware releases.
GA-Hardware popped up an interview with Hector Marinez, PR Manager at Creative on the Sound Blaster. In it they talk about the success of the Sound Blaster line of products, Cambridge SoundWorks, 3D over 2 speakers and Aureal's demise.
Insane Hardware has an interesting article which describes their experiences when they popped a cheap heatsink over the EMU10K1 found on the SBLive!
Vortex of Sound has some interesting news on Creative's alleged bids for the intellectual properties of Aureal. There is also mention of bids from Guillemot, 3dfx and (not) NVIDIA. Here are some interesting points concerning Creative:
BlasterKey MP3 Tutorial 20 August 2000 - Clarence If you didn't know, the BlasterKey is a companion MIDI keyboard and software bundle that allows you to create music on the SBLive! Check out this interesting article that was just released by Creative. A streaming video is also available there.
The title says it all, despite proclaiming otherwise that SMP is supported in Q11 of the FAQ. Creative is working on it and will release details in their Live!Ware for Windows 2000 FAQ. The FAQ is still not updated when I checked.
Here are some reviews for your reading pleasure!
The latest version of LAVA! Player is released and includes several enhancements, including an improved WinAMP plugin, a 3D installation wizard, and Dynamic Scene Compression which allows it to run well on lower end systems. It supports all sound cards. A new scene called Cyberdiva is also available. [LAVA! Web Site | Download LAVA! Player 2.5 | Press Release]
A news report by Retuters highlights Creative's move into the home entertainment market with their PDE (Personal Digital Entertainment) initiative. There will be a new product every 6 months, enabled by a brand new audio architecture to improve audio playback, voice over IP and voice recognition. Can you imagine how cool will the next Sound Blaster be?!
Creative inventory climbed to US$230.62 million, where 40% was attributed to the new NOMAD Jukebox MP3 player. This report also mentions the use of sea instead of air transport to reduce cost when shipping components. In another report at Bloomberg, CEO Sim Wong Hoo talks about component shortages and Internet investments. This report also mentions Creative's plans to spend $50 million each quarter for Internet investments.
Creative has a spectacular 4th quarter which was improved by sales of sound cards, high-margin products like multimedia speakers and their investment portfolio of more than 40 technology companies. Check out these reports:
Gamasutra, a web site for game developers has an interesting article titled "Your Audio Design Document: Important Items to Consider in Audio Design, Production, and Support". Take a peek into the tons of considerations that has to be taken into account to make a game sound right.
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