November 2000

Another New SBLive! - Platinum 1394
29 November 2000 - Clarence

Creative has introduced yet another variation of the Sound Blaster Live! to the Japanese market! This time, its the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 1394 which features an added FireWire port and video editing bundle. Thanks to Neil Yates for letting us know!

Our SBLive! in Japan article has been updated with links to information of the new card!

Creative Using Aureal Technology?
29 November 2000 - Clarence (Source: 3DSS)

Came across an interesting news posting at 3DsoundSurge regarding forum postings at Vortex of Sound. The first posting has one of their readers asking Creative about a Vortex 2 problem and here's what the Creative rep replied: "we have not yet integrated our support for Aureal products, this will take some time to do."

Sounds interesting. Maybe the rep actually knew from the inside that Aureal technology is currently being integrated into the Live!Ware program. On the other hand, another forum posting summarized the interview that Maximum PC magazine did with Creative. It basically laid things out pretty clearly that Creative will not be integrating Aureal technology in their own sound cards.

Reviews
29 November 2000 - Clarence (Source: 3DSS)

GamePC has a review of the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1. For more reviews of the SBLive! 5.1 cards, check out this page in our SBLive! Product Line feature article.

Tech Extreme has a review of the DTT3500 speakers that support the new 5.1 Mini-DIN output from the 5.1 Sound Blasters.

Speaker Configurations
29 November 2000 - Clarence

Confused about FourPointSurround, 5.1, 7.1 and all that confusing terminology? This article from Cambridge SoundWorks might clear up some doubts. There is also a speaker positioning article as well Also check out and contribute to our speakers page and share your speaker positioning configuration and tips with other SBLive! users.

EAX@Play
29 November 2000 - Clarence

The EAX web site has a new EAX@Play section featuring many game titles that support EAX, including Bauldur's Gate II, Sacrifice, Diablo II, Icewind Dale and MDK2.

Windows 2000 Issues
29 November 2000 - Clarence

I have added a link to an article by 3D Spotlight titled Improving Compatibility and Gaming Performance. It has also been added to the Windows 2000 page of the tech info section.

Rob Garment mailed us about his experiences installing Live!Ware for Windows 2000 on Windows 2000 Server. (Creative stated that Live!Ware will work only on Windows 2000 Pro.) His tips were added to the Windows 2000 page as well.

APS 2.0 Drivers
24 November 2000 - Clarence

Its been exactly one year since EMU posted a provisional feature list of the APS 2.0 drivers in the newsgroups on 24 November 1999. They were supposed to be released in the first half of 2000, but today, the drivers are still not here. Meanwhile, check out our musician section for links to alternative resources for the current APS drivers which will enable you to unleash the EMU10K1 for MIDI composition and effects processing.

EAX & Games
24 November 2000 - Clarence

More SOF EAX enhancements are available to add dynamically changing reverbs and obstruction & occlusion filtering to the deathmatch, CTF and mission levels.

There is also an article titled Not Hearing the Sound Effects that explains how you listen and process audio information, to create and immersive gameplay experience.

Creative has also launched a new web site called Creative Gamers that includes gaming news and features on games supporting EAX. The latest feature is an interview with the sound designer for the popular Counterstrike add-on for Half-Life.

LAVA! Renamed Oozic
24 November 2000 - Clarence

LAVA! is now renamed to Oozic. Weird name, don't you think? Check out this press release to gain an insight on Creative's new and grander plan for Oozic.

Winamp 2.7
20 November 2000 - Clarence

Winamp is up to version 2.7 with a better tag editor (I didn't like the one in 2.666), new DirectSound output plug-in and tons of other fixes. Get it from here!

Latest Utopia Live!
16 November 2000 - Clarence

Roel sends news of the latest version 1.3 of Utopia Live! You can get it from the web site. Find out more about Utopia Live!, an interview with Roel and learn how SoundFonts are put together in our review.

Locked Out!
14 November 2000 - Clarence

My apologies to everyone who accessed the web site and found no updates for the past month. I was completely locked out and barred from updating ALive! because our sponsor, SingNet moved the site to another server, and in the process set up some security regulations that resulted in many complications. I had to continually negotiate with the technicians in the past month to regain permission to update the site.

Thanks to many of the concerned folks out there who mailed me regarding the status of the site. Do check back in the coming days for the latest news!

Europe Products Announced
15 October 2000 - Clarence

Creative Europe has put up information on the Platinum 5.1 and Player 5.1 available in that region. Also check out the Coming Soon article for summary information, FAQ and links to the new products.