June 2001

Digital Audio In Your Car
June 21, 2001 - Clarence

Its time to junk the CD changer! CNET has some tips on how you can play MP3s in your automobile, including DIY options, and of course, ready-made solutions.

Ogg Vorbis Nears Release
June 19, 2001 - Clarence

The open-source audio compression format is due to be christened with a 1.0 release and will attempt to rival the MP3 format in bitrate and audio quality. More: ZDNet

New MP3 Format Launches
June 18, 2001 - Clarence

Thomson Multimedia and Fraunhofer Institute launches the successor to the MP3 format, dubbed MP3 Pro. It claims to have the same fidelity of normal MP3 files at half the bitrate requirements. More: The Register, ExtremeTech

No MP3 Ripping for Windows XP
June 18, 2001 - Clarence

Microsoft will not include MP3 ripping capabilities in Windows XP, instead providing their WMA encoders as default for Windows Media Player. More: The Register

Surround Mixer Launcher Updated
June 14, 2001 - Clarence

Matt Foster sends news that he has updated the versions of soundvol32.exe files so that you can load up different combinations of the surround mixer, EAX settings and more.

Alive SoundFont Editor Released
June 14, 2001 - Clarence

The SoundFaction Team sends news that their Alive SoundFont editor is released for download and registration. How does it improve on Vienna? Let us know your thoughts.

Logitech SoundMan Xtrusio DSR-100
June 14, 2001 - Clarence

3DsoundSurge reviews Logitech's flagship 4.1 speaker system. Here's a snippet:

On top of the hyped sound quality the Xtrusio DSR-100 brings something else to the table that gamers have been clamoring for, an amplified headphone output conveniently located at the end of a wired control module that has the power, volume and front/rear fader controls. The unit also has both front and rear PCM digital inputs making it fully compatible with the digital DIN output of Creative's Sound Blaster Live series as well as the front digital/rear analog out offered by some other sound cards. If that's not enough Logitech has bundled the very good PowerDVD software DVD player with the unit.

DirectX 8.1 Build 0620
June 14, 2001 - Clarence

Sérgio Silva sends news that 3D Chipset has a copy of the latest build of DirectX 8.1. Here's the release notes:

This interim release fixes about 320 bugs and should increase performance for most people and obviously better compatibility

Napster's Deal with the Recording Industry
June 8, 2001 - Clarence

Napster is nearing a deal with 3 of the 5 big recording companies to sell songs over the net. No, its not "file sharing". With virtually no music available on the Napster service nowadays, one wonders if they are able to bank on their "Napster" brand name again to sell music in this way. More: The Register

Gamelan SoundFont
June 6, 2001 - Clarence

Creative is selling a brand new Asian SoundFont with Gamelan sounds from a Balinese orchestra. Click here for the site and hear some demos in MP3.

NVIDIA nForce Previews
June 6, 2001 - Clarence (Source: Hardware One)

The first round of previews of NVIDIA's next generation motherboard chipsets have arrived. The sound specs are really nice too!