News:  September 25 - October 1, 2000

Sunday, October 01, 2000

Live 5.1 Brief Impressions - Mark @ 12:37 EST

Over the weekend I have been trying to wrap up testing on the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and I needed to cross reference a couple of new games on another card. While yet another new card is not the best cross reference I could not resist the temptation to use the Live 5.1 which arrived in time for the weekend. We have seen a number of questions related to the 5.1 output and Dolby Digital and so I took the opportunity to do a couple of fast tests before going back to Santa Cruz testing.

As you may know, like the Santa Cruz the new Live 5.1 series has the option for 5.1 analog output. It's via the space on the board that used to be just the digital outputs. It's still a 1/8" mini-jack but one that has taken on extra duties for analog (center channel / subwoofer) to go with the SPDIF output plus the DIN output. It's also worth pointing out that when used with the DTT3500 the specs indicate that the mini-jack can work as a 6 channel DIN connection (like the 4 channel DIN with the current Live/DTT2500/FPS2000 combo).

With respect to Dolby Digital, the Live 5.1 drivers include an ac3.vxd file. As best as I can tell it's used for upto 5.1 playback of Dolby Digital music or other .ac3 files but does not appear to have any impact when the card is used with a software player like WinDVD or PowerDVD. It's possible it will also be used with games that have an AC3 sound track (when that happens (Messiah was supposted to do that for A3D 3.0 but it never shipped as far as I know).

Based on some quick CPU usage tests it appears to be in software as (1) the CPU usage for playing an .ac3 music file is identical using WinDVD (with and without the AC3 decoding turned on on the Live to show it does not affect WinDVD) and Creative Playcenter 2 and (2) if I load up the CPU usage it skips. As far as AC3 music playback goes I only get it to work with Playcenter 2. The other quick test I can report on is 5.1 analog works well in the couple of games I tried as well as in DVD playback (using a software DVD player like the multichannel version of WinDVD 2000 2.2). There is an option send bass to the subwoofer from the other 5 channels (which works in both games and DVD playback) which can be disabled if you are using it with a full range speaker system. When enabled it appears to send a full frequency range to the sub (just like the Santa Cruz). There are lots more things to be tested but right now completing the Santa Cruz review is the priorty. What I can say is I have an overall postive first impression of the new Live's 5.1 analog output capabilities.

Comments and question can go into the following forum thread. No registration necessary to post.

Enhance Soldier of Fortune with more EAX effects - Mikael @ 04:12 EST

Creative Labs EAX site offers new Environmental Audio Library (EAL) files for use with 13 Deathmatch Levels. Here's a bit on what this will do:

We've added effects like dynamically changing reverbs, obstruction & occlusion filtering, and adjusted sound source parameters to many of the multiplayer and single player levels.

Saturday, September 30, 2000

Interview with Sound Designer Charles Deenen - Mark @ 13:44 EST

RPGDot has posted an interview with sound designer Charles Deenen. According to the interview, Deenen is the composer for some oldies such as Lord of the Rings (1990), Castles II (1992) and Lost Vikings (1992). He is currently working for Interplay where he has worked on projects such as Baldur's Gate I + II, Fallout, Icewind Dale and Star Trek: Klingon Academy.

Creative Product Preview - Mark @ 13:39 EST

If you are looking for some more background on Creative new product line-up Daily Radar has posted an article that previews the new Live 5.1 cards, the DTT3500 and DTT2200. I think the only thing new compared to what we have posted to date is they have pricing information on the DTT3500 ($349) and the DTT2200 ($129). Thanks to Kuen Foo for the pointer.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn Review - Mark @ 13:32 EST

Game Spot has posted a very positive review of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Overall they thought it was a great game and give it a 9.2/10. They also found that the game has great voice acting and a memorable symphonic score. Despite complaining about some recycling of some of the sounds from the first game they still give sound a 9/10.
News Source: Blue's News

New Gateway Sound Blaster Live Drivers Update - Mikael @ 13:23 EST

The Soundblaster Live WDM drivers from Gateway that we mentioned a couple days ago is actually an older version than the ones that come with LW 3.0 for Windows 2000. The only reason to get this release is if you for some reason really want WDM drivers for WindowsME or 98SE. The next WDM release from Creative isn't expected until late November if I remember correctly.

SRS Labs Launches New Line of Consumer Audio Enhancement Products - Mikael @ 13:17 EST

SRS Labs has announced that it is launching a new line of SRS-branded audio peripherals and accessories into retail featuring the Company's proprietary WOW(TM) technology. The product line features audio solutions for computers, video game consoles and personal audio devices such as MP3 players, CD players and walkman-type radios and cassette players. The Company's award-winning WOW Thing(TM) for computers will be the first product in the series to appear on retail shelves this fall in the United States and Canada. You can find more (but not much) details about the new product lines in the press release

Metal Gear Solid review - Mikael @ 12:51 EST

Metal Gear Solid continues to get good and sometimes even excellent reviews. XLgaming thinks it's a good game but not if you already own or can easily get the Playstation version, an opinion a few other reviews disagree with. One difference XLGaming missed is that the PC version offers support for 3D sound. Here's the sound bit for XLGaming's review:

Sound has been more critical to MGS than sight, and this version doesn’t disappoint. The music track is top-notch, with themes changing between areas as Snake sneaks around. The music also changes if Snake is discovered or during boss battles to a high-energy piece that definitely changes your focus. Sound is good as well; you can easily tell when Snake is running over rattling steel catwalks versus solid concrete, and the combat effects have some impact. And as mentioned before, the voice acting is very good.

FAKK2 review - Mikael @ 12:40 EST

Playnow has posted a short and positive review of Heavy Metal FAKK2 giving it a rating of 9 out of 10 overall. The music&sound also received a score of 9, here's why:

FAKK2's awe-inspiring graphics are rivalled only by the games near perfect audio. Game sound effects are detailed and satisfying, subtitle ambience combined with powerful, aggressive weapon effects compliment the game world perfectly. The musical score is also flawless, totally capturing the essence of the game.

Allegiance review - Mikael @ 12:37 EST

Fileclicks has posted a short and very positive review of MS space strategy multiplayer game, Allegiance with the following review of the aural aspects:

Sound effects are great, with a variety of ambient, gunning, and explosion sounds. Voices accompany on-screen messages to alert you of important game events, like the fact that a station is at risk from an enemy bomber. An extensive system of dozens of “voice chat” preset messages is fun to use and really streamlines in-game communications, preventing you from having to do any typing in most situations.

Crimson Skies Reviews - Mark @ 11:20 EST

Three new reviews for the recently release flight sim by Zipper Interactive, published by Microsoft. The first review, and the only one of the three to say much about sound at all is from Hardnews. There they think its a great game and hardly make any mention of the bugs others have reported (they do mention that the new patch should fix them). When it comes to sound they gave it a perfect score and had the following to offer:

The sound kicks ass. This also ties in with the install program (the little audio show thingie), but it all feels like one of those ancient movies nobody watches anymore. The music is definately on-target (while checking out the menus and stuff it's all parade-type music and crap, whilst during a briefing it gets moody). The flight music is no different, varying in mood depending on what's going on. The voice acting is great (like those funny British people, my radioactive garden gnomes especially like laughing at their funny accent), the plane and weapon sounds kick ass (it can get pretty tense hearing your engine sputtering when you've taken heavy damage)... it's all sweet! About the only bitch I have is that it doesn't seem to support A3d or EAX or any of that other crap, but considering the great quality, you never notice the difference.

Creative Labs Digital Audio Player Jukebox Review - Mark @ 10:55 EST

3D Hardware has posted a review of Creative Labs D.A.P Jukebox, which is the same unit sold in North Americal as the NOMAD Jukebox. The unit they got to review is a white-box beta unit which means that it did not arrive in a retail box with retail software. However they did get all the accessories that will be found in the retail box. This unit offers 6 GB of storage thanks to an onboard harddrive, but does not come cheap ($499 European price listed in the review). You do get lots for the money though beyond the large storage capacity. For example, the unit offers a parametric EQ function to offer a much greater than average ability to tailor your sound. Overall a very positive review of the product with lots of details on features and performance.
News Source: Anandtech

Star Trek: Elite Force Review - Mark @ 10:40 EST

Firing Squad has posted an overall postive review of Star Trek: Elite Force Review. Overall they liked the story line, and thought the first few levels were fantastic. However they thought level design went down hill has the game progressed, was overall to linear and they had the common "too short" comment. When it comes to sound they were very impressed as indicated by the following snip:

Most games don't have music worth listening to, especially the games of old. Recently, game developers have taken to the whole techno scene. For a while it was good, but most seem to be a mix of generic beats. Elite Force tossed all that out and went with a little something some people like to call ambience. The music and sounds all changed depending upon where the battle took place. This added greatly to the feel of the game as a whole. I'm not afraid to admit it, but I was actually shaken at one instance in the game. The music, sounds and level interacted in a way that made me jump up a bit. Really, I'm not afraid to admit this; it makes me a bigger man for admitting that I was afraid. Just read all the girlie magazines, they even say so.

Friday, September 29, 2000

Aureal vs Creative - Mark @ 19:18 EST

ALive has posted an interesting chronology of the legal battles between Aureal and Creative Labs with links to relevant press releases and articles. Thanks to Mark Stojdl for the pointer.

Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force reviews - Mikael @ 14:12 EST

Speedy3D has posted a detailed and rather mixed review of the A3D 3.0 supporting Elite Force where they complain about the game being short, not taking full advantage of Quake3's engine (the graphical aspects) and unoriginal multiplaying to name a few. The complaints about the the game being short and unoriginal game play are standard complaints. In the end Speedy3D just like most other reviews thinks it's a good FPS game and an excellent FPS for Star Trek fans. Here's the long and interesting bit about the aural aspects of the game:

Ambience is the key to atmosphere in the StaTrek universe, there's almost always a warp core hum, alien sound or electrical shock going on somewhere. Elite Force takes this to heart and adds it to the already bustling collection of StarTrek sounds; they even used special voice recordings from nearly all the crew for the game (not 7of9).

The quality tends to be high and the use of A3D Surround gives you that extra edge over attacking foes. Music could have been better, although does lend itself well to the StarTrek mould and is a commendable effort, bar the intro tune that's just plain bad!

International Patches for KISS - Mikael @ 13:57 EST

Third Law has released international (German, Italian and UK) patches for KISS Psycho Circus: the Nightmare Child.
News Source: Blue's News

Creative Product Update - Mark @ 13:12 EST

Creative has updated their products page with a new SB Live Platinum 5.1 page which includes links to PDF spec sheets for the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT3500 and DTT2200. Thanks to Wood Powell for the pointer.

Midtown Madness 2 reviews - Mikael @ 10:57 EST

Time for a bunch of Midtown Madness 2 reviews. As usual they had all fun playing the game and sveral of them also liked the aural aspects of the game, something several other reviews have been rather negative with. Fullon 3D:

One of the first things that really got my attention in playing MTM2 was the color commentary. It is WAY colorful. I actually enjoyed listening to the various personalities egging me on, and each new commentator was a fun experience. I particularly like the 'hippy' guy in the SF races. That guy reminded me of about 50% of my high school graduating class and about 99% of my high-school non-graduating class.

Most of the car sounds are great. While I did run into a few instances where I though it could use a little work (like the Mustang Fastback for example) they did a decent job overall, and I was adequately convinced.

Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr Review - Mikael @ 08:40 EST

Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr has got pretty good reviews so far, not excellent in every aspect but they have truly managed to create the right atmosphere for a horror game, in fact even better than the movie according one of todays (or actually yesterday's) 2 reviews. You can of course not pull that off without some excellent sound design, first up Gamespot:

The sound does a good job of adding to the atmosphere as well: The often-hammy voice acting is immediately noticeable, though the voices of both Holliday and her colleague, Nocturne's protagonist, The Stranger, are great. The game even has two excellent puzzles that require you to analyze sounds on a tape recorder. And both The Sixth Sense and The Exorcist before it proved that a tape recorder can be a very scary device.

Icewind Dale reviews - Mikael @ 08:26 EST

A couple new rather mixed reviews of the RPG Icewind Dale have popped up. First up Wewp that have several complaints including AI, pathfinding and map design. Despite all the complains only 1 (controls) of the 7 categories they rate get less than 8, the rest all get an 8 except sound that gets a 9:

All this might cause you to get frustrated with the game. This is abated somewhat by the calming influence of the background music. As with most games in recent memory, IWD has extremely well-done music, which sets the mood for each area perfectly. Sound effects are amusing, with some choice character sounds (there’s a smartass male voice, perfect for a bard) and full speech with fine voice acting on important plot NPCs. EAX on the background sounds provides a nice immersive feel. The game is fully playable with the sound off, but much more enjoyable with it on.

Midiland MLi-490 4.1 Speaker System Review - Mark @ 07:45 EST

Neeoseeker has posted a review of MidiLand's MLi490 speaker system. Just a couple of minor comments. To be clear, Dolby Digital does not have to output 5.1 channels. That's Dolby Digtal 5.1 but there are other formats of Dolby Digital including Dolby Digital Surround and Dolby Digital 2.1. When it comes to the MLi490's way of handling a center channel input (it mixes it to the front left and right) I agree that it's unusual for a system with a physical center channel input but really not all that different from what a software 4 channel downmix does. Also, as you may have gathered from our reviews, I do think that a phantom center can be effective with proper speaker placement (typical of PC desktops). One other very minor comment is I think that the use of bare wire clips is to allow for easier speaker wire replacement and nothing to do with using the system with other satellites. My main comment and its something not identified in the review is, just like the S4-7100 system, in 4 channel input mode the rear channel inputs of the system don't filter bass to the subwoofer meaning that in games (no impact in movies) explosions behind you will lack bass. How much this is noticable will vary depending on the sound card you use as different 3d audio technologies handle rear field effects and bass positioning in different manners and using the system with a sound card that has a subwoofer output will totally eliminate the flaw. Overall this is a nicely done review and based on my usage of the system I would agree that its an above average budget system that's worth checking out.
News Source: Blue's News

Crimson Skies patch and review - Mikael @ 06:41 EST

A patch for Crimson Skies has been released. According to several reviews a patch is badly needed so hopefully this will fix the issues pointed out by several reviews. You can check out one of these reviews at GamesMania. The reviewer think this will be a great game if the new patch fix certain issues and even without it he had fun playing it. Here's the sound bit:

Sounds are a definite positive. Engines cough and splutter, as they are raked with bullets. There is plenty of radio chatter, too, to keep the atmosphere convincing. Wingmen constantly yell out enemy aircraft position, enemy aircraft yell out taunts and requests for help when your machine guns start to chew 'em up.

Interview about Rune - Mikael @ 06:32 EST

DailyTelefrag has posted an interview with Timothy Gerritsen, Biz Guy from Human Head, about the Unreal engine powered Rune. Here's a taste:

Tolstiy: What can you say about music in Rune? Do you think that its main aim is to help the player to understand the atmosphere of the game?

Timothy Gerritsen: By all means. The sound in this game is used widely to impart a sense of atmosphere on the gamer. We added some simple sound playback tools to assist in this, and our sound director has created far more sounds than any other game I can think of. This game is using every sound channel available at all times. The sound is an aspect we are very proud of.

Thursday, September 28, 2000

Terratec DMX Driver Update - Mark @ 23:46 EST

Before you DMX owners get too excited, this is not the big update you have been waiting (and waiting) for. Rather it's a couple of control panel updates. Specically the site says "Basic controlpanel to control the digital options within Windows 9x/NT4" and "Driver for Windows NT4 supporting digital I/O". You can grab them from Terratec's various sites. Thanks to Michael Gruberbauer for the pointer.

New Gateway Sound Blaster Live Drivers - Mark @ 21:26 EST

Gateway has posted a driver download for the Sound Blaster Live that is listed as Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows Me driver ver. 5.12.01.3041. It's an executable file and there is no additional information available so I don't know if they will even install on all Live cards. Grab them from the Gateway downloads page if you want to give them a try. Thanks to Philipp Esselbach of NTCompatible for the pointer.

Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Review - Mark @ 21:18 EST

Yet another positive review for Voyetra Turtle Beach's Santa Cruz sound card. This one is from Happy Puppy where they award the card a 9/10. Like most they reviews, they don't appear to have tested the card with EAX 2.0 games as they make no mention of the known problems with the shipping drivers. Turtle Beach has promised a driver fix ASAP, and in fact we have been expecting the drivers for a few days now. Look for our own review early next week (for sure this time) with or without the new driver release.

Lake Technology to expand US operations through acquisition - Mark @ 21:11 EST

Leading Australian technology company, Lake Technology which recently announced an expanded US presence, is now seeking to augment its intellectual property portfolio through US acquisitions and strategic partnerships and has appointed US-based financial advisors to assist in this process. Lake is best known through its licences to Dolby Laboratories of its 3D audion technology, now commercialised as Dolby Headphone, a technology that creates a realistic surround listening experniece with a pair of conventional stereo headphones. Lake's US subsidiary, Lake Technology Corporation, a Delaware Corporation, was established in September 2000.

Diablo II MP3 of the Week - Mikael @ 11:28 EST

The new Diablo II MP3 of the Week has now been posted on Blizzard's site.
News Source: Blue's News

Polk Audio AMR-70 Review - Mark @ 07:39 EST

Boom Games has posted a very positive review of the Polk Audio AMR-70. While I have not heard the system myself, I suspect based on reading through this review that the speakers won't be quite as good as the reviewer makes them out to be.

SRS Labs WOW Thing Review - Mark @ 07:14 EST

The View has posted a review of the hardware version of SRS Labs WOW Thing. Overall they were impressed with the unit. The one comment I would make is I think that the the better your speaker system, the less likely you are to be impressed by this type of audio processing.
News Source: 3DAI

Videologic Sonic Fury (German) - Mark @ 07:10 EST

Yet another review in German of VideoLogic's SonicFury.. If you don't speak German you can get a rough idea of what they are talking about by using Alta Vista's Babel Fish translation service, although for some reason, ontop of the usual translation quirks, it stops working near the bottom of each page of this review. One thing I did manage to gather is they thought the card deserved a 90/100.

Rune preview - Mikael @ 06:59 EST

Ga-Source has checked out an alpha version of the Unreal engine powered Rune. Here's a couple interesting bits:

In Rune, you play Rangar, a Viking bent on total destruction. Rune has a story that seems to have a lot of Norse mythology in it, and while I don’t know all the details, it will have favorites such as Loki and Odin. The story, however, looks like it might take a back seat to the intense melee action presented in this game. This preview will take a detailed look at an alpha I was recently sent of Rune.
[snip]
Aurals
This portion of the alpha was incomplete, so some creatures didn’t have sound at all, while some screamed in a bloodlust. The sound seemed most complete on the Thorstadt level, where one could hear enemies converse about the impending doom upon the land, among other things. Your enemies will also taunt you, scream battle cries when attacking you, and so forth. This was a good indicator that the audio in Rune will be filled with the sounds of battle. I can’t really comment much further on the audio, since it was incomplete, but what was there sounded pretty good.

Unreal Gold patch - Mikael @ 06:53 EST

The 226 patch for Unreal Gold has been released. It won't fix the mission pack that's included with Unreal Gold which I think still have broken A3D and EAX code. The patch will let you upgrade the original Unreal part of the Unreal Gold bundle. You can download the patch from the official site.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

FAKK2 UK Patch - Mikael @ 06:26 EST

The latest F.A.K.K.2 patch (3MB) is now available for UK users. It should bring up the UK version to the same version as the last US patch.

News Source: 3Dfiles

MPTrip CD Mp3 Player review - Mikael @ 06:03 EST

ExtremeHardware has posted a review of the $98 MPTrip CD Mp3 Player. As the name suggests it's a portable CD player that can play MP3 files. It features 50-second skip protection, frequency manipulations, built-in battery recharger, 500-second voice recording (requires microphone), headphone and line out jacks. The review think the product is well worth it's price but have several complaints like lack of ID3 tag support, not working well with MP3s below 128kbps or above 192kbps and some UI/controls flaws.
News Source: 3DAI

Terminus v1.81 patch - Mikael @ 05:48 EST

Vicarious Visions has released yet another patch for their 3D sound supporting Terminus. You can grab the patch from Avault.

Soldier of Fortune GOLD has gone gold - Mikael @ 05:46 EST

Raven's Jake Simpson has updated his plan announcing that Soldier of Fortune GOLD has gone gold and is expected to stores soon, maybe even this weekend. The patch to upgrade your existing SOF to SOF GOLD should be out soon as well. In the plan he mentions some of new features that will be included in this patch, one of them is "Some sound system fixes - for both EAX and A3D."
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

Wednesday, September 27, 2000

Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE Review - Mark @ 23:13 EST

Next Dimension Hardware has posted a short and postive review of Guillemot's $29 Maxi Sound MUSE.

Creative Delivers Dolby Digital Quality Sound On The PC - Mark @ 22:43 EST

Some more on the new line up of Live cards from Creative but this time from Singapore. Specifically the two new cards announced are the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1 and Sound Blaster Live! Digital Entertainment 5.1. According to the release the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1 is now available worldwide at a suggested retail price of US$199.99. The Sound Blaster Live! Digital Entertainment 5.1 is now available in Asia only at a suggested retail price of US$89.99. As with the America's line-up, the new cards offer 5.1 analog and digital sound ouput and the Platinum 5.1 comes with a wireless remote control. Both cards ship with an impressive software bundle. For full details check out the press release.

Addonics Portable 8x DVD/24x CD-ROM Combo Drive - Mark @ 21:57 EST

Addonics Technologies has announced the Pocket DVD8x24 -- a combination 8x DVD and 24x CD-ROM drive with PC Card and CardBus interfaces. The new portable drive provides DVD/MPEG II as well as CD/CD-RW audio and video playback on all PCMCIA or CardBus equipped mobile computers and desktop PCs. The drive can be powered from the notebook computer (through the keyboard port) or by an external A/C power adapter. The PocketDVD has a list price of $359. For more details, check out the full press release.

New Digital Audio Playback Device Platform - Mark @ 21:53 EST

Interactive Objects, Inc. and Red Hat, Inc. have announced a strategic alliance designed to enable the development of a family of new digital audio playback devices based on the Dadio digital audio OS and platform. The Dadio platform, which is built on Red Hat's eCos kernel OS, is a leading solution for OEMs seeking entry into the rapidly growing market for digital audio playback devices. As part of the alliance, the companies announced plans to co-develop a new system development kit (SDK) for OEMs that simplifies the design, integration and testing processes and accelerates time-to-market. Dadio, which is already used in the digital audio player designs of Iomega's HipZipO and I-Jam's WinJam, was released in June of 2000. The new Dadio SDK is expected to be available by the end of this year. In addition to co-developing the Dadio SDK, iObjects and Red Hat will offer OEMs an expanded set of integration, testing and support services. The increased level of collaboration will allow the companies to accelerate new product development activities while also increasing their collective capacity to service new OEM partners. For some additional information you can check out the full press release.

SonicFury Review (German) - Mark @ 21:49 EST

3D Concept has posted their review of VideoLogic's Sonic Fury sound card. As you should have gathered from the headline, the review is written in German. If you don't read German and still want to take a gander than you can use Alta Vista's Babel Fish and with that comes my usual Babel Fish warning - take it's translations with a large grain of salt :)

Uplister, Inc. Launches Self-Organizing Online Music Community - Mark @ 20:00 EST

Uplister, Inc., (www.uplister.com), has announced a Web-based playlist sharing community that provides music enthusiasts with a software platform to create, showcase and trade their personal music tastes and experiences in the form of playlists. Uplister has focused its business on making the playlist the next unit of global music consumption. The Uplister playlist allows music fans to express to each other what they are listening to, when they are listening to it and why. Uplister's playlists are organized into easily selectable listening choices, and constantly ranked and publicized via a global community of music enthusiasts. Uplister's beta release of its Web-based playlist sharing community will offer users access to the following features:

Create playlists using the easy-to-use Uplister playlist authoring software tool

Organize user's own MP3s by dragging and dropping them into playlists
Express what the tracks and sequence mean to the playmaker by adding editorial about the playlist, as a whole, and/or for the individual tracks

Post playlists to the Uplister community and share music tastes and opinions with other Uplister members

Explore new music and discover what other people are listening to by browsing through Uplister's database of playlists

Search for playlists, playmakers, tracks, artists and tap into the extensive background information about them contained in the Uplister database

Listen to music previews

Add playlists, playmakers, music tracks, and music artists to favorites lists to rank them in the community and to personalize future visits

E-mail playlists to friends

Send e-mail to other playmakers to comment on their playlists.

Post Mortem: Raven Software's Soldier of Fortune - Mark @ 19:46 EST

Gamasutra has posted a new addtion to their excellent post mortem series where developers talk about the different elements of completed projects, looking at what went right and what went wrong. This post mortem is on Raven Software's Soldier of Fortune and is done by Eric Biessman and Rick Johnson. In the what went right section they have the following to say about sound:

Both dynamic music and ambient sound systems were designed internally to create immersive environments in SoF, but they also allowed the sound designer to add sound assets into the game more easily. Instead of hard-coding the names of the sound files, the tools provided a quick and flexible method of tweaking sonic properties in levels. This process not only took the weight of sound placements off the programmers' shoulders, but also empowered the sound designer with a powerful and creative tool to create unique soundscapes.

Nvidia Outlines Chip Set Strategy - Mark @ 19:35 EST

EETimes has posted an article outlining Nvidia's chip set strategy. The article notes that Nvidia plans to use its relationship with Microsoft to gain a toehold in the chip set segment with a device that integrates South Bridge functions with networking and audio capabilities. They also note that oddly enough, the initial MCP for X-Box will be designed first but will appear second, while the version for the PC will be designed second and appear first, probably early next year. The X-Box is scheduled to debut next fall, in time for the 2001 holiday season. As you may have seen the MPC has some pretty impressive audio specifications including real time encoded Dolby Digital AC3 stream, 256 2D and 64 3D voices, and hardware 3D effects processing (Reflections, occlusion, reverb).
News Source: Anandtech

Samsung Yepp E64 Portable MP3 Player Review - Mark @ 19:27 EST

Neoseeker has posted a review of the Samsung Yepp E64 Portable MP3 Player, a unit featuring a multi-line LCD display, 64MB of built-in memory and the option to upgrade with SmartMedia cards. Overall a positive review resulting in an 85/100 score. The main knocks were the lack of a USB interface, pauses between tracks and slow response times. For details check out the full review.
News Source: 3DAI

Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr Review - Mark @ 19:21 EST

Avault has posted a very positive review of Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr. The reviewer feels the game was very effective at creating genuine fear and dread, a feat that at least in part can be attributed to what they feel is an excellent sound track and even better sound effects. Here's a snip on the sound effects:

I cannot use enough superlatives to describe the sound effects in Rustin Parr. As a technical feat, the audio engine is capable of providing clear, undistorted effects that range from the soft crunching of gravel beneath shoes to the booming clash of thunder. There is also a nice 3D effect in which events that are further from the fixed camera sound quieter, something that is noticeable as Doc strides toward the camera and her footsteps become louder. But I would rather strip the engine of its well-programmed audio code and focus on the artistic finesse with which the sound effects team raises goosebumps. To wit, there has never been a game with scarier or more blood curdling audio. From the death cries of the spectral creatures to the indistinct laughter of children, the sound effects are downright disturbing. This is made all the more horrific when coupled with the music…

UTTweak 1.0 Released - Mark @ 19:03 EST

According to the official description UT Tweak is an easy to use tweaking program which is able to change many settings such as resolution, color depth, memory usage etc. without having to startup Unreal Tournament. You can grab it from Tweak Files.

Metal Gear Solid reviews - Mikael @ 16:27 EST

A couple new reviews of this recently gone gold PC port of Metal Gear Solid, a major hit on the PSX, have popped up on the net. Both think it's an amazing game that you really should buy ASAP. PCGameWorld even gave it a perfect score. Let's check what they had to say about the aural aspects of the game as usual, firt up IGNPC:

The music is moody and fits in well with the plot, while the voice acting gives you some great character sketches, while keeping with the pulpy theme of the game.

Software DVD Player Shoot-Out - Mikael @ 12:31 EST

Sharky Extreme has posted a Software DVD Player Shoot-Out featuring Cyberlink PowerDVD v2.55, Intervideo WinDVD 2000 2.2 and Varo Vision VaroDVD v2.02. I can add that I've seen the same issue using PowerDVD with a GeForce 1 card with some DVD movies that Sharky mentions using a GTS2 and that DTS pass-thru also works fine with PowerDVD 2.55. When it comes to sound the article notes that WinDVD doesn't offer a multichannel version. As you probably know, several soundcards bundle a version of WinDVD that offers 4 and/or 6-speaker support but that version is still not available at retail. I don't know how long it will be before it is available. InterVideo said "coming soon" for a retail release of the multichannel version but right now the website doesn't even mention a multichannel version. Thanks to Wood Powell.

Allegiance review - Mikael @ 12:06 EST

Womengamers has posted a positive review of the space strategy multiplayer game Allegiance. They point out that you need a fast internet connection is required to enjoy the game but in the end they note "A 56k with minimum line noise can perform just as well for a player as a cable modem. ". Here's a snip:

Allegiance's sound effects are good and functional, but not too impressive. Weapon fire can be accurately reflected by positional-capable sound systems, but I find most of them too generic. Energy weapons have their generic sound found in many games, and ammo based weapons too are suffering from the over-used "auto cannon" sound. Compare to Freespace 2's sound effects, Allegiance is just average.

Allegiance's music is CD-based and in menu only, so playing music will have the CD playing forever and cause minor "pauses" when a track has to be repeated. During the game, the music won't be available. Even though players can only hear the music in game menus, it is still appropriately done and fits the theme.

Carmageddon TDR 2000 review - Mikael @ 11:46 EST

Sharky has slapped up a review of Carmageddon TDR 2000 giving it an overall score of 7. Think anyone that liked the previous Carmageddon titles will like this one but not enough enhancement to make anyone happy that didn't like the previous Carmageddon games. The sound also got a rating of 7:

The audio is also rather good on the whole, with distinctive engine sounds for all the vehicles and a suitable heavy soundtrack by Plague and Utah Saints, although I would have prefered it if they stuck with the Iron Maiden music as they did in Carpocalypse now

Rally Masters review - Mikael @ 11:40 EST

IGNPC has posted a review of Digital Illusions racing game Rally Masters with the following bit about the sound:

This sounds just like the rallying I watch on TV, so I’m happy, although the sound of the weather effects pale next to those of Rally Championship.

Vampire review - Mikael @ 11:32 EST

GameIndustry has posted a review of the Vampire saying it's the RPG most of us have been waiting to play for years. They were also impressed with the sound effects:

It is worth noting that the sound is amazing. I'm not sure if Activision is selling the soundtrack to the game separately, but if they are you should buy it. The medieval music is particularly brooding and scary, and if played through headsets or on good speakers can really put you on edge. Mix in a lot of ambient sounds like creaking doors, footsteps coming down dark hallways, and the distant screams of hapless victims, and you have a ride that would spook Steven King.

Heavy Metal : FAKK2 reviews - Mikael @ 11:29 EST

Time for 3 new reviews of Quake 3 engine powered Heavy Metal FAKK2. All complain about that it's too short. One (Eurogamer) also comaplains about too many "platform hopping puzzles" and give it a rating of 7 out of 10, 3Dgamingdaily comaplains about rehashing of previously defeated bosses and give it a rating of 3.5 out of 10 while the last review at GameVortex thinks it's an excellent game. On to the usual sound snips:

EuroGamer:

Voice acting in the cinematics is fairly good throughout though, and the context-sensitive music is suitably rousing during combat and set-pieces.

Midtown Madness 2 reviews - Mikael @ 11:13 EST

A couple new Midtown Madness 2 reviews have popped up. Both think it's a great arcade racing game overall but they were not impressed with the sound effects. First up DailyRadar:

The sound and voice-over work is decent, with some stereotypical commentary at the beginning and end of each race providing some mildly amusing moments.

Anachronox Engine Audio - Mark @ 07:49 EST

Voodoo Extreme has posted some information beyond what went into their Anachronox interview with Ion Storm's Henrik Jonsson. Anachronox is their upcoming totally modified Quake2 engine powered RPG. When it comes to sound they had the following bit to offer in the update:

DirectMusic support (with seamless theme transitions), MP3 support, a robust sound system including support for 3D sound (DS3D, EAX, A3D), and improved radiosity algorithms.

Klipsch Introduces ProMedia 2.1 - Mikael @ 00:06 EST

Klipsch Audio Technologies has introduced the ProMedia(TM) 2.1, calling it the most powerful three-piece computer audio system on the market and the first three-piece system ever to be THX®-Certified. The price is $200 for this 200 Watts RMS system. Not sure how it compares to the ProMedia V.2-400 but considering the small price difference ($200 vs $250) the ProMedia 2.1 should be of better quality. Looking at the press release the only major differences except for the lack of surround speakers are the subwoofer that is said to use a "side-firing driver" instead of the dual side-firing driver used in the ProMedia V.2-400 subwoofer. The size of all the drivers are identical but quality may of course be of better. One new feature is the headphone jack. You can find a few more bits in the press release but no specs just claims of being great.

Tuesday, September 26, 2000

Sensaura Virtual Ear and JAMMA Now Available - Mark @ 23:35 EST

Nothing official from Sensaura on this yet but their e-commerce store has gone live with respect to sales of Virtual Ear and a product called JAMMA. The site decribes Sensaura JAMMA as a DSP plug-in for Winamp. It processes a digital audio signal to provide an enhanced stereo effect as well as some other DSP effects. There is no trial version and it cost $19.95. Virtual Ear is their 3D audio optimization technology that was introducted on the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz / VideoLogic Sonic Fury. An obvious difference between the $24.95 retail version and the one with the Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury is the retail version comes with 25 pre-set HRTF types for the listener to choose from. Both offer the advanced option to set four key parameters, namely; concha depth, concha openness, head size and finally ear size. Right now there are two versions available for download. One if you hve a motherboard using ADI SoundMAX 2 and the other if you have a motherboard or sound card using the Yamaha YMF 724, 744 (and probably 754) chips like the Maxi Sound Fortissimo or Hoonech Digital XG. Until we do a little more testing on the Santa Cruz / Sonic Fury versions I will reserve judgement on how effective this concept is, at least on the Santa Cruz. We also plan to also check out the retail versions so that we can try out the presets and use it with the other cards. Thanks goes out to John for the pointer.

Grand Prix 3 and 3D sound - Mikael @ 15:44 EST

We have mentioned that Grand Prix 3 supports 3D sound and according to the spec list it does but about a week ago I got the following e-mail from Patrick that I forgot to post:

Just wanted to inform you that Grand Prix 3 unfortunately does NOT support 3D sound. How do I know, you may ask. Well, I have been playing it now for some weeks and the only sound you hear during a race is your own car! That's right, no sound from the other cars (neither in the start grid nor when they are surpassing you), no sound from the crowd. This is not a soundcard issue nor a configuration issue, the sound simply was left out. So, when you only can hear your own car's sound, I think we can't speak of 3D sound. It's really a shame.

Avault had a rather mixed impression of the game but in the end they still think "this is probably the best personal computer simulation of Formula One racing available at the moment, although there is still a ways to go to get to the high standard other forms of virtual car racing have already attained."

Baldur's Gate 2 review and early impressions - Mikael @ 14:48 EST

DailyRadar has finsished the first review (that I've seen) of this recently gone gold RPG Baldur's Gate 2. They sum up their impression with "Overall, BG II is a great experience. It's as close to a perfect rendition of the D&D universe as we've ever seen." When it comes to sound and music they only mentioned you can customize the sound.

For some sound impression you have to check out some of the early impressions that have been posted on 3 other web sites, all more detailed than DailyRadar's review. First up RPG Planet:

Sound effects had my attention as well. The voice-overs are very well done, and little things like hearing an arrow being hurled from your bow and whizzing by an enemy adds to the combat experience. The characters in your party talk to you and other party members often, to get rid of that "alone" feeling where your party seems to be just a bunch of robots that have no place or personality in a game. In towns, you overhear people conversing during the day, and usually at night you don't hear much as everyone may be asleep. Using environmental audio is extremely recommended as sounds will be different depending on your location. For example, if you're in a cave, your characters' voices will echo slightly compared to being in an outdoor area.

Baldur's Gate II's musical score is very well-done as well. Fast-paced music will play in the heat of battle or when in trouble, and will calm down once your party is safe. The musical score in Baldur's Gate II is some, if not the best, I have heard in my many experiences.

Finally you can check out Gamers.com massive 16 page Baldur's Gate 2 feature which among other things include about 6 pages of early impressions of the game. From what I could see no impression of the sound or music was offered.
News Source: Blue's News

Metal Gear Solid first impression - Mikael @ 14:20 EST

SpecForce.net has posted their first impressions of Microsoft's PC port of the popular Playstation game, Metal Gear Solid. The reviewer had some issues with the game interface and gameplay at first but now started to like it. Her's the usual sound snip:

Also top-notch is the game music and sound fx. As mentioned before, the intro musical score was excellent and really drew you into the game. The in-game sound fx are excellent as well, with all the appropriate noises for opening doors, footsteps, gun noises, and even a binocular zooming 'whir'. The voice-over dialog was also very well done, without being cheesy or over-the-top.

SideWinder Game Voice Review - Mikael @ 14:14 EST

Electic Games has posted a review of MS SideWinder Game Voice. They have a more positive impression of the product than some other reviews I've read. They think the voice recognition software is as good as any of the others on the market something Gamecenter and DailyRadar certainly didn't agree with. Possible reason for the vastly different impression is that they tested the software after installing a patch Microsoft released which Gamecenter and Dailyradar may have missed considering they posted their reviews sometime ago.
News Source: Blue's News

New Series of Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Sound Cards announced - Mikael @ 11:30 EST

Creative Labs has finally announced the new Soundblaster Live! 5.1 cards. They are all using the Emu10k1 chip just like the current cards, what's new is that they supports digital and analog outputs in 5.1 Surround Sound. In the press release they also mention the DTT2200 speaker system that's designed to be used together with the new Live 5.1 cards. Later today we will update the page where we collected some info and images about the new products. For now you can find more details in the press release. You can also check out Soundblaster.com where you will find product pages for the X-Gamer 5.1, MP3+ 5.1 and Platinum 5.1. Creative Labs have also posted an article titled "What's Dolby Digital 5.1.

When it comes to the speaker systems I can't find any pages for the DTT2200 or DTT3500 yet. However while checking I saw pages for the FPS1500 (4-speaker system), FPS1800 (4-speaker system) and the SW310 (2.1 system). We mentioned the European press release for the FPS1500 and SW310 yesterday but I don't think we mentioned the product pages on the Creative Labs America site before.

Deus-Ex review - Mikael @ 11:06 EST

JustAdventure has posted a rather interesting review of Deus-Ex. They think it's a great action game with adventure and RPG elements, not enough to suit "adventure purist" though. Here's the usual sound snip:

Throughout Deus Ex, music sets the mood. The sound track is timed to create a wonderful atmosphere of suspense and intrigue. This, coupled with songs by Reeves Gabrels, make the audio experience a real treat. The game also has a lot of ambient sounds like footsteps and conversations that drift in from your perimeters to provide valuable clues during game play.

Heavy Metal: FAKK2 Review - Mikael @ 10:58 EST

Gamespot UK has posted a 3 page long and very positive review of the Quake3 engine powered Heavy Meatal: FAKK2 with the following interesting impression of the aural aspects:

The sound is excellent, especially if you have EAX. Strange music echoes soulfully around the room as you play, with the distant thunder of the GITH industries orbital attack on the planet's shield ringing around you. Machinery rumbles and hisses, water trickles and leaks everywhere, animals twitter away to themselves. It's a very impressive piece of work. A rock theme tune sets the scene as part of the fine audio mix.

Midtown Madness 2 reviews - Mikael @ 10:52 EST

Time for 2 new reviews of MS 3D sound supporting arcade racing game Midtown Madness 2. First up Gamespot that found the game to be a blast with the only flaws being some bugs and the aural aspects. It's certainly not the first review that complain about the sound effects, only one review so far have considered the sound effects to be great. That review was also the only one mentioning 3D sound. Here's what Gamespot said:

But there's no getting past the game's rather pathetic engine noises. When you see a '68 Mustang Fastback tearing through downtown San Francisco, you want to hear a mighty rumbling sound that'll make bystanders think the big earthquake's finally happening. Instead, the cars in Midtown Madness 2 give off a little purr that barely changes in tone even when you're redlining the tachometer. Even in an arcade-style racing game such as this, it's good to be able to hear when you should change gears, rather than constantly have to check the tachometer.

EPO 10X DVD-ROM review - Mikael @ 08:20 EST

TargetPC has posted a relatively review of the $129 EPO 10X DVD-ROM drive. The drive is bundled with PowerDVD and TargetPC had no issues playing DVD movies on this drive using their Intel Celeron2 566 @ 850 MHz and GeForce2 GTS. No surprise considering I have no issues with PowerDVD using the Geforce DDR and a Celeron 300A @ 450 Mhz. The review includes plenty of benchmarks test using both DVD-ROM and CD-ROM media and while the drive doesn't get excellent scores TargetPC was happy with the performance and thinks it's an excellent drive for the price.
News Source: Anandtech

New Tool for Creating Interactive Music Content - Mikael @ 08:12 EST

Beatnik has announced the Beatnik Editor 2.0(TM), a cross platform tool for creating compelling interactive music content in Beatnik's Rich Music Format (RMF). Beatnik Editor 2.0 can be used as a standalone application for converting and combining MIDI and digital audio files into RMF format or as a virtual General MIDI sound module from within today's most popular MIDI sequencing software packages like Digital Performer, Cubase VST, Logic, StudioVision Pro or Cakewalk Pro 8 and Metro. You can check the press release if you want more details

New Maverick EP7312 Processor Enables Flexible On-Chip Security - Mikael @ 08:09 EST

Cirrus Logic has announced the newest member of its Maverick(tm) processor family, the EP7312 processor, completing the range of security options for manufacturers of consumer Internet products. It allows programming both a permanent SDMI specific 32-bit ID and a 128-bit permanent random IDs through the use of laser probe technology. Having these unique IDs on-chip provides more robust security than typical systems where these IDs would be outside the chip. Creative Labs is one of several companies that use or plan to use a Maverick chips in their MP3 players. No mention this time who intends to use this new Maverick chip. If you are interested you can check out the press release for more details

Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers - Mark @ 07:44 EST

OnePC has posted a review of the Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers. This is a system using a similar concept and offering a similar price as the Sonix S2000 speakers we reviewed a while back in that both combine SLAB flat panel technology with a cone based subwoofer. I mention this as while I don't doubt that the subwoofer that Labtec uses with the Edge-418 is more effective at producing deep bass than the S2000 subwoofer, I don't belive that the current SLAB panels are anywhere near as good as this review would have you believe. To be fair, the reviewer does note that they think it is "...the first speaker set that I've used that I could actually hear a difference between 128kbps and 160kbps encoded MP3's! Of course, this won't be very noticeable to most people, but if you listen carefully using these speakers, you can actually hear a slight difference.". I think the difference between 128 and 160 is very easy to pick out on a decent set of speakers.
News Source: Blue's News

Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car MP3-CD Player Review - Mark @ 07:32 EST

Anandtech has posted a review of the Aiwa CDC-MP3 Car MP3-CD player. A mixed review but in the end they give the $300 unit a 7/10 and conclude that despite it's faults, if you need MP3's in your car now, the Aiwa CDC-MP3 is the obvious choice.
News Source: 3DAI

PC-DVD Ovation 12X Available Now - Mark @ 07:27 EST

We posted unoffical news of Creative's PC-DVD Ovation 12X before but this is right from Creative Labs storage newsletter. The PC-DVD offers a maximum 40X maximum CD transfer rate and 12X maximum DVD transfer rate and is bundled with a software DVD decoder. The estimated street price is $149.99. You can check out more details at Creative America's site. At the site the software player is described as the Creative WinDVD MPEG-2 decoder. Unfortunately, compared to other options (including other versions of WinDVD) this one appears to be lacking 4 speaker downmixing, at least officially.

Creating an SB16 emulation bootdisk - Mark @ 07:13 EST

Live!Center has posted a short article titled DOS emulation of SB16 on the SBLive! - Creating an SB16 emulation bootdisk. To go with the article they also have a package of files that can be downloaded from their FTP. The files where extracted from the Liveware 3.0 distribution and slightly modified. So why would you need this? Basically if you are not happy with the default SB16 emulation in win9x/me doesn't or if you are using NT/2000 then this might be for you.

Monday, September 25, 2000

Sonic and Verance Join Forces to Deliver DVD-Audio and EMD Watermarking - Mark @ 18:08 EST

Sonic Solutions and Verance Corporation have announced a strategic relationship to advance the use and integration of the Verance watermarking technology in SonicStudio HD. Verance's technology is the DVD Forum's recommended format for DVD-Audio watermarking and has also been selected as the Phase 1 screening technology by SDMI (Secure Digital Music Delivery) for Internet audio distribution. For more details check out the full press release.

Spatializer N-2-2 in Samsung's 'All-in-one' Entertainment Station - Mark @ 18:04 EST

Spatializer Audio Laboratories Inc. has announced that Samsung has incorporated Spatializer N-2-2 audio enhancement technology into Samsung Extiva -- the industry's first "all-in-one" entertainment station. More than a DVD player, Extiva is also a game console and includes NUON-based interactive function that expands the playback experience of DVD videos and 3D games. For more details check out the full press release.

Creative Europe Announces New Products - Mark @ 17:48 EST

We expected some news from Creative Americas today but it does not look like it's going to happen. In checking we came across some product announements from Creative Europe. Specifically they have seperate announcements for the Cambridge SoundWorks SW310, the SBS35, FPS1500, and DTT3500 speaker systems. In addition they have posted a press release announcing their PC-DVD Encore 12x iNFRA which combines their Dxr3 decoder with a 12x DVD drive and a wireless remote control. For details on all of the systems you can check out the full press releases as well as our own collection of information and images of some of these new products.

Creative Introduces More For Less Speaker Solution

Creative Announce Unbeatable 'Pointsurround' Speakers

Creative Labs Launches Total Home Entertainment Speaker Solution

Experience Creative’s Complete DVD Entertainment Solution

Metal Gear Solid Review - Mikael @ 08:52 EST

Sci-fi Gaming has posted the first review of the PC version of Metal Gear Solid I've seen. It's a short but very positive review of the game but as expected they note the graphics isn't exactly excellent. Not a surprise considering it's a port of a Playstation game. Here's the sound bit on the aural aspect of the game:

The music suits the game perfectly, depending on your location, and the sound effects of all the weapons and are right on. Voice acting for the main characters is great also, minus one or two cliché accents.

TerraTec announces cooperation with EGOSYS - Mikael @ 08:09 EST

The German audio specialist TerraTec Electronic and the Korean company EGOSYS will be working together in the future. EGOSYS is based in the capitol city Seoul and offers its products on the world music market. To kick-off the combined effort TerraTec has licensed their highly awarded EWS-Technology(r) to EGOSYS. This allows EGOSYS to incorporate the powerful EWS64 solution into notebooks. EGOSYS will offer a complete EWS-Technology(r) software and driver set for their "Wami-Box" as free internet download. You can find more details in the full press release.

SonicFury Review - Mark @ 07:45 EST

Hardware One has posted a SonicFury review. In their email announcement they claim to be the first SonicFury review, which is not the case by a long shot. All they had to do was look at VideoLogic's page to avoid making that claim...Anyway, in terms of the review my main complaint is they apparently did not test the card with games supporting EAX 2.0 as, just like most other reviews, they missed pointing out the major known issues that Turtle Beach has promised to address with a driver release this week. When it comes to their testing in some A3D 2.0 games like Q3A, it's worth pointing out that the card does not directly deliver that compatibility. To get it to work in Q3A (for example) you need Aureal's A2D drivers (or the A3DAPI.dll left from a Vortex 2 install which is likely what this review inadvertantly did). Again, to be clear, the card does not do Dolby Digital decoding. It requires a software MPEG decoder. There are some areas where I have developed different subjective impressions but that's what subjective is all about so I will save those comments for when we launch our own SonicFury and Santa Cruz reviews later this week. FYI, we have been stalling on the final reviews to see if the new drivers in fact address our concerns before rendering a verdict on these two cards.

Midtown Madness 2 review - Mikael @ 07:10 EST

After reading a few negative reviews of the aural aspect of Midtown Madness 2 it's nice to read teh following bit by PCGameWorld

One thing that is vastly improved over last year's version is the sound. There is full support for both EAX and A3D cards, and the 3D sound brings you into the game. Engine sounds vary according to what car you are driving, as are tire screeches and collisions. Ambient sounds are also nicely delivered, adding nicely to the overall experience.

Santa Cruz review - Mikael @ 07:04 EST

3DAI's Steven Tellman has posted a short review of Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. He thinks it's a great card even though he note some issues he had using the beta WindowsME drivers. If Turtle Beach release new drivers early this week as they told us end of last week we should have the review up a few days later.

Interview with Baldur's Gate 2 composer - Mikael @ 06:58 EST

RPGDot has Composer Howard Drossin which just finished his work on Baldur's Gate 2. Here's a taste:

3. What is your exact work in the Baldur's Gate 2 Soundtrack and how did you get to do it ?

I scored the movie cinematics by both composing and editing existing music from other areas of the game. Additionally, I composed various incidental pieces of background music for use in specific areas of the game.

Sound Blaster Live! Platinum review - Mikael @ 06:49 EST

InsaneHardware has posted a review of the SB Live! Platinum. The reviewer thinks it's a great card and well worth the money. One major disagreement I have with the reviewer is the following bit:

EAX features 3D positional audio superior to that of any other hardware and/or software 3D sound system in the industry

New JDoom Released - Mikael @ 06:36 EST

A new version (0.82) of JDoom has been released. JDoom supports OpenGL, D3D and most importantly 3D sounds and reverb effects with DirectSound3D and EAX 2.0 or A3D 3.0.
News Source: Voodoo Extreme

News from September 18-24, 2000

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