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The Week in
Review: August 4-10, 2003
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
New
games, demos, patches and bugs
News on Half-Life 2 and 3D sound
During a chat session earlier this week posted on Half Life News Valve revealed
some interesting bits about the audio in the upcoming Half-Life 2. Here's an excerpt:
What sort of sound engine does HL2 have. Is it a 5.1 system, and what technologies does it
support. EAX etc.
How to do voice filters? This is something we'll probably stick in before shipping. In
essence, we plan on exposing the sound buffers to the client .dll per channel so that you
can modulate the way a particular sound channel is processed. This is pending final
performance analysis, of course.
HL2 supports 5.1, 4.1, and 2 speaker systems. HL2 supports wave files with 8/16bit,
mono/stereo, optional ADPCM compression, and arbitrary sampling rates up to 44.1KHz, and
MP3 files as well. We support our own DSP in software. We're working with creative on
supporting EAX for that as well.
Steam for mod distribution, entity help integrated with Hammer, distributed compile tools,
open map file format for extensibility, script-driven sound system.... lots of things make
Source better for modmaking.
You'll really want a multi-channel sound system, a simple two-speaker setup loses a lot of
the coolness.
slinger : plus functions for directionality and environmental falloff (atmospheric dB
attenuation, etc.). Everything's modeling at real dB levels and all blended together.
There's also a whole set of tools for adding dramatic sound scapes and multiple layers of
audio - background, action, talking, etc. - that gets blended together cinematically
There's also very fancy stuff like Bullet sounds are modeled and spatialized as a
continuous sub-sonic 120db sound sources moving through space.
Thanks to Anders Albrechtsen (AKA "DaWizeGuy")for the
pointer and exerpt.
New America's Army
A new version
(v1.90) of America's Army has been released. Russell D. Shilling, audio designer and
engineer for America's Army, let us know that the new version includes a musical score and
a COMPLETELY revamped menu system including a new and detailed audio menu.
Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3
players.
Other sound news
- SRS Labs' WOW(TM) Technology Featured in New Flat
Screen Televisions From Samsung
SRS Labs has announced that it its stereo audio enhancement technology, WOW(TM), continues
to be chosen by leaders in consumer electronics to deliver the best quality audio
experience possible. Samsung, the number one electronics manufacturer in Korea, has
expanded their license of SRS Labs' WOW technology and has launched a new 17" LCD
television model, LT17N2. WOW delivers audio that explodes beyond the television speakers
and fills the room with a panoramic 3D soundstage with enhanced bass from even the
smallest speakers, such as those found in thin profile TVs. You can find more details in the press
release.
- Creative Technology Announces Fourth Quarter
Results
Creative Technology has announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year
2003, ended June 30, 2003. Sales for the fourth quarter were
$149.6 million, in line with the Company's guidance. This compares to sales of $182.6
million for the same quarter of last year. Creative achieved net income for the fourth
quarter of $4.6 million. This compares to last year's fourth quarter net loss of $48.4
million. Comparative results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2002 include a one-time
charge related to the acquisition of 3Dlabs, Inc. of $26 million for in-process
technology, and also include an investment loss of $29.8 million.
Sales for the full fiscal year 2003 were $701.8 million, compared to
$805.9 million for the same period last year. Net income for fiscal year 2003 was $23.4
million, compared to a net loss of $19.7 million for the previous fiscal year.
This has been an operationally solid and profitable year for
Creative," said Craig McHugh, president of Creative Labs, Inc. "In the fourth
quarter, we again achieved our expectations for revenue, gross margin, operating expenses
and earnings per share, as we did each quarter during fiscal year 2003. During the
quarter, we continued to dedicate significant development resources toward increasing the
breadth of our product lines and moving more of our product offerings outside the PC box
where we can offer great visual ID and appeal to an even broader base of potential
customers."
"Between now and the end of the year, we plan to launch over 90
products, the most in our history," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative
Technology Ltd. "The introductions will come across all of our product categories and
will extend our leadership position in Personal Digital Entertainment. You can find more details in the full
press release.
- Boston Acoustics Announces First Quarter Results
Boston Acoustics has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the 2004
fiscal year which ended on June 28, 2003. Net sales for the
quarter decreased approximately 31%, to $12.6 million from $18.3 million for the same
period a year ago. Net income decreased to approximately $216,000 from approximately
$277,000.
The reduction in net sales is the result of the prolonged difficult
economic environment and its significant impact on both of the Company's business
segments. While net sales of the Company's Core products decreased approximately 17%
compared to a year ago, net sales of the OEM/ Multimedia segment were down 64%. You can find more details in the press
release.
- Yamaha RX-V740 6.1-channel Receiver and DVD-C920
Five Disc DVD Changer
Brian Mitchell has finished two new reviews at eCoustics.com. First up a review of Yamaha
RX-V740 6.1-channel Receiver which he describes a great sounding budget receiver. He
also posted a
review of Yamaha DVD-C920 Five Disc DVD Changer.
- ProMedia Ultra 5.1 Coming Soon
Klipsch reveals on their site that a new ProMedia 5.1 system named ProMedia Ultra 5.1 will
be available in September. You can find more
details on Klipsch site. Thanks to Kevin for the pointer.
- DTS Reports Solid Second Quarter Financial
Results
Digital Theater Systems has announced financial results for the three and six months ended
June 30, 2003. For the second quarter of 2003, DTS reported
total revenues of $11.7 million, an increase of 40% over $8.4 million in the second
quarter of 2002. Gross margins for the second quarter were strong at 76% compared to 69%
in the prior year quarter. Net income attributable to common stockholders was $1.4
million, in the second quarter of 2003, compared to a net loss attributable to common
stockholders of $124,000, in the second quarter of 2002. You can find more information
in the press release.
- Universal Music Group Releasing DVD-Audio Titles
Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, has announced its first
DVD-Audio titles to be released in the United States beginning on September 23, 2003. UMG
plans an ongoing DVD-Audio release program that will offer best-selling artists and core
catalog titles to major markets worldwide. You can find more details in the press release.
- Gateway Enters MP3 Player Market With
Three-in-One Device
Gateway has introduced its first portable USB digital music player. The stylish, portable
Gateway Digital Music Player -- about the size of a pack of chewing gum -- is really three
products in one easy-to-use device: a digital music player, USB storage device and digital
voice recorder. With 128MB(1) of storage space, the Gateway Digital Music Player has the
data capacity of 88 floppy disks or two hours of music.(2) Its affordable price of just
$129.99(3) makes it a must-have for anyone who wants to listen to music or carry PC files
on the go. You can find more
details in the press release.
- irock! 830 features 128MB of memory and a high
quality FM Tuner for only $99.99
First International Digital, Inc. (FID), maker of the popular irock! family of digital
audio devices and the innovative MP3i Creator(TM) software, has unveiled a new line of
digital audio players that gives listeners freedom of choice: high-quality digital audio
(MP3 and WMA) and convenient stereo FM radio. The new irock! 830 comes equipped with 128MB
of built-in memory allowing for storage of more than 4 hours of skip- free digital music.
You can find more details in
the full press release.
- How to build a Silent PC: A Step by Step Guide
A website named BuildSilentPC.com offers a step by step guide on how to build a silent PC.
For more news from last week check out our news archive.
Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurgeReviews that we are currently working on:
Updated Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury and GameTheaterXP reviews
Hercules Fortissimo II
Terratec DMX Xfire 1024
CMedia CM8738 Reference Review
Full Audigy Review
Full Philips MMS305 Review
There are several other hardware reviews in the pipeline
including, but not limited to the following:
Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE
Terratec m3po
DigMedia MusicStore
Philips Seismic Edge
Lots of other stuff on the go in including several guides and major site revisions that we
will soon be releasing more details on.
As always if you have any ideas for products we should review or features we should do,
please let us know.
Previous "The week in
review".
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