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The Week in
Review: November 4-10, 2002
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
New games, demos, patches and bugs
Arx Fatalis Q&A
Ferrago.co.uk has posted an interesting Q&A on Arkane Studios' DS3D with EAX supporting Arx Fatalis.
Here's a snip:
Ferrago: How have other successful RPG’s following a
similar approach influenced you? Games such as Deus Ex.
Raphael: Absolutely...[snip]...In fact we were so impressed with the
work from Looking Glass we managed to have some of the team from Thief and Underworld
working with us on the English dialogue writing, speech recording, and audio atmospheres.
Ferrago: The atmosphere of the game could be described as
‘brooding’, from where have you taken your influences?
Raphael: I often asked the audio guys (Christophe Carrier and Kemal
Amarasingham) to listen to the music in the old movie 'Evil Dead', I'll always remember
those freaky out-of-tune violins, creating a devilish ambient. In fact Kemal plays violin
very well, and he actually recorded some of the violin sounds himself for Arx.
Medal of Honor Interview - Composer, Michael
Giacchino
Music for Games has posted an interview with Composer, Michael Giacchino that focuses on work in
Medal of Honor. Here's a snip:
M4G - Have you had a chance to play through MOH: Frontline and
if so what do you think of the final results now that you have had the chance to get some
distance from it? Are you happy with the mix and the balance of the music within the
games' atmosphere, sound effects and dialogue etc?
MG - I think for the most part that it turned out great. I've
watched the game with a few friends who can actually play! They've shown me a lot of
pieces from the game. One of the segments that I was really happy with how it turned out
was a section that takes place in Arnhem, one of the cities which was destroyed during the
war. The Allies were hiding out in the city and instead of taking the time to go through
and find them house-to-house, the Nazis flattened the whole city. They killed a lot of
civilians, a lot of children, I mean it was just a mess. When we were discussing the
history of the game the first request was for big action music to be played during this
section. But one of the things that is always on my list to try and accomplish, I don't
know if I always do it, and I'm sure I don't, but I try to serve the subtext of what's
going in each area of the game. So I said, "Well, this is obviously a very sad thing
going on, why don't we play it totally opposite and make this a really heart-wrenching
piece?" It took a little bit of convincing but we finally did it and I think it
worked well, while all this chaos is going on and you're trying to survive the level. We
were already going to have tons of explosives and the action music would only be competing
with that. I think it's a little bit more suspenseful if at times, it's the opposite.
Cult Action Games: Heretic II
HomeLan Federation and Alliance has posted a feature on Raven's now
classic Heretic II, a game that perhaps was the best implementation of the now
departed Aureal's A3D 2.0 and a great game too.
Reviews
of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.
- Audigy 2
Tom's Hardware has posted a detailed and overall very positive review of
Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy 2. The feature also includes a short look at the new
Inspire 6700 6.1 speaker system as well as an interview with Franco de Bonis, Worldwide
Audio Sales/Marketing Manager for Creative. In the interview de Bonis points to the
latency of the nForce real time Dolby Digital encoding as a problem for "...for
any title that requires precise syncing of audio with the action...". This
caught my eye as I have been testing the nForce with a wide variety of games for the past
couple of weeks and have yet to experience anything remotely in the way of a problem with
syncing of the audio with the action. Thanks to Kuen Foo for the pointer to the review.
- Telex EVSonic XS 2.1 Speaker System
Gamer's Pulse has posted an overall very positive review of the Telex EVSonic XS 2.1 Speaker System. A few minor
comments follow. First, the subwoofer is of course not also a center channel (they call it
a "throw subwoofer center channel" at one spot in the review. I also
think they meant to call it a long throw rather than just throw. Finally, given the wide
range of speakers and quality offered by Cambridge SoundWorks they really should reference
the specific model they used for context in the review.
- Akasa Pax-Mate Acoustic Absortion Mat
The Hardwire has posted a negative review of the Akasa Pax-Mate Acoustic
Absortion Mat. It's possible that their lack of success was related to the lack of
full coverage of their case (due to insufficient material). You can check out some other
overall more positive impressions from previous
reviews linked here.
Other sound news
- M-Audio Revolution and Sonica Theater
M-Audio has released a new
soundcard called Revolution. Features include high-resolution audio output up to
24-bit/192kHz, 24-bit/96kHz recording, 7.1 output and DS3D with EAX support using
Sensaura's Technology. There's no indication on the chip being used. To date cards of this
ilk using Sensaura technology have taken advantage of Envy series of chips (e.g. the
Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96) so that's one possibility but there are different driver level
features advertised for this card (specs indicate driver level support for both
CircleSurround II and TruSurround XT). The bundle includes Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (full
version), MixMan Studio (full version) and PowerDVD XP 4.0 (Dolby Digital EX version). I
don't see any information on pricing but for additional product details you can check out
the link above. They also have a USB
based product called the Sonica Theater. What's particularly unusual is the specs
include DS3D with EAX support. The Sound Blaster Extigy is the only other USB product that
I am aware of with gaming API support. Like the Revolution it offers up to 7.1 output, but
with a maximum of 24/96 playback capability. It also comes with the same software bundle
as the Revolution. Thanks to Richard Ferland for the pointer.
- Klipsch Announces SWS Add on Multimedia Subwoofer
Klipsch has expanded its award-winning ProMedia® line of multimedia speakers to include a
standalone powered subwoofer. Klipsch’s Subwoofer System (SWS™) is the first
product on the market that allows consumers to daisy-chain multiple subwoofers, creating
what Klipsch describes as "customized, upgradeable multimedia systems with
powerful, detailed bass impact". Operating from
100Hz down to "the lowest octave", the Klipsch Subwoofer System houses
an 8-inch, long-throw driver and a dedicated 100-watt amplifier in a rear-ported
enclosure. It provides pass-through connections that connect the computer sound card to
the speakers for as many as six audio channels, making it easily adaptable to any system,
from stereo to 5.1 surround sound. (Future Klipsch ProMedia speaker systems will have a
dedicated SWS output jack for single-wire connection and master volume control.) A
signal-sensing auto-on/off circuit and a level-control module further simplify
installation and operation. The Klipsch ProMedia Subwoofer System will retail for $149.99
U.S. MSRP and it will eventually be available for purchase from the web store at klipsch.com. Additional details can be found in the full
press release as well as in an announcement at the Klipsch website where you will also find some
images.
- New discs: Unfriendly but better sound
"New discs: Unfriendly but better sound" is the title of an article
looking at DVD-Audio and SACD technology over at CNN.com Technology. The article
includes a look at how watermarks and copy protection schemes for both DVD-Audio and SACD
currently work. A couple of comments on some of the contents. First, there are in fact
players currently on the market that will play both formats and all DVD-Audio players that
I have seen are also DVD players and do have a S/PDIF output for use with Dolby Digital or
DTS tracks found on DVD movies (but not DVD-Audio material).
- SONICblue Reports Revenue Growth of More Than 43%
SONICblue Incorporated reported third quarter results, achieving net revenue for the
quarter of $78.4 million, representing a year-over-year increase of more than 43 percent.
SONICblue reported a net loss for the third quarter of $32.4 million or ($0.33) per share.
This compares with a net loss of $55.3 million or ($0.62) per share for the third quarter
of 2001. According to Marcus Smith, chief financial officer, SONICblue their Go-Video
product line continued to be the primary driver of revenue growth in the third quarter
with the combination DVD / VCR being their highest volume product. For lots more details
you can check out
the full press release.
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.
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