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The Week in
Review: July 7-13, 2003
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
New
games, demos, patches and bugs
Updated DefOpenAL32.dll for UT2003
Unreal's Technology website offers
an updated DefOpenAL32.dll (v0.9.9.1) for UT2003 version 2225. It fix spatialization
issues with the default software mixer.
- First Live Symphonic Game Music Concert of the
World Outside of Japan
Composer Bill Brown has announced that a rousing suite of his Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
music will be performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra as part of the first Live
Symphonic Game Music Concert of the world outside of Japan. This event will take place on
August 20th 2003 as part of the opening ceremony of the GC - Games Convention in Leipzig,
Germany, a leading games industry convention in Europe. Event
producer Thomas Böcker comments that the 90 minute event will feature the greatest titles
of recent years like Final Fantasy, Medal of Honor, Tomb Raider, Headhunter, Outcast and
more. "Bill Brown is a very well-known composer for many outstanding games. His music
always adds that special atmosphere to entertainment productions that makes them shine.
The music for 'Raven Shield' continues his story of success. An event that claims to
perform the greatest hits of recent years cannot be without Brown's work." The
concert takes place at the concert hall Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. Tickets will be available
online in July.
To commemorate this special event, three more of Bill's Raven Shield
MP3 music tracks have just been added to Bill's Tom Clancy series music page.
Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3
players.
- Envy24PT Audio Controller based Motherboard
Reviews
Hardocp and the
Tech Report have posted reviews of the Chaintech 9CJS ZENITH which
features and integrated Envy24PT Audio Controller. This is one of the first 8-channel
motherboards that also has 24/96 digital outputs. Both reviews come to overall positive
conclusions on the audio capabilities of the board.
- QuietPC QuietFeet
Big Bruin has posted
a positive review of QuietPC QuietFeet. Here's QuietPC description of its new product:
“QuietFeet™ are designed for maximum absorption
efficiency and damping of unwanted audible vibration. Computer noise can be transmitted
through the feet of your computer and be amplified by whatever surface your computer is
sitting on. If you have your computer sitting on a desk, the computer shelf under the desk
or hard floor (not carpeted) for example, the vibrations from your hard drives, CD ROM/DVD
ROM, fans and other noisy components travel right through the chassis and poorly-designed
computer feet into the surface of whatever the computer is sitting on. If the surface
where your computer is located is a 'resonant' surface such as a wooden floor or desk, the
vibrations are acoustically amplified by the resonant surface the same way the strings of
a guitar are amplified by the wooden body of the guitar.”
- 321 Studios DVD X Copy
3DAI has posted a positive review of 321 Studios DVD X Copy software.
Other sound news
- Memorex Premieres Its Feature Packed Dual DVD
Drive
Memorex takes the guesswork out of DVD recording with this summer's blockbuster Dual
Format DVD Recorder. The new Memorex internal dual drive is shipping now, offering support
for both DVD+ and DVD- recording formats. The drive writes to DVD+R/-R discs at 4X and
CD-R discs at 16X; rewrites DVD+RW discs at 2.4x, DVD-RW discs at 2X and CD-RW discs at
10X; and reads DVD-ROM at 12X and CD-ROM at 32X speeds. The Memorex Dual Format DVD
Recorder will be in stores this month at a suggested retail price of $329.99. You can find more details in
the press release.
- Toshiba Launches Next Generation DVD/CD
Recordable Drive
Toshiba launches next generation DVD/CD recordable drive for desktop computers with a new
upgrade kit that offers 4x recording speeds. The kit is available for just $249. The
SD-R5112 supports write speeds of 4x for DVD-R, 2x for DVD-RW, 16x for CD-R and 10x for
CD-RW. In addition to the drive itself, the upgrade kit also includes Cyberlink PowerDVD,
Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro and Pinnacle (VOB)instant CD/DVD software, along with DVD-R,
DVD-RW,CD-R and CD-RW blank media. You can find more details in
the press release.
- Kano Introduces Dual-Interface DVD+RW Portable
Drive
Kano Technologies is introducing its SLIM-K2Xtreme(TM) portable DVD+RW drive. The
FireWire/USB 2.0 combo drive allows users to easily add fast, external DVD burning
capability to a laptop or desktop. This small drive measures 5.5" x 6" x
.75" and weighs only 10 ounces. It features on-the-fly video, audio and data
recording - and it burns up to 4.7GB of data on a DVD, over six times the storage capacity
of a CD. Its write speeds are 2.4 x 2.4 x 8 for DVDs and 16 x 8 x 24 for CD-RWs. The
Slim-K2Xtreme is now available from PC Connection and MacConnection at an MSRP of $399.00.
You can find more
details in the 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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