The Week in Review: July 15-21, 2002

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

• Sound Blaster Live! DriverPack for Windows XP/2000
  Creative Labs has released the Sound Blaster Live! DriverPack for Windows 2000/XP. It contains "optimized drivers as well as application updates to enhance overall product performance under Windows XP or 2000". At the time of this post it doesn't appear to be available on the US servers but it is available from both the Asian and European servers. This should be the same version as what is shipping on the CD you can order from Creative.

• PlayCenter 3 update and CD Recording
  I have not tried it myself yet but according to one of our readers (Dr. M) will the PlayCenter 3 update that was part of the Live Driver pack (also available as separate update) not include the CD recording feature even if you currently use a version of Playcenter that includes it. He also offer a solution to the problem that you may want to try:

  On www.Nomadness.net site they have an older version of PlayCenter3 available dated May 14, 2002.
  Unzip it to a folder on your desktop.
  Find the folder in it called CDWrite.
  Copy all files (but not the folders) to your Creative PlayCenter main folder.

  Then copy one copy of CTCDRRes.dll from your language of choice folder also to your Creative PlayCenter directory. You've now copied a total of 7 files.
  You now have CD Maker in 3.02.52. Kewl.
  
  But, wait, isn't there a more recent version? I want that updated too.

  Ok, go to Creative's tech support page (the American site anyway has it), select SoundBlaster Audigy, and any flavor Audigy card, go to the driver's section and download DMUpdate.exe. Run it, it will recognize and upgrade your version of disc maker. Ta-da.

• Audigy/Live Drivers CD Now Available in North America
  Harvey Fong (Creative Labs Technical Marketing Specialist) made the following post in news group yesterday:

  The CD with the .244 drivers for Audigy and Live! products became available for ordering from the Creative Customer Service Center this morning. Orders may be placed by calling 1-800-998-1000. There is no charge for the CD itself, however there are charges for shipping and handling which can vary (e.g. U.S. or Canada). S&H charges will be in $USD.

  In another post he mentioned that the web update will include slightly later versions of the applications and unlike the Live!Driver pack it will probably also include a later version of the driver. Unlike the Live!Driver pack online that only supports WindowsXP/2000 the CD support Win9x/ME including includes new VXD drivers, no word on when they will be available for download.

• Sound Blaster Live! Macintosh v1.1 Web Update
  Creative Labs has released updated drivers (v1.1) for the Sound Blaster Live! Macintosh. According to the Asian site they were released July 11 but the US site claims they were released almost a month earlier. Anyway here's what's new:

  New features included in this release : -
  Preset Auditioning
  Preset Editing
  Import
  SoundFont Help
  Enhanced features includes : -
  Audio Fidelity
  Power Management
  Roxio CD Spin Doctor
  Quicksilver Microphone Recording
  Playback Volume
  Large SoundFont Bank Support
  Multiple Librarian Windows
  Keyboard Mouse Text
  External MIDI Preset Change

• NOMAD Jukebox 3 Firmware Update
  Creative Labs has released new firmware (Version 1.11.07) for its NOMAD Jukebox 3 for users using Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium and Windows XP. Firmware enhancement includes:
  1. Enhanced language support
     This firmware upgrade provides additional display support for Korean and Traditional Chinese.
  2. User-defined EQ preset
     In Advanced EQ, you can now define your own equalizer setting.
  3. Improved long ID3 tag support
     This upgrade enhances Creative PlayCenter''''s ability to display large numbers of tracks with lengthy ID3 tag information.
  4. Wired Remote recording
     The Jukebox''''s buttons are now disabled during recording with the Wired Remote.
  5. Improved WMA playback
     The fast forward and reverse controls now work better when playing WMA tracks.

• New Jukebox 3 drivers
  Creative Labs has released new drivers (v1.01.02) for Jukebox 3

• DMX 6fire systems Drivers
  Terratec has released a minor driver upgrade (98SE/ME/2000 and XP) for its DMX 6fire soundcard where the only improvement is said to be a "BugFix only for microWAVE Extension".

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Clan 'Mech Pack for MechWarrior 4 is gold
  Microsoft has announced that the Clan 'Mech Pack for MechWarrior 4 is gold, and is expected in stores in early August.

• Outlaw Golf for Xbox takes advantage of Dolby Digital
  Outlaw Gold for Xbox takes advantage of the Xbox surround capabilities according to a recent review on Avault. Here's what they had to say:

  Sound FX (5/5): It's very rare that a game manages to make you laugh out loud. Thanks to some brilliant voice work by the entire crew you'll find yourself chuckling often, and occasionally bursting out with a guffaw as you play through Outlaw Golf. The characters not only have varying reactions depending on how well they play and make each shot, but they have many recordings for the same animations, meaning you may see the same image but hear something entirely different. Similarly, the commentator's over the top style injects some much needed life into the action, making comments like, "OHHHH! That was so close you could taste it! [umm, numm, mnaaa, slurp] Oh yeah, that WAS close!" The environmental effects are there, although somewhat muted, but rest assured that when a train passes overhead you'll hear it in the proper Dolby position, and that the crowd's cheers and jeers will be appropriately placed.

  Musical Score (3/5): Each character has theme music that colors the menus and these range from the Latin themed stylings for El Suave, to the suggestive funk riffs when you're playing Summer and Autumn. There's not much to these riffs, but they do color the menus admirably and remind you of your characters' unique charm.

• Face of Mankind will support 3D sound
  In the second part of RPG Vault's interview with producer and lead programmer Marko Dieckmann he revealed the following about the games aural aspects:

  Jonric: Are sound and music elements that will be emphasized? What sound format are you using? How much music will there be and who is creating it?

  Marko Dieckmann: The engine uses the Miles Sound System for sound and music, which also supports 3D sound effects. We'll put quite a lot emphasis on these areas, as stunning sound effects create really exciting gaming experiences. We have a professional music composer who will create an orchestral soundtrack for Face of Mankind.
  The background music and sounds will change depending on the location. There will also be differences in the musical mood if you are fighting or just cruising around without any danger nearby

• Buzzing Cars supports 3D sound
  A review of Buzzing Cars on Avault reveals that the game takes advantage of 3D sound:

  Sound FX (3.5/5): Buzzing Cars does not contain many sound effects, but those that are here are well done. You hear a full, throaty engine rumble, which changes appropriately as you accelerate or decelerate; it would have been nice, however, if the sounds made by the different vehicles were a bit more distinctive from one another. The squeals of the tires are exceedingly realistic, and the pleasant warble of the pickup noise is satisfying. The sound of collisions is also authentic, sometimes making you wince at the impact. But there are few ambient environmental noises to add credibility to the racing environments. Perhaps most notably, this is one of the few arcade racers where there is full and effective support for 3D hardware sound.

• Half-Life OpForce Nuclear Winter
  Nuclear Winter a new single-player episode for Half-Life: Opposing Force can be downloaded from Loki's Missions

• Civilization III Patch
  Firaxis has released a new patch (1.29F) for Civilization III

• WarCraft III Patch
  Blizzard has now released downloadable patches for WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos. It's the same version (1.01b) that was available using the auto updater last week.

• Mobile Forces Patch
  Real Time Worlds and Rage Software has released a patch for its vehicular first-person shooter Mobile Forces.

• Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns patch
  Lucas Arts has released a patch (v1.1) for Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns

• The Sum of All Fears Patch
  UbiSoft has released a patch(1.1.1.0) for The Sum of All Fears.

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Santa Cruz
  Viper's Lair has posted a fairly detailed review of Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. The review is rather mixed but overall positive even though they think the Live 5.1 offers a better bang for the buck considering how inexpensive the OEM models are. A rather unusual opinion in this review is that the Santa Cruz offer slightly better audio quality than the Audigy but falls clearly behind the Live 5.1. While there is many that prefer the Santa Cruz over the Audigy it's not many reviews if any I've read that prefer the Live 5.1 over the Audigy or Santa Cruz when it comes to audio quality.

• Hoontech ST Audio DSP24 MKII Professional Sound Card
  Digit-Life has posted a review of Hoontech ST Audio DSP24 MKII Professional Sound Card. In the review they compare it to Hoontech's DSP24 Value. Digit-Life had plenty of complaints including Windows 2000/XP drivers and poor audio quality (objective measurement) considering the price and market it targets.

• NVIDIA nForce2 Previews
  There's plenty of nForce2 previews around the web. As mentioned the APU remains identical to the original nForce-D. The only really new when it comes to audio is that there will now exist nForce chipsets with just basic AC97 audio without any DSP. Another semi new bit is, as mentioned, nVidia's SoundStorm which is just another name for nVidia's reference ACR card that provides all of the inputs and outputs necessary to take advantage of the APU.

  None of the previews includes benchmarks, it will take a few more weeks before we see that and you won't be able to buy one until September. Here's a list of previews that I think includes most of them

  1. Anandtech
  2. Tom's Hardware
  3. Tech Report
  4. GamePC
  5. Hardware Accelerated
  6. VIA Hardware
  7. DeviantPC
  8. Bjorn3D
  9. 3DGPU
  10. SimHQ
  11. Socket-A
  12. Tweak3D
  13. nV News
  14. Amdmb.com
• Monsoon PlanarMedia 9
  Game Spot has posted an overall very positive review of Monsoon's recently introduced PlanarMedia 9, which is a $99 2.1 flat panel speaker system.

• Altec Lansing 641
  Gaming Illustrated has posted an overall very positive review of Altec Lansing's 641 4.1 speaker system. One thing worth noting is that while a corner placement is often a good one for HI-FI subs, multimedia subs don't always fare best in that location. While it will definitely increase the effective output it can sometime be at the expense of also gaining boomy or muddy bass - in other words, treat each setup individually rather than generally.

• Altec Lansing 621
  Inside Mac Games has posted a review of Altec Lansing's 621 2.1 speaker system. Like pretty much every review I have read of this system this one is very positive. Thanks to TaiWei for the pointer.

• ABIT MediaXP
  Active-Hardware has done a review of Abit MediaXP multimedia unit. As other reviews they found it to work very well with negatives being it only works with some of Abit motherboards.

• Toshiba Gigabeat MEG50JS MP3 Player
  Designtechnica has posted an article about Toshiba's Gigabeat MEG50JS, a portable music player which features a removable 5GB hard disk and supports MP3, WMA or WAV digital audio formats.

• Mstar's DVR-A03 External DVD-RW with FireWire
  Got Apex has posted a review of Mstar's DVR-A03 External DVD-RW Drive which feature a firewire connection. The drive that retails for about $450 comes bundled with Prassi PrimoDVD 2.0, Sonic Solutions MYDVD 2.3 and CyberLink PowerDVD 3.0. It's overall a positive review (9/10) despite complaints about price, recording performance and MyDVD (too buggy).

Other sound news

• SRS Labs' Circle Surround II In Orion's new Software DVD Player
  SRS Labs has announced that it has licensed its Circle Surround II ™ (CS II) and TruSurround XT ™ audio technologies to Orion Studios, a multimedia software development company, for the latest version of their software DVD player, DirectDVD. DirectDVD is the first software product for the PC to feature SRS Labs’ advanced multichannel audio decoding technology, CS II, which creates up to 6.1 channels of high quality surround sound from mono, typical stereo sources (such as MP3 files), and other matrix surround encoded material.

  The player also includes SRS Labs’ patented TruSurround XT virtual surround sound technology featuring a headphone option. Orion anticipates releasing the new DirectDVD software player by the end of this month. You can find more details in the press release.

• NVIDIA Unveils The nForce2 Family of Platform Processors
  NVIDIA has unveiled the NVIDIA nForce™2—the Company’s newest family of highly integrated platform processors. Designed for PCs and motherboards using AMD Athlon™ XP and Duron™ processors, NVIDIA nForce2 Platform Processors utilize HyperTransport™, a high-speed data bus, for internal platform communications, and deliver the highest level of PC performance due to special NVIDIA-engineered memory optimizations and other system level innovations traditionally found only at the CPU level.

  At the high end of the audio front nothing has changed, with the integrated Audio Processing Unit (APU) and real-time Dolby® Digital encoder being the distinguishing features. However, NVIDIA has also revealed the purpose of the SoundStorm name that fueled speculation a few months ago that they were going to enter into the sound card market.

  That's not the case and while NVIDIA themselves today announced "NVIDIA SoundStorm," as a "new audio product aimed at redefining the baseline of PC audio offered as part of an integrated desktop PC platform". What it really appears to be is a co-marketing tool that will be available to those PC OEMs and motherboards manufacturers who choose to exploit the full functionality of the nForce2 MCP Platform Processor’s integrated Audio Processing Unit, six channel analog audio-out, and S/PDIF-out for true Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Specifically those partners will be qualified to use the NVIDIA SoundStorm logo and brand on various marketing collateral and activities, including product marketing materials, box packaging and advertisements.

  For additional details beyond audio on the nForce 2 you can check out the full press release.

• NVIDIA and Shuttle Computer Open the Digital Media Gateway
  NVIDIA and Shuttle Computer Group have announced an extensive partnership that will lead to the design of innovative new digital media platforms based on NVIDIA's NVIDIA nForce(TM)2 Platform Processors and Shuttle Computer's small-form factor PC designs.

  To transform everyday PCs into truly digital media gateways, Shuttle is currently developing a series of small form factor PCs-capable of powering homes, offices, and home-theater environments-using NVIDIA's nForce2 series of integrated Platform Processors as the technological foundation. You can find more details in the press release.

• VideoLogic Systems Becomes Pure Digital
  VideoLogic Systems - a division of Imagination Technologies - has announced that it is changing its name to 'PURE Digital'.

  VideoLogic introduced its PURE brand name in October 2001 for a range of premium home entertainment and consumer audio products including the acclaimed PURE DRX-601EX portable DAB digital radio. The change in name reflects the changing nature of the division's product range, which has broadened from its PC video and graphics focused origins to include award-winning consumer products in support of the new technology areas being developed by Imagination. These already include digital radio and home audio systems, and will in future encompass digital video in TV and DVD's and wireless communication enabling advanced digital media distribution in the home environment. You can find more details in the press release.

  In the PC audio market VideoLogic systems has been mostly famous for the SonicFury (identical to Turtle Beach Santa Cruz) and the Sirocco Series (the most famous one being the recently cancelled Sirocco Crossfire).

• Monsoon Multimedia line-up in Australia soon?
  Paul Hauken forwarded the following message from Level 9 Sound Designs about when people in Australia will be able to buy some of their multimedia systems (http://www.ausaudio.com.au/ offers some of the non multimedia Monsoon systems)

  Paul,
  We hope to have distributors for multimedia product set up in AU in the next couple of months. The models that will be available are the MH-505, PM-7 and PM-9.
  Thank you for your interest in Monsoon Audio.
  Mike

  Customer Service Rep
  Level 9 Sound Designs Inc.- Producers of the award-winning
  Flat Panel Audio Systems for Home and Multimedia
  cservice@level9sound.com.
  Toll-free 1-877-PCAudio
  Phone: (604) 448-8556 Ext. 758
  Fax: (604) 448-8511
  9 am - 5 pm Pacific, Monday through Friday

• Harman Multimedia Introduces New Speaker System With A Sci-Fi `Personality'
  Harman Multimedia has announced JBL CREATURE(TM), a three-piece speaker system featuring cutting-edge sci-fi design. At a suggested retail price of $129, JBL CREATURE audio is immediately available at selected Apple retail stores and in August at all Apple retail locations, major electronic retailers and online at directly from Harmon MultiMedia. You can find more details in the press release.

• Apple Unveils New iPods
  Apple has announced the introduction of the next generation iPod(TM), available in three configurations: a 5GB model at $299 (US); a 10GB model that is 10 percent thinner for $399 (US); and a new 20GB model that can hold 4,000 songs for $499 (US). Both the 10GB and the 20GB models feature the industry's first solid-state touch wheel for incredible precision, accuracy and durability, and include a new Apple carrying case and wired remote. The new iPods will be available for the first time to both Mac® and Windows customers. You can find more details in the full press release.

• SONICblue Introduces Rio 900 Digital Audio Player
  SONICblue has announced the immediate availability of Rio® 900 -- a pocket-sized, skip-free portable player perfect for music enthusiasts with active lifestyles. Building on SONICblue's award-winning Rio 800 design, the Rio 900 features 192MB of memory for up six hours of music, a rechargeable battery that delivers up to 10 hours of listening time, support for MP3, WMA and Audible formats and a full accessory kit, including a Rio car cassette adapter. As with all of SONICblue's Rio players, the Rio 900 is compatible with both PC and Mac computers and ships with customized software for each platform. The MSRP is $250. You can find more details in the full press release.

• Pioneer Digital Network Entertainment Will Support for Windows Media 9 Series
  Microsoft and Pioneer Electronics have announced that Pioneer's upcoming Digital Network Entertainment(TM) (DNE) products will support the new Microsoft® Windows Media(TM) 9 Series, previously code-named Windows Media "Corona." The DigitaLibrary(TM), which is the first in Pioneer's line of DNE products, is scheduled to be launched later this year as the first home theater device to include playback support for Microsoft's Windows Media Video technology. You can find more details in the press release.

Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurge

• Reviews 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.
  

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