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The Week in
Review: May 19-25, 2003
Last week's features at
3DsoundSurge
Last week's sound news
Drivers and bugs
New
games, demos, patches and bugs
Creative Enter the Matrix Site and Developer
Interview
Creative has launched a new site to feature the EAX Advanced HD supporting "Enter the
Matrix". The site features an interview with the
Game Developers. Here's a snip:
Q: Did you borrow any sound effects from the movie and work with
the sound designers for Matrix Reloaded?
A: We worked very close with the team that worked on the movie. The
cinematics and FMV's were edited and mixed by Danetracks, under supervision of Bryan
Watkins. The in-game sounds were designed under supervision by Shiny. We took a lot of
time trying to make items like ambiences and weapons the same in the game movies as during
gameplay so that a smooth aural transition would occur. We noticed early on that the
original matrix sounds were not very usable during game-play, since perspectives and aural
"size" of the game were mostly not fitting with those sounds. So 95% the in-game
sounds were redone from scratch, and were also used in the cinematics and FMV's where
cross-over was needed.
Q: What should we be listening for in ETM and what acoustic
innovations in the game are you the most excited about?
A: We started with all custom edited sounds and recordings. Nothing
came out of the standard libraries most people use. Next the approach we used to script
the sounds was beyond the scope of anything we have done previously. With a rumored number
of 3000 special moves we scripted over 40,000 different sound entries. We covered
everything from cloth foley to footsteps, hand to hand combat moves to body falls. Plus
with the variety of bullet ricochets and impacts when you start shooting you feel like you
are just tearing up a room with bullets. The sound system works in a way that a sound a
generated on-the-fly almost. For example, footsteps are created out of 30-50 millisecond
long samples, which then are put back together in various sequences to create the
variations needed to make it sound less game-like. To give you an idea of the scope of the
project, there were over 30-40 sounds per footstep surface alone.
The interview among other topics also includes coverage of areas
such as EAX Advanced HD usage and a features wish list for future sound cards.
News from Composer Bill Brown
The web site of composer Bill Brown has been updated with new music, trailers and E3
photos. The new music tracks are from the E3 Trailer of
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle and a new track from the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (Xbox) E3
Trailer. For more on these and other updates you can vist Bill's official
news page.
Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3
players.
- Nexus NX-4000 Real Silent Power Supply
Hardware Extreme has posted a positive review of the Nexus
NX-4000 Real Silent Power Supply. According to the specs this unit should run at only
21.7 dB when at idle level and the review concluded it is indeed quiet.
Other sound news
- DVDigest: April 2003
Digit-Life has posted an article titled DVDigest:
April 2003. In it they summarize some interesting recent DVD related product
announcements. Here's a snip:
At present the market offers ~600 SACD and ~480 DVD-Audio discs.
Most SACD records were produced by Sony Music (including Columbia, Legacy and Epic).
Universal keeps on remaking old hits (for example, Police and Peter Gabriel), and making
new records from Roots, Wallflowers and Shaggy in the SACD format. Warner Music (Warner,
Electra, Atlantic and Rhino) actively promotes the DVD-Audio format. EMI is currently
dealing with both formats.
- Pioneer Introduces Multiple Format DVD/CD Writer
Pioneer Electronics today announced a new DVD/CD internal writer to be available in June
of this year. Pioneer's sixth generation recordable drive, the DVR-A06, will provide a
better solution to consumers looking for worry-free DVD and CD recording. Since several similar DVD recording formats are actively being promoted in
the marketplace, confusion has become a growing problem for potential buyers. End users
have been forced to sift through a bewildering array of drive and media types in order to
find the best recordable DVD solution for their needs. In response, Pioneer's new DVR-A06
DVD/CD writer solves the problem by supporting the DVD Forum's DVD-R and DVD-RW disc
formats as well as the +R and +RW formats.
You can get more details in the full
press release and additional information in related articles on PCWorld and
CNET
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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