The Week in Review: May 26-June 1, 2003

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

• New CMedia 8738 Drivers
  Jetway has posted v.644 WDM drivers for their CMedia CMI-8738 products. You can grab them from this page. Thanks to Loris Casagrande for the pointer.

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Composer Chance Thomas Interview
  GameZone has posted an interview with composer Chance Thomas. Thomas is the man behind the musical theme cycle for Vivendi-Universal's Lord of the Rings game compositions and he also composed the music for the Academy Award-winning short film, The ChubbChubbs! Here's a snip:

  Q: Have you ever been involved with the sound effects or sound editing aspect of a game or movie?

  CT: Oh yes. HUGEsound has produced the sound effects for several projects. I am currently doing sound design and music for a game under development by SierraTel Entertainment. It’s a great experience, as sound design adds a whole new dimension to my work.

  Q: What sort of game material was provided for you while composing music for the Lord of the Rings games? (Pictures, sketches, animated sequences, game descriptions, etc.)

  CT: I began by thoroughly researching the text of Tolkien’s literature. As I mentioned above, I’ve been a student of the Tolkien works for 5 years. Beyond that I’ve seen game prototypes, movies, screen shots, sketches, game designs, spread sheets, you name it.

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• M-Audio Revolution 7.1
  Inside Mac Games has posted a review of the M-Audio Revolution 7.1. As you would expect from the title of the web site, this review looks at the Revolution 7.1's performance in a Mac. The review is overall positive. One complaint is no multichannel analog Dolby Digital decoding. On the PC that would be the job of the bundled WinDVD so this would appear to be a limitation of the Mac software DVD player.

• M-Audio Revolution 7.1
  Gaming In 3D has posted a review of the M-Audio Revolution 7.1. Unlike most reviews I have seen of the Revolution 7.1, this one is very negative. On top of complaints about quirky drivers (which I have seen before) there are some off-base comments knocking the small speaker modes which are very critical for use with multichannel analog input receivers and some 5.1 multimedia speaker systems.

• Audigy2 Platinum eX
  X-bit Labs has posted a detailed and overall postive review of the Audigy2 Platinum eX. Thanks to Kuen Foo for the pointer.

• M-Audio Revolution 7.1
  Firing Squad has posted an extemely positive review of the M-Audio Revolution 7.1.

• OG 5050 5.1 Speaker System
  Geek Shelter has posted a very negative review of the OG 5050 5.1 speaker system from a company call the DCT Factory.

• Altec Lansing 621 Speaker System
  Ownt.com has posted a mixed but overall positive review of the Altec Lansing 621 Speaker System. The main complaint was they would have liked more treble from the system.

• Jazz Speakers J9940W Wireless 5.1 Speaker System
  Monkey Review has posted a very positive review of the Jazz Speakers J9940W Wireless 5.1 speaker system.

• AudiaX FM Linker
  Envy News has posted a mixed but overall positive review of the AudiaX FM Linker. This device links an audio device such as an MP3 player or PDA to an FM radio. It transmits in the FM Band wirelessly and can be set to a multitude of frequencies.

• iRock 730i Digital Audio Player
  Envy News has posted an overall positive review of the iRock 730i Digital Audio Player. Boasting 128MB of internal storage and support for up to 128MB extra in the form of SmartMedia card, the 730i is small enough to fit in your palm – closed! … Here’s a snip

  The irock! 730i is a small lightweight and stylish unit that caters to the people that want to listen to their music during their walk/jog/run around the neighborhood, doing some yard work, or just lying around the house. This is by no means meant to compete against the travel-around-the-country-with-all-your-music iPod from Apple. With the 730i and its 128MB of internal storage and SmartMedia expansion slot, it does bear some similarities to the iPod, notably the large graphics-capable LCD display, long battery life, and modest size.

• SONY DRU-500A Combo-Drive
  X-bit Labs has posted an overall very positive and detailed review of the SONY DRU-500A Combo-Drive. The unit supports both the DVD+R/+RW and DVD-R/-RW standards.

• Liteon XJ-HD166S 16x DVD Drive
  Techtastic has posted an overall positive review of the Liteon XJ-HD166S 16x DVD Drive.

• Thermaltake Xaser Silent Purepower™ 480W PSU Video
  3dGameMan has posted a review of the Thermaltake Xaser Silent Purepower™ 480W PSU. Here's their text introduction:

  This product stands out from most other power supplies because you can manually adjust the two fans with a dial. They include two fan controllers, one for the front 5 1/4" drive bay and one for the back PCI slot. Also, this PSU is very quiet at only 17dBA under normal operating conditions.

Other sound news

• Altec Lansing Proudly Reintroduces Legendary A7 Speaker
  Altec Lansing's "Voice of the Theatre" was the first and only speaker series to be approved by the Research Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, making it the worldwide standard for motion picture playback. Introduced in the early 1950's, the A7 was the pinnacle of the "Voice of the Theatre" line, defining an era of sound reproduction for movie theaters, recording studios, even rock groups lasting nearly 40 years.

  For many audio engineers and other discriminating audio lovers, the A7's unique sound was unmistakable ... completely memorable ... and totally unique. It quite probably has become the most listened-to speaker system in the world, thrilling millions of theater goers and others over its long and distinguished reign.

  Altec Lansing now celebrates its heritage by reintroducing the incomparable A7 "Voice of the Theatre" loudspeaker system for a new generation of audio devotees. Manufactured in the USA using the same materials, the same specs and production drawings, even the same tools used in the original product, the A7 is once again ready to grace the homes and studios of consumers and other collectors who can appreciate an audio classic.

  For lots more detail you can check out the full press release.

• Plextor Introduces DVD+R/RW Drive with Dual-Interface
  Plextor Corporation has announced the new PX-504UF DVD+R/RW drive. The external DVD/CD burner delivers fast 4X DVD+R Writing, 2.4X DVD+RW Rewriting, and 12X max DVD-Reading; the versatile 6-in-1 drive also supports 16X CD Writing, 10X CD-Rewriting, and 40X CD-Reading.

  The PX-504UF DVD+R/RW drive features Plextor's first dual interface to support both Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and full-speed compliant IEEE-1394 FireWire for high-speed data transfer. Now PlexWriter customers can easily share a single DVD/CD recorder among multiple Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows-based personal computer systems. The new Plextor drive also bundles a package of premium digital media software from Roxio, including Easy CD Creator® 5.3 DVD Edition, and PhotoSuite 5 SE and Toast 5 Lite.

  For additional details you can check out the full press release.

• Sony Unveils New 'PSX' Game Machine
  Sony Corp, under pressure to cut costs and roll out hot new products after dismal earnings news, unveiled a game machine on Wednesday, the "PSX," that puts a TV tuner, DVD recorder and game player in a single box. It marked the second announcement in two weeks of a new gaming gadget by the world's largest consumer electronics maker, which is eager to inject some of the pizazz of its best-selling PlayStation 2 into its languishing home electronics line-up. For more coverage you can check out the following links:
  Sony Unveils New 'PSX' Game Machine, Mum on 'PS3' Sony Shares Plans for New DVD Product Sony Unveils 'Crossover' PlayStation 2 Sony Shows Revamped PlayStation 2 Machine Sony Merges PlayStation, Home Theater Into "PSX"

• Xbox Music Mixer E3 Coverage
  Firing Squad has posted coverage of Microsoft's E3 announcement of the Xbox Music Mixer. Here's a snip:

  For E3, Microsoft revealed its Xbox Music Mixer. As the name implies, this software facilitates music, but not video. Basically, the Xbox Music Mixer turns your Xbox into one gigantic MP3 player on steroids. At its very core, the Xbox Music Mixer is just an over-glorified version of WinAmp, which makes the product’s $39.99 MSRP seem a little ridiculous. It does come with a microphone, however, which gives way to the start of the over-glorification. Yes, the Xbox Music Mixer can turn your game console into a karaoke machine, though we were thankfully spared of any demonstration of the microphone in action throughout Microsoft’s demos. The final product will be shipped with over a dozen karaoke songs for you to start singing to right away, but the neat tricks come in when you want to start singing to your own favorite tunes. Included in the software is a special filter which attempts to remove the vocal track from your music files. Also thanks (or no thanks) to the built in hard drive, users will be able to record and save their performances for playback later.

• Apple limits iTunes file sharing
  Apple Computer has limited a music-sharing feature from the latest version of iTunes after some Mac owners used it to swap songs over the Internet.
  In an update to iTunes released Tuesday, the Mac maker removed a feature that had been exploited to allow Mac users to swap songs over the Internet. Version 4.0.1 of iTunes removes the ability to share iTunes play lists over the Internet, limiting the feature to streaming songs over a local network.

  For the whole story check out C/Net News.

• SFX Kit
  Music For Games has posted a review of the SFX Kit. Here's a snip from their introduction to set the stage:

  A rousing round of applause to Sound Ideas and Tommy Tallarico Studios for their new sound effects library designed especially for the game and interactive entertainment industries. The SKX Kit was released at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Jose to much enthusiasm among the game sound design crowd. Not only does this library contain nearly 20,000 individual sound effects in 110 categories on 7 CD's, but they have indeed won our hearts by presenting them in .wav format - it's almost a dream come true! No more tedious auditioning of audio CD's, no more ripping, no more editing just to save to a useful format. And to top it all off, these are 'game ready' sound effects, just drop them into a game and off you go. The creativity is excellent, and while no discriminating sound designer would use stock sounds, there are also plenty of useful elements to help create some fresh and inventive sounds.

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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