THE AweSOME 5 : CREATIVE Sound Blaster Live!

Introduction

Everyone's babe is here to show itself again. CREATIVE rolls off its year with the MEGA launch of the Sound Blaster Live! product which is aimed for professionals as well as hi-fi enthusiast. CREATIVE aims to satisify everyone with a bit of everything. It seems greedy but never underestimate its yet to harness power.

CREATIVE built the LIVE! based on a powerful chipset, the 'EMU10K1'. This chip is also onboard the Live! Value card. You will definately reap the fruits later when CREATIVE came out with it's upgrading Live!Ware Program which provides the newest enhancements and applications for Sound Blaster Live!, which are actually available right now (we'll talk about this in the later issue). Creative has continued to develop and extend the power and potential of the EMU10K1 processor used in the Sound Blaster Live! family. The capabilities of Sound Blaster Live! will grow with time as they unleash more of the untapped power, performance and functionality inherent in the EMU10K1 design. Hope that's a good news to all Live! family of users out there.

Sound Blaster Live! comes in a fairly pretty box as the Live! comes with of lots of softwares and the extra "Audio Extension" card or commonly called Digital I/O card which lets any user hook up their sound card to any external digital device, MIDI device through DIN connectors, and/or multi-channel digital amplifier. Also, the Sound Blaster Live! is capable of connecting up to 8 (eight) digital speakers. Imaging having a AC-3 capable system on your PC? That is what you can get once CREATIVE launch the 'DeskTop Theater 5.1' speakers system which allow full home-theatre feeling to appear right in front of your monitor screen.

Not forgetting the marvellous whole bundled, the following is what you can find in your purchase.

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Live! Value Installation CD-ROM
Detailed 30+ Pages User Manual
01 x Sound Blaster Live! Value Installation CD
01 x Sound Blaster Live! Value Application CD (Incl. UNREAL EAX demo)

The software bundled in the CD are as follows :

Unreal Special Edition : The most anticipating game of 98' with full support for Environmental Audio Extension,it's featuring new 3D action game engine based on environments-fully realised worlds more elaborate than any dungeons or cities experienced before.
Sonic Foundry Sound Forge XP 40 : Exclusive to Sound Blaster Live!
Cakewalk Express Gold : Exclusive to Sound Blaster Live!
Mixman Technologies Mixman Studio : Exclusive to Sound Blaster Live!
Creative PlayCenter : An intergrated multimedia player that allows you to play media files of any format and to enhance them with Environmental effects and multi-speaker surround sound.
Creative Lanucher : A sleek task bar that quickly launches frequently-used applications and provides preset Environmental Audio settings to enhance legacy game titles.
Creative AudioHQ : A "One-Stop Control Shop" that allows customisation and control of soundFont,3D audio,digital effects,audio mixer and Environmental Audio settings
Prody Parrot : Perform Windows related tasks with single voice commands.Or let Prody Parrot,which flies around the screen,entertain you with jokes and songs.Includes Text Assist and Voice Assist.
Creactive Rhythmania : An interactive auto-accompaniment application that houses a huge collection of musical styles to allow you to create music along with music sequence presets
Creative WaveStudio : A full-featured,powerful and easy-to-use .WAV file editing program.Record.WAV files which can then be converted into SoundFont.
Creative Keytar : An intuitive and highly interactive edutainment software for music beginners; with a virtual rhythm guitar console that enables you to pluck and strum any tune via the computer keyboards.
On-line Sound Blaster live! Tour And Demo : Provides easy-to-follow Screencam movies on various uses of Sound Blaster Live! Value
Music Library : E-mu's 2MB, 4MB and 8MB GM Banks, SoundFont sound samples and MIDI clips

Sound Blaster Live! comes with a complete and clearly worded manual. In it includes an introduction to the card's value with detailed information. It also gives you a guide on placing your four-point speakers (if you do own them) and getting the system fixed up with the DVD-ROM drive. The used of SoundFonts are also fairly well explained. My only complain is that it did not contain any information on how to run the CD audio connectors if an individual was also using the Creative Labs Encore Dxr2 DVD drive. Installation was a breeze and should be completed within 15 minutes once you figure out which software you would like to install. A point to note is that the quality of the manual is inferior to the Value's coloured version. I'm wondering why?

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The Good

The Live supplies one hundred percent hardware acceleration of DirectSound, DirectSound3D and DS3D with the Environmental Audio Extensions, relieving the CPU of those duties and all at an incredible signal to noise ratio of better than 96dB. The card samples audio at up to 48 kHz and a total harmonic distortion of 0.002%.

This horsepower comes by way of the EMU10K1 chip which boasts 1,000 MIPS and has the processing power of a pentium 90 which is all dedicated to audio.

Creative also talks alot about E-mu's patented 8-point Interpolation Algorithm that reproduces audio signals with new levels of fidelity, free from perceivable distortion. By taking multiple sample points of the sound source to generate the waveform, the audio reproduced is precise and almost no different from the actual sound.

The features on this card can go on and on. The Live! can do up to 512 voices for incredible MIDI sound. It also offers a range of sound fonts from 2 to 32 MB going into system RAM with a full range of effects on the MIDI playback. The joystick interface (aside from doubling as a MIDI interface) provides standard analog/digital joystick support.

The MIDI interface on the extension card uses a MIDI DIN connector which can be connected to any regular MIDI cable, so that musicians need not use custom MIDI adapter cables to connect their MIDI compatible devices.

CREATIVE Sound Blaster Live! is a pretty unique card as it pack industry first. Example is the extra Digital I/O port plus the Liveware upgrade scheme which is pretty successful now with CREATIVE coming out improved driver which improve its 256-voice Music synthesis to the current 512-voice which is much higher than DIAMOND's 320 voice. The new driver also includes better driver to increase the Live! sound stream from the past 8 Direct 3D stream to the current huge 32 stream which offers the market's highest audio fidelity.

BenchMarking

Running the bundled Unreal SE and the just arrived 'NEED FOR SPEED III', game play with the Live! version are really giving you the kick to play on. Making the very best in audio sensation with its really solid surround effect which would definately need a 4 speakers setup to enjoy to the maximum.

Unreal was really capable of creating the rear surround sound which alert you of the unexpected from behind you.Need for speed goes further with running the car's engine using quad-directional surround effect.

Take a look at the speakers positional diagram. Notice that CREATIVE have recommended speakers placement to follow the recommended way so as to ensure that you will be able to enjoy the rear sound. You can select true 4 speakers output or the normal 2-speaker or headphone selection.

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The Bad

With the inclusion of the Digital I/O card, it allows you tp upgrade to the DeskTop Theater 5.1, having perhaps the best sound field on your PC rivalling to the YAMAHA home-entertainment amps or even professional score editing. But this is only for a minority group of people. For most people, you might not even get to enjoy the extra Digital I/O card's function simply because you might not need it. To enjoy the AC-3 surround, another pair of Desktop Theater 5.1 is needed which might cost way above the sky limit for something that industry still lack of. Personally, I would rather spend a little more and invest on a desktop version amplifier with AC-3 speakers and input then on the sound blaster Live! with the Desktop Theater 5.1.

It's CREATIVE long tradition to charge a premier on their Sound Blaster products. It is quite an expensive choice if you are not someone that only wants the best in audio. If the current price of S$359 still stays, I would not recommend anyone to purchase this unless you really need the Digital I/O port.

I must also stress one point. Buying a Sound Blaster Live! without getting the 4 point speakers will not give you the ultimate best combination. With 4 speakers system, you will feel the difference, and bear in mind that buying two sets of 3 piece type of speakers like 'PCWorks' simply cannot replace the convience of having the 4 point speakers.You must by hook or crook obtain a 4 speakers system (any types) to fully enjoy the wonderful sound effects.

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Conclusion

Once again, everyone's favourite might not suit you. It will depend on your need and budget when you came to the idea of purchasing this. For anyone that does not need the extra capability of the Digital I/O card. It's better off getting the Value version or stick your choice to the DIAMOND MonsterSound MX300 when it arrives here.

What ever, if you trust CREATIVE and think EAX is much better than A3D 2.0, do not hesistate anymore and grab this little kid on the block that pack so much in its little body. But do remember to bring home the four piece speakers to marry off the deal. How sweet it will be?

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Back To Part 4 : MX300 Part 6 : SB Live! Value

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Sound Card Specifications
Interface	PCI 2.1 Compliant
Chipset	E-mu EMU10K1
Ram	2MB/4MB/8MB SoundFont Using system memory (Maximum up to 32MB SoundFont)
Working Standard(API)	1) EAX (Environmental Audio Extension) 2) Microsoft DirectSound/DirectSound 3D 3) Sound Blaster PCI 4) MPC-3
Package Content	1) Sound Blaster Live! PCI audio card 2) Digital CD Audio cable 3) Software package : i.Digital I/O card ii.Digital I/O cable ii.Mini to standard MIDI DIN adaptor cable i.Sound Blaster Live! Installation CD ii.Sound Blaster Live! Applications CD ii.Sound Blaster Live! Tour & Demo CD
Utilities & Softwares Content	1) Creative PlayCentre 2) Creative Launcher 3) Prody Parrot 4) Creative Rhythmania 5) Creative WaveStudio 6) Creative Keytar 7)On-line Sound Blaster Live! Tour and Demo 8) Music Library
OS supported	1) MICROSOFT Windows 95 2) MICROSOFT Windows 98 MICROSOFT Windows NT 4.0
Warranty Term	1 Year limited Hardware
Pricing (Retail Price) :	S$ 359