Creative
Labs has long had a history of creating the standard by which all
other multimedia companies base their product line. Their orignal
sound card, the Sound Blaster, quickly became the standard, leaving
other companies to try to make their hardware "sound blaster
compatible". Creative wanted to remain at the top of the market
and be able to direct the PC audio market. As part of this plan,
they acquired Cambridge Soundworks, a well-respected manufactuer of
PC speaker systems. Later, they also purchased Ensoniq, the maker of
the AudioPCI card.

Soon, Creative breathed new
life into their Sound Blaster line by releasing the AWE64. This was
the first PCI sound blaster and made use of many principles
pioneered by the recently acquired Ensoniq. The AWE64 quickly became
the gamer’s standard. It was a rather pricey card in the day, but
was never challenged as the true gamer’s choice, at least for a
while.

Other companies later began to
produce their own cards that began to rival the AWE64. Creative only

made revisions to the AWE64 while reducing its price. But, with one
release Creative out-did all the other companies once again, and
this release was the Sound Blaster Live! card.

The Card

The SB Live! is so far the
most powerful sound card I have used. It spares no features. Right
out of the static bag, it looks like any other sound card, except
that it is packaged with an additional duaghterboard. The card is
your standard half-legnth PCI card. It features four outputs, five
inputs, and a digital I/O connector.

The heart of the card is the EMU10K1
Digital Signal Processor (DSP). The EMU10K1 is the most powerful
audio processor on the market to date. Having roughly 2 million
transistors and being able to do around 1,000 million instructions
per second, the EMU10K1 is more powerful than some full desktop
machines. The processor is more than adequate for the complex audio
calculations placed upon it. All audio calculations are handled by
this processor, making sure than the main system processor is not
taxed by it. The EMU10K1 does all 32-bit, 48 KHz calculations, using
8 point interpolation to smoothen the sound and make it more
realiastic without distortions.

The card itself is rigged for
either two or four speakers. Creative recommends using a four
speaker setup. they of course recommend the Cambridge Soundworks
FourPointSurround system, but any good four-speaker arrangement will
sound pretty good. The addional daughterboard contains more
connectors: a MIDI in/out port, and SPDIF in/outport, and a
multi-channel port for digital amplifiers. Using the daugherboard,
the system can support up to 8 speakers, a feature which Creative
will support in the future.

Environmental Audio

The big talk around the SB Live! is
Environmental Audio. This is Creative’s alternative to A3D, the 3D
audio APi used by other manufacturers. Environmental Audio
Extensions, or EAX, is Creative’s own 3D audio API. Creative has
worked with Microsoft to make the EAX API a part of the
Directsound3D API. And according to software developers, the EAX
extensions are easy to incorporate, a definite plus in a world where
every bold new product suffers from lack of software support.

What does Environmental Audio mean
to you? Well, more realistic environments. Let’s say you’re playing
Unreal and you’re sitting in a room with three walls, one opening,
and you’re standing on a boardwalk, under which is water. Then you
fire your rifle. With EAX support, which Unreal uses, the sound of
the gunfire will echo appropriately for a room which has one opening
and a floor of water. It will also change depending on the material
of the walls in that room. In short, the audio you hear will depend
on the enviroment. Creative packages many demos of this in their
extensive software bundle with the card. Quite simply, the effects
of EAX are quite apparent.

Installation and Software

Installation
of the SB Live! was quite easy, but was a little daunting when it
came to the software. The card was installed the same as any other
PCI card. The half-legnth card will have no trouble fitting into
almost any system. The daughterboard is included, but optional.
Since the included ribbon cables is not quite long enough to allow
the daughterboard to go just anywhere, you might find yourself
wasting a slot. But, for the uses of most people, the daughterboard
is not necessary, and can be left out in order to spare the slot.

The driver installation was rather
easy. It was automatically detected by Windows. Just pop the CD in
and you’re on your way. Creative packs a lot of software with the SB
Live!, a lot of it quite useless, but some of it just interesting or
fun. One annoying thing about the installation process is that the
procedure is not really automated. Instead, you have a launch
screen, and you have to click on each item individually to install
it. This is fine for a minimal install, but for one who just wants
to install the whole package, it doesn’t cut it.

After a few reboots of the system,
your install will be complete. Since Creative thrusts a lot of the
Live! components into your face upon Windows startup, you may want
to customize some things. Creative incorporates their own Launcher
bar. Much like the desktop Office 97 toolbar by Microsoft, the
Creative toolbar allows access to SB Live! software directly from
the desktop. For some who don’t like clutter or are concerned with
long boot-up times and system resources, you may want to disable
this. I did. Creative also insists on auto-launching several
utilties into your taskbar, a feature you may want to do without.

My Take

I believe the SB Live! to be a
powerful product. It is by far the most powerful product available
to the mainstream consumer, although, with a MRP fo $199.99, the
price can be a little hefty. For true music professionals, the SB
Live! will fit into a tight budget. There are, though, more powerful
products dedicated to the professional.

Let’s look at some pros and cons of
the card:

SB Live! is no doubt a lot of
card. For many user’s, the card is simply overkill. If sound is not
a big deal, or you are not willing to go out and purchase four
speakers, then you’re better off getting a cheap PCI sound card.
But, if you’re primarily out for the most realistic audio
experience, then you’ll want to try the Sound Blaster Live!

For more information, visit http://www.sblive.com
.

Product available at Lone
Star PC Sound for $176.95. Support PCmech – visit their site!

Like what you read?

If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below: