Incredible sound, Incredible value
Written: Oct 09 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Onboard 32 bit digital processing with Fiber optic inputs. Plug and Play compatible and easy installation. Great support from Creative Labs
Cons: .............................
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| jagundo's Full Review: Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum |
I had been in the market for a sound card for about 2 months. Review after review. I must have read over 20 articles on different manufactures. I was about to give up. But then, I heard about the Sound Blaster Live. I remember all the talk about this card when it first became available. I never really listened until about a couple of months ago when a friend of mine told me that I should really give it a chance. I'm a music producer and own a professional recording studio along with being in the IT world for many years. So I was looking for quality but at the same time affordability. I took my friend advise and this is what I found.
For Wave-Table Synthesis
- E-mu Systems EMU10K1 music synthesis engine
- 64-voice polyphony with E-mu's patented 8-point interpolation
technology
- 192-voice polyphony PCI wave-table synthesis
- 48 MIDI channels with 128 GM & GS-compatible instruments and 10 drum
kits
- Uses SoundFont technology for user-definable wave-table sample sets;
includes 2MB, 4MB and 8MB sets
- Load up to 32MB of samples into host memory for professional music
reproduction
For the onboard effects, it has the E-mu Systems EMU10K1 effects processor. It also supports real-time digital effects like reverb, chorus, flanger, pitch shifter or distortion across any audio source.
Customizable effects architecture allows audio effects and channel control with a full digital mixer which maintains all sound mixing in the digital domain, eliminating noise from the signal. Of course the controls for full bass, treble, and effects. Most of all, it is capable of processing, mixing and positioning audio streams using up to 131 available hardware channels.
The standard in todays industry has become digital and let me tell you that if you are not familiar with this domain, the you should pay close attention. It allow you to select from 8- to 16-bit rates. Also the sample rates can be selected from 8kHz to 48kHz. CD quality is usually 44.1kHz but it is nice to know that you can go up to 48kHz. All sound sources are handled with 32-bit precision for highest quality output and input. Hardware full-duplexing support enables simultaneous record and playback at 8 standard sample rates. Of course all these features are very important to me because of the nature of my work, but if you just want good sound quality for MP3's or games. Then the 3D surround parameters should be taken into consideration. The Multi Speaker Surround technology places any mono or stereo sound source in a 360° audio space. Even better, you can select the acoustic environments like Hall, Theater, Club, Room, Concert, and many more on any sound source that you may be using.
This card also support Midi MPU-401 UART mode. All with very little Processor utilization. One of the best features if should say is the rack mounted front plate. Lets you make all connections conveniently from the front of the PC. No more hassles with cables. And of course, got to love the fiber optic connectors used for digital input and output. What more can I say about this really advanced card. I can only advise you not to make the same mistake I did and not pay attention to the features and use of this card. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting sound quality from recordings to even to game lovers just wanting to feel the action, specially when you try it with surround sound. I'm sure you won't go wrong.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 175.00
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Epinions.com ID:
jagundo
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Member: Jack Fagundo
Location: Miami, Florida
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 13 members
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