 Review: Sound Blaster Live! |
The Sound Blaster Live! is Creative Lab's long-anticipated next-generation PCI sound
card. Taking the card out of the box, I was surprised at how small it was (5 inches
or 13 cm long). In fact for some reason it looked longer on the box than it actually
was. From the days of the Sound Blaster AWE 32, I still had the notion that high-end
sound cards are supposed to be lengthy. The Sound Blaster Live! has completely
dispelled that silly notion of mine in a big way. Other contents of the package include the digital I/O
card, the ribbon cable that connects it to the SB Live!, manuals, a 2-pin digital SPDIF
cable, the standard CD-ROM audio cable, a plastic microphone with stand, and a 3-fold CD
jewel case that contained the installation and two application CD-ROMs.
Installation was straightforward.
After plugging the Sound Blaster Live! into an empty PCI slot, I proceeded to connect the
CD-ROM drive to the card using the supplied 2-pin digital cable. Then I connected a
pair of powered speakers for the 4-speaker setup and turned on the computer.
Windows 98 detected the card, but I canceled the drivers setup in lieu of running the
setup program on the installation CD. After a reboot, the Windows start up sound was
replaced by a rumbling, 3D thunder which alerted me that the four-speaker configuration is
working. Below you can see the drivers installed by the setup program. |
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| When I turned the volume knob on the speakers way up, barely any static came
through- a tribute to the card's shielding circuitry. In contrast, turning up the volume
knob on my Ensoniq AudioPCI produced unwanted hissing. |
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| Environmental Audio - Wow! |
| Next I wanted to try out was SB Live!'s 4 speaker
support and Environmental Audio. Via the AudioHQ control panel, I was able to select
where different sounds sources (e.g. wave, CD, line in, etc.) are positioned by dragging
the icon for the source to an X,Y location on the 2-D plane. The mapping is fairly
realistic, but unfortunately I was not to position sound above or below me for true 3D
sound. There are presets you can use for different games such as Quake II and
Starcraft, although they're usually nothing more than minor adjustments to placement of
the wave and MIDI output. |
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| I then proceeded to try out Environmental Audio (EA). The
EA effects are done in real-time, which is like (or even better than) having a high-end
DSP receiver. EA claims to model sounds as they exist in their natural setting, and
it achieves this feat through the use of the following parameters: Decay Time (seconds)
High Frequency Decay
High Frequency Cutoff (Hertz)
Size
Diffusion
Density
Early Reflections Level (%)
Late Reverb Level (%)
Detuning Rate (Hertz)
Detuning Depth (%)
Reverb (%)
Chorus (%) |
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The EA effects can be applied to just about any sound source. I
played an Eurodance CD (using the card's SPDIF digital connection) with the Concert Hall
environment selected and the result was spectacular as I increased the volume. It sounded
as if I were in the front row of a concert taking place inside a large, you guessed it,
concert hall. You can, of course, modify any existing environment or even create
your own. Ah, there's nothing like playing Beastie Boy's Intergalactic in a flying
saucer. |
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| DSP Power |
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The card supports up to 32 channels of simultaneous wave audio playback. I tried playing 3
MP3s at the same time and the system handled it without a glitch, although CPU utilization
increased accordingly to around 20%. Enabling Environmental Audio effects did not,
however, increase CPU utilization. This can be attributed to the heart of the the Sound
Blaster Live!- the EMU10K1 DSP, which contains more than two million transistors and is
capable of millions of instructions a second. |
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| MIDI Quality |
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The Sound Blaster Live! uses the memory on your PC to hold the sound of the MIDI
instruments. This can be good or bad depending on your system. It may be good in the sense
that you'll be able to load large, high quality MIDI sound banks restricted only by the
amount of memory in your PC, but it's not a good idea for users whose machines are low on
RAM in the first place. By default a 2 Mbyte SoundFont (Creative's form of MIDI
sound library) is loaded, but you can use a whopping 8 Mbyte SoundFont for the best
quality. The 8 Mbyte SoundFont, as expected, sounds great- instruments and effects were
crisper and packed more punch than the 2 Mbyte version. I could not, however, tell much
difference between the 4 and the 8 Mbyte SoundFont, but I believe the quality of the two
matches that of my Turtle Beach Rio. Unfortunately the control panel did not allow
for EA effects to be applied to MIDI. Below you can see that the 8 Mbyte SoundFont
(which actually only takes up a little more than 7 Mbytes) is loaded. |
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| The Software Bundle |
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The software bundle is massive. It includes Creative's own software (AudioHQ, PlayCenter,
Rhythmania, WaveStudio, and Keytar) along with third party titles (Sound Forge XP 4.0,
Mixman Studio, Cakewalk Express Gold, Parody Parrot, TextAssist, VoiceAssist, and a
special version of Unreal).
I didn't get to try all the software, but I checked out all of Creative's applications,
Sound Forge, Mixman Studio, and Unreal. One surprising feature of the Creative
PlayCenter is its support for a myriad of sound files, including MP3s. Although the
new Windows 98 Media Player also supports MP3 playback, you're better off using the more
full-featured PlayCenter or the popular WinAmp. Keytar let's you horse around with a
variety of guitars. This "application" will probably interest the younger
audience. Rhythmania is MIDI composer that allows you to quickly whip up a song in no
time. Creative's venerable Wave Studio capable, but you may want to use the more powerful
Sound Forge XP 4.0 to edit your sound files instead.
The special version of Unreal uses
Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX), and it sounds substantially different from the
retail version. I noticed the sound field was expanded greatly as all four speakers
were fully utilized and the ambience created as a result felt like a "live"
experience indeed. Doors close with a lasting echo, birds call out in the distance,
the earth rumbles all around you during an earthquake.... The implementation is not
perfect, however, as baddies barely make any noise while attacking and occasionally the
sound cracks up inexplicably.
I must say that Mixman Studio is my
favorite part of the generous software bundle. It basically allows you to become a
recording artist and the mixmaster instantly. After spending five-minutes in the program I
concocted a neat 16-track, 124 BPM techno-reggae song that for some strange reason the
family cats didn't appreciate. Aw well, who ever said cats have good taste? |
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| The Digital I/O Card |
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The digital I/O daughter card is designed for musicians and serious audiophiles. The
little card connects to the Sound Blaster Live! via a short proprietary cable.
Unfortunately I didn't have the equipment to test it out. You should check out the official Sound Blaster Live! site for more information on
how to make the most use of it. |
Sound
Blaster Live! Review Continued |
| by David
Yee |
| Game Performance |
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I tested the Sound Blaster Live! against the Ensoniq AudioPCI to see if its powerful sound
engine makes a difference in games. Performance in Quake II and Unreal between the two PCI
cards were very similar (results not shown here), but as you can see below, the SB Live!
has a slight edge when it comes to the Direct3D game Incoming. Creative Lab's
Voodoo 2 was used by the way. |
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Incoming
Frames Per Second |
| Sound
Blaster Live! |
54.88
(~ 5% faster) |
| Ensoniq
AudioPCI |
52.32 |
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| Conclusion |
Overall this is truly an awesome sound card. The immersing Environmental Audio effects and
the generous software bundle are the highlights of the Sound Blaster Live!. I can't
stress how much better music and games sound under EA- once you experience it you'll never
want to go back to "normal" audio. Those of you who do not need the
digital I/O daughter card and the high-end software may want to wait for the $99 Value
Edition.
What's Cool
Low noise, high-fidelity sound, stunning environmental audio effects, excellent
MIDI quality, generous software bundle
What's Not
Pricey for a sound card |
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| Test System |
| Pentium
II 300, Asus P2B, 96 Mbyte PC 100 SDRAM, ATI Xpert 98, Creative Labs Voodoo 2 12 Mbyte
version (V Sync disabled), Diamond Fireport 40, and Quantum Viking 4.5 NSE Ultra Narrow
SCSI Hard Drive. Windows 98, DirectX 6, and Incoming Lux-et-Robur (640x480) were
used. All video cards had V Sync disabled when the option was available. |
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