An old press release that I archived about the SBLive! performance/features...
geno_...@softhome.net
CONTACT INFORMATION
Theresa Pulido Jennifer Baker-Asiddao
Creative Labs, Inc. Golin/Harris
Communications
tpu...@soundblaster.com jba...@golinharris.com
Creative Introduces The EMU10K1 -- The
World's Most Powerful Single Chip Audio
Processor
E-mu Based Chip Technologies are the Cornerstone in
Creative's New Platform For Producing An
"Environmental Audio" Experience
LAS VEGAS, NV - Fall COMDEX - November 17, 1997 - In line with
its strategy to deliver a
powerful, new "environmental audio" platform, Creative
Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ:CREAF),
the world's leading provider of multimedia products for the PC,
today introduced the
EMU10K1 PCI audio processor. The EMU10K1 is based on E-mu
Systems Inc's unique new
technologies and is the first audio processor capable of
producing a limitless, immersive and
highly vivid audio experience.
The technologies underlying the EMU10K1 enable the creation of
applications that place the
user in the midst of real-world environments and, more
importantly, allow the user to control
and customize the environment for an out-of-this-world
experience. This results in an authentic
sound experience that is virtually indistinguishable from a live
performance - placing the user
in the middle of a battlefield, concert hall or rain forest.
With over two million transistors and more than 1,000 MIPS of
raw processing power, the
EMU10K1 can be incorporated into professional authoring
solutions for sound designers,
professional musicians, and PC content developers. It can also
be used in consumer playback
solutions for gaming, entertainment and simulation experiences.
Unlike other audio solutions
available on the market today, the EMU10K1 truly leverages PCI
bus mastering and patented
DynaRAM™ technology for maximum performance delivering the most
powerful, high quality
audio experience. The EMU10K1 will be integrated into the first
of a family of solutions from
Creative - beginning with the introduction of Sound Blaster
Live! - setting a new Sound Blaster
audio standard for the PC.
"With the EMU10K1, Creative continues to lead in the move to
combine the quality and
functionality of a high-end consumer electronics system with the
interactivity and control of the
PC platform," said Rob Enderle area director for the Giga
Information Group. "This powerful
new chip provides capabilities beyond the vast majority of high
end consumer receivers
available on the market today. As a result, the EMU10K1 will
likely be seen as one of the most
significant new technologies of 1998."
EMU10K1 with Patented Technology Cornerstone for New Audio
System
The EMU10K1 is the key component in Creative's audio platform.
It includes unique audio
technologies that provide the power and flexibility to simulate
real-world environments. These
technologies include E-mu Environmental Modeling™ (E2M) for
rendering numerous audio
streams - including their reflections - into life-like
reproductions.
"We at the Joint Creative/E-mu Technology Center spent over 100
man years to bring this
chip to fruition," said Dave Rossum, chief scientist of Creative
Technology and founder of
E-mu Systems, Inc. "I am really excited about the potential of
this chip for realizing the dream
of environmental audio. The EMU10K1 can provide very
sophisticated real-time audio
rendering technology analogous to the "ray-tracing" capabilities
of professional 3D graphics
engines."
E2M with Creative's Multi-Speaker Surround™ technology (CMSS)
provides a powerful
combination for the most immersive audio experience available.
Cambridge SoundWorks
leverages this technology by allowing the audio environments
produced by the EMU10K1 to
be channeled through as many as eight separate speakers. The
newly announced, DeskTop
Theater 5.1 provides the ideal speaker system for this new
technology (see separate
announcement dated 11/17/97 re: Creative's new audio system).
Hollywood Effects and Interactive Environments -- A New Way to
Experience Audio
The EMU10K1 is the embodiment of E-mu's E4 professional
synthesizer and the Darwin hard
disk recorder both of which have been used by Hollywood sound
designers and professional
musicians to create award-winning movie effects and soundtracks.
These include the effects
in "The Hunt For Red October" and "Independence Day." The
EMU10K1 now brings this level
of power and flexibility to the market, allowing the creation of
amazingly realistic audio
experiences - a monster roar that sounds like Godzilla in New
York City or artillery fire that
sounds like it's coming from a Howitzer in the middle of a
battlefield.
The EMU10K1 goes beyond today's technology and produces a
real-world audio environment
for truly immersive surround sound. The EMU10K1 utilizes the
unique E2M technology to
break down a room, area, or environment into its mathematical
representations of size, shape
and acoustical properties. It goes further to break down the
room or area and maps X,Y and Z
coordinates to objects. It then combines the acoustical
properties and coordinates and
applies a series of digital algorithms called environmental
filters to any incoming audio
streams in real-time, thereby rendering accurate representations
of real-world environments
with different sounds and effects.
The EMU10K1 uses E-mu's patented 8-point interpolation engine
for higher quality audio
samples or SoundFont® banks. Interpolation increases the number
of samples, which
accurately reconstructs the original sound. By simply loading
new SoundFont banks into
memory, any and all instrument sounds and effects can be
replaced to customize the
entertainment experience. This translates into piano music that
sounds like it's coming from a
Steinway, a violin that sounds like a Stradivarius, or the rich
sound of a full orchestra
performing in Carnegie Hall.
EMU10K1 Features
Leveraging the more than 25 years of research and design at E-mu
Systems, the EMU10K1
features a 64-voice hardware wave-table synthesizer, patented
8-point interpolation engine
and 128 independent audio channels for even higher polyphony
when multiple audio streams
are sent to each channel. It's capable of simultaneously
processing many sounds and effects
in real time without using the host CPU. It can receive a
variety of audio sources including
MIDI, WAV, CD audio and other sources for editing, composing,
mixing and high-quality,
sample-rate conversion to 48kHz - this ensures a no-compromise
solution for professional
quality processing, playback and recording. In addition to these
powerful features, the
EMU10K1 includes the following:
PCI bus mastering with patented DynaRAM technology
Over 1,000 MIPS of audio processing power for effects and
environmental audio
E-Mu Environmental Modeling™ for the re-creation of
real-world audio environments
Creative Multi Speaker Surround™ support for up to eight
simultaneous speakers
Up to six discrete digital inputs and eight independent
digital inputs for utilizing the
EMU10K1's special effects on any audio source even music
CDs.
E-Mu SoundFont® technology for downloadable sample banks and
high-quality music
reproduction
Sound Blaster compatibility
Support for Microsoft® DirectSound 3D™ hardware acceleration
Support for Microsoft Win32 Driver Model (WDM) hardware
acceleration
Support for standard analog connections via AC97 codec
Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a
wide array of advanced
multimedia solutions for the PC, entertainment, education, music
and productivity tools
markets. Creative's products are marketed though both the
original equipment manufactures
and retail channels under a variety of trademarks, including the
"Blaster" family name. Sound
Blaster has become the multimedia industry's de facto audio
standard. Sound Blaster is an
audio platform consisting of a sound card or chipset, software
drivers and bundled software
applications that enable PCs to produce high quality audio.
Creative's corporate headquarters
and primary manufacturing are based in Singapore, with sales,
distribution and research and
development being carried out though an extensive, global
network of subsidiaries located in
North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Note to Editors: Please visit the Creative Booth (#S2620) in the
Sands Convention Center, at
COMDEX Fall '97, November 17-21, for a full demonstration of
this and Creative's other
industry-leading multimedia solutions!
# # # #
This announcement relates to products whose launch are in the
United States of America. The product names,
contents, prices and availability may differ elsewhere in the
world according to local factors and requirements.
Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and EMU10K1, E-mu
Environmental Modeling, DynaRAM and Creative
Multi-Speaker Surround are trademarks of Creative Technology
Ltd. in the U. S. and other countries. SoundFont
Technology is a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc. All
other product names mentioned herein are
trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized
as such.