Creative Announces Sound Blaster 32
mcc...@rs.ucc.okstate.edu
Theresa Pulido Lisa Kimura
Creative Labs, Inc. Copithorne & Bellows
(408) 428-6600, ext. 6416 (415) 284-5200, ext. 209
Creative Announces Sound Blaster 32
Next Generation Sound Blaster Extends Family of Wave-Table Products
SINGAPORE -- June 6, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF) today
announced Sound Blaster 32, a professional PC audio card that combines
industry standard Sound Blaster audio with Creative's powerful wave-table
synthesis technology and up to 32 note polyphony. Sound Blaster 32 is an
entry level solution that further extends the Sound Blaster standard to the
next generation of audio technology at an economical price point. The
product provides genuine instrument sounds and digital effects processing for
entertainment titles, business presentations and music applications. Sound
Blaster 32 will be available this month at retail outlets for a projected
price of $169.99
"Sound Blaster 32 brings high-quality professional audio to the mass market,
and it continues Creative's commitment to providing products that serve
consumers' diverse needs," said Arnold Waldstein, vice president of U.S.
software and product marketing for Creative Labs, Inc., Creative Technology's
U.S. subsidiary. "By offering next generation Sound Blaster audio with
wave-table synthesis at aggressive consumer pricing and assuring software
support from leading developers, Creative is redefining the audio standard in
multimedia computing."
Features of Sound Blaster 32
Sound Blaster 32 uses E-mu Systems' EMU8000 chip to provide 32-note polyphony
of realistic wave-table sounds, 128 General MIDI-compatible instruments and
sounds, 10 drum kits, and reverb and chorus effects. It also provides 16-bit
digital stereo sampling and playback; enhanced FM synthesis and a variety of
software titles, including Voyetra MIDI Orchestrator Plus and Creative's
family of audio utilities. In addition, Sound Blaster 32 features an IDE
CD-ROM interface for connection to today's high-speed CD-ROM drives and an
upgrade path for adding up to 28 MB of standard memory. The additional
memory allows new instruments and sounds to be easily added to the card.
"Whether it's an online game, an interactive encyclopedia or a classical
music score, Sound Blaster 32 turbocharges multimedia computing with special
effects and real instrument sounds," said Scott Taylor, audio product
marketing manager for Creative Labs, Inc.
All of Creative's current Sound Blaster audio cards now either incorporate
wave-table synthesis or are wave-table upgradeable with Wave Blaster II, a
General MIDI wave-table synthesis daughterboard.
Creative's wave-table product line now includes Sound Blaster AWE32, Sound
Blaster 32 and Wave Blaster II-GamePak. From the high-end award-winning
AWE32 audio card to the Wave Blaster II-GamePak wave-table upgrade
daughterboard, Creative is dedicated to providing consumers with a wide-range
of wave-table solutions.
Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a family of
sound, video, software and telephony multimedia products for PCs under the
Blaster family name, and the ShareVision line of desktop video conferencing
products for Macintoshes and PCs. The company's Sound Blaster sound platform
enables PCs to produce high-quality audio for entertainment, educational,
music and productivity applications, and has been accepted as the industry
standard sound platform for PC-based software.
Creative Technology Ltd. was incorporated in 1983 and is based in Singapore.
Creative Technology's U.S. subsidiaries include Creative Labs, Inc., E-mu
Systems, Inc., Digicom Systems, Inc. and ShareVision Technology, Inc.
Creative also has other subsidiaries in Australia, China, Europe, Japan,
Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The company's stock is traded
on Nasdaq under the symbol CREAF and on the Stock Exchange of Singapore.
# # #
Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and Sound Blaster AWE32, Wave Blaster
and Blaster are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. E-mu is a registered
trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc. ShareVision is a registered trademark of
ShareVision Technology, Inc. All other products mentioned herein are
trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such.
Daron Myrick
AWE32 and the Sound Blaster 32.
Sounds like the exact same card to me.
If the new card is half as long as the AWE32 then I would run out and get one
since I'm running out of slots and my AWE32 cannot fit into any other slot for
more space.
Sunny Leung
Tell me about it. Soundcard manufacturers should work on keeping their
soundcards as short as possible. I just saw an ad for the the Ensoniq
Elite - it's as long as the AWE32. Arrgh. The only decent-lengthed cards
around are ones with daughterboards e.g. SB16+daughterboard, MV Pro 3D
but these are often on the wide side :-(
Regards
--
Sunny Leung, in Sydney Australia. E-mail: su...@randland.dialix.oz.au
THE DISCWORLD IS IN A FOR A ROUGH RIDE WHEN DEATH GETS A LIFE!
ve...@concom.com
So what is the difference between the Soundblaster AWE32 and the Soundblaster 32?
I just forked out $299 for mine!
VerM
iba...@eleceng.uct.ac.za
>From: tim...@cyberspace.com (David Timoney)
>Subject: Re: Creative Announces Sound Blaster 32
>Date: 27 Jun 1995 08:00:58 -0700
>Sounds like the IDE controller, rather than the more proprietary
>interface SB cards usually have, is what's new.
But the AWE32 has one too. The SB32 sounds exactly like the AWE32.
Ian
Frederick Y Mah
>Ian
From what I gathered, no ASP, less software, probably lower quality
components (if you can go lower).
--
Fred Mah --- fm...@widget.ecn.purdue.edu
David Timoney
: > Features of Sound Blaster 32
: > Sound Blaster 32 uses E-mu Systems' EMU8000 chip to provide 32-note polyphony
: > of realistic wave-table sounds, 128 General MIDI-compatible instruments and
: > sounds, 10 drum kits, and reverb and chorus effects. It also provides 16-bit
: > digital stereo sampling and playback; enhanced FM synthesis and a variety of
: > software titles, including Voyetra MIDI Orchestrator Plus and Creative's
: > family of audio utilities. In addition, Sound Blaster 32 features an IDE
: > CD-ROM interface for connection to today's high-speed CD-ROM drives and an
: > upgrade path for adding up to 28 MB of standard memory. The additional
: > memory allows new instruments and sounds to be easily added to the card.
Sounds like the IDE controller, rather than the more proprietary
interface SB cards usually have, is what's new.
Dave
Donald Duvall
>I asked Creative Labs about the difference between the SoundBlaster 32
>and the AWE Value Edition. Here is the response...
>From 72662...@compuserve.comWed Jun 28 09:39:02 1995
>Date: 15 Jun 95 17:20:19 EDT
>From: Mark Harney <72662...@compuserve.com>
>To: Tim Brown <tbr...@research1.bryant.edu>
>The SB32 is different from the Value in that:
>- No RAM on the card, but there are SIMM slots for adding RAM for use with
> GS, MT32, and custom banks
>- IDE CD ROM controller - NO MCD controllers
>- No CSP chip, no Wave Blaster header
Question: what does one lose in the CSP chip and WaveBlaster header?
BTW glad to see some meaningful info on this thread (finally).
Andreas Schildbach
> The SB32 is different from the Value in that:
>
> - No RAM on the card, but there are SIMM slots for adding RAM for use
> with
> GS, MT32, and custom banks
>
> - IDE CD ROM controller - NO MCD controllers
>
> - No CSP chip, no Wave Blaster header
>
> There is a press release on this that I will post below:
What about the MPU-401 compatible MIDI-Interface? Is it still there?
=========== // ============================================================
// Doom * Laserdiscs * Fiction * Role-Playing * Horror
regards, // -----------------------------------------------------------
// Andreas "Goonie" Schildbach
// email schi...@informatik.tu-muenchen.de, phone +49-8151-290288
\\ // -----------------------------------------------------------
\X/ Commodore Amiga * Rollercoasters * Cthulhu * Trance
===========================================================================
Kevin Andresen
Well my guess is no ASP/CSP chip (so no Text Assist) and no
Waveblaster connector. That's a lot of $$$ right there.
They could also save some money and space by using the Vibra
chip. What is the final determination of Bass & Treble control
with the Vibra? (<-- Oh, sorry CT, I used your trademark as a
noun.)
Kevin
Jensi
Hehe, check out AudioTrix Pro. Even with all daughterboards plugged on,
it's a regular length card and fits between 2 other cards (not too thick).
Jensi
Seppo Vimpari
>Well my guess is no ASP/CSP chip (so no Text Assist) and no
>Waveblaster connector. That's a lot of $$$ right there.
I think ASP chip nowadays is not necessary for Text Assist. This program and
two disks come with SB16Value, which does not even provide a socket for ASP,
only solder pads - so not upgradeable. Maybe the tasks of this digital signal
processor are thought to be handled by the powerful CPU:s of 486 and Pentium
machines.
I have not tried Text Assist yet but I know that the compression (ADPCM and
others) seem to work with .wav -recordings without ASP too.
Seppo
Archana S. Prasad
>Well my guess is no ASP/CSP chip (so no Text Assist) and no
>Waveblaster connector. That's a lot of $$$ right there.
>They could also save some money and space by using the Vibra
>chip. What is the final determination of Bass & Treble control
>with the Vibra? (<-- Oh, sorry CT, I used your trademark as a
>noun.)
The CL rep on BLASTER forum on Compuserve confirmed that the mixer chip on the
Vibra Chipset does not have gain, bass, and treble. I wonder if that means
that NO such controls are available under any circumstances on such boards.
Can CL simulate these via software instead of mixer chip hardware? I doubt
it, as the processing involved would be too much to do in realtime without a
ASP chip or somesuch.
Can someone with a Vibra card post if they have the volume, bass and treble
controls on their mixer program....? Please.
A. Prasad
Sunny Leung
In article <duvall.42...@math.mps.ohio-state.edu>, Donald Duvall (duv...@math.mps.ohio-state.edu) writes:
>
>>The SB32 is different from the Value in that:
>
>>- No RAM on the card, but there are SIMM slots for adding RAM for use with
>> GS, MT32, and custom banks
>
>>- IDE CD ROM controller - NO MCD controllers
>
>>- No CSP chip, no Wave Blaster header
>
>BTW glad to see some meaningful info on this thread (finally).
Losing the CSP isn't that important IMO, unless you use software like
Creative's TextAssist.
Losing the WB connector is terrible however. Now you can't add a decent
daughterboard like the Roland SCD-10/15 to supplement the AWE32/SB32's
pretty average patches.
Jensi
What do you need bass and treble control for? Don't you have that on your
amplifier? IMHO, that's exactly what classifies a toy sound card, you know,
the ones people use with those little "multimedia" speakers ;-)
>A. Prasad
Jensi
Archana S. Prasad
>>Can someone with a Vibra card post if they have the volume, bass and treble
>>controls on their mixer program....? Please.
>What do you need bass and treble control for? Don't you have that on your
>amplifier? IMHO, that's exactly what classifies a toy sound card, you know,
>the ones people use with those little "multimedia" speakers ;-)
I personally have a SB16 and Altec Lansing powered speakers with volume
and tone controls. However, others may not be so lucky, specially if they are
using the card's amplifier to drive plain (un-powered) speakers.
The gain control is useful even to people who connect the soundcard to their
stereo (to balance the line signal strength to match other sound sources).
Buyers should make informed decisions, thats all.
A. Prasad
andrew Jenkins
I agree. I have my soundcard hooked up to the stereo (thru an equalizer) *and*
a P.A. amplifier (thru a mixer), but I'm damned glad that I can adjust the
soundcard's output, because I can taylor the signal prior to input to
the off-board systems.
I suppose I'd have a different opinion if soundcard outputs adhered to professional
audio standards, because then I wouldn't have to piss around with pre-amping
the signal...
aj