IBM Sound Blaster Live!
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- Output Mode: Stereo / Fourpoint
- Card Interface: PCI
- Bit Depth: 32-bit
- Form Factor: Plug-In Card
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Certainly a must for Music lovers
Pros
Great card for music
Cons
Position audio is not as good as A3D's
Recommended it?
Yes
The sound blaster Live card is without a shadow of a doubt the best music card available today, surpassed only by the platinum version, if you are into listning to music or making it then this is certainly the card for you.
The features are endless, and bundled with the Cambridge Soundworks FPS1000 surround speakers you can have a totally submersable experience. With surround speakers you can control exactly where the sound comes from, if you are mixing music you can control some sounds to come from the left and others from the back etc, you really do have total control.
The uniqueness of the Live series of cards has to be Creatives EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions) This features offers echo and reverb effects that can simulate the sounds in different surroundings. For example in a concert hall sounds can be absorbed and flattened slightly, while music in a bathroom will constantly echo off the shiny surfaces. EAX can simulate this in games to give an all together more realistic gaming experience.
EAX however is not its own API, and its positional audio in games is no where near as good as Aureals A3D technology. EAX simply sits ontop of Microsofts DirectX and Direct sound technology.
The sound itself though isof very high standard, I actually prefer to put music on the computer to listen to rather than put the CD in the Stereo system. I count that as a big plus.
The specs are very impressive, with 1024 voices and the ability to record music in analogue or digital. Works really well with the DVD package Creative Encore.
The software is of really high standard aswell. Liveware!3.0 has many features and fancy programs but the main things such as the wave recorder and Audio Hq do there job really well, The audio hq is where you can access everything to do with your sound card. you can change the EAX setting to make all the sounds have a theme to them. You can change your speaker setup to 2,4, surround speakers or headphones. Also where each type of sound comes from and the speaker front to rear balance. Then there is the normal volume controls from which you set the volume of the Cd audio, Wave volume midi etc aswell as the master volume Bass and Treble. There is a full graphic equaliser and representative display.
Anything to do with music you want this card or one of its family. If you are really into games you might want to consider a card with A3D's Sonic Vortex 2 chip.
The features are endless, and bundled with the Cambridge Soundworks FPS1000 surround speakers you can have a totally submersable experience. With surround speakers you can control exactly where the sound comes from, if you are mixing music you can control some sounds to come from the left and others from the back etc, you really do have total control.
The uniqueness of the Live series of cards has to be Creatives EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions) This features offers echo and reverb effects that can simulate the sounds in different surroundings. For example in a concert hall sounds can be absorbed and flattened slightly, while music in a bathroom will constantly echo off the shiny surfaces. EAX can simulate this in games to give an all together more realistic gaming experience.
EAX however is not its own API, and its positional audio in games is no where near as good as Aureals A3D technology. EAX simply sits ontop of Microsofts DirectX and Direct sound technology.
The sound itself though isof very high standard, I actually prefer to put music on the computer to listen to rather than put the CD in the Stereo system. I count that as a big plus.
The specs are very impressive, with 1024 voices and the ability to record music in analogue or digital. Works really well with the DVD package Creative Encore.
The software is of really high standard aswell. Liveware!3.0 has many features and fancy programs but the main things such as the wave recorder and Audio Hq do there job really well, The audio hq is where you can access everything to do with your sound card. you can change the EAX setting to make all the sounds have a theme to them. You can change your speaker setup to 2,4, surround speakers or headphones. Also where each type of sound comes from and the speaker front to rear balance. Then there is the normal volume controls from which you set the volume of the Cd audio, Wave volume midi etc aswell as the master volume Bass and Treble. There is a full graphic equaliser and representative display.
Anything to do with music you want this card or one of its family. If you are really into games you might want to consider a card with A3D's Sonic Vortex 2 chip.
