The Week in Review: December 30, 2002 -  January 5, 2003

Last week's features at 3DsoundSurge

Happy New Year
Just a quick note to wish all of our readers a safe and happy new year. We plan to make 2003 a productive year for 3DsoundSurge with respect to new reviews and features.

Last week's sound news

Drivers and bugs

• Sound Blaster Audigy DriverPack Update
  Creative Asia has posted an updated Audigy DriverPack. Note that these are the same drivers that were released in August - all that has changed is additional language support.

New games, demos, patches and bugs

• Soldier of Fortune II Gold Update
  Activision has released the 1.03 Gold Update for Soldier of Fortune II, adding tweaks, bug fixes, and three new maps. You can get a list of download mirrors from Activation's official Soldier of Fortune II site.

• Game Music Extraction Guide
  Tweak Town has posted a Game Music Extraction Guide that goes through in detail their recommended steps to extract and convert game music tracks into a format which you can play on software audio players, or even burn to CD, for access outside of the game. As an aside from the main article it's worth noting that 128 kbps compressed tracks (such as MP3) are not close to CD audio quality, even though it's commonly represented as such. For a generic look at music compression (via MP3) and playback you can check out our Newbie Guide to MP3.

• Music in Games Part 3.2
  In Gaming has posted another update to their continuing series on music in games. This time they talk with Ron Jones, who's credits the game music for Starfleet Academy and Starfleet Command, film (Mission Impossible), and TV shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Family Guy. Here's a taste:

  Ingaming: How do you see sound in games progressing? Are we likely to see new methods of delivering music and sound?

  Ron Jones:As the game designers become more creative and more endowed with higher bandwidth we will see some truly mind altering media, we can’t even imagine what is just around the corner. Composers are not asked to create. Composers come along and try to accompany that which the designers created. Music is not yet a driving force creatively. Scores are basically slapped on in post production. Music will not jump out of the box unless designers, companies and the market demand it. Music is the weak sister to visuals, even to sound effects in most cases. The best game scores so far are ones that copy successful music from films or some other medium. Most companies want to sell as many copies as possible, so they borrow from what is popular. It is a corporate mentality. It will probably be some underground, under funded group of game designers that will help to push something new musically. The potential of music and its effect on the overall game players’ experience has yet to be developed, due to a lack of desire and imagination rather than technology or musical limitations. Plus many of the composers are limited in their abilities and conditioned not to think out of the box, even the popular game music soundtracks are so derivative of other scores as to raise only to the level of a parody rather than a work which communicates on it’s own level. The tools are here now, but not the imagination. So, perhaps it will stumble along until someone accidentally does something different.

• NDL 3D Engine Interview
  It's a light news day today (again). Avault has posted in interview with John Austin, the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based company's chief executive officer, to find out what developers, publishers and game players can expect in 2003 from the NDL 3D Engine. Here's a snip:

  Q: Where does NDL see game technology heading in the foreseeable future?

  A: Graphics and processor performance and capabilities continue to improve, which allows game developers to do all kinds of neat stuff. This will continuously evolve on the PC, and in a few years we'll see the next generation consoles. Taking advantage of those capabilities is another matter – do you know any artists that can write a pixel shader? So we'll be spending a lot of effort developing tools to make those features accessible. The added compute capability will allow developers to do more with physics, AI and sound, so these technologies will become interesting from our perspective as a technology provider. We also believe that next generation cell phones will start to become interesting as yet another 3D game platform.

  It's always music to our ears when we see news that more attention will be paid to audio.

Reviews of soundcards, speakers, headphones and MP3 players.

• Altec Lansing 621 2.1 Speaker System Review
  Hardware Zone has posted a mixed but overall positive review of Altec Lansing's 621 2.1 Speaker System.

• Speaker Setup Guide
  Hot Hardware has posted a guide on how to setup speakers for optimum sound quality. Just one comment and that is with respect to surround speaker placement - the side placement recommended in the article is a popular configuration for movies, but for games a rear placement in a manner similar to the fronts will yield optimum positional effects.

• FrontX Review
  ModAsylum has posted an overall positive review of the FrontX port extension/replicator system

• Philips 3210 Combo CD Writer / DVD Drive Review
  Accelenation has posted an overall positive review of the Philips 3210 Combo CD Writer / DVD drive.

• CNET's best home entertainment products of 2002
  C/Net has posted a list of what they feel were the best home entertainment products of 2002. The list includes the X-box, the Onkyo HT-S755DVC complete home theater system and the Klipsch Synergy System 6 5.1 speaker system.

Other sound news

• Dolby Laboratories Is ''The Sound of Entertainment'' at CES
  Dolby Laboratories is showcasing its leading-edge audio technologies at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), January 9-12, 2003, in Las Vegas, under its "The Sound of Entertainment" theme. Visitors to the Dolby Laboratories Exhibit will experience a host of advanced Dolby® audio technologies -- including Dolby Digital, Dolby Surround Pro Logic® II, Dolby Virtual Speaker technology, and Dolby Headphone technology -- in a wide range of consumer entertainment products designed expressly for use in the home and on the go.

  Several new consumer electronics products incorporating Dolby technologies will be highlighted at the Dolby booth, including the first DVD-Audio application designed for the PC from Creative Labs (the Audigy 2 + software player combination), as well as Dolby Headphone applications from Denon and Pioneer. Dolby Virtual Speaker (also see news story just below) technology will be demonstrated on several PC platforms in the exhibit.

  For lots of additional detail you can check out the full press release.

• First Silicon Implementation of Dolby Virtual Speaker Technology Shipping
  Dolby Laboratories announced that it has licensed the first silicon implementation of Dolby® Virtual Speaker technology. The Melody® SHARC® Ultra chipset from Analog Devices, Inc., which also implements Dolby Headphone technology, will enable ADI's customers to incorporate the Dolby technologies into consumer electronics products as varied as digital televisions, stereo mini-systems, video-game consoles, in-car entertainment systems, DVD-Video players, portable DVD players, and other devices.

  Until the ADI Melody SHARC Ultra chipset, iterations of Dolby Virtual Speaker technology have been limited to digital signal processing (DSP) applications in personal computers, which have far more processing power than traditional consumer electronics products. Dolby Virtual Speaker technology is already available on InterVideo's WinDVD Platinum software DVD player and will also be supported by a soon-to-be-released version of CyberLink's PowerDVD XP 4.0.

  For more information on Dolby Virtual Speaker technology and on Analog Devices' Melody SHARC Ultra you can check out the full press release.

• Level 9 PFT Transducer Technology Featured In Philips MX5900
  Level 9 Sound Designs Inc. today announced that its PFT transducer technology is featured in Philips' Model MX5900 Home Theater System, which this week won the prestigious CES 2003 'Best of Innovation' Award for the audio category.
  
  In speaking about the award, Mr. KW Lee, Philips Chief Engineer (Electro-Acoustical), Philips Audio Development, Philips Consumer Electronics commented, "With the introduction of SACD, Philips was looking for a transducer (tweeter) that could extend the bandwidth of the high frequencies further than the normal 20KHz. Level 9's Planar Focus Technology (PFT), incorporating the company's signature lightweight moving membrane, fully realized the technical requirements that are needed for SACD applications. And, because of their ultra- thin design form, PFT transducers also provided the LX 8000 series speakers with a beautifully designed enclosure."

  For additional details on the Philips system, PFT technology (which is also featured in the Monsoon multimedia product line from Level 9) and, the CES award you can check out the full press release.

• Philips Rings in 2003 with Nineteen CES Innovation Awards
  Building on a rich tradition of innovative and state-of-the-art products and technologies, Philips Electronics announced today it is the recipient of nineteen 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovation Awards. Philips received more awards than any other manufacturer at this year's show and set a record for the company.

  Four of Philips' products, including its 44-inch Liquid Crystal On Silicon (LCOS) Television, psa 128 MP3 player, iPronto TSi6400 and its multi-changer SACD/DVD Home Entertainment System MX5900SA, were recognized as 2003 CES Innovations Best of Innovations for the show. A panel of prominent industry designers, engineers and journalists, determined the 2003 CES Innovation Awards. The products were judged on the following criteria: user value, aesthetics, contributions to the quality of life, as well as innovative qualities. For details you can check out the full press release.

• High Court Urged to Settle DVD Dispute
  The US Supreme Court has temporarily intervened in a fight over DVD copying, and the justices could eventually use the case to decide how easy it will be for people to post software on the Internet that helps others copy movies. More broadly, the case -- against a webmaster whose site offered a program to break DVD security codes -- could resolve how people can be sued for what they put online.

  Justice Sandra Day O'Connor granted a stay in December to a group that licenses DVD encryption software to the motion picture industry, giving the court time to collect more arguments. She requested filings by the first week of January. The group has spent three years trying to stop illegal copying.

  For the full story you can check out Yahoo Finance and C/Net News.

• Supreme Court backs off DVD case
  The U.S. Supreme Court has bowed out of a long-running dispute over a DVD descrambling utility, dealing a preliminary defeat to Hollywood studios and electronics makers. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor placed a ruling by the California Supreme Court on hold last week, but rescinded her emergency stay on Friday.

  O'Connor's decision came in response to court papers filed by lawyers for the defendant, Matthew Pavlovich, late Thursday. The effect is that Pavlovich is no longer barred from distributing the DeCSS descrambling utility by a court order, but he could be sued again if he decides to do so.

  For the full story you can check out C/Net News.

• Utopia Sound Division Announces 'Project-Portability'
  Next to free Utopia Live! updates, Utopia Sound Division, makers of the excellent Utopia Live! soundfont, is currently working on an operating and soundcard independent set of GM/GS soundbanks currently code named 'Project-Portability'. The end product is designed to overcome the fact that current soundcards on the PC tend to have several limitations, and nearly all have their own interpretation of how certain soundbank formats should be processed (e.g. reverb/chorus, filters etc).

  Utopia Sound Division also has a sale on Utopia Live! v2.0 and Acoustic Piano add-on v1.0 for only $25 until January 18, 2003.

  For lots of details you can check out the full press release.

Upcoming features at 3DsoundSurge

• Reviews that we are currently working on:
  Updated Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury and GameTheaterXP reviews
  Hercules Fortissimo II
  Terratec DMX Xfire 1024
  CMedia CM8738 Reference Review
  Full Audigy Review
  Full Philips MMS305 Review
  
• There are several other hardware reviews in the pipeline including, but not limited to the following:
  Guillemot Maxi Sound MUSE
  Terratec m3po
  DigMedia MusicStore
  Philips Seismic Edge
  Lots of other stuff on the go in including several guides and major site revisions that we will soon be releasing more details on.
  

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