Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live!

 Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live!

Creative Labs have done it again!.  This time  with their latest creation, Soundblaster Live!.  This ground breaking soundcard promises unprecedented audio quality and flexibility.

As you can see from the above specification, this certainly is a superbly specified piece of equipment.  We chose to test it out on two systems.  One 200Mhz processor based average home user PC and one 450Mhz processor based professional music station with keyboards amps, surround sound, multiple speakers and a 21" monitor.  In both cases, the card was easy to install and if in doubt, the instruction manual is clear and provides useful tips on installation.  Cabling up, again, was simple enough except in the higher specced system which was a full tower case, the CD audio cable didn't quite reach the CD drive.  Useful on board support is also provided for DVD players and the card connected directly to our PC DVD Encore Dxr2 card.

Once installed it is a simple matter of tidying up and restarting your computer, the CD autoruns and can install the drivers plus the impressive suite of software

Once restarted I was immediately impressed with a gratifyingly realistic lightning bolt startup sound which replaces your standard windows startup "noise".

A start menu item for you soundcard has now been added and it's time to play.  In all cases, be it MIDI file playback, MP3, WAV or even RealAudio, this soundcard surpassed my expectations.  Sound Quality was superb and with Environmental audio in use, the realism was admirable.  On the standard Home PC setup, it sounded good but on our professional audio station, it sounded GOOD!  this is no amateur card and on our pro sound setup, the quality of the digital surround sound and depth of the sound stage were superb.  Playing back DVD films showed off the low noise floor and in game sounds and effects were enhanced using the new DirectX EAX extensions which are processed on board.

This card also makes use of Creative Labs soundfont technology.  This lets you control banks of samples for use either to play back as per a sampler (using a keyboard) or to use as sounbanks for use with MIDI playback.  The card uses its own generous 16MB of memory together with extra available system memory to give you a largely unlimited amount of space to play with.  Combining this with a decent keyboard results in a really rather good DJ mixer station.

Overall I can safely say that this card is REALLY DAMN GOOD.  The sound quality is amazing and the software and drivers provided mean you have a stunningly good sound station to work with!

Minimum System Requirements:

    CPU: IBM PC 100% Compatible
    Processor: Pentium® 75Mhz or faster Intel® Processor
    Memory: 8MB
    Hard Disc Space: 12MB.
    Operating System: Windows 95 / 98 / NT 4.0
    Hardware: SVGA 256 colour monitor, game port.
    Software: Games would be handy.

ISR Roundup:

    Pros: ABSOLUTELY STUNNING.
    Cons: I wasn't too impressed with the cabling.
    Price: £CALL
    Competing Products: Lots of sounblaster clones around.
    User friendliness: 93% - Very easy!
    Does it do what it says on the box as well as it says on the box: 98% - It is a soundcard.
    Features: 99% - Absolutely thousands.
    The 'Fun' factor: 80% - It really is fun.
    Summary: Really rather good!

ISR Overall Rating: 5 ticks - Maximum score