Suffer the inconvenience of sound card plug-ins no more - with SB Live! Platinum!
Written: Oct 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Live! Drive is very cool and handy, excellent sound quality, some good bundled titles.
Cons: Some of the software is irritating and useless, and it's a fairly pricey item.
The Bottom Line: Though the SB Live! Platinum is a bit expensive, it's worth it for both its superior sound quality and the added convenience of the Live! Drive.
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| mocabela's Full Review: Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum |
Now, I will most certainly admit that I know little about sound systems, and I'm still pretty baffled by the extent of how far they've come in the way of personal computers. I remember when, in the not too distant past, I was mystified by desktop speakers that made noises other than strange little beeps and pulse-tone sounds that somewhat resembled the sound effects of rotary phones - you know, those nifty little internal speaker noises that once seemed really cool, just like having the privilege of picking EGA graphics in game setups used to.
Anyway, the Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum is most certainly not comparable to those top-notch ISA cards of old. In fact, it's not really in the same ballpark even as your average PCI card - and not just because the sound is so great, which it of course is, but, in addition, because the handy little device that it comes with - called a Live! Drive - is a definite answer to the prayers of anyone who has ever struggled to get to the back of their computer to plug in that nasty little microphone, or to change the speakers, etc..
The Sound Card
The Sound Blaster Live! is capable of delivering audio just as it was meant to be heard - whether it be clear, crisp vocals, rich, atmospheric music, or captivating EAX enhanced sound effects that can virtually take you places - real or imagined. A standard PCI card, the SB Live! is easy to install - the only difference as far as the card itself goes, is that you need to plug the included data cable into it and attach that the the Live! Drive - a simple task, really, that anyone can do.
It's worth noting that you can use several different speaker configurations (including 5.1) and types of output with this card, but I won't go into that since I really don't know anything about such things - I just use my harmon/kardon surround sound stereo, and it sounds nice to me.
The Live! Drive
The Live! Drive is the size of an internal CD-ROM drive, and takes up one such drive bay in your case - so you'll want to make sure you have the space for it, and it can't be one of the hidden ones; it needs to be accessible from the front, or there's no point in having it. Basically, what this drive is, is a front panel to your sound card (it connects to the card itself by way of a strange little data cable).
With the Live! Drive, you are able to plug in almost anything (hookups include: microphone, headphones, MIDI in, MIDI out, AUX in (L and R separately), optical in, optical out, SPDIF in, and SPDIF out) all from the front of your computer - in addition to having plugins in the back of the card itself; with the software included, you can easily switch back and forth between various sources of input or methods of output with an equalizer - meaning you can have two microphones to choose from, etc., if you so desire. There are also microphone and headphone volume controls next to their respective plug-ins.
One example of how I, personally, use it is to hook up my MP3-CD player to my computer's sound system (best stereo in the house) so I can listen to it that way when home, then easily free it when I want to pack it somewhere with me. It also keeps things more orderly, as my pets tend to play with any cords lying about - and since it's so easy to plug things in again, any devices (such as microphones) that aren't necessary most of the time can just be put away when not in use.
Bundled Software
A lot of the software borders on annoying - with a few exceptions. My package came with the following games: Thief II: The Metal Age, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, and MDK2. All of these are pretty cool games, if you ask me, and they were chosen, I think, to showcase the EAX sound abilities of the card.
Then there comes the annoying stuff. The remote program really irritated me, and I haven't used the remote control at all as a result - though I'm sure there are a lot of people with a bit more patience than me who will enjoy this little gadget, and possibly even its software, quite a bit. Admittedly, I just haven't taken advantage of a lot of this package's capabilities due to my strong unwillingness to go through all the junk it installed, and my basic lack of need for some of its many features.
Of course, the basic tools for fine-tuning the way your sound system works are pretty easy to use. As I said, you control the all of the input with an equalizer; this way you can stop a bunch of sources from playing at once, as well as adjust the volume of each individual source. Some basic tools such as a wav recorder are included, as well as an EAX manager that allows you to apply EAX affects to whatever audio you're playing.
Compatibility
I haven't had any compatibility issues with this card - not even from old DOS games, being as it is that Creative is quite good about DOS emulation. And, of course, the fact that it's a Sound Blaster makes a huge difference - it is, after all, one of the major standards in PC sound cards. I've also not had a single problem with resources, and it works flawlessly in both my Windows 98 and Windows 2000 OS.
Overall Appeal
For people who are serious about their sound sounding great - well, I would certainly recommend the Creative Sound Blaster Live! Platinum. The added bonus of having so many input/output types to choose from makes this simply irresistible - especially if you have some devices not supported by most sound cards, or if you want to input MIDI directly. I realize that it is pretty expensive, and I admit that I probably would not have bought it myself (it was a gift, and I'm notoriously thrifty) - but then I would have been missing a lot, too.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): gift
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Epinions.com ID:
mocabela
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Member: Julia
Location: Coastal Oregon, USA
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
What happened to the floppy disks that were actually floppy? It's a conspiracy!
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