Sound Blaster Live!
was introduced on August 11, 1998[1] and variations on the design remained Creative's primary sound card line into the early 2000's.
Manufactured in a 0.35 μm 3-metal-layer CMOS process, it is a 2.44 million transistor ASIC rated at 1000 MIPS.
This was possible at this point because systems were being equipped with far more RAM than previously, and PCI offered far faster and more efficient data transfer than the old ISA bus.
This capability let users select a pre-defined listening environment from a control-panel application (concert hall, theater, headphones, etc.)
featured higher audio quality than previous Sound Blasters, as it processed the sound digitally at every stage, and because of its greater chip integration that reduced the analog signal losses of older, larger cards.
card had great difficulty with resampling audio CD source material (at 44.1 kHz) without introducing audible distortion.
Instead, a low-pass filter (crossover) within the speaker system removes high and midrange frequencies from the sound card's output for the subwoofer.
Games see a "4.1" speaker system as quadraphonic because DirectSound itself offers no subwoofer output in this configuration.
5.1, offered 5.1-channel support which adds a center-channel speaker and LFE subwoofer output, most useful for movie watching where Dolby Digital 5.1 is decoded.
The program enables support for many standards, such as Sound Blaster 16, General MIDI, AdLib (OPL3), among others.
The Creative Recorder utility included with the sound card was specifically designed to take advantage of the "What U Hear" feature, making it a simple matter to capture streaming sound from any source, even from programs that deliberately avoid providing a means for saving the digital sounds, thus freeing non-technical users from the complexities of "patching" between inputs and outputs of various software modules.
had a very low noise floor for its time; however, a critical design flaw limited its application in quadraphonic audio.
Since the AC'97 chip provided an internal 48 kHz DAC, Creative chose not to implement two identical DAC pipelines, and the front-speaker audio pair was subjected to a different reconstruction and amplification regime to that of the rear channel (as evidenced by differently valued pull-up resistors and filter capacitors in the area forward of the AC'97 chip, in the specifications of the AC'97 itself, and in the use of different amplifier Op-Amps).
These problems were not encountered by those using the Gold editions' daughterboard 4-speaker digital-output, but the tendency of the AC'97 chip to fail when used as an input source to medium-impedance musical instruments removed the use of the front channels altogether, although the chip could be sourced from cheaper AC'97 compatible products and soldered into place.
was for a long time a favorite trick for computer audio enthusiasts who want better sound for minimum of money.
Featuring gold tracings on all major analog traces and external sockets, an EMI-suppressing printed circuit board substrate and lacquer, the Gold came standard with a daughterboard (CT4660) that implemented a separate 4-channel alternative mini-DIN digital output to Creative-branded internal-DAC speaker sets, a S/P-DIF digital audio Input and Output with separate software mappings, and a fully decoded MIDI interface with separate Input and Output (along with on mini-DIN converter.)
's proprietary 9-pin mini-DIN connector for digital output was referred by Creative to as the "Mini Din.
This cannot be done with the value and base models of all subsequent Creative sound cards, as they share a single port for S/PDIF digital in/output and microphone connectivity.
The Mini-DIN connection was not included in any subsequent Sound Blaster product, however owners of speaker systems that use this as the only digital input may buy an adapter from Creative.
[verification needed] The Gold highlighted many features aimed at music composition; ease-of-use (plug-and-play for musicians), real-time loopback-recording of the MIDI-synthesizer (with full freedom of Soundfonts, and environmental effects such as reverb, etc.
with the exception that it has color-coded plastic connectors (mini-jacks) instead of gold and does not include the extended digital I/O card.
The CT4760 differed from the full version of the generation 1 card (CT4620) in a lack of a I2S connector, in an improved layout and in an additional stereo Digital-Out mini-jack which had front and rear channels in the S/PDIF format on the central and radial pins.
Drive II, and the other cards differed only in software and in marketing outlets (the X-Gamer and MP3+ were meant only for North America).
The family consisted of the same cards as the second generation one; they, however, were marked "5.1" which meant a support of 6-channel acoustic systems.
They differed from the generation 2 cards in color plastic mini-jacks and in an additional support of central and sub channels via a non-standard 4-pin Digital/Analog Out mini-jack which could have either 3 digital-outs in the S/PDIF format (front, rear and central/sub) or analog-outs of the central channel and of the subwoofer.
5.1 MP3+ It was possible to modify the generation 2 cards to offer 5.1 output by re-programing the 8-pin PROM chip (EEPROM 93c46).
including the Gold edition, marketing strategy, and design faults, see Sound Blaster Live!
The sale of this board by Dell created some controversy because it was not obviously marketed as an inferior or cheaper product.
value card (CT4780) but can be distinguished by having a white connector for a front panel audio header for Dell PCs.
Their professional features included effects with higher quality, front-mounted drive bay panel with headphone output, dual mic/line inputs with physical level control knobs, digital coax in/out on both PCI card and drive bay, mixer with dB precision, phantom power for microphones (12V), ASIO, mixer presets, internal mixer rerouting, 64 MIDI channels, 32MB system RAM usage for SF2 (Gigabyte expandable in Windows XP) and future expandability through an extra multi-out card.
