🚀 go-pugleaf

In <wfIGG0O00iV3A4Ats3@andrew.cmu.edu> kc3b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kevin Wengcheong Cheng) writes:

>>Wave Blaster, a daughter-board for the 16 ASP geared toward 
>>the professional audio market is expected at the end of the first
>>quarter of 1993, Creative Labs said. Wave Blaster will add 32-
>>voice wave-table synthesis technology and is exclusively
>>licensed from E-mu Systems.
>> 
>>The Sound Blaster 16 ASP is retail priced at $349.95. The Wave
>>Blaster is expected to be retail priced at $249.

>OK, what I'd like to know is that since the Wave Blaster seems to be
>using wave-table sysnthesis too, wouldn't it sound as good as the GUS?

No. It'll sound better. *MUCH* better. The Waveblaster uses the EMU Proteus
XR/1 chipset- which is the "same" chipset as in the Turtle Beach Multisound- 
by far the best sounding card on the market. The biggest difference between
the two chipsets is that the one used in the WB is more up to date with later
ROM samples, etc. It'll sound even better than the MS, from what I've heard.

The catch is that the above retail price ($250) is likely the only price you'll
be able to get it at. EMU is forbidding CL from releasing the WB to the retail
market, since they don't want their chipset "devalued" (how stupid), so you'll
have to order it direct from CL at the list price. CL doesn't like it, it knows
its users won't like it, and it knows it'll get blamed for it, but its out
of their control- EMU has the rights to the chipset and can tell CL what to do
in this case.

>Would it be worth the wait and the price if there was the possibility of
>better compatibility with existing and future games...? Perhaps Creative

Definitely worth the wait IMNSHO. The WB is sure to get industry support, since

A) Its from CL.
B) The Proteus chipset is much more designer friendly than the GUS.

>can do a better job at emulating it's FM synthesis with the WT synthesis
>on the WB...? As I see it now, the GUS will mostly be emulating FM

The WB will *NOT* do FM synthesis at all. The WB is an add-on card to the SB-16,
so the SB-16 will handle any FM or straight digital stuff (ie- the DAC on the
SB-16 will be used for recording/playing VOC files, but the WB will be used
for all wave stuff, esp. MIDI files).

>-->ARGH! ALL THESE SOUNDCARDS ARE DRIVING ME NUTS!!!!!!<--

Welcome to the club.

Oh, and BTW- the WB has 4 megs of ROM, just like the MultiSound.
         Tom Sorensen
-- 
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Tom Sorensen              gt0040a@prism.gatech.edu
"I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system,
and possibly program, of all time." - Bill Gates, November, 1987