PR: Creative Technology Announces First Quarter Fiscal 1997 Results

Creative European Press Releases - In Year 1996

Creative's New Sound Blaster AWE64 Line Takes PC Audio Standard to the Next Level

- New Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold Delivers Uncompromised Performance for Professional-Quality PC Audio -

December 6, 1996 - Creative Labs, the leading provider of multimedia products for the PC, has introduced Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold and Sound Blaster AWE64 - two new audio cards that dramatically increase the PC's audio performance. The new Sound Blasters deliver a powerful combination of audio technology that provides a more flexible, professional-quality audio solution while maintaining compatibility with all of the previous Sound Blaster products.

With the new AWE64 line, Creative once more leads the market, bringing WaveGuide technology, previously only used in very high-end professional products, to the consumer PC market. Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold is targeted at serious musicians, audio enthusiasts, high-end gamers and consumers who demand superior audio and is priced at $249. Sound Blaster AWE64 is an advanced, value-priced solution targeted at a broader base of home PC and corporate users and amateur musicians priced at $199. AWE64 will be available from December 1996 and AWE64 Gold from January 1997 - both through Creative's network of retailers and distributors.

Creative is working with key industry leaders to leverage its strengths and drive the Sound Blaster standard to a new level of performance. As Kevin Dallas, group product manager at Microsoft Corp, comments:

"We have been working closely with Creative for the past several years and we're very supportive of Creative's strategy to raise the standard of audio on the PC to include more expressive, professional-quality solutions. Together, with Windows 95 and DirectSound, we're committed to improving the end-user experience by fully utilising the PC as an instrument for productivity, education and entertainment."

The new cards build on Creative's Sound Blaster audio standard and represent over a decade of research and development from Creative and E-mu Systems - Creative's U.S. subsidiary known for its high-end professional synthesizers. "At Creative we're focused on making the PC a dynamic and ever-more expressive tool capable of truly captivating the user and enhancing creativity," said Dave Rossum, chief scientist at Creative Technology. "With the AWE64 Gold, we pulled out all the stops and designed a very powerful and easy to use audio card that gives the user a phenomenal audio experience!"

Features and Benefits

The Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold and AWE64 incorporate Creative's latest audio technologies:

64 note polyphony from a single MIDI device for sophisticated compositions

Upgradeable with up to 12MB of additional memory for adding SoundFont banks

Advanced Wave Effects Synthesis with a patented multi-point interpolation algorithm for smoother reproduction and minimal distortion

Sondius™ WaveGuide technology for precise mathematical modeling resulting in highly expressive sound reproduction

Creative WaveSynth for software-based wave synthesis

3D Positional audio and spatialisation for a more immersive audio experience

Real-time digital effects and SoundFont downloadable samples for flexibility and personalisation of the audio experience

Full-duplex capability for Internet communications and simultaneous playback and recording

The Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold includes the following additional features and benefits:

4MB of RAM standard on the card for better quality MIDI playback

2MB, 3.5MB and 4MB General MIDI SoundFont banks for expressivity and customisation

True digital output via a SP/DIF connector for the highest possible recording quality, digital audio and MIDI

Gold RCA connectors for superior line level output

High-quality sound with the highest signal-to-noise ratio and lowest total harmonic distortion of any Sound Blaster.

"The Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold is a result of Creative's pursuit for uncompromised audio fidelity," said Mike Chandler, Sound Blaster audio marketing manager at Creative Labs. "With these new products, and more to come, we expect a paradigm shift in the music creation, publishing and distribution industry that will result in a larger, expanded market."

The Complete Solution

The Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold and Sound Blaster AWE64 include a microphone, a MIDI cable and a complete suite of applications that provide tools for recording, playback and customisation. Creative also includes a powerful combination of Internet applications for browsing, streaming audio, Internet phone calls and conferencing. These include Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Creative WebPhone and Progressive Network's RealAudio Player.

Upgrading Sound Blaster Customers

Creative plans to offer a software upgrade for the new technology to its growing base of over 30 million Sound Blaster customers. The upgrades will be made available at retail, directly from Creative, and from Creative's web site 'The Creative Zone' (www.creativelabs.com or www.soundblaster.com). Creative will provide:

an upgrade for Sound Blaster 16 users that deliver 32-note polyphony wave-synthesis and an effects engine with the Creative WaveSynth. This upgrade will provide functionality comparable to the Sound Blaster 32.

an upgrade for Sound Blaster AWE32 and Sound Blaster 32 users with additional RAM that delivers a 32-note wave-synthesis and effects engine with Creative WaveSynth, and Sondius WaveGuide technology. This upgrade provides functionality comparable to the new Sound Blaster AWE64.

Technology Explained

Creative WaveSynth is a software-based synthesizer that provides 32-note polyphony for more realistic MIDI playback. It is compatible with Microsoft's DirectSound and Windows 3.1 applications as well as support for General MIDI. This new technology upgrade is designed to use minimal system resources. In order to take advantage of this upgrade the user must have a system that meets the following requirements:

- Intel Pentium 90 or greater processor

- 16MB RAM

- Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster 32 or Sound Blaster AWE32,

- Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows 95.

Sondius™ WaveGuide technology is based on Acoustic Physical Modeling, a technique for efficiently simulating the behaviour of musical instruments. WaveGuide technology allows instrument sounds to be reproduced with a precision that is more natural and expressive.

Creative NetSynth, a trial version of these technologies, will be available from Creative's Web site in December. Creative NetSynth allows existing Sound Blaster 16 and Sound Blaster 32 / AWE32 users to experience the software synthesis technology using a supported browser free of charge.

About Creative ...

Creative Technology, Ltd., is the world's leading provider of multimedia hardware and solutions for personal computers, including sound, graphics, communications and video conferencing products with its Sound Blaster technology adopted as the world-wide standard sound platform for PCs.

Founded in 1983, Creative Technology's corporate headquarters are based in Singapore with international subsidiaries and affiliate offices in China, Europe, South Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan and the US. The European head office is based at Ruscombe near Twyford in the UK. In January 1994, Creative opened its European operations and technical centre in Dublin, which provides telephone support for European customers in six languages. Creative Labs Europe has grown eight-fold in the past three years with subsidiaries in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, UK, Benelux, Denmark and Sweden. The European operation currently employs around 450 staff.