|
Acknowledgments A big thanks firstly to Mathias C. Hjelt. In 1995 he ran a web page called 'AWE32 - the pages of naked truth', which was invaluable for my own learning about the AWE32, and consequently the creation of this site. It covered all the detailed technical aspects of the AWE32 that the Creative manuals and official AWE32 FAQ did not. Unfortunately, this page has since been taken down, but a mirror of the original site is available here. I have also salvaged part of the original site which can be downloaded here (note some diagrams are not included). It is saved in Windows Write format, which can be opened by Wordpad in Windows 95 & 98. I hope this information can be as much help to other AWE32 users, as it was to me. Thanks also to all the major AWE32 user sites from the last 5 years or so. These too, were of great assistance in my own learning about the AWE32, and how to best use it. In particular, the site maintained by Jesper Nordenberg and Johan Nilsson. Although their website has been taken down, their ftp site is still available at ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/awe32/ The Author & Contact Info I purchased my AWE32 in 1995, after becoming interested in composing music on PC, and reading about the great features the AWE32 offered. As I mentioned in the intro, at first I thought the AWE32 was hampered by things like: the low quality of digital audio section; weak sound level from the sampler section; and lack of sample memory. However, since upgrading the memory, using the S/PDIF output, and employing the techniques described in these pages, I really think that it can produce results on par with professional samplers of similar specification.
To give you an idea of what the AWE32 is capable of I've included samples of four of my own tracks. The first, "Pick Me Up", was composed using mostly free samples collected from various websites. It makes heavy use of the AWE32's filters. No effects have been applied to this track...what you hear is exactly what was recorded to CD directly from the S/PDIF output of the EMU-8000. Click here to download a clip of "Pick Me Up". Another track, "Voyage" was composed mostly from samples taken from a variety of different synthesisers, and sample CDs. Again, this was recorded directly from the AWE32, with only a little compression, and EQ applied to the whole mix. Click here to download a clip of "Voyage". "Frenzy" is a simple hard house tune, which uses only 4 MIDI channels in total. It's a good example of how a simple sequence, used with the right techniques, can produce professional results on the AWE32. It was recorded directly from the S/PDIF output, with no external effects applied. Click here to download a clip of "Frenzy". "Chaos Phase One", my most recent effort, utilises sounds from professional sample CDs, and freeware soft-synths. The track was again recorded from the AWE32's S/PDIF output, and has some subtle bass emphasis using EQ, and compression applied to the whole mix. Click here to download a clip of "Chaos Phase One". If you have any questions about using the AWE32 or MIDI, or comments about the site, please email me at  . I'd love to hear from you.Alastair Wyse - Awedomain Author Other Creative Cards The AWE32 Value Edition This card was released around the same time as the real AWE32. Essentially it is an AWE32, minus the "advanced signal processor", SIMM slots, and (I think) S/PDIF output. Unfortunately this severely limits it, in terms of sampling - you are limited to the built in 512k, and you have to live with the (average) sound quality of the analogue output. If you are looking for a second hand AWE32, be careful not to buy one of these by mistake. The best way to identify a Creative card is to obtain the CT number of it, and compare that with the specifications on the Creative site. The Sound Blaster 32 I believe this was a replacement for the AWE32 Value edition. Fortunately most models retained the SIMM slots and S/PDIF output of the full AWE32, meaning that they can be used for sampling purposes almost exactly as the real AWE32 can. On the digital audio side of things, it has a Vibra, rather than creative chipset, which means there are no tone controls, and the SNR is worse (according to Creative's specifications anyway). Still, the EMU-8000 section is identical to the proper AWE32, so provided you source your samples digitally, or record through another sound card, it should perform exactly as well as a real AWE32 (possibly for considerably less money). The AWE64 Gold The AWE64 was touted as Creative's replacement to the AWE32. Although it still uses the same EMU-8000 chip for sampling/MIDI synthesis, the '64' in its name might make you suspect the polyphony has been increased to 64...well this is partly right. The extra 32 voices come from what creative calls "Wavesynth/WG", which is in essence a software General MIDI synthesiser. This means that the extra 32 voices can only be used for general MIDI sounds, and will be useless to anyone using the card as a sampler. A big minus, is that it used proprietary Creative memory banks, rather than standard SIMMs. These banks are only available in the US, and are very expensive by comparison to 30pin SIMMs. Furthermore the memory capacity is down to 24mb (instead of 28mb). On the plus side, the S/PDIF output is widened to 20bits (from 16 on the AWE32), and digital audio section is completely redesigned, and is apparently of much higher quality than that of the AWE32. Additionally, any 16 bit, 44.1Khz digital audio is routed to the S/PDIF output (unlike the AWE32), so the card can be used in conjunction with an external D/A converter for high quality playback of .wav files. AWE64 Gold's can be found relatively cheaply second hand, and on internet auction sites. If you can find a used one that includes the memory banks then get it, but otherwise I'd look for an AWE32 or SB32. There's also a plain AWE64 and AWE64 value version. As with the AWE32 value, these cards do not have S/PDIF capability, which is a major disadvantage. The Sound Blaster Live Introduced to Creative's range in 1998, the important news with this card, is that the sampling subsection has been upgraded to the EMU-101K chip, which has true 64 voice polyphony, and 48Khz sample playback. Also the samples are stored in the PC's RAM instead of on the card. This is both good and bad. It's advantageous for the fact that you no longer have to invest extra money in additional memory banks. The down side is that the PCI bus (over which the samples must travel when being played) is shared with all other components in the computer, and as such may result in latency when the samples play. Also the MIDI effects engine has several extra effects. If you have a fast new computer, then get one of these. The top model (Live Platinum or similar) comes with an extra bracket which was both coax and optical output AND input. As with the AWE32 series (in their day), the card has excellent features for the price. For the best news and info about the Sound Blaster Live, visit the Live! Center at http://listen.to/sblive The Sound Blaster Audigy This is the most recent addition to Creative's product range. It has some fairly significant improvements in terms of digital audio, but the MIDI and sampling capabilities seem to be similar to the Sound Blaster Live. One major improvement though, is the ability to utilise a huge amount of system RAM for sample playback (of the order of 1 Gigabyte I believe). It is also compatible with the soundfont 2.1 standard (which actually seems little different from soundfont 2.0, but for the inclusion of MIDI mapping facilities that have been available in sequencers for years) |
