The Sound Blaster Live! Book: A Complete Guide to the World's Most Popular Sound Card [Paperback]

Lars Ahlzen (Author), Clarence Song (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003

Learn how to configure hardware (including speakers, digital accessories, and peripherals); watch DVDs in surround sound; play games in 3D; record and organize digital audio and MP3s; and use sequencers, MIDI, and SoundFonts to compose music. Plentiful illustrations walk you through general and PC audio concepts and the CD-ROM gets you started with the book's music and audio examples, sample sound clips, SoundFonts, and audio software.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . especially recommended for anyone with a keen interest in quality computer audio." -- The Bookwatch, June, 2003

About the Author

Ahlzen is the founder of the Live! Center website. He is currently a computer science and engineering student at Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg, Sweden.

Song is an avid technology, multimedia, and AV enthusiast, and runs a popular Sound Blaster-user website with coauthor Lars Ahlzen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; Pap/Cdr edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886411735
• ISBN-13: 978-1886411739
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,464,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Interesting, June 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sound Blaster Live! Book: A Complete Guide to the World's Most Popular Sound Card (Paperback)

For non-audiophiles this book answers a lot of questions and clears up a few mysteries about the Live!, multi-speaker setups, surround sound, Dolby Digital and DTS, and PC sound in general. Very will written, enjoyable to read. Even though we are now in the "Audigy era", Creative's retirement of their Live! 5.1 line in lieu of a slightly inferior budget Live! 5.1 card is rather premature and clearly business driven (ie, push the Audigy series), since I am convinced that a Live! 5.1 system meets and exceeds the needs of many (possibly most) PC users, gamers, and movie watchers, and will continue to do so for several years. Its a great card with a lot of power left in it and this book really does it justice. True Audigy-brandishing audiophiles will probably find nothing new here, although they might still find it interesting to read

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Let's hope the Audigy version come out soon!, May 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sound Blaster Live! Book: A Complete Guide to the World's Most Popular Sound Card (Paperback)

Although some information has become obsolete at the time of printing, much of the audio-engineering technology and concepts still applies.

The book is by as far I have seen, the best reading material for the uninitiated in exploiting the use of sound cards. It also serves as a good external reference for developers as well, as there seems to be a lack of them in this area.

Like Strict Evaluation pointed out, the book is "encyclopaedic". A topic such as EAX itself is worth writing the whole book about. The authors deserves credit for covering so much breadth and depth.

I look forward to coverage of these topics, if there's an upcoming Audigy version:
- Code samples for using EAX
- Prodikeys (that'll definitely be interesting)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete and through guide, June 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sound Blaster Live! Book: A Complete Guide to the World's Most Popular Sound Card (Paperback)

The collaborative effort of website developer Lars Ahlzen and software engineer Clarence Song, The Sound Blaster Live! Book is a complete and through guide to the single most popular computer sound card on the current market. Individual chapters deftly address how to physically connect the Sound Blaster Live! hardware and peripherals, configuring the sound card to play games, creating a music library, connecting MIDI instruments, and much, much more. An accompanying CD-ROM contains music and audio files, sample sound clips, SoundFonts, and useful freeware ans shareware in this succinct and useful guide which is especially recommended for anyone with a keen interest in quality computer audio.