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

By Dale Farris, Secretary Golden Triangle PC Club July 2003 General Overview No Starch Press, the publisher that makes computing fun and accessible, releases "The Sound Blaster Live! Book." This groundbreaking guide to the world's most popular PC sound card (over 100 million installed) by two well-known figures in the online Sound Blaster Live! community shows readers how to enhance their digital audio experience when playing games, composing music, or collecting and listening to their favorite tunes. While the Sound Blaster Live! cards have been installed on millions of PCs, many users remain unaware of the features and uses of this ubiquitous card, mainly due to a surprising lack of documentation with the card. Co-author Clarence Sang says "We want to give people enough information to be able to set up their entire PC audio system and configure their audio drivers, mixer, and speakers for optimal sound." Co-author Lars Ahlzen says "The Sound Blaster Live! composition tools are not that widely known. For example, SoundFonts allows users to customize instruments for their own compositions." Bet many of you readers have never heard of sound fonts. Well, in this super book, you will learn about these, as well as numerous other handy tips and tricks to working with a Sound Blaster Live! card. Special Features "The Sound Blaster Live! Book includes tips for utilizing these undocumented features, and much more, including the following. How to connect the Sound Blaster Live! to multimedia speakers and home theater systems How to get the most out of surround sound from DVDs, games, and other consumer audio equipment How to use the mixer and play with EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions) How to install digital I/O accessories like the Live!Drive for enhanced audio connectivity All about recording audio, including mixer settings and audio editing basics How to find, create, play, and manage SoundFonts Sequencer basics, including MIDI, effects, and SoundFont support in popular PC sequencers How to connect Sound Blaster Live! hardware, including the various connectors, jacks, and digital input/output features Material Covered Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live! delivers features and performance surpassing professional audio equipment, but you have to know how to use it to maximize these features. No matter how experienced you may be with a Live! card, these two authors will show you how to get more out of your Live! card and have fun doing it. Everything you need to know is here, from features and connections, to creating audio and composing music, as well as a thorough discussion of the software included with the Live! card. Table of Contents The eighteen (18) chapters include the following: Part 1: Features & Basics 1. The Evolution of Sound on the PC 2. An Audio Primer 3. The Sound Blaster Live! Hardware Part 2: Connecting Peripherals 4. Accessories Galore! 5. Connecting Devices 6. Speakers Part 3: Fun Stuff 7. The Mixer 8. EAX 9. Drivers and Other Tweaks 10. Playing Games 11. Watching Movies Part 4: Creating Audio 12. Creating a Music Library 13. Recording Audio Part 5: Composing Music 14. MIDI Explained 15. Connecting MIDI Instruments 16. Introduction to SoundFonts 17. Sequencer Basics 18. The EMU10K1 Digital Audio Processor The five (5) appendices include: Appendix A: The MIDI Specification Appendix B: The General MIDI Sound Set Appendix C: The GS Sound Set Appendix D: The MT-32 Sound Set Appendix E: The Sound Blaster Live! MIDI Implementation What's On the CD ROM Disc? The included CD ROM disc includes numerous music and audio files that support the discussion, sample sound clips, SoundFonts, and selected freeware and shareware. Target Readers The focus in "The Sound Blaster Live! Book" is on maximizing the potential of a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! sound card for PCs. The material covers Sound Blaster Live! Gold, Platinum, X-Gamer, MP3+, and OEM versions of the card. With literally millions of these Creative Labs sound cards now installed all over the world, and the common lack of documentation about using the card when you buy one of these cards, it's about time somebody wrote "The Missing Manual" on Sound Blaster Live! sound cards. Any PC user interested in tweaking the potential out of their Sound Blaster Live! sound card will most definitely want to seriously consider this super book. While many of the tips and techniques can be considered highly technical, other suggestions are not that difficult to understand and implement, making this book of great value to readers with a broad range of computer literacy. Certainly any PC enthusiasts who are integrating their Sound Blaster sound card into their business will definitely find this book a worthwhile investment. The authors provide a nice synopsis of how the use of sound has rapidly evolved in the computer industry, with the Creative Labs folks providing a great deal of this growth by the continued release of new sound cards with ever more powerful features. Many of today's more popular computer games have been coded to take full advantage of the capabilities of Sound Blaster cards, and hard core computer gamers will also want to seriously consider adding this important book to their bag of tricks. The co-authors have filled a void with this important book on Sound Blaster Live! sound cards, and the book will also be of much value to PC user groups. The book is an excellent door prize for a future user group meeting. Book Contents 600 pages; figures; tables; appendix; index; CD ROM disc Authors Lars Ahlzen and Clarence Song About the Authors Lars Ahlzen is the founder of the "Live! Center" website http://listen.to/sblive and a computer science and engineering student at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Clarence Song is a software engineer living in Singapore, and an avid technology, multimedia, and AV enthusiast. He runs the popular ALive! Sound Blaster Live! Resource http://alive.singnet.com.sg website. ISBN January 2003 - First Edition 1-886411-73-5 List Price $39.95 $59.95 CAN About No Starch Press San Francisco based No Starch Press, Inc., publisher of such best-selling titles as "Steal This Computer Book 3," "The Book of JavaScript," and "The Linux Cookbook," is an independent publishing company committed to producing readable, information-packed computer books that make a difference. No Starch focuses on Open Source, Web development, computer security, programming tools, and alternative operating systems. No Starch authors are highly regarded experts who have the rare ability to write about complex topics clearly and concisely. As a result, No Starch books share a no-nonsense manner that both educates and entertains. The Linux Journal Press series offers readers books on cutting-edge Open Source topics that make a difference, in an effort to advance the acceptance and usability of Linux. Recent titles include "The Book of Zope," "Programming Linux Games," and "The Linux Cookbook." Linux Journal Press titles are developed in partnership with Linux Journal. The No Starch international distribution network brings their books to all major English-language and critical non-English language markets. Their U.S. distributor, Publishers Group West (PGW), is the largest U.S. distributor for independent book publishers. PGW sells to all major wholesalers (Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, Koen, etc.), national chains and independents, online booksellers, and academic and technical bookstores. No Starch also aggressively pursues sales in non-traditional channels, including corporate and premium sales, bulk sales, and book clubs. The No Starch international distributors (including JGA in Canada, Computer Bookshops in the UK, Woodslane in Australia/New Zealand) reach all major English and non-English markets with large technical populations. They also maintain extensive contacts with international publishers who translate their books and bring them to their markets in their local language. William Pollock, founder and publisher of No Starch Press, Inc. (and co-founder of APress) has over fifteen years of book publishing experience. No Starch Press benefits from his experience in professional reference, scientific, college, and trade publishing. Mr. Pollock has worked his way up through the publishing ranks from editorial assistant, to sales representative, to acquisitions editor, to publisher. He knows the book publishing business from the ground up. Publisher Contact No Starch Press 555 De Haro St., Suite 250 San Francisco, CA 94107 800-420-7240 415-863-9900 FAX 415-863-9950 www.nostarch.com