WARNING TO ALL PEOPLE WHO THINK THE SOUNDBLASTER AWE 32 IS A GOOD SOUNDCARD!!

This documentation is made with the help of people who previously owned an
AWE 32, a MIDI conference, and pure, hard demonstrations of the soundcard in
local shops. So it isn't just bullshit! 100% of this is REALLY TRUE!!

If we take an advert from Creative Labs we see a really big slab of Silicon,
covered with all kinds of neat things like chips and hungry SIMM banks. I
must admit that at first i really thought that Creative Labs finally found out
that their ASP16 technology was completely overlooked and inferior compared to
the Gravis Ultrasound. But nooo....this actually is the 'great' answer for the
big wave of Wavetable soundcards.

We'll take a look at the advert first :

- 16 Bit CD-quality stereo recording/playback
	Record and playback from 5kHz to 44.1kHz stereo
	Real-time hardware compression/decompression of sound files

- Orchestral 32-voice polyphony with Advanced WavEffects Synthesis
	16 Channels, 128 instruments, 32-voice polyphony (GM compatible)
	6 drum kits (GM compatible)

- Programmable AWE32 Effects Engine for Reverb and Chorus or Q-sound
	
- Programmable Advanced Signal Processor
	
- Soundfont support via downloadable sound samples
- 4 Mbit RAM onboard, upgradeable to a Maximum of 28 Mbytes
- 20 Voice OPL3 FM music Synthesiser
- Multi CD-ROM interface using Creative, Sony and Mitsumi drives
- Creative VoiceAssist, Speech Recognition system
- Creative TextAssist, Text-To-Speech system
- Soundblaster 16, General MIDI, MPC2, Windows 3.1 compatible

Looks promising? Sure...but here we go :


- 16 Bit CD-quality stereo recording/playback

My ass! CD qualtiy is 16 bit 44.1kHz Stereo, and the AWE32 may sample sound
on this frequency, it most certainly doesn't play it on this range! The out-
put showed a fallback around 18kHz and dropped around 20kHz. The card's
range was estimated around 21kHz easy. And sorry if I say so, but when they
say CD quality, the AWE32 has background noise like a lousy cassette deck,
and then I mean the analog type!

- Orchestral 32-voice polyphony with Advanced WavEffects Synthesis

In other words : 16 channels. This is another clue to the final conclusion
about the internal going-ons of the AWE32. All the Midi crap is standard,
just not worth explaining because it's the same like the SB16 Waveblaster
without the E-mu sound patches. Advanced Wav Effects Synthesis means support
of Chorus and Reverb or Q-sound. Which make up a LOT for the crappy Midi
output. Note that this is MIDI only.

Sounds sampled for MIDI output will go directly through the FM Synthesiser
before going through the MIDI Chip. This ensures maximum background hum and
noise. There's hardly something WaveTable about your own samples.

In order to make the AWE32 a better card, you can add the good old WaveBlaster
on this SB16 as well, giving it the double of the AWE32's abilities : enabling
64 channels polyphony = 32 channels.....smart, but nothing refreshing, not to
mention a price tag. Note that this is MIDI only.

- Programmable AWE32 Effects Engine for Reverb and Chorus or Q-sound

That's the Advanced WavEffects Synthesis thing. You get to program it your-
self. Wow, Creative Labs lets the consumer have a say in it!!

It turned out that without the Chorus and Reverb, MIDI sounds more miserable.
And Q-sound (180 degrees) can't match the Holographic 3D-Sound from Focal Point
(360 degrees immersive) in any way : it only works when you sit tight, the
sample must be pre-programmed for Q-sound and still it's a really diss-
apointing way to emulate suround.

- Programmable Advanced Signal Processor

This is the thing that made the SB16 better, and tries to do some good on
the AWE32, with no avail. The compression/decompression chip is a very handy
thing if you consider the AWE32 takes about 30% CPU time. However, it doesn't
do squat to the quality of the card.

- Soundfont support via downloadable sound samples

Hey, this is so new! (Well compared to their technoligy from 5 years back :
SoundFont is another name for support to insert more Midi samples, this is
a very common household item on Gravis Ultrasound Cards : Ultrasound Patch
files are openly availible since 1992)

- 4 Mbit RAM onboard, upgradeable to a Maximum of 28 Mbytes

4Mbit (some salesmen are keen on saying Mbite (he hopes you'll think it's Mbyte
that escapes his lips)) is 512Kb.....still a reasonable amount of memory for
such a stupid card. On the other hand, Creative Labs made a samrt move and made
SIMM banks : easy to get by, and in large amounts too. You can dump two 16Mbyte
SIMMS....and leave it to the card to waste 4Mbyte of it as a additional buffer
for the compressed 1Mb ROM full of samples!

All the WaveTable sounds are stored in one 1Mb ROM. The compression is no
big merit for the sound quality.

- 20 Voice OPL3 FM music Synthesiser

Can you remember the old days : Adlib tunes, noisy output, too much feedback
from other hardware devices? Well....sit back and enjoy yesterday's tech once
more!! Creative Labs managed to use the OPL3 again. When will they learn?
You get exactly two (yes, just two) digital audio channels for your disposal.
Is it a bit dissapointing if you look at a Gravis Ultrasound, a card with just
32 digital audio channels?

A strange thing in the advert : "OPL3 FM Synthesiser to give backward
compatibility!" This is not true :

  The OPL3 is not just built in for the compatiblity, the whole card's
  output is spoiled by the ever active OPL3 FM Synthesiser. If you put
  the volume on a normal level, you can enjoy the hum caused by the card
  itself, but also your Hard Disk, Processor etc...

  more evidence about the OPL3 being the heart of the AWE32 shows up in
  the very beginning : 

  When you've installed the software you get two directories, one of them is
  SB16, the other WAVEBL (?). In fact, the AWE is nothing but an upgraded
  Soundblaster ASP 16 / WaveBlaster combination with a RAM Bank.

  Even if they inserted the OPL3 for compatibility, they could as well used
  the new OPL4 (it's fully OPL3 compatible) which is a Wavetable Synthesis
  Chip.

  Slight hint : the SoundBlasters have a strange urge to be lacking full
  and real 16bit sampling capacities (This seemed to be OPL3 faulty) the
  first 8 bits are more or less the real sound, the other 8 are just random
  and blindly added bits. If you sample something in 8 and in 16 bit, you are
  likely unable to hear a difference!

Backward compatibility? The whole card is backward if what they say is right.


- Multi CD-ROM interface using Creative, Sony and Mitsumi drives

Confused people : Creative is not a CD-ROM standard (they wish!), this is a
stripped down version of the Panasonic/Matsushita CD-ROM drives. It used to
be CR-562x, but we haven't tested it on being a bunch better. (We might be
wrong on the Drive type)

- Creative VoiceAssist, Speech Recognition system

BlahBlahBlah...Cute program from the SB16Basic/ASP cards gone professional..
(And it's Windows too....)

- Creative TextAssist, Text-To-Speech system

BlahBlahBlah...Cute program from the SB16Basic/ASP cards gone professional..
(And it's Windows too....)

- Soundblaster 16, General MIDI, MPC2, Windows 3.1 compatible

No shit?! It's SB16 compatible?!?! IT IS A SB16 YOU FOOLS!! YOU SAID IT IN
YOUR OWN F---ING ADVERT, MORONS!! Besides, who wouldn't make it's own card
compatible with the older standards?! And all other specs were expected. 


OVERALL

- The quality of the card is plain miserable. Most MIDI sounds are just
  horrible, or they are 8 megabyte big. Okay, so you sampled each note, but
  the output is as horrible as the default MIDI samples. Chorus and Reverb
  try to filter most of the "hey, it sounds as if it's recorded through a tin
  can" quality out of it, but then the output just won't make something out of
  it. Take away the Chorus/Reverb and you'll become so sorry that you bought
  this card in the first place.

HOW IS IT RUNNING?

- Some shops already stopped selling the AWE32. When we asked why they said :
  (quote) "We stopped selling this soundcard because we didn't want to rip our
  customers off. The card sounded miserable"
  Some didn't. When we asked why they said : (quote) "The customers buy it. We
  don't care if it's a bad soundcard, if they buy it, we'll sell it!"

  This just shows why shops sell them. Most hardcore SB users just won't give
  up, and keep buying Soundblasters. People with no real knowledge of PCs never
  heard of another card. We even had to explain that the add-on that gives you
  digital sound on a PC wasn't called a SoundBlaster, but a Soundcard.
  We had this conversation :

	 A : "You have a PC? Gee..do you have a Soundblaster too?"

	 B : "No, I have a Gravis Ultrasound."

	 A : "....."

	 B : "It makes music...you understand?"

	 A : "Yeah...just like I said, you have a Soundblaster"

	 B : "<Sigh> No that's a type of soundcard, I have another type!"

	 A : "Aren't those things called soundblasters then?"

	 B : "No, they're called sound cards....(Jeez!)"


That's why so many people still buy Soundblaster crap.


- We were forced to watch a demonstration of the AWE32 in progress (the
  salesmen were convinced we wanted one....why would we?) and we saw a
  lot of lacks. Sure, the demonstration Midi was impressive but the sound
  output was extremely sad....Soundblaster background noise made it a lot
  worse : the digital sound itself just sucked. We were totally back in the
  SB16 corner : a lot of money for a hand-full-of-crap-quality. Then we had
  to explain what a GUS was. ("You have a WHAT?") Not soon after they were
  selling GUS MAX as well. (We think it's just coincidence)

- Some friend bought this card, and sold it after five days in favor of a
  GUS MAX. Complaints : Midi is sluggish and the card doesn't fully do as
  promised. When they are sliming about the quality, they lie as hell.

- Even our close family wasn't safe from the AWE 32 infection :
  He wanted to make music on his PC, and hopped by at the local store.
  Those cheap rats didn't want him to buy the ASP16, but the relativly more
  expensive AWE32. Yes, he was persuaded by the MIDI file you get with the
  free (misleading) demonstration, compared to a cranky MOD file on an ASP16.
  (*Back home he noted that both cards do the same thing to such a music file*)
  Happy as hell he followed the instructions of his handbook, and plugged the
  CD-ROM audio cable in, while the amplifier was on maximum power. (PC was
  turned off, in case you wonder)

  Now a really strange thing happened. This is not a made up story, this REALLY
  happened :

  Apparently the AWE 32 couldn't handle things, and blew his internal amplifier
  to pieces. Is this the super-sound card they yell about in the adverts? Yep.
  Creative Labs were so kind to promise him a new card. Great. First let a kid
  blow it's feet off, and then give him a new shotgun.

  (* Sidestep note : he was completely amazed by the quality of a simple, 
     un-MAXed GUS.....and they sell these for 1/3 of the AWE 32's price!!)
 
  We think the AWE32 is for idiots. This card belongs at the office, where
  idiots make their copy of Windows 3.1 talk, and play games from 1989 or
  earlier. DON'T BUY THIS CARD, IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE, NEEDS UPGRADING TO MAKE
  IT SLIGHTLY LESS WORSE, AND SHOULD BE SEEN AS A NEW SCAM FROM CREATIVE LABS
  TO SELL THEIR OLD SB16 CHIPSETS!!!

  THEY STILL CAN MAKE MONEY OUT OF THE OLD TECHNOLOGY, SO THEY WON'T COME WITH
  THE BETTER TECH.!!! LAME!!

  Sooooo.....still eager to buy a card called AWE32? Remember that these
  statements are true, we have had enough opportunities to analyse the card,
  and have seen the card fail the owners' expectations. Don't fall for it.....

You can always call us if you are in doubt, you know where to find TKB, don't
you? (+31-35-837350 / 28k8 and e-mail : bad_news@dds.nl)