Creative Technology Inc has launched the Sound Blaster AWE32 audio board, which combines the features of the Sound Blaster 16 Advanced Signal Processing card with the Advanced WavEffects digital sample playback synthesis capabilities of E-mu Systems’ EMU8000 integrated signal processor. It has a programmable signal processor, and Fastspeech 8 and Fastspeech 10 real-time compression modes are available. Also included is the new Textassist speech synthesiser product for text-to-speech conversion; Qsound 180-degree virtual audio sound localisation technology for special effects; Voiceassist speech recognition software; the wave file editor Wavestudio, the sequencer Cakewalk software Apprentice, and the Creative Ensemble – a home hi-fi system consisting of a set of software applications for playback of wave, Compact Disk and Musical Instrument Digital Interface files. It costs $400 and will ship this month to distributors and resellers. Those with Sound Blaster 16 boards with Advanced Signal Processing can upgrade to the Textassist application for $30. An Advanced Signal Processing upgrade with Textassist will also be available to Sound Blaster 16 owners for $100.
