MAZ AWE / SB Live PAGE

last updated 22-Aug-2002

NOTE: This page will not be updated anymore, see you at the new website www.maz-sound.com!

Here's my personal mini-review of the SB Live! (december '98)

PLAYERs AND TRACKERs

Live! Module Player 0.9

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Live! Module Player 0.9 (86 KB)

< 1 minute

DOS

Lada Kopecky

20-Oct-2000

	freeware DOS-only module player that takes advantage of the powerful wavetable synthesizer chip found on Sound Blaster Live! cards, uses the well known AMP-engine
	the hardware mixing and hardware 8-point interpolation performed by the EMU10K1 synthesizer offers superb sound quality optionally 'enhanced' by built-in reverb and chorus effects without big demands on the computer's power
	64 concurrent voices are available, LMP is able to use up to 60 MBytes of memory for samples
	plays the following formats : .XM .S3M .MOD/NST .MTM .PTM and .IT (incl. filters and 2.15 compression)
	you can use listfiles or wildcards to play multiple modules
	major drawback of LMP: it can't run in a multitasking environment (in a window), because Creative's Windows drivers don't allow direct access to the EMU10K1 chip

LifeAmp 1.2

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LifeAmp 1.2 (117 KB)

< 1 minute

Win9x/NT/2000

LasTNighT

15-Jul-2001

	freeware, Winamp plugin for playing XM, MOD, S3M, IT using SBLive!/APS/PCI512 MIDI hardware and optionally converting the song to .MID + .SF2
	this way your modules will use the great hardware 8-point interpolation performed by the EMU10K1 synthesizer
	it's highly recommended to use APSLive! drivers because they support "sample offset" and have proper MIDI panning, in opposition to the LiveWare drivers
	it's obviously not the most accurate player on earth, but it works surprisingly good, it emulates volume/panning/pitch envelopes, portamento, sample offset, vibrato, surround panning, etc.
	but the real bomb of LifeAmp is the included "disc writer", which in this case doesn't produce a lame WAV but converts your tracker song into .MID (song) + .SF2 (soundbank)
	that's a great feature for musicians to re-use old DOS-tracker songs with every MIDI sequencer in combination with an SB Live or any VSTi or DXi software sampler (e.g. VSampler)

AMP for Windows 2.5

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AMP for Windows 2.5 (168 KB)

< 1 minute

Win 95/98

Lada Kopecky

30-Jan-2002

	freeware, AMPW is the all-in-one-carefree-module-player for owners of Sound Blaster AWE 32 / 64 cards
	worlds only windows-player which uses the AWE soundcard through "hardware mixing" and fully exploits the EMU8000 synthesizer with its 30 channels and the patented dynamic 4-point-interpolation filter, advantage: best possible sound quality with nearly no CPU use
	AMPW has been especially optimized for the 3 most popular trackers: FastTracker 2.08 (.XM), ImpulseTracker 2.14 (.IT, incl. resonant filters) and ScreamTracker 3.21 (.S3M), it even emulates their bugs "correctly", since that's the only way to achieve perfect playback
	other supported formats are .MOD, .NST, .MTM and .PTM
	support for playlists and drag'n'drop
	utilization of the AWE reverb and chorus, both customizable, direct support for custom reverb/chorus types created by AWE32FXWorkShop (--> utilities section of this page)
	NEW: probably the final version, now released as freeware
	NEW: new mode added: Autoplay
	NEW: new mode of SBK protection added: Swap to disk
	NEW: a driver update hint is displayed when you run AMPW under Windows ME with default WDM drivers installed
	NEW: engine v3.01 used: the song name in MOD may contain 00h as a blank space
	NEW: fix: now the player can skip buggy modules in both directions

AMP 3.0

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AMP 3.0 (87 KB)

< 1 minute

DOS (Win 95/98)

Lada Kopecky

20-Oct-2000

	freeware AWE-Module-Player for DOS: plays the following mod-formats : .XM,.S3M,.MOD/NST,.MTM,.PTM,.IT (incl. filters and 2.15 compression)
	feature of downsampling the highest samples to avoid the EMU8000 (sound chip of the AWE) pitch overflow
	possibility to play in Windows Background
	you can use listfiles or wildcards to play multiple modules
	very cool thing for your own modules: filter and effect controls for XM modules introduced (see NEWCTRLS.TXT)
	AWE Module Player Companion (65 K) is a frontend for AMP, allowing the user to browse through drives and directories and select songs (in archives or not) to play with AMP
	NEW: support for third-party file selector plugins
	NEW: interrupt-driven player engine - less skipping under Windows
	NEW: some SB mixer settings (Bass, Treble, DAC, and FM levels) are initialized to optimal/safe values. The original settings are restored at exit.
	NEW: XM loader improved: now it accepts XM modules created in ModPlug Tracker
	NEW: one minor bug fixed (related to IT panning in sample mode)

AWE Module Player 1.51

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AWE Module Player 1.51 (139 KB)

< 1 minute

DOS (Win 95/98)

Bert Boer

24-Sep-1997

	supports IT, XM, S3M, MTM, MOD and PTM files
	built in playlist editor and archive (ARJ, ZIP, RAR) support
	it is possible to play in Windows background
	Over 40 different reverb and chorus effects and adjustable reverb and chorus levels
	analog and digital equalizer, so you can give your modules for instance more BASS
	nice and useful user interface

MidPlay 1.00

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MidPlay 1.00 (1098 KB)

6 minutes

DOS (Win 95/98)

Till Toenshoff/SounDWorX

26-Jan-1998

	MIDI-player, plays through AWE, MPU401 and SoundBlaster MIDI with support for win9x long filenames
	loads automatically required .SBK and .SF2 soundfonts, playlist editor also included
	VESA SVGA or ModeX resolution, very cool interface
	uses AWE special effects (reverb/chorus), plays out of .ZIP, .ARJ and .RAR archives
	channel mapping possible, so you can use your AWE and other external instruments together
	create special playback settings for your files, so they can use different MIDI settings automatically
	NEW: final and last DOS version: The Party 7 release (12-29-97)
	NEW: added track-names into song-information panel ('F6')
	NEW: fixed midi loader; last version had a bad bug that prevented auto-soundfont loading

AST EMU 8000 Sampler 1.62f

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AST EMU 8000 Sampler 1.62f (1437 KB)

7 minutes

DOS (Win 9x)

Feilei + JamRam

03-Mar-2001

	freeware, 32 channel AWE sampler with full MIDI support to program and use your AWE like a pro sampler, combined with the power of an integrated pattern-based sequencer
	req. an AWE32/64 card (no AWE64 value) or an MPU401 compatible device (MIDI only)
	supports EMU 8000 synth, OPL3, MPU 401 (for external intruments) and PC beeper
	direct hardware control about filters, LFOs, envelopes, reverb and chorus
	many effects included, even 16 pitchshifters possible in realtime
	groove and shuffle effects per channel, dynamic track allocation
	use AWE-Rom samples or load WAVs into the AWE-RAM
	user definable style
	NEW: you need a (free) registration keyfile to get AST working: send an email to ast@jamram.de
	NEW: songs are looping again, play from order works again, color schemes work again
	NEW: disabled Feilei's "yxx-all-channels-to-instrument-0-setup"
	NEW: some small MIDI-debuggings esp. MIDI-In
	NEW: sampler disabled for now, since the last stable version was in AST 1.31

BushTracker 2.1

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BushTracker 2.1 (830 KB)

4 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Gordon Stryph

15-Jan-2000

	freeware MIDI tracker, easy browsing and loading of SF2/SBK, incl. a virtual piano for testing of SF2/SBK, originally written for AWE and SB Live
	pretty alternative handling, check out the popupmenus for all the stuff you can do
	easy bankmanaging and midi-channel property settings
	mixer controls volume, filter, pan, reverb and chorus, includes mute and solo feature
	settings include quickchange of output device, Favouritefolders for sf2/sbk, songs and patterns
	pattern editor with variable patternlength, arbitrary pattern names, velocity control and easy effectmanaging, allows tracks to be effect or note commands -giving the opportunity to use several effects at the same time
	real time editing of patterns and song allows to test ideas on the fly to find the right way
	patch/chorus/reverb change while playing
	advanced FX track feature for easier effect adding, includes echo, randomfilter, random pan, filter fade, volume fade, pan fade
	push patterns: feature to move patterns in song forward or backward
	join files in song for publishing: copies song and all used SF2/SBK to a userdefined folder
	NEW: new version 2.0 of the native AWE version of BushTracker, makes all EMU-8000 chip features available

AWEWavePlayer for Linux 0.3f

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AWEWavePlayer for Linux 0.3f (17 KB)

< 1 minute

Linux

Jeroen Witteman

29-Jan-2000

	freeware for Linux, enables SB32/AWE32 (and family) owners to play WAV/MP3 ... through the EMU8000 and therefore through the SPDIF jumper of the card (CreativeLabs told you to buy an AWE64gold to get that feature)
	additionally it supports the common AWE chorus/reverb effects and the digital EQ (treble/bass)
	requires at least 512K soundcard RAM, sample size and used number of samples configurable
	if you use DOS or Windows instead of Linux there's no need to download this player since it is Linux only!

Massiva 1.0

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Massiva 1.0 (1207 KB)

6 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

J�rgen Aase

22-Aug-2002

	30$ shareware, nice MIDI+audio sequencer, supports VST plugins (effects + synths), ASIO and MME playback
	32 tracks with unlimited number of parts, reads and writes standard MIDI files
	edit music in real-time with undo, step record notes with MIDI- or PC-keyboard, step record program change and control change with PC-keyboard
	auto-compose MIDI volume, panning or any control change message in sync with music, simple drum-, bass- or chord-patterns in seconds
	store areas like "intro", "break" and "2nd verse" for fast navigation
	move and resize notes with keys on the PC keyboard
	visual editing of velocity and control change, realtime MIDI faders for adjusting/recording control change messages
	MIDI Time Code (master), groove quantize, realtime SYSEX recording
	advanced functions for AWE only: load/clear soundfonts, select effects and EQ, select AWE banks/patches by name, save AWE effects/EQ settings with song
	advanced functions for AWE and SB Live! only: visual editing and real-time faders for AWE non-registered parameter number (NRPN) messages, auto-compose AWE NRPN messages for real time filter sweeps or rythmic filter patterns in sync with song
	new effects and synths downloadable
	standalone softsynth player with stereo delay (free for registered users)
	NEW: PhraseSEQ, free polyphonic 16-track energy style midi effect sequencer
	NEW: Audio mixer with unlimited master effects, group effects, insert effects and send effects
	NEW: up to 32 stereo channels per VSTi, up to 32 stereo channels per audio track

AWE Midi Player 0.6

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AWE Midi Player 0.6 (71 KB)

< 1 minute

Win9x/NT/2000

Jean-Michel Joudrier

24-Sep-1997

	just plays MIDs, automatically loading the SF2 before
	different bank and chorus/reverb settings per midi-file adjustable
	as usual playlists are also supported

SOUND BANK EDITORs

ALIVE 1.38

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ALIVE 1.38 (1092 KB)

6 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

SoundFaction

24-Apr-2002

	39$ shareware, graphical Soundfont editor for SF2-compatible devices (AWE, SB Live, Audigy), alternative to Vienna
	integrated beat slicer (ala Recycle/WaveSurgeon)
	integrated Soundfont Manager, incl. option to set your soundfont cache size
	integrated Soundfont Librarian - browse/audition all your soundfonts and presets, drag and drop patches into your new soundfonts
	Sample Librarian - browse and audition all your samples, drag and drop samples into your new soundfonts
	Library Search - search for soundfonts, presets, samples or folders, save your searches
	sfArk Support - load sfArk files directly, save to sfArk with additional plugin

Audio Compositor 4.4

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Audio Compositor 4.4 (1510 KB)

8 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Scott Mitchel

17-Oct-2001

	40$ shareware (limited to 22 kHz mono and read-only of soundbanks in the unreg'd version), MIDI to WAV (16, 24 or 32 bit) renderer & player, soundbank editor and converter
	works via DirectX or MME and is therefore the first realtime software-wavetable-MIDI-player I know which works under NT4 (Timidity didn't allow realtime MIDI input)
	it reads a standard MIDI file or live input from MIDI IN port (use a loopback midi driver to route the signal from a MIDI sequencer into AC)
	it can output the result into a WAV file or realtime trough your soundcard, the average CPU load on my Celery450 was 50%, so even on a P200 there's a good chance to use it as realtime sampler
	loads plain WAV samples or complete instruments/banks in DLS (level 1 & 2), SF2, KRZ and it's own ACP format
	saves complete instruments/banks into DLS or SF2 (registered version only)
	works pretty good as software AWE32/64 emulator for those who don't own one, just load a MID, open the matching SF2 and hit play!
	provides a graphical environment for editing samples and patches, well, the GUI design is definitely not the strong point of AC
	non-germans just ignore this: G�nter Schenk's deutsche Online Bedienungsanleitung f�r Audio Compositor, alles auch komplett als ZIP zum offline lesen vorhanden
	NEW: fixed a bug in DLS output causing some regions to be written with an incorrect loop type
	NEW: some minor cosmetic enhancements, including an improved display in the renderer
	NEW: some minor efficiency improvements in the renderer
	NEW: a change in the SoundFont editor to work better with LiveUpdate's "LiveSynth" product
	NEW: support for polyphonic aftertouch (not to be confused with regular channel aftertouch, which has always been recognized), polyphonic aftertouch routings can be saved to .ACP and DLS level 2 files
	NEW: support for the MIDI Tuning Standard, in its present state this will be accessible only to, forgive the term, sysex geeks
	NEW: for fast systems realtime polyphony can now be set as high as 128 voices (MIDI files, as always, are rendered with unlimited polyphony)

Vienna SoundFont Studio 2.3

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Vienna SoundFont Studio 2.3 (2165 KB)

11 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Creative Technology Ltd.

26-Mar-1999

	Creative's official SoundFont editor for AWE, SB Live, Audigy
	if you don't know this program then let my say it is THE editor for AWE-soundbanks
	you can adjust every single parameter (filters, LFO, enevelopes) and it is possible to use multisampling and multilayering

AweVBank 98

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AweVBank 98 (3158 KB)

15 minutes

Win 95/98

Megota Software

24-Nov-1997

	50$ shareware, "the explorer to your AWE soundcard", means you can work with patches like files in explorer(copy/paste, move, delete)
	all the operations you make are done on your card automatically
	you can also import sounds from MOD, WAV, SM3, 669, SBK and SF2 files
	full SF2 parameter editor is also included, save your finished work into a SF2 file

OTHER UTILITIEs

sfArk 2.15

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sfArk 2.15 (509 KB)

3 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

MelodyMachine

17-Jan-2002

	freeware, the #1 lossless SoundFont packer, better than sfPack and WinRAR or WinAce
	typical compression ratio is around 50%
	available at authors site: sfArkXTc, a small utility to convert sfArk files into self-extracting files
	NEW: first offical non-beta release
	NEW: added "Create self-extracting file" function
	NEW: several minor bug fixes, incl. the bug which caused the program to crash after uncompressing a file created with sfArk V1.x
	NEW: default directory is now "My Documents"

SFpack

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SFpack (195 KB)

< 1 minute

Win9x/NT/2000

Megota Software

21-Feb-2000

freeware for private use, lossless SoundFont packer

AWEamp 1.10d

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AWEamp 1.10d (422 KB)

3 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Yilard

04-Sep-2000

	freeware, WinAMP output plugin allowing to play Winamp's output through AWE32/AWE64 wavetable interface, the EMU 8000 synth, Creative Labs AWE32/64 compatible soundcard required
	advantages of using the EMU8000 synth, except that the signal is available at AWE's SPDIF output:
	wave-out output isn't in use, so it's free for other sounds (system sounds, games ...)
	via EMU 8000 DSP you can use a variety of audio effects similar to those of SB Live, such as chorus and reverb effects with lots of presets (compatible with AWEFXWorkshop presets), hardware bass and treble equalization, hardware lowpass filter, tremolo, vibrato and filter sweep
	full sourcecode available
	bottom line: great plugin for those who still use AWE, and the only way to get clean digital output (although not guaranteed 1:1) out of the onboard SPDIF 'jumper' of the good old AWE32
	NEW: restarting Windows NT after installing GWIOPM is no longer required
	NEW: fixed very nasty bug forgetting to deallocate AWEManager
	NEW: OUT_AWE.DLL installation path hard-wired to $INSTDIR\Plugins
	NEW: SBAWE Windows drivers are no longer required (but used to determine the size of loaded soundbank if present). This may allow to run AWEamp on Windows 2000.
	NEW: tray menu animation removed. Tray icon right-click now works in Windows NT 4

Virtual Kawai K4

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Virtual Kawai K4 (951 KB)

5 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Claude Kaber

20-Dec-1999

	freeware, simulates a Kawai K4 synthesizer via SB Live! hardware or AWE 32/64 (required!), needs 1 MB free wavetable RAM
	AWE users need to have Creative Labs Soundfont Manager installed, as the Program uses many wave samples simultaneously, it's possible to quickly hit the 32-polyphony-maximum of the old AWE's
	uses small wave samples as Oscillators (represented by a soundfont that contains parameter-neutral recordings of the K4's waveset), usually combines 2-4 Oscillators to create a single sound, some of the K4's Wave samples are so called 'Digital-Cyclic' waves (or 'Fourrier-Waves'), allthough these waves are extremely small, they contain the sound spectrum of complex instruments
	loads 4 waves into 4 differend soundfont banks and plays those waves simultaneously with the EMU-typical filter cutoff, resonance, coarse / fine tuning, reverb and chorus effect, volume- and filter envelope, vibrato + LFO
	imports SysEx files from the Kawai K4 and translates it into Soundfont-parameters (you'll find lot of K4 Sysex files on the net)

AWE Toy 1.g4

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AWE Toy 1.g4 (282 KB)

2 minutes

DOS (Win 95/98)

Geo Petrea

24-Sep-1997

	(not only) replacement of the AWE control panel, so you can use it to load sound banks in the sample-RAM
	adjust the instrument/bank/panning/volume/modulation/expression/reverb/chorus of each channel either while playing a midi-file or getting data from midi-IN
	so-called Midi-FX: pseudo-echo with midi-messages and notes, chord/patterns with one finger play, arpeggiator
	you can control all filters, LFOs and envelops in realtime with sliders during playback NICE !
	FX manager for custom reverb/chorus effects and a built-in mixer
	THE tool for your AWE-card

AWE FX Workshop 1.1

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AWE FX Workshop 1.1 (23 KB)

< 1 minute

DOS (Win 95/98)

Vincent Vu

24-Sep-1997

	customize the reverb/chorus effects of your AWE
	chorus can be adjusted in: feedback level, delay offset, LFO depth, delay offset 2 and LFO frequency

NRPN Control 1.0

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NRPN Control 1.0 (183 KB)

< 1 minute

Win9x/NT/2000

Jens Kuehner

12-Mar-2000

	freeware to control parameters (NRPN controllers) of the AWE & SB Live in realtime via sliders
	it's possible to launch several instances of the program to control different effects the same time
	you can record the controller-changes in your sequencer
	requires a virtual midi connection to the AWE/Live, if you use Hubi's Loopback-Device connect it as follows: In: LB1, Out: AWE/Live-Output-Driver, set the sequencer's output to LB1 and the NRPN control's input to LB1
	please send your songs and sounds made using NRPN Control to the author, he'll appreciate it!

AWE Tube 1.17

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AWE Tube 1.17 (29 KB)

< 1 minute

DOS (Win 95/98)

Milosz Tylenda

24-Sep-1997

	realtime "effect processor", the line or mic input can be transformed through the EMU8000
	you can use different reverb/chorus setting and also adjust some filter parameters
	plug in your mic and have fun

AweROM-GM.sf2

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AweROM-GM.sf2 (876 KB)

5 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Skie

05-Jul-2000

	the 1 MB GM bank of the AWE32/64 ROM as loadable SF2 for use with SB Live!
	so if you want to load your old songs which used AWE ROM samples, for general nostalgy or because you just can't spare a whole 2+ megs of sys RAM for a GM set

SF Explorer 0.8

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SF Explorer 0.8 (750 KB)

4 minutes

Win9x/NT/2000

Thomas Hammer

12-Jul-1999

	freeware, works with SoundFont compatible devices: SBLive and AWE32/64
	SFExplorer lets the user browse and preview SF2's and WAV's currently loaded by the SoundFont device, load or delete SoundFonts from memory
	latest version adds the possibility to browse files on CD, works great for my no.1 instruments with the incredible SBLive! 8-point-interpolation, and it's damn fast
	SFExplorer can also be set up as the default viewer for SF2's for one-click preview
	NEW: added +/- octave button for MIDI preview as requested by ... hmm, MAZ
	NEW: static linking of the libraries, should remove the need of additional DLLs

PROGRAMMING INFORMATION

AWE Developer Info Pack 3.01

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AWE Developer Info Pack 3.01 (1121 KB)

6 minutes

DOS (Win 95/98)

Creative Technology Ltd.

24-Sep-1997

	with this package you can develop your own applications for the AWE
	you get DOS and Windows libraries, include files, sample code and documentation
	download this only if you want to code programs - otherwise that's hard stuff ;)

AWE Control Pack 1.0

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AWE Control Pack 1.0 (62 KB)

< 1 minute

DOS (Win 95/98)

Lada Kopecky

10-Feb-1998

	contains low level coding information AWE 32 with source code in C++, docs and examples
	you should download the un-official AWE32 programming guide from Vince Vu too
	NEW: updated textfile with updated links and author dates