First thing to know is that there are at this moment 4  different types of cards at the live series. We have the SoundBlaster Platinum, the SoundBlaster XGamer, the SoundBlaster MP3+  and the SoundBlaster  1024.

The major difference between the platinum and the rest is the live drive and the Add-On Board with the digital Inputs/Outputs and some software. The SoundBlaster Live Platinum has the connections in front of the pc and has some additional software.

The Reason Why This Card Is Better Than The Other Soundcards Is Simple. 

The SoundBlaster Live! Card is a new PCI soundcard from Creative Labs that promises to bring a realistic sound experience to your computer’s audio, as well as improving the music capabilities. This soundcard requires at least a 133MHz PC with 16Mb RAM. The change from using RAM on the card to system RAM is one of the reasons you need a fast processor. Even though the PCI interface offers a faster speed than the older ISA slots, the processor still does some work. It’s half size, with a joystick port, microphone and auxiliary in, and two-speaker output (front and rear). The card (not the value) comes with a second panel for digital input and output, as well as midi in and out. . There is a digital DIN out for future expansion to a eight-speaker system, as well as RCA S/PDIF in and out sockets. There is just no Digital optical input to connect your cd player on your soundcard that's a great pity.  

The major change with this card is the 48 midi channels, accessible from three synths using 16 channels each, and 256 voices
(192 wavetable synthesis + 64 hardware accelerated voices). As mentioned before, the soundfont technology does not use memory on the card Instead, the SB Live uses your PC’s main RAM  and this is probably the reason for the faster CPU requirement.


The Sound Blaster Live! comes with an impressive list of software. The card comes with the installation disk on where we can find the drivers, Play Center, Creative Launcher, Audio HQ, Prody Parrot, Rythmania, Creative Wave Studio, Keytar and Music Library. Then we have the Tour and Demo cd, Cubasis from Steinberg, Mixman Studio and the game Unreal. an impressive list I would Say.

Unreal is best played with 4 Speakers,  and  does offer total immersion into the game sound atmosphere. Noises can be heard from behind you, and screams from other characters move around as your character turns. The EAX feature is due to be written into many new games, but there are reverb settings designed for games already out now, like Age Of Empires, F1 Racing Sim, FIFA World Cup 98, Forsaken, Jedi Knight, Motoracer, Quake 2, Riven and Tomb Raider......