Technical Specifications

    Wave-Table Synthesis
  • E-mu Systems, Inc. EMU10K1™ music synthesis engine
  • 64-voice hardware polyphony with E-mu's patented 8-point interpolation technology
  • Uses SoundFont technology for user-definable wave-table sample sets which includes 2MB, 4MB and 8MB sets
  • Load up to 32MB of samples into host memory for professional music reproduction
  • Scalable PCI wave-table synthesis architecture
  • Up to 1024-voice polyphony with multi-timbre capability
  • 48 MIDI channels with 128 GM & GS compatible instruments and 10 drum kits

Effects Engine

  • E-mu Systems, Inc. EMU10K1 patented effects processor
  • Support for real-time digital effects like reverb, chorus, flanger, pitch shifter, or distortion across any audio source
  • Capable of processing, mixing and positioning audio streams using up to 131 available hardware channels
  • Full digital mixer maintains all sound mixing in the digital domain, eliminating noise from the signal
  • Customizable effects architecture allows new audio effects to be downloaded from the Web
  • Full bass, treble and effects controls available for all audio sources

EAX™ and 3D Audio Technology

  • User-selectable settings are optimized for headphones, two, four or six speakers and external A/V amplifiers
  • Dolby® Digital audio decoding to 5.1 speaker channels in analog or digital modes
  • Upgradable 3D audio architecture allows for improvements over time
  • Accelerates Microsoft® DirectSound® and DirectSound 3D
  • Hardware acceleration of EAX in games
  • Creative Multi Speaker Surround™; technology places any mono or stereo source in a 360° audio space
  • EAX effects - user-selectable DSP modes that simulate acoustic environments

Hollywood-Quality, 32-Bit Digital Audio Engine

  • Processes bit resolutions from 4-bit to 16-bit
  • Processes sample rates from 5kHz to 48kHz
  • All sound sources are bundled with 32-bit precision for highest quality output
  • Analog and digital I/O modes supported
  • Hardware full duplex support enables simultaneous record and playback at 8 standard sample rates
  • Utilizes AC '97 Audio Codec
  • MIDI Interface/Joystick Port
  • Supports Sound Blaster® MIDI and MPU-401 modes
  • IBM compatible 15-pin joystick port with analog support
  • Support for digital and DirectInput™ game devices

On-Board Connectors

  • Analog/Digital Out (Analog Center & Subwoofer/6-channel S/PDIF Output)
  • Line in
  • Microphone in
  • Line level out (front)/Headphone out
  • Line level out (rear)
  • MIDI/Joystick port
  • Telephone Answering Device in
  • MPC-3 Analog CD Audio in
  • Digital CD Audio in
  • Expansion header for Live!Drive series or Optical Digital I/O card (available separately)

Works with the Following Standards

  • Windows® 95, 98, NT4.0, 2000 and Millenium Edition
  • General MIDI
  • MPC-3
  • Plug and Play
  • Sound Blaster PCI
  • EAX
  • Microsoft DirectSound, DirectSound3D and derivatives
  • PCI 2.1 compliant
  • AC '97 compliant
  • Dolby Digital

System Requirements

  • Genuine Intel® Pentium® class 166MHz or faster processor
  • Intel or 100% compatible motherboard chipset
  • 32MB system RAM (64MB recommended)
  • Windows® 95, Windows® 98 or Windows® NT 4.0*, Windows® 2000* or Windows® Millennium Edition
  • Open half-length PCI 2.1 compliant slot
  • Headphones or amplified speakers (available separately)
  • CD-ROM drive required for software installation

*Usage of this product in Windows® NT 4.0 or Windows® 2000 requires a minimum of 200MHz processor and 64MB system RAM. Functionality may differ from specifications due to limitations in these Operating Systems.

Viewing DVD movies requires a softDVD player such as Intervideo's WinDVD 2000 or CyberLink's PowerDVD 2.55 which in general, runs optimally on Pentium 300 MHz screen resolution of at least 800 x 600 dpi.

Creative PlayCenter™ 2 requires one of the following OS's: Windows 95 OSR2, 98, NT4.0 Service Pack 6 (with IE 4.0), 2000 and Millenium Edition.

The following software is Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 compliant:

  • Drivers
  • Audio HQ
  • Creative Launcher with Live! Task
  • Creative Mixer/Surround Mixer
  • Creative PlayCenter 2
  • Creative Recorder
  • Creative Keytar
  • Creative Rhythmania
  • Creative WaveStudio
  • SoundFont Sample Banks
  • MP3 Sample Clips
  • Prody Parrot
  • Cakewalk Express Gold 8.0
  • SoundForge XP 4.5