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by Cameron Crouch

ALSO: Laptops, handhelds get Sound-Blasted MESSAGE BOARDS: MP3: The new wave INTERACTIVE For which purpose do you use your sound card most? Games Digital music Neither View Results

(IDG) -- Dividing up the sound card market, Creative Labs is replacing its Sound Blaster Live! Value card with two new offerings specifically targeting gamers and MP3 fans.

On Monday, Creative Labs released the Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer and the Sound Blaster Live! MP3+. Priced at $99, the X-Gamer and the MP3+ feature the same 32-bit EMU10K1 processor with digital input and output, for connection to digital devices such as DAT decks. In contrast, the Live! Value card requires an upgrade for digital output.

With almost the same hardware, the X-Gamer and the MP3+ are differentiated primarily in terms of their software bundles.

The X-Gamer includes full versions of the games Descent 3; Thief: Dark Project; and Need for Speed 4: High Stakes. Included on the card is Creative's effects tool, Environmental Audio Extensions, which enables different reverberation in different rooms in a game and "occlusion of obstruction" where the sound cuts out when something in the game is blocking the character's ability to fully hear.

Overall, the X-Gamer "really helps with immersion in the game, especially if you're playing with four speakers or headphones," says a Systems Architect from Creative. To extend the life of its cards, Creative will offer upgrades through the Live!Ware program. Live!Ware 2.0 can now be downloaded from the Creative Web site.

Tuned for tunes

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Whereas the X-Gamer includes games, the MP3+ includes a software bundle more suited for Internet music creators and users. MP3+ features LAVA! (Live Audio Visual Animation), Mixman, Cakewalk, Sound Forge, and Media Ring Talk, a voiceover-IP talk program similar to Net Meeting. The Creative Digital Audio Center, a version of Music Match, serves as the MP3+ control center for creating and organizing MP3 files.

"Creative Digital Audio Center is Music Match software customized to include Environmental Audio," says Dave Sparks, systems architect for Creative. With Environmental audio built in, you can have unlimited ripping without having to pay more, he adds.

The Digital Audio Center lets you encode, decode and archive MP3 files as well as convert CD tracks and catalog them according to your preference. Playing DJ, you can add audio effects and save them as a new setting. The digital output lets you connect to multi-channel speakers for surround sound.

Like a Lava lamp for digital musicians, Creative LAVA! is software that lets MP3+ users add visual accompaniment to their Internet music.

LAVA! reacts to the music that's playing, says Sparks. "It reacts to the basses, highs and lows."

While Creative claims that LAVA's "MV3" files are small, as an animation tool, LAVA! offers limited control. There are only eight "scenes" from which to choose and customize with titles or logos.

As Macromedia did with Flash for Web animation, Creative seems to want to develop a music animation standard with LAVA. You can already post LAVA files at lavamusic.com, and soon a downloadable LAVA player will play LAVA! files with any sound card.

In replacing the Sound Blaster Live! Value card with X-Gamer and MP3+, Creative is essentially marketing the same sound card to parallel audiences. For its high-end market, Creative will continue to offer the Sound Blaster Live! card ($199), and will soon announce an upgrade for all three cards that will feature additional hardware.