Reviews

Nov 17 2001

Apple Final Cut Pro 2.0

I love Final Cut, and version 2 is even better than the original. I can’t get over how Apple makes it so easy for the beginner, but so responsive to the power user. For ages editing suites have defined different styles of editing that prevent easy cross-over. Final Cut Pro ends the division between the “Avid” editor or the “Media 100″ editor and shows that you can accommodate different editing styles in one application.

MacMerc’s Field Manual Breakdown:
Apple Final Cut Pro 2.0

Price:
A giveaway at $1000, when compared to competitors

Performance:
The most flexible of any NLE

Compatability:
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Monkeys could edit in Final Cut.

Complaints:
FCP dominates one monitor, I suggest using it with two.

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Nov 17 2001

Matrox RTMac

Kudos to Matrox for bringing out a solution for Final Cut. The RTMac is easy to set up and the tech support very helpful. It provides Analog inputs and outputs that capture at full resolution. It provides real-time effects as well. A great companion to Final Cut. However it is limited in the number of transitions and effects it can render, as well as the formats it can handle.

MacMerc’s Field Manual Breakdown:
Matrox RT Mac

Price:
Expensive, but superb in quality

Performance:
Does what it says, but no more

Compatability:
Not as flexable as I would have liked

Complaints:
Only renders a limited number of transition/effects

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Nov 17 2001

SoundBlaster Live! for Mac with Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 speaker package

Day 1
So I get me eager hands on my Creative SoundBlaster Live! card along with FPS2000 4.1 channel speakers. I must say I am impressed with everything included in the box with the speakers and the sound card. I’m talking about a microphone, speaker stands for the rear speakers, speaker stands for the desktop, wall mounts, wires to hook everything up, a useful remote control volume and power unit. All in all, I think Creative teamed up with the right speaker company, Cambridge Soundworks, and made sure to include everything you could possibly need even if you don’t need it. Kudos to them for that.

The actual install of the card is not very hard, especially in the G4 with the quick open side door. I had the card installed in under 10 minutes. Setting up the FPS2000 took a little longer. With all the parts and all the wires I wanted to do it right the first time. I would estimate it took me around 30 minutes to setup the speakers and the stands to my liking and getting the cables put in proper locations. While it was nice that they included the speaker stands, I do find one fault with them. There are three legs to them and 2 of them are not held in place securely. When picking up the stand it’s very likely those two legs will fall off. It would have been nice if there was some notch or something else to retain the legs more securely. Hooking the speaker up is not very hard. You are provided with 2 three-meter cables for the front speakers and 2 five-meter speaker cables for the rear speakers. The ends are color coded to help you connect your speakers in phase.

Once hooked up I fired up my G4 400 Tower to be greeted by the sound of the front little speaker. Not until you load the software drivers, are the speakers ready to purr. The install was relatively painless and goes through a process of installing the drivers as well as other freebie programs included with the card. I installed all the software except SoundJam since I already have it. After the install you must restart the computer. The SoundBlaster driver adds a bit of extra time to the fresh boot time. This is because it loads a 2MB file into the system to handle the SoundBlaster. Some people may find this load time annoying. But you have to live with it. Hopefully it is different in OS X when the SoundBlaster drivers are delivered for it.

After restarting you must change some settings in the sound control panel to get the card and speakers humming. I started testing it out with music in iTunes. Very nice, very very nice. The speakers sound nice and the subwoofer puts out good bass. Wait, what’s that I hear? Sounds like static. Crackle crackle crackle coming out of the rear speakers. But it goes away after a few seconds. But it comes back again later. The static I heard can be annoying and I heard it in various songs. So I try to play a game and see maybe it was just iTunes. I fire up Deus Ex and hear the same crackling static intermittently. Unreal Tournament does the same thing. Since I had to leave the house today, I could not finish up my testing and determine a possible cause of the static I keep hearing. I did manage to do some research and it appears my speakers are not the only one with the static problems. This forum on Xlr8yourmac.com has many complaints about the problem but Creative is unable to replicate it and therefore they are unsure what to do about it. A new drive update is due soon according to a Creative Rep posting there, but that may not fix the problem.

Anyway, I will conduct more tests on day 2 to see if I can isolate or correct the problem and report more on the performance of the card and speakers.

Day 2 and beyond
I played with the card and speakers some more the next day. It still had static in games and in music. But, a few days later after hearing no sound out of the rear speakers I fiddled with the plug that connects to the card. Not only did that give me back audio in the rear channels but it also appears to have stopped the static noise coming from the rear channels. I am not sure if the connector on the card is loose or there is some other problem. Hopefully Creative takes care of this problem in future production runs so its not there at all.

I used the card with music it sounds absolutely great. The bass from the FPS2000 is quite potent. You can easily tune it up or down to your liking. The speakers provide good sound and can easily make your Mac machine a very good music system in a small apartment or dorm room. Crank it up some more and you can fill larger rooms as well.

After testing with music, I also tested with games. The card itself comes with the game Deus Ex. Which if you haven’t played is a mix between first person shooter and RPG. The game has won many accolades and makes a nice addition to an already nice package found in the SoundBlaster Live! Card and the FPS2000 speakers. With Deus Ex, though, you only get reverb sound and not the true 3D Positional sound. With reverb it places you in the action. With 3D Positional sound not only are you in the middle of the action but you also can hear where the action is coming from. So if someone is pelting you in the head from behind, it will sound like it is coming from behind. Unreal Tournament will probably be the first game using the OpenAL 3D Positional Sound feature. Westlake Interactive is currently working with Creative to implement OpenAL in Unreal Tournament. This also makes it likely that future games based on Unreal Tournament engine will also have the 3D Positional sound.

The only flaws I will note are the potential annoying static problem that may or may not be the fault of the connector and the lack of OS X drivers. Creative does want to make OS X drivers but it its current state OS X does not have all of its audio code in place which would allow them to do so. Hopefully we see some beta drivers soon, since many games are beginning to come in both Carbon and Classic flavors in the same box.

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