Maxi Sound Fortissimo Page 2 Yamaha's new engine The Maxi Sound Fortissimo also uses the newest audio chip from 'YAMAHA', namely the YMF744B audio processor wich combines real support for EAX, A3D 1.0, Sensaura Positioning sound and DirectSound/Music. This means that all your games, that support one of these features of 3D audio sound will truly come alive when you play them using the Fortissimo. We will do a very in-depth test with some 3D games where using 3D positioning audio really makes a difference in gameplay. More and more sound cards are coming out with all kind of handy features and this card is also one of them. The Maxi Sound Fortissimo is in fact a '4-channel digital sound card' which provides "four speaker output" with one front channel and one rear channel output. This means that, if you are using a four speaker system, like myself, and the card does not get a surround signal from the actual game, the rear output will duplicate the front channels and try to simulate a 'virtual surround'. You'll notice this only with older games which do not have any 3D sound support included. Another thing that I would like the mention about the Sensaura 3D audio is that you can implement it into any game! The volume control panel (default in the OS) has a new slider which is named '3D Surround'. You can move this slider all the way up or down. The more it goes up, the more 'surround' you will hear in any game and with any audio source. This can create a whole new game experience when you are playing a game that does not supports any of the included 3D audio API's. The action will of course be a lot more intense. The sound card also accelerates, thanks to its on-board chip, the 'DirectMusic' API from Microsoft. DirectMusic is included in DirectX and when the in-game action intensifies, the background music will be intesified as well!! It certainly adds more realism to a game where suspense is the greatest game factor. As you might know by now, the Yamaha YMF744B audio processor also has a built-in XG synthesizer with a 2MB MIDI hardware wavetable. This synthesizer is compatible with the GM (General MIDI), GS (General Standard) and Yamaha XG standard which is certainly also one of its strong points. On the other hand, the 2MB wavetable can produce 128-voice polyphonies (including 64 hardware), 676 instrument sounds and 21 drum kits. Sound Quality/Ports When we take a look at the several ports that this sound card has, we notice that the card has a seperate S/PDIF digital output with optical connector. You may know this or not, but if you have a Dolby Digital reciever/speaker set, you can use this port and hook it onto your own D.D. set. This way, you'll get truly DIGITAL sound and for example, if you use DVD from your PC, you'll be amazed by the clear sound quality that a S/PDIF (see picture) can produce. Guillemot has of course also included the 'standard' ports on their sound card, such as a 'Mic-in', 'digital game port/MIDI', 'Stereo Line-In', 2 independent stereo outputs (front and rear)' an internal CD-audio connector and of course the S/PDIF digital output with optical connector. The most important ports that makes this card special is the digital S/PDIF and the 2 seperate Stereo ports which gives front and rear support. Using 3D Sound in Games/Music First, I have tested this sound card with some music cd's and several MP3's to hear how they really sound. All that I can say is that the playback of both formats was excellent. The card did not produce any background noise or distortions, even with the first set of drivers. For testing the 3D audio capabilities of the Maxi Sound Fortissimo I have used some 3D 'First Person Shooter' games such as 'Unreal Tournament' and 'Quake III: Arena'. Since 3D FPS games are using a lot of different sound effects together, especially with 3D surround compatible hardware, these 2 games were the best to test the card. After playing these games with the card, I came to the conclusion that the 3D-surround effects produced by the game and decoded by the Fortissimo were clear and satisfying. Shots and other effects could be heard from every direction, left or right, front or rear (if you have a 4 speaker set system of course). The Maxi Sound Fortissimo does produce a very good 3D surround and music output, but the Sound Blaster Live! from Creative does it a little bit better. Perhaps the price is something to consider when buying a new sound card if you know that the Fortissimo from Guillemot is a lot cheaper than its big competitor, the SB Live! from Creative Labs. 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