Guillemot Maxi Sound Muse


Guillemot Maxi Sound Muse - Page 1

The Guillemot Maxi Sound Muse
Keep that coin in your pocket!


By, Jeff Bouton - November 13, 2000

The Maxi Sound Muse is a low budget card designed for ??today?s price conscious multimedia user.?  Naturally, we all want the latest and greatest in sound cards, but not everyone has the budget for the top of the line cards that are on the market today.  The people at Guillemot have come up with what promises to be a low-cost sound card that offers a practical balance between features and price.  With support for Microsoft DirectSound 3D acceleration on 4-speaker systems, and the popular EAX 1.0 and A3D 1.0 APIs, this card promises to satisfy both the music lover and gamer alike.  With a MSRP of $29.99, the Maxi Sound Muse could be just what the budget doctor ordered.

Specifications / Features Of The Maxi Sound Muse
The Goods...

Features

   

  • DSP CMI 8738 processor

  • Sampling up to 48kHz

  • 128-voice polyphony XG (General MIDI compatible)

  • 3D sound processed by CRL 3D audio engine

  • Supports earphones, two and four channel speaker modes, 3D positional audio in 4 channel speaker mode

  • MPU-401 Game/MIDI port and legacy audio SB16 compatible

  • HRTF 3D positional audio, supporting DirectSound 3D, A3D 1.0 and EAX 1.0

  • PCI bus interface, 32-bit PCI bus master

  • DLS-based Wavetable synthesizer, supports DirectMusic
Installation / Setup Of The Fortissimo
It doesn't get any easier
 

Installing the Maxi Sound Muse sound card was as easy as could be expected.  After removing my old Creative PCI 128 and its drivers, I followed the hardware installation instructions as outlined in the manual.  The less experienced user should like the addition of detailed photos designed to guide them with their upgrade.  Although the images were a bit small, larger ones could be printed from the Manual PDF located on the installation CD.  I was a little surprised that there are no instructions specific to Windows ME though.  This made it a little unclear which driver to install when I was ultimately given three to choose from.  Since Windows ME is most closely related to Windows 98, I opted for the Windows 98 drivers and the installation completed without error.

Right out of the box, the Maxi Sound Muse makes a good impression.  It?s obvious that the architects at Guillemot have put a lot of thought into the physical design of this card and it?s clear from the start, that it was time well spent.  From the precise placement of the circuitry and input connections, to the sleek black coating that leaves no traces exposed, the Maxi Sound Muse is clearly a quality made sound card.

 

Drivers, Software and Performance

 

Tags:  sound, ui, GUI, Muse

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