Turtle Beach Ships Santa Cruz Audio AcceleratorSix-Channel, DSP-Enhanced Audio Card Designed for Digital Music,
3D Games, and Business Audio  September 24, 2000Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc. has begun shipping the successor
to its successful Montego series of sound cards, the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, available immediately
from major computer and electronics retailers, as well as directly from Voyetra Turtle Beach, with a
US$99 MSRP.
Powered by a Crystal by Cirrus Logic SoundFusion digital signal processor,
Santa Cruz is the first widely available, WHQL-certified PC sound card capable of true surround-sound
playback from a six-speaker configuration. Another interesting feature of the Santa Cruz is its ability to
dynamically reconfigure itself to optimize PC resources for the active task. For instance, if a game
demands 3D audio but not MIDI wavetable sound, the DSP will focus its processing power on
accelerating the 3D streams. If the user then decides to listen to MP3 files, Santa Cruz will reconfigure
itself to accelerate the MP3 decoding process.
"The Santa Cruz sets the benchmark by which other consumer cards should be judged. A PCI sound
card that combines a reconfigurable DSP core, audiophile performance, Dolby Digital pass-through and
six-channel sound for less than $100 is a real breakthrough product," said Carmine J. Bonanno,
president and CEO, Voyetra Turtle Beach. "Not only is it affordable, it's also extremely flexible for use in
a variety of settings. The Santa Cruz enhances every major PC audio application MP3 digital music,
advanced gaming, business audio and PC home theater."
Santa Cruz ships with an attractive software bundle including AudioStation 4.0 and eJay SE. Voyetra's
AudioStation allows end users to organize their digital music collections in play lists on their PC's, and
supports Internet media formats such as MP3, Windows Media, and AVI video. eJay Special Edition,
from the Germany-based eJay AG, allows users to create original HipHop, Techno and Rave dance
mixes from the included, royalty-free music clips.
U.K.-based VideoLogic Systems is also shipping the card under the Sonic Fury name in Europe,
Australia, and New Zealand as part of a cross-distribution alliance with Voyetra Turtle Beach
announced this spring.
Based on feedback received during product previews and beta testing, Turtle Beach anticipates that
the Santa Cruz will be primarily used for:
- Digital music playback: The Santa Cruz accelerates MP3 decoding, freeing the host CPU for processing
other tasks during playback of MP3 files. The VersaJack Digital Out allows CD audio, MP3, and other
digital music files to be transferred to MiniDisc in pure digital format.
- PC gaming: Santa Cruz supports every major 3D audio standard, including EAX, A3D, I3DL2,
DirectSound3D, and Sensaura's MacroFX and MultiDrive. The card also includes Sensaura's
exciting new Virtual Ear technology, which heightens the 3D experience by conforming positional
algorithms to an individual user's ear characteristics.
- Home theater-style entertainment: In addition to providing six output channels that can be accessed by
any compatible DVD movie decoding/playback software, the Santa Cruz allows Dolby Digital AC-3
digital streams to pass through the VersaJack Digital Out to external Dolby Digital decoders in
multi-speaker rooms.
- Business application:. The Santa Cruz supports acoustic echo cancellation algorithms for enhancing
videoconferencing or speakerphone applications. The high-resolution converters and exceptionally low
signal-to-noise and total harmonic distortion levels of the Santa Cruz improve the accuracy and overall
performance of Voice Recognition applications.
- Music recording and production: Santa Cruz offers a wealth of features for desktop music production,
including low noise, wide-band analog circuitry; four-track simultaneous recording using 18-bit A/D
converters; six-channel playback from 20-bit D/A converters; a 10-band hardware EQ; multi-channel
effects processing; an 8MB DLS-compatible wavetable synthesizer; and support for an optional
GS-compatible digital wavetable daughter board such as the Turtle Beach CancunFX.
Additional distinctive Santa Cruz features include automatic muting to eliminate power on/off thumps, as
well as auto-sensing of rear jack connections to notify the user of the card's input/output capabilities. For more information, visit their web site at www.tbeach.com. |
