So E3 is BACK! Or is it? We’ll see. Some of my fondest memories of tradeshows were back in the “glory days” of E3. The monstrous booths that looked more like sets of a movie than actual software and hardware companies showing off their latest and greatest. The sheer sensory overload that gun chatter, speedy mammals running to get rings, and jet engines roaring…all from the SAME booth. And of course the legendary “babes”.
What’s interesting now is how my perspective has changed over the past few years. Gaming in general seems to be getting taken a lot more “seriously” as a market. How can you ignore it. It’s larger than DVD and BluRay!!! There’s a lot more “Hollywood” crossover and a lot more glitz. The trick is finding the REAL good stuff out there.
And speaking of good stuff….
This year Creative has partnered with Fatal1ty at E3 and we’ll be chillin’ in the Fat booth for the show. I’ll be up on stage a few times a day to talk about the latest and greatest were launching at the show. The Fatal1ty Professional Series Gaming Headset MKII.
And MKII is said MARK 2. Not Mortal Kombat 2. Haha. Although it is a bit of an inside laugh for us since Fatal1ty earned his nickname by dominating the local Mortal Kombat machine for hours on end.
The Mark II is essentially the culmination of several years of making headphones and DECADES of making sound cards. As a a company that has led the PC audio industry for over 20 years now we take the development of anything to do with audio pretty seriously. And I think people are going to be really blown away by the result. The Mark II is deceptively light…but when you put it on and crank up the volume…suddenly you will realize that the cans on your head don’t have to weigh a ton to pack a punch. Like a rally car…we’ve weight reduced these bad boys by getting rid of materials not needed and keeping only the good stuff in there. So what you end up with is a lightweight badboy set of cans that pack a serious audio punch. And even though they are light these guys are tough as well. We went with a steel core headband to ensure that these would maintain their tension (which by the way won’t pinch your head like some other infamous headsets…you know which ones I’m talking about) over time. And it just looks hardcore to have metal in your headset as well.
I think everyone needs to experience the comfy earcups to do them justice. These things feel like pillows on your ears. As an MMO gamer myself I’ve heard many a time the groan from fellow guildees over vent
“uugh my ears hurt!”
Well…that isn’t going to happen here. Of course this is mostly because the guild knows what I do for a living so if I sell them head clamping torture device headsets I’m going to have to hear it over vent over and over. So rest assured…it’s in MY best interest to make comfy headsets. So you all are covered.
A big question I’ve been getting since CES is…
“WHAT IS THIS SILENCER THING I’VE BEEN HEARING ABOUT?”
(yeah all caps…)
I’ve talked about it in a few videos on the web already, but here’s another explanation…
The tech answer:
It’s a noise-suppression technology that recognizes and isolates your voice due to a stereo mic setup. Not to be confused with beam forming which is used with webcams. It actually analyzes and compares the arrival times of sound from two separate mics on the headset: one located in the mic boom near your mouth – one located at the top of the mic boom outside the earcup. Your voice is then isolated as a “voice source” and other sounds are isolated as “noise sources” and suppressed in the resulting audio stream with no degredation to the “voice source”. So similar to some really cool tech used in Bluetooth headsets in that it removes background noise but NOT SIMILAR in that in removing background noise your voice remains crystal clear and unaltered. No Robotron 2084 action going on here.
The short non tech answer:
People wont hear your mom / overclocked CPU fan / kid crying in the background (yeah you know who you are) / police raid on the dorm room next to you / or other background noises over your voice when you are talking over Vent / Teamspeak or other VOIP app of choice.
So Silencer is active with the MKII when you use it with a Sound Blaster Titanium card. We actually built the correct ports into the Titanium cards ahead of time since we knew this tech was in development. And this feature will be unlocked on the Titanium cards (for free!) with a driver revision that hits the street soon. And of course if someone DOESN’T have a Titanium card (why you wouldn’t I have NO idea now!) the headset still rocks when used with other stuff as well. Silencer is a bonus feature of the headset.
So there you have it. If you’re at E3…come stop by the Fatal1ty booth and check the new headset out. And if not..stay tuned here at SoundBlaster.com for all the updates from the floor!
Thanks for letting me bend your ear (or eyes as it were).
More to come.
Ryan (AKA DigitalRonyn)
