-- Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II Sound Card
-- Price: ~ $50 USD
-- 12/29/2001
-- By: winterstick
-- Page: 1 2
3
First off I would like to apologize to Hercules for
the amount of time it has taken to get this review completed.
Between my computer frying and the amount of time it has taken to
get my parts RMA'd this review has been long overdue.
Hercules has long been known in the video card arena as a
manufacturer of high quality video cards. They are now also
taking a stab at the sound card market. The Fortissimo II is
Hercules's value line sound card that shows a lot of promise.
It also sports some extra features only found in higher-end sound
cards.
What you get:
-
Fortissimo II
-
Driver CD
-
Dongle
-
Software Bundle:
-
Gamesurround Fortissimo II control panel
-
Game Commander 2 Special Edition - Voice activated
software that allows you to control your games as well as
windows programs.
-
Storm - composed of synthesizers, drum
machines and effects (supplied with 6 virtual instruments and
4 effects).
-
Acid Xpress™- Sonic Foundry's loop-based
multi-track music creation tool (25 free loops included).
-
MusicMatch™ Jukebox - Rip and burn CDs,
faster Encoding of CD-quality MP3s, Personalized MP3 radio,
Comprehensive music guide, Advanced player controls, and CD
cover art printing.
-
Siren Jukebox Xpress™ - digital music
management and playback software tool for MP3, WMA and WAV
files.
-
Media Station - Multi-function graphical
stereo interface with mixing panel, Wave file player &
recorder, MIDI player and audio CD player.
-
Yamaha XG Player™ - The XG player allows
playback of MIDI files, audio files, movie files, and audio
CDs all from a single application.
-
Kool karaoke™ Lite - karaoke with 10 free
songs and 10 more free songs that can be downloaded online.
-
Power DVD 3.0 (4 channels) and manual -
Software DVD player ~$40
Specifications: (shamelessly ripped from Hercules's
website)
- Audio
Processor (DSP)
- Cirrus Logic SoundFusion CS4624
- Audio
Quality
- 20-bit quad output
- 18-bit dual stereo input codec
- Up to 48kHz sampling rate
- Game
Compatibility
- Sensaura based
3D positional Audio with support for Microsoft DirectSound™
3D
- EAX™ 1.0
- EAX™ 2.0
- A3D™ 1.0
- I3DL2™
- MacroFX™
- MultiDrive™
- ZoomFX™
- EnvironmentFX™
- Legacy audio support for older DOS games
- Audio
Compatibility
- Compatible with Microsoft™ DirectSound™ and DirectMusic™
- Compatible with Dolby Surround™
-
Software
- Wavetable synthesizer DSP accelerated engine for unlimited
number of voices (64-voice hardware)
- 8MB General MIDI/GS™ sample set
- GM™(General MIDI) and Yamaha XG™ compatible
- External Connectors
System Requirements:
- Windows™ 95, 98, 2000, Millenium (XP is supported with new
drivers from website)
- Intel Pentium® II / AMD® K6 & higher or compatible
- PCI 2.1 slot, 32MB RAM
- CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
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