Creative Labs founder Sim Wong Hoo, creator of the Sound Blaster, has died

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: Hoo founded Creative Technology (known as Creative Labs in the US) in mid-1981 but it wouldn't be until near the end of the decade before the company's dedicated audio processing card, the Sound Blaster, was released. The add-in card did virtually everything that the competing product from market leader AdLib did plus added additional features like a game port for less money.

Creative Technology founder, chairman and CEO Sim Wong Hoo died last week, his company recently confirmed. He was 67.

It didn't take long before the Sound Blaster became the top-selling PC expansion card and a household name among computer enthusiasts and PC gamers. Creative dominated the sound card market throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s and became the de facto for quality audio on the PC before motherboard makers started integrating increasingly better quality onboard audio into their offerings, demoting discrete sound cards to niche category status.

Creative was also an early participant in the MP3 player market with its Nomad and Zen lines of portable media players. The company even won a $100 million settlement against Apple for licensing of its Zen patents.

TechSpot readers of a certain age almost certainly have experience with Creative's line of products, whether it is sound cards, speakers or MP3 players. I personally went through a couple of Audigy-branded cards over the years and most recently replaced a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme that was ruined by one of my cats with a Sound Blaster Z. I could just as easily use onboard audio but my motherboard is ancient, and I also like Sound Blaster's Crystalizer dynamic range enhancer. There is also some nostalgia at play; I totally would love to own one of those 5.25-inch drive bay audio head units some day just for the aesthetic factor.

Following his passing, Creative's board has appointed Lee Kheng Nam as acting chairman. Song Siow Hui, president of the company's business unit, will serve as interim chief executive officer until a permanent replacement is found.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97208-creative-labs-founder-sim-wong-hoo-creator-sound.html

 

[Kam7r]

Me and my Sound Blaster 16 salute you mr.Hoo

 

[yRaz]

I remember doing a 939 build in the mid 2000s and being really split as to put a sound card in it or use the motherboards integrated audio. Well the audio was better than I imagined and I've never bought a soundcard since. For a few years after that there was some argument to be made that adding a soundcard could add performance but that basically died as soon as the core2duo and core2quad came out.

 

[nismo91]

Had a Creative Muvo once. I bought it used from a friend because it was the only MP3 player I could afford as a student. it was practical, it runs off a single AAA battery and it can be detached into a USB drive which allows for easy file transfer. without creative I'm sure ipods will be even more expensive back in the day.

 

[alainw1977]

I remember when I've first experienced SoundBlaster sound. It was 1991 and my father's friend had it just installed in 486 PC. At the time we had 286 with just dummy PC speaker - so the difference was mind blowing.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Sound Blaster used to be my go to for sound cards years ago, but I haven't used a sound card for probably the last decade or more.

I think I still have a sound blaster card of some kind buried in a box of old computer stuff (that is if I didn't toss it when I moved a year ago). I think it's a Sound Blaster Live gold edition. If I'm remembering correctly it has a gameport (DB15, if I remember correctly) on it that I could connect an old Graivs gamepad to. That gamepad made playing the Doom so much easier over the keyboard/mouse. Setup strafing on the gamepad and I was tearing through the game - Hurt Me Plenty became too easy so I had to step up to Ultra Violence. I know I still have the Gravis gamepad, just don't know if I kept the sound card.

 

[bviktor]

Oof, it's times like this when I feel really old lol

 

[brunocasarini]

Godspeed, mr. Hoo. I have lots of very good memories that your sound cards helped create.

 

[wiyosaya]

I'm still running a SoundBlaster ZxR, and I intend to transplant it into a new build in the not-too-distant future.

 

[wiyosaya]

There is also some nostalgia at play; I totally would love to own one of those 5.25-inch drive bay audio head units some day just for the aesthetic factor.

I have a SoundBlaster Audigy in a much older build that has one of those 5.25-inch audio bays. I've been wondering whether it would be worth it for me to cannibalize it and put all the components on e-bay. Maybe so.

 

[grvalderrama]

I probably was 10 yo when my parents went from a pentium II with onboard audio and genius plastic speakers to a Athlon 64 that included a sound blaster and a pair of active Feather speakers (which my dad still has). The difference was mind blowing. That was probably the first time I experienced something like hi fi audio. Now in my 35s, I own a sound blaster X-fi titanium fatal1ty, Jamo speakers and Kurzweil headphones, just for the fun and love of listening to music.

 

[Bulllee]

One of the good guys for sound back in the day.

 

[nnguy2]

Hearing voice audio for the first time in game was amazing.

Also the warcraft 2 sound test was amazing : "Your soundcard works perfectly"

Rest in peace.

 

[amghwk]

RIP.

Creative Sound Blaster was a real defining moment for PC users. Bringing full speech and digitized voices to the PC, it was ahead of its time. Even overtaking Adlib's mere FM synthesis alone. That and the built-in MIDI/Gameport gave an all in one multimedia solution.

My first product was the Sound Blaster 1.5. I later filled it up with the CMS compatible chips to make it "Game Blaster" compatible. FM Organ and Dr. Sbaitso were two fun software that came with it. I didn't use much of the talking parrot software.
Had lots of great moments in Wing Commander I and Ultima VI.

Then came the AWE32. And AWE64, both I bought too. I missed the SB16 generation since I was away studying during those years and was not with my PC.

I also later got the Audigy, Audigy 2 ZS, X-Fi for my later machines.

Good memories.

 

[toooooot]

I had one. That was my very first PC fix when the integrated sound card died on my cheapo PC.
Good stuff.

 

[d5aqoep]

I had nightmares with Soundblaster Audio when Windows Vista launched with new soundstack. Nearly killed Creative because of poor drivers back then.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I had nightmares with Soundblaster Audio when Windows Vista launched with new soundstack. Nearly killed Creative because of poor drivers back then.

It wasn't an issue with the drivers per se, it was more a problem with how MS built OS kernel and how it allowed functionality with drivers. Vista functioned and worked differently than XP or earlier versions of Windows. If I remember correctly, even Nvidia and AMD/ATI had issues with drivers working correctly when Vista first came out.

Also, MS was trying hard to keep the new way they built the OS under wraps and did not give proper amount of time nor help with companies in figuring out how to make drivers work correctly with Vista when it launched.

Overall, the launch of Vista was a fustercluck and MS was to blame for it. It took a lot of companies way too long to figure out how to get their hardware and software to work well with Vista.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

RIP, 67 isnt that old.

Sound blaster did some great thing with EAX on XP, and their influence is undeniable. But I also remember how they played games with Gravis and AdLib to sabotage their production agreements with Yamaha and their utterly disastrous drivers in the vista era playing a not so small part is pushing the advancement of realtek onboard audio chips.

IMO a tarnished legacy.