THE PRO AUDIO SPECTRUM XL DESIGN SURVEY ======================================= Media Vision wants your ideas on what features to add to the next version of the Pro AudioSpectrum 16. Our engineers are debating many possibilities that will help make the next generation Pro Audio Spectrum audio card everything you could ask for. With your response to this poll, we'll better understand what things you want in multimedia hardware. This is your chance to help design the Pro AudioSpectrum XL! Please return this form (NOT JUST THE ANSWERS) by mailing it to CompuServe account 75300,2772 or by FAX to (510) 226-2582 to the Attention of Ken Nicholson. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Circle the number that best describes your answer. If responding with an electronic mail message, put parentheses around your selection. Example: Unimportant Very Important X) How important is the color? (1) 2 3 4 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIGITAL AUDIO: ---------------- Unimportant Very Important 1) How important is Sound Blaster compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 2) How important is Sound Blaster PRO compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 3) How important is Sound Blaster 16 ASP compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 4) How important is Disney Sound Source compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 5) How important is Windows Sound System compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 6) How important is audio compression for playback? 1 2 3 4 5 7) How important is audio compression for recording? 1 2 3 4 5 8) For each of the following compression methods, rate the importance of supporting them: Unimportant Very Important Mu-law, A-law (2:1 compression) 1 2 3 4 5 IMA (4:1) 1 2 3 4 5 CD-XA 1 2 3 4 5 MSADPCM (4:1) 1 2 3 4 5 DOLBY ACM (6:1) 1 2 3 4 5 _____________ (OTHER) 1 2 3 4 5 9) How important is precise sound reproduction (audiophile quality) ? 1 2 3 4 5 10) How important is Q-Sound? 1 2 3 4 5 11) How important is Dolby Surround Sound? 1 2 3 4 5 12) How important is 4-channel (Quadrophonic) Sound? 1 2 3 4 5 13) How important is the ability to digitally mix multiple tracks of audio? (ie. blend 4 asynchronous sound effects together in real time) 1 2 3 4 5 14) How important are hardware-assisted sound effects? 1 2 3 4 5 15) For each of the following hardware-assisted sound effect features, rate the importance of supporting them: Unimportant Very Important Reverb 1 2 3 4 5 Distortion 1 2 3 4 5 Echo 1 2 3 4 5 Pitch Shifting 1 2 3 4 5 Filtration 1 2 3 4 5 Doppler effect 1 2 3 4 5 Underwater effect 1 2 3 4 5 __________________ (Other) 1 2 3 4 5 16) The PAS 16 has a feature known as DUAL DAC. With this feature, loading two wave drivers in Windows, it's possible to play two sounds at once. How important is this feature in the future ? Unimportant Very Important 1 2 3 4 5 17) How important is Speech Recognition? 1 2 3 4 5 18) How important is Simultaneous Play and Record? 1 2 3 4 5 19) How important is Text-to-Speech? 1 2 3 4 5 20) How important is Direct to Disk recording? 1 2 3 4 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MIDI & MUSIC SYNTHESIS: ----------------------- Unimportant Very Important 1) How important is Adlib/OPL-2 MONO FM compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 2) How important is OPL-3 STEREO FM compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 3) How important is OPL-4 STEREO FM + Wave Table compatiblity? 1 2 3 4 5 4) How important is Wave Table Synthesis? 1 2 3 4 5 For wave table synthesis how important is: General MIDI compatibility? 1 2 3 4 5 MT-32 compatibility? 1 2 3 4 5 Up/Downloadable sample capability? 1 2 3 4 5 5) How important is Wave Guide Synthesis? 1 2 3 4 5 6) How important are selectable channel effects like Reverb, Pan, etc. 1 2 3 4 5 7) How important are MIDI In and Out ports? 1 2 3 4 5 8) How important is MPU-401 passive-mode compatibility? 1 2 3 4 5 9) How important is MPU-401 active-mode compatibility? 1 2 3 4 5 10) How important is MIDI merge? 1 2 3 4 5 11) How important is precise MIDI timing? 1 2 3 4 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MIXING, EQUALIZATION and AMPLIFICATION: --------------------------------------- Unimportant Very Important 1) How important is the ability to mix several playback sources? 1 2 3 4 5 2) How important is the ability to record multiple sources at the same time? 1 2 3 4 5 3) How important is the ability to monitor the record level? 1 2 3 4 5 4) How important is the ability to monitor the level of the recorded input? 1 2 3 4 5 5) How important is the ability to see when recorded input is clipping? 1 2 3 4 5 6) How important is the ability to monitor the level for each input independently? 1 2 3 4 5 7) For each input of the mixer, indicate the importance of having the following control: Unimportant Very Important Select input gain? 1 2 3 4 5 Select input attenuation? 1 2 3 4 5 Select input crossover (L->R, R->L)? 1 2 3 4 5 Select Stereo/Mono (L->R, R->L)? 1 2 3 4 5 Select input equalization? 1 2 3 4 5 Select inputs destination (output)? 1 2 3 4 5 8) How important is a stereo microphone input (instead of mono)? 1 2 3 4 5 9) How important is the AGC feature on the microphone input? 1 2 3 4 5 10) How important are the following Equalization (EQ) features? Unimportant Very Important Loudness feature 1 2 3 4 5 Stereo Enhance feature 1 2 3 4 5 Simulated Stereo (from mono source) 1 2 3 4 5 Bass & Treble control 1 2 3 4 5 Multi-band Parametric Equalizer: 1 2 3 4 5 Number of bands preferred: _____ Reverb feature 1 2 3 4 5 Balance feature 1 2 3 4 5 Fade Front/Rear feature 1 2 3 4 5 Unimportant Very Important 11) How important is PC-speaker mixing? 1 2 3 4 5 12) How important is PC-speaker output? 1 2 3 4 5 13) How important is RealSound smoothing feature? 1 2 3 4 5 14) How important is line out connector? 1 2 3 4 5 15) How important is amplified out connector? 1 2 3 4 5 16) How important is a volume knob on the card's bracket? 1 2 3 4 5 17) How important is a master record volume feature? 1 2 3 4 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCSI / CD-ROM SUPPORT: --------------------------------------- 1) How important is SCSI as opposed to a non-SCSI interface? 1 2 3 4 5 2) How important is SCSI-2 compliance? 1 2 3 4 5 4) How important is data transfer rate? 1 2 3 4 5 5) Rate from 1 to 5 the relative importance of the following features where: 1 is the most important and 5 is the least important: Data Transfer Rate ______ (how fast? ______) Ease of installation, configuration ______ Boot ROM ______ Floppy controller circuitry ______ 6) How important is ASPI support? 1 2 3 4 5 7) How important is the ability to connect the following external hardware? Hard Disks 1 2 3 4 5 Tape Back Up Units 1 2 3 4 5 Removable Cartridge drives 1 2 3 4 5 Flopical Drives 1 2 3 4 5 Scanners 1 2 3 4 5 _________________(Other) 1 2 3 4 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES: ----------------------- Unimportant Very Important 1) How important is a joystick interface? 1 2 3 4 5 For joystick, indicate the importance of: Bus speed independent operation 1 2 3 4 5 Two-joystick support 1 2 3 4 5 2) How important is a built-in modem feature? 1 2 3 4 5 For modem, indicate the importance of: 2400b 1 2 3 4 5 9600b 1 2 3 4 5 ARQ 1 2 3 4 5 vis/bis compatiblity 1 2 3 4 5 ability to monitor phone line 1 2 3 4 5 ability to record phone line 1 2 3 4 5 ability to play mixer output to phone line 1 2 3 4 5 touch tone (DTMF) recognition 1 2 3 4 5 Video phone compatiblity 1 2 3 4 5 3) How important is a built-in fax feature? 1 2 3 4 5 2400b 1 2 3 4 5 9600b 1 2 3 4 5 Group III 1 2 3 4 5 touch tone (DTMF) recognition 1 2 3 4 5 voice recognition 1 2 3 4 5 color fax compatibilty 1 2 3 4 5 4) How important is a DSP ? 1 2 3 4 5 For DSP's indicate the importance of: Compatibility with another DSP 1 2 3 4 5 (specify:_____________________) Ability to program (programmable vs fixed function: ie RAM vs ROM) 1 2 3 4 5 MIPS rating: 1 2 3 4 5 Existing software support: 1 2 3 4 5 5) How important is MPC compatibility? 1 2 3 4 5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- List in order of importance features you'd like to see added: 1 __________________________________________________________ 2 __________________________________________________________ 3 __________________________________________________________ 4 __________________________________________________________ 5 __________________________________________________________ List in order of importance the things you would change about your current sound card 1 __________________________________________________________ 2 __________________________________________________________ 3 __________________________________________________________ 4 __________________________________________________________ 5 __________________________________________________________ List anything that would definitely eliminate a sound card from your consideration: 1 __________________________________________________________ 2 __________________________________________________________ 3 __________________________________________________________ 4 __________________________________________________________ 5 __________________________________________________________ Additional comments welcomed: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- We need to get some idea about the price you'd pay to for a sound card that had all the features you indicated were important. Remember that we often don't add a feature because it might add $15.00 to the price you'd pay. Low numbers here won't change our pricing, it'll cause us to eliminate possible features. 1) For an upgrade from my current sound card: $_____ would be too much money. $_____ would be reasonable. $_____ would be a bargain. 2) To buy the card without upgrade (street price): $_____ would be too much money. $_____ would be reasonable. $_____ would be a bargain. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- INFO ABOUT YOU: Describe your system: BRAND, CPU/SPEED, MEMORY: _________________________________________ GRAPHICS CARD: ____________________________________________________ SOUND HARDWARE: ___________________________________________________ AMPLIFIED SPEAKERS: _______________________________________________ MIDI EQUIPMENT: __________________________________________________ CD-ROM DRIVE(S): _________________________________________________ VIDEO EQUIPMENT: __________________________________________________ 2) Do you use sound hardware at: (check all that apply) Home____ School ____ Work ____ 3) What is your line of work? ___ Education ___ Computer Professional ___ Artist ___ Marketing ___ Accounting/Financial ___ Military Governmental ___ Sales ___ Manufacturing/Operations ___ Training ___ Security ___ Retail Sales ___ Management ___ Telecommunications ___ Industrial ___ Entertainment ___ Scientific ___ Other (specify) _______________________ 3) How do you use your sound hardware (check all that apply): ___ Games / Entertainment ____ Reference material ___ Presentations ____ Education ___ Measurement ____ Kiosks/ Point-of-Sale ___ Music Composition ____ Broadcasting ___ Hobby ____ voice annotation ___ Voice recognition ____ Text To Speech ___ Digital Recording ____ MIDI recording ___ CD-ROM controller ____ Research ------------------------------------------------------------ Your name: ___________________________________________________________ Daytime Phone: _______________________________________________________ Evening Phone: ______________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- END OF SURVEY ----------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------