Vortex 3.0

New Vortex?

Of course, we're always excited to hear what's next down the road. Unfortunately for us, Vortex 2 is still a new product, and it's capabilities still remain virtually unscratched by most software developers. However, Aureal is looking towards the future, and "Vortex 3" is in development, and in my rough estimate, should be a little less than one year away. All I could get out of them was that it is a "very ambitious" project, and will likely be at least as big as the jump from Vortex 1 to Vortex 2 (the introduction of wavetracing). I can't wait to see what that might be…

More fringe

Other long-term plans at Aureal include bringing the various components of PC audio closer together, including some form of integration between the sound card and the actual speakers. We're talking about digital speakers (but NOT USB, thankfully), as the ability to maintain maximum control over a signal before it's output as a sound wave can mean higher-quality, more accurate sound.

Speakers with actual processing power can spawn a number of new applications, most of which can probably be dismissed as "fringe," at least for now. Speakers that can calculate their relative or absolute position and orientation from the user or in a room can make use of DSP room correction, more accurate cross-talk cancellation, or more. They can determine and adjust for excessively bright or dull environments, change the characteristics of their output based on feedback from the user, or a number of things we haven't touched the surface of yet.

Obviously, the ideas are still rough and formative, but the potential is certainly there. More information on just where Aureal is planning on taking this will be available in Q3, and we're planning on keeping you covered and informed, especially on any developments most might consider far-fetched, or even lunatic!