Creative Labs Introduces Lava Producer

May 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Gino Robair

           
 

Creative Labs has just introduced its Lava Producer application ($29.95), available online at www.lava.com. You can use Lava Producer in conjunction with Creative Labs's free Lava Player-an interactive video environment with 3-D images that move and morph in sync with an MP3 file-to customize MusicVideo 3-D (MV3) files incorporating your own visual material. For example, you can take pictures with a Creative Labs Video Blaster WebCam and drop them onto the objects in one of Lava Producer's screen templates. All of this can be done in real time. The minimum system requirements are a Pentium II/233 MHz running Windows 95 or 98, 32 MB of RAM, a sound card, and an OpenGL graphics accelerator card . . . EarBuzz (www.earbuzz.com) is a new e-commerce Web site where independent musicians can market their CDs and other artist-related merchandise, such as T-shirts, hats, and stickers. EarBuzz provides artists with a number of free items, including a credit-card transaction service, a personal page on the site, links to an artist's own Web site, and online promotional opportunities. EarBuzz's contract is nonexclusive, so musicians can take advantage of other avenues of distribution at the same time . . . PG Music (www.pgmusic.com) has added a new chat feature to its Web site so that users can get one-on-one customer service and technical support. Just go to the site and click on the Live Chat button to contact a service representative. Hours of operation are 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. PST, seven days a week.