Sound Blastoff
Review

Sound Blastoff
Estimated price: $19.99
Company: Lasersoft, Inc.

 

While browsing the store shelves for Macintosh software, I came across this CD Rom. Picking it up, the back of the jewel case read “Get ready to add some of the finest professional media clips available on the little blue planet”. I don’t know about you, but this sounded good to me! It next read “With over 239 to choose from, finding just the right sound or sound byte is as easy as 1,2,3.”. Hey, I like easy! And this CD Rom sounded like it would be right up my alley!

I was wrong.

Sound Blastoff by Lasersoft is a rip off. For $19.99, all you get is some poorly recorded sounds, some very common sound editing shareware you can find almost anywhere, and a thinner wallet.

First, unlike what the package may read, the sound quality of the sounds are very poor. And I mean poor! Some sounds, even with my Mac’s sound volume turned way up, can barely be heard. Others are recorded, it sounds, from inside a tin cup. And many have very audible clicks where there sound be none. Worse yet, some sounds do not even SOUND like they are suppose to! I mean, how hard would it have been to record Pee Wee Herman laughing? Rent a laser disk player and “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”, record it on a DAT tape, do a bit of editing, and copy it to disk. This was advertised as “Professional Media Clips”, after all. What it sounds like is someone held up a microphone to a TV set and recorded it from HBO!

Do I really need a sound of a hump back whale? No, not really, . But if I did want one, the sound quality of that clip on Sound Blastoff would not fit the bill. I had to look at the name of the sound to be sure what it was supposed to be.

There are a few sounds that are good, in both quality and volume. But are they worth $19.99? No way! I can (and have) recorded MUCH better sounds for my Mac on my home theater system, and downloaded others of much better quality from the Internet and America Online. In fact, I am sure my two year old, with a microphone, could produce a more realistic “Shotgun blast” with a spoon and a paper cup!

The CD Rom also comes with a few sound editing programs such as Sound Sculptor,
WaveWindow v2.1, and Balthazar. Wow. Neat. I can get Balthazar for free on the Internet or AOL, and a newer version to boot. Sure, Balthazar is a great utility, but I did not buy Sound Blastoff for this. I bought it for the sound clips. And they stink.

The last line of the description for Sound Blastoff reads “This stuff is really cool!” No, it is not. The title of this should not be Sound Blastoff, it should be Sound Ripoff.

So, if you see this in your local store, save your money. Trust me, there are much better commercial products such as KaBoom! that are much more worth your hard earned cash. Lasersoft should be ashamed to distribute this product. I know I am ashamed to have bought it.