Sweetwater Rolls Out New Audio Computers
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| Creation Station Rackmount |
January 19, 2005
Sweetwater Sound has released its Creation Station series of audio production PCs, including an audio optimized machine that breaks the $1000 price barrier. Sweetwater President Chuck Surack says, "We wanted to offer a first-rate solution for musicians who would otherwise buy an off-the-shelf Dell machine, and then wind up spending hundreds of additional dollars to outfit that machine with the appropriate additions to make it a viable audio PC."
In addition to the $999 Tower model, the Creation Station series consists of three other machines: the Rackmount, Pro Tower and compact Cube models. All Creation Station computers employ special sound reduction technology and are also the first computers in the world to ship with hard drives from Glyph Technologies as standard equipment. Each machine carries a comprehensive warranty, with every single component covered for a minimum of 2 years (up to 5 years on the Glyph hard drives), plus unlimited free access to phone, e-mail and remote desktop technical support.
Creation Station computers are "Auralex Certified" Whisper Quiet. Extensive research was done in concert with the acoustic experts at Auralex Acoustics to minimize vibration and noise within the Creation Station enclosures. A 10-step sound dampening process ensures that the machines are virtually silent. Steps include the application of Auralex SheetBlok-Plus, which eliminates case vibration and diffuses interior noise; QuietFeet, which decouple the computer case from any surface; and isolation grommets that isolate hard drive vibration and noise from the rest of the machine. Independent tests verified that Creation Station computers are as much as 28 dB quieter than many of the leading audio PCs on the market today.
All four Creation Station models utilize the latest generation of Intel Pentium 4 processors to deliver. On the Cube, Pro Tower and Rack models, Serial ATA hard drives from Glyph deliver fast audio transfer speeds and guaranteed reliability. These drives are covered by Glyph's 5-year warranty and an overnight replacement service.
Sweetwater engineers put each computer through a 40-step audio optimization process, including operating system, BIOS and cooling system adjustments.
Sweetwater has instituted a method of ensuring a minimum of downtime for end users should there ever be a software problem with a Creation Station in the field. All machines configured at Sweetwater include a custom restore partition on the user's hard drive with a snapshot of the machine's configuration prior to its shipment to the customer. If the customer installs a piece of software at a later date that causes a problem, they can simply restore the machine using the restore partition and be back up and running in no time.
Creation Station customers also get unlimited toll-free access to Sweetwater's technical support department. The tech support staff can not only offer operational support over the phone, but also have Sweetwater's newest tech support service at their disposal -- Sweetcare Remote. An extension of their existing arsenal of tech support tools, Sweetcare Remote allows a Sweetwater technician to log on to a user's machine remotely and provide support for any application or configuration issues users may encounter. Though another audio PC provider offers a similar service in Europe, this is the first time such comprehensive assistance has been available in the US.
For more information, visit their web site at www.sweetwater.com. | 
