A few weeks ago we told you about an upcoming sound card from Guillemot, called the Maxi Sound Fortissimo. This morning, the company issued a formal press release, officially announcing its new product.

　　"Guillemot has built a name for manufacturing quality and innovative audio products with its award-winning Maxi Sound Home Studio Line," said Guillemot president Claude Guillemot. "Together with Yamaha's unique reputation in professional music and Guillemot's know-how in sound boards, the Maxi Sound Fortissimo is just what gamers and PC users are looking for. The Fortissimo will serve to further enhance our standing in the audio-card industry."

　　At the heart of the Fortissimo is the Yamaha XG sound chipset, which provides support for a number of API's, including A3D 1.0, DirectSound 3D, and EAX. The board comes with a 2-megabyte MIDI wavetable and a wide assortment of I/O ports, including a digital optical out for high-quality home recording and editing.

　　The card will ship next week and will begin to arrive in stores by mid-September for around US$49.99.