Sound Blaster Hears The Blare Of Competition

Bored by most of his classes at Singapore's Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Sim Wong Hoo was desperate for diversion. One solution: a 30-member harmonica orchestra. There weren't many scores for such an ensemble, so Sim arranged his own. Whenever he tried to be too creative, though, "it sounded awful," he says.

Today, 18 years later, this unlikely hero has been hailed on Singapore television as his nation's most dynamic home-grown entrepreneur. His Creative Technology Ltd. leads the market for add-in boards that can digitally recreate human speech, dozens of sound effects, and even the sound of a harmonica. Retailing for $150 to $300 apiece, such gadgets are the first items of so-called multimedia technology to really take off.