Sound Blaster is back — with a modular Stream Deck-style control hub

Those of you who can remember a time before giant CRT televisions became “retro” might have fond memories of Creative Labs. The company made the Sound Blaster series of add-in sound cards, hardware that’s now mostly unnecessary for regular users. But it seems the Sound Blaster brand has been resurrected for a new hardware control panel, even if it’s only in Kickstarter form right now.

The Sound Blaster Re:Imagine is billed as a “modular audio hub,” combining several tactile controls with a small touchscreen in a fetching package. It’s sort of an elongated take on gadgets like the Stream Deck+, offering physical buttons for essential audio and settings controls. (Those button pads can be popped off and rearranged to your liking.) It also has some built-in ports and a lot of extra functionality for recording pros and audiophiles. We’re talking a 32-bit DAC, separate headphone and microphone ports, optical and dedicated USB-C for audio.

But this thingy is more than a series of buttons and ports. While it’s probably most useful plugged into a PC, it actually has enough internal computing power to run a self-contained version of Linux, along with an internal microSD card slot and Wi-Fi. I’m not sure exactly what you’d do with that on a tiny 3-inch screen, but hey, Linux people are creative. The campaign suggests DOS game emulation and (long, exasperated sigh) an “AI DJ” that generates music for you.

Now for the bummer part: as I said, this is a Kickstarter campaign, which means that putting down your money isn’t guaranteed to result in a real, shipped product. This is coming from Creative itself, which is still around making speakers and other audio gadgets… but I would still wait for the crowdfunding period to finish at the end of this year, especially for a $330 USD device even at the “early bird” backer level.

It’ll be a lot more expensive ($500) if/when it launches. But you should have an option for a bigger, four-module hub when it does launch, since the company has already smashed its funding target.