Before good 30 Years ago, a technology revolution began with the Soundblaster. Without this invention there would be no games today, no Spotify, no Skype or YouTube.

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Ulrich Hilgefort Stefan Wischner The history of PC sound cards: from beeper to digital orchestra Short sole rule Jumper fumble Finally CD quality MIDI protocol: Patch numbers for instrument sound Soundblaster Live Finish Article in c’t 27 / 2020 read The early days of pc were a quiet time. There wasn’t much to sound either. A pitifully beeping mini loudspeaker, clamped somewhere in the case, was sufficient for error messages. Music and sound effects were only needed for games, and they were until the middle of the 1980 reserved for home computers. That should be 1987 with the appearance of the first PC sound card

The ISA plug-in card sold by the Canadian manufacturer Adlib under the same name is based on a Yamaha sound generator: The YM 8912, also called OPL2, is a direct descendant of the audio chips used in many 8-bit home computers. Using FM synthesis, up to 9-part pieces of music can be played in the characteristic 80 output sound. This was not only known from home computers and arcade machines, but also from pop music by artists such as Depeche Mode or Spliff. They often used the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, which is based on very similar technology.

In FM synthesis, oscillators connected in pairs using phase coupling generate pure or modified sinusoidal signals and thus generate the characteristic sound. Envelope generators manipulate their volume curve, for example to simulate the swing of a string. With skillful programming, musical instruments can be reproduced, albeit with very different recognizability. Noise effects such as explosions or gunfire are also possible thanks to the noise generator and envelopes, but they sound very thin. Nevertheless, the slowly blossoming DOS game industry rushed to the Adlib card, which also set the sound standard for PCs due to the lack of competition.

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Register and read Register now and read the article read immediately More information about heise + The history of PC sound cards: from beeper to digital orchestra Short sole rule Jumper fumble Finally CD quality MIDI protocol: Patch numbers for instrument sound Soundblaster Live Finish Article in c’t 27 / 2020 read