MRG
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Greetings all,
It was back in 1991, as a sophomore in High School, that I came into contact with my first Sound Card for the PC. A friend at the time who was a fellow gamer, told me about an awesome space combat game that his mom had just bought for him to play on his new PC, a brand new IBM 386SX running at 16mhz, if memory serves me right. I look back & remember thinking that his PC was just so cutting edge & I would have sold pretty much any body part to be able to have one myself. He then told me he had his PC connected to the stereo in his room so that the games sounds blasted from the speakers. I just had to see this for myself. Sure enough, the game was awesome, which turned out to be the original Wing Commander & it did sound amazing in all it?s beeps & boops glory coming from my friends Stereo. When I asked him how he did it, he opened the case to his PC and showed me the sound card which turned out to be an ISA Sound Blaster Pro. From that moment on, never again would I be stuck listening to my games sounds from the internal speaker.
Over the years, the Sound Card itself has come a long way. From the days of the Sound Blaster, Roland & Adlib audio cards in ISA format, to today?s Sound Cards such as the Creative X-Fi & M-Audio Revolution 7.1?s Sound Card lineup. Each generation of the Sound Card becoming more & more advanced than those that came before them. It used to be people were just happy to have the means to move beyond the internal speaker, now consumers of today demand the ability to record an audio track in true Dolby HD with a recording rate at 24-bit precision up to 96 kHz & beyond.
There is a huge amount of info on the web that can easily be found which goes into tedious detail about the differences of all the many different features that come standard on the Sound Cards of Today. So I?ll not bore you all with info you are more than able to find on your own. I will however, be covering the important features & their definitions so that you may have a better understanding of Sound Cards in general & so thus will be better able to choose the right Sound Card for your needs the next time you choose to upgrade. Going down to the local computer store and buying the cheapest sound card on the shelf will give you just that, cheap sound. As Sound cards become more & more advanced, so does the performance they provide.
There is simply too much info available for me to compile it all here & Since it was made clear to me that members here on these forums don?t like C&P, I?ll post links to the various sites themselves so that you can read the info for yourself.
Evolution Of The Sound Card
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_cards
Sound Card 101
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/soundcard101.mspx
Mainstream Consumer Sound Card Manufacturers
M-Audio - http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.list&ID=pciinterfaces
Creative - http://www.creative.com/products/welcome.asp?category=1
AudioTrak - http://www.audiotrak.net/
Hercules - http://www.hercules.com/index_products.php?t=2&PHPSESSID=01bdddb0e7bb1b8928b3aa9ecccd24b1
Turtle Beach - http://turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards.asp
High End Sound Cards
Kelly Industries - http://www.kellyindustries.com/computer.html
BayView Pro Audio - http://www.bayviewproaudio.com/Audio_Interfaces-p-1-c-122.html
Sound Card Feature Definitions
(Sorry, but I Copied & Pasted the below info From Various Sites, Deal with it.)
THX - THX defines a set of guidelines for audio and picture playback for movie theatres. Often confused with Movie Sound Formats, THX does not define standards for audio coding, it only defines the presentation standards that must be met during movie playback. Any Movie Sound Format may be used, as long as it provides the standards set by THX.
X-RAM - There are two benefits from X-RAM. The first one being the possibility to use higher quality sounds thanks to having the extra memory on the sound card itself. The other benefit is the ability to decompress compressed sounds into the X-RAM saving CPU cycles. X-RAM is not recommended for streaming. It should not be used for storing constantly changing contents. Developers wishing to utilize X-RAM in their own software applications must use Open AL. A game which makes use of Open AL does not require additional function calls. By default the X-RAM extension is set to automatic, all Open AL buffers will be loaded into X-RAM as long as there is storage space left. This means that if a game is using Open AL it makes use of X-RAM as soon as it has been detected on your sound card. The X-RAM extensions can also be set to manual (hardware or accessible). In this mode it is up to the game developer to decide what sounds will be uploaded to the X-RAM.
Surround Sound - Surround sound is the name for a variety of techniques for expanding and enriching the sound of audio playback by recording additional sound channels that can be reproduced on additional speakers. Surround sound systems are used in cinema sound systems, home entertainment systems such as "home theater" systems, video arcade games, computer games, technical theatre, and a growing number of other applications. An example of Surround Sound speaker configurations are 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 & 8.1. The first digit being the number of individual satalite speakers, followed by the second digit (1) be the amount of LFE (Low Frequency Speaker, i.e. Sub-Woofer)
DSP - DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing. A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor designed specifically for digital signal processing, generally in real-time computing. In laymans terms, the DSP acts much like the CPU in your PC. The DSP processes the audio data instead of the PC?s CPU. One of the large benefits of this, is the overall performace increase over a non-DSP audio hardware peripherals.
EAX - The environmental audio extensions (or EAX) are a number of digital signal processing presets for audio, present in Creative Labs later Sound Blaster sound cards. EAX displaced the alternative A3D (Aureal 3-Dimensional) in 2001. The aim of EAX is to create more ambience within games by more accurately simulating a real-world audio environment.
24Bit/96KHz & 192KHz - Provides a More dynamic sound & Enhanced realism. 24-bit resolution improves the dynamic range, increasing the contrast between silence, background noises and music, dialog and action. 96KHz & 192KHz audio improves the frequency bandwidth, resulting in more realistic sound effects and ambiance by keeping audible frequencies which are altered at 44 and 48KHz sample rates.
SNR - Signal To Noise Ratio, the relationship between the usable intended signal and extraneously present noise present, usually measured at the source. It is expressed in dB. If the SNR limit is exceeded the signal transmitted will be unusable. In less technical terms, signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is.
Audio Recording Bit Rate
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/web/news/high_bit_rate_0300.html
http://www.topshareware.com/guide/hot/sound.htm
Sound Card Reviews
1)http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-9334_7-0.html?sa=1000036&tag=dir
2)http://www.devhardware.com/c/b/Sound-Cards/
3)http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/audiotrak-prodigy71/
4)http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i=2518
Just some basic info in regards to Sound Cards. Being as there is just too much info available, there is little point in my rehashing what has already been talked about many, many times before I started. Like with anything else, when buying a Sound Card, it's always wise to do a little homework before buying. that way you can insure that you will be getting what is best for what your needs are.
Over the years, I have had a chance to use a wide variety of Sound Cards from several manufacturers. A friend of mine is a musician & he loves his Aardvark Direct Pro Q10, a highly advanced sound card, while my dad, a muscian as well, loves the X-Fi I installed in his PC. Like with any other purchase, it's always wise to have a general idea as to what you'll expect from whatever it is you buy. Common sense I know, but not always followed.
Once I am able to compile more info, i'll add it here, provided the above is not sufficient.
-MRG
It was back in 1991, as a sophomore in High School, that I came into contact with my first Sound Card for the PC. A friend at the time who was a fellow gamer, told me about an awesome space combat game that his mom had just bought for him to play on his new PC, a brand new IBM 386SX running at 16mhz, if memory serves me right. I look back & remember thinking that his PC was just so cutting edge & I would have sold pretty much any body part to be able to have one myself. He then told me he had his PC connected to the stereo in his room so that the games sounds blasted from the speakers. I just had to see this for myself. Sure enough, the game was awesome, which turned out to be the original Wing Commander & it did sound amazing in all it?s beeps & boops glory coming from my friends Stereo. When I asked him how he did it, he opened the case to his PC and showed me the sound card which turned out to be an ISA Sound Blaster Pro. From that moment on, never again would I be stuck listening to my games sounds from the internal speaker.
Over the years, the Sound Card itself has come a long way. From the days of the Sound Blaster, Roland & Adlib audio cards in ISA format, to today?s Sound Cards such as the Creative X-Fi & M-Audio Revolution 7.1?s Sound Card lineup. Each generation of the Sound Card becoming more & more advanced than those that came before them. It used to be people were just happy to have the means to move beyond the internal speaker, now consumers of today demand the ability to record an audio track in true Dolby HD with a recording rate at 24-bit precision up to 96 kHz & beyond.
There is a huge amount of info on the web that can easily be found which goes into tedious detail about the differences of all the many different features that come standard on the Sound Cards of Today. So I?ll not bore you all with info you are more than able to find on your own. I will however, be covering the important features & their definitions so that you may have a better understanding of Sound Cards in general & so thus will be better able to choose the right Sound Card for your needs the next time you choose to upgrade. Going down to the local computer store and buying the cheapest sound card on the shelf will give you just that, cheap sound. As Sound cards become more & more advanced, so does the performance they provide.
There is simply too much info available for me to compile it all here & Since it was made clear to me that members here on these forums don?t like C&P, I?ll post links to the various sites themselves so that you can read the info for yourself.
Evolution Of The Sound Card
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_cards
Sound Card 101
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/learnmore/soundcard101.mspx
Mainstream Consumer Sound Card Manufacturers
M-Audio - http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.list&ID=pciinterfaces
Creative - http://www.creative.com/products/welcome.asp?category=1
AudioTrak - http://www.audiotrak.net/
Hercules - http://www.hercules.com/index_products.php?t=2&PHPSESSID=01bdddb0e7bb1b8928b3aa9ecccd24b1
Turtle Beach - http://turtlebeach.com/site/products/soundcards.asp
High End Sound Cards
Kelly Industries - http://www.kellyindustries.com/computer.html
BayView Pro Audio - http://www.bayviewproaudio.com/Audio_Interfaces-p-1-c-122.html
Sound Card Feature Definitions
(Sorry, but I Copied & Pasted the below info From Various Sites, Deal with it.)
THX - THX defines a set of guidelines for audio and picture playback for movie theatres. Often confused with Movie Sound Formats, THX does not define standards for audio coding, it only defines the presentation standards that must be met during movie playback. Any Movie Sound Format may be used, as long as it provides the standards set by THX.
X-RAM - There are two benefits from X-RAM. The first one being the possibility to use higher quality sounds thanks to having the extra memory on the sound card itself. The other benefit is the ability to decompress compressed sounds into the X-RAM saving CPU cycles. X-RAM is not recommended for streaming. It should not be used for storing constantly changing contents. Developers wishing to utilize X-RAM in their own software applications must use Open AL. A game which makes use of Open AL does not require additional function calls. By default the X-RAM extension is set to automatic, all Open AL buffers will be loaded into X-RAM as long as there is storage space left. This means that if a game is using Open AL it makes use of X-RAM as soon as it has been detected on your sound card. The X-RAM extensions can also be set to manual (hardware or accessible). In this mode it is up to the game developer to decide what sounds will be uploaded to the X-RAM.
Surround Sound - Surround sound is the name for a variety of techniques for expanding and enriching the sound of audio playback by recording additional sound channels that can be reproduced on additional speakers. Surround sound systems are used in cinema sound systems, home entertainment systems such as "home theater" systems, video arcade games, computer games, technical theatre, and a growing number of other applications. An example of Surround Sound speaker configurations are 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 & 8.1. The first digit being the number of individual satalite speakers, followed by the second digit (1) be the amount of LFE (Low Frequency Speaker, i.e. Sub-Woofer)
DSP - DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing. A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor designed specifically for digital signal processing, generally in real-time computing. In laymans terms, the DSP acts much like the CPU in your PC. The DSP processes the audio data instead of the PC?s CPU. One of the large benefits of this, is the overall performace increase over a non-DSP audio hardware peripherals.
EAX - The environmental audio extensions (or EAX) are a number of digital signal processing presets for audio, present in Creative Labs later Sound Blaster sound cards. EAX displaced the alternative A3D (Aureal 3-Dimensional) in 2001. The aim of EAX is to create more ambience within games by more accurately simulating a real-world audio environment.
24Bit/96KHz & 192KHz - Provides a More dynamic sound & Enhanced realism. 24-bit resolution improves the dynamic range, increasing the contrast between silence, background noises and music, dialog and action. 96KHz & 192KHz audio improves the frequency bandwidth, resulting in more realistic sound effects and ambiance by keeping audible frequencies which are altered at 44 and 48KHz sample rates.
SNR - Signal To Noise Ratio, the relationship between the usable intended signal and extraneously present noise present, usually measured at the source. It is expressed in dB. If the SNR limit is exceeded the signal transmitted will be unusable. In less technical terms, signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is.
Audio Recording Bit Rate
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/web/news/high_bit_rate_0300.html
http://www.topshareware.com/guide/hot/sound.htm
Sound Card Reviews
1)http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-9334_7-0.html?sa=1000036&tag=dir
2)http://www.devhardware.com/c/b/Sound-Cards/
3)http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/audiotrak-prodigy71/
4)http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i=2518
Just some basic info in regards to Sound Cards. Being as there is just too much info available, there is little point in my rehashing what has already been talked about many, many times before I started. Like with anything else, when buying a Sound Card, it's always wise to do a little homework before buying. that way you can insure that you will be getting what is best for what your needs are.
Over the years, I have had a chance to use a wide variety of Sound Cards from several manufacturers. A friend of mine is a musician & he loves his Aardvark Direct Pro Q10, a highly advanced sound card, while my dad, a muscian as well, loves the X-Fi I installed in his PC. Like with any other purchase, it's always wise to have a general idea as to what you'll expect from whatever it is you buy. Common sense I know, but not always followed.
Once I am able to compile more info, i'll add it here, provided the above is not sufficient.
-MRG
