Value card, a typical (circa 2000) sound card.Connects tovia one of:. (rare). interfaces (, )Line in or out: via one of:. Analogue -, or. Digital - RCA, orMicrophone via one of:.

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Phone connector. PIN connectorCommon manufacturers(and subsidiary )A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal that provides input and output of to and from a under control of. The term sound card is also applied to external audio interfaces used for applications.Sound functionality can also be integrated onto the, using components similar to those found on plug-in cards.

The integrated sound system is often still referred to as a sound card. Sound processing hardware is also present on modern with to output sound along with the video using that connector; previously they used a connection to the motherboard or sound card.Typical uses of sound cards or sound card functionality include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition, editing video or audio, presentation, education and entertainment (games) and video projection. Sound cards are also used for computer-based communication such as. Close-up of a sound card, showing, and, and a YAC512 two-channel 16-bitSound cards use a (DAC), which converts recorded or generated data into an format. The output signal is connected to an amplifier, headphones, or external device using standard interconnects, such as a.A common external connector is the connector. Input through a microphone connector can be used, for example, by or applications.

Most sound cards have a connector for an analog input from a sound source that has higher voltage levels than a microphone. In either case, the sound card uses an to digitize this signal.Some cards include a to support production of sounds, usually for real-time generation of music and sound effects using minimal data and CPU time.The card may use to transfer the samples to and from, from where a recording and playback software may read and write it to the for storage, editing, or further processing.Sound channels and polyphony.

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8-channel DAC CS4382 placed on Fatal1tyAn important sound card characteristic is, which refers to its ability to process and output multiple independent voices or sounds simultaneously. These distinct channels are seen as the number of audio outputs, which may correspond to a speaker configuration such as 2.0 (stereo), 2.1 (stereo and sub woofer), 5.1 (surround), or other configuration. Sometimes, the terms voice and channel are used interchangeably to indicate the degree of polyphony, not the output speaker configuration.For example, many older could accommodate three voices, but only one (i.e., a single mono output) for output, requiring all voices to be mixed together. Later cards, such as the sound card, had a 9-voice polyphony combined in 1 mono output channel.For some years, most PC sound cards have had multiple FM synthesis voices (typically 9 or 16) which were usually used for MIDI music.

The full capabilities of advanced cards are often not fully used; only one (mono) or two voice(s) and channel(s) are usually dedicated to playback of digital sound samples, and playing back more than one digital sound sample usually requires a software at a fixed sampling rate. Modern low-cost integrated sound cards (i.e., those built into motherboards) such as like those meeting the standard and even some lower-cost expansion sound cards still work this way. These devices may provide more than two sound output channels (typically 5.1 or 7.1 ), but they usually have no actual hardware polyphony for either sound effects or MIDI reproduction – these tasks are performed entirely in software. This is similar to the way inexpensive perform modem tasks in software rather than in hardware.Also, in the early days of ', some sound card manufacturers advertised polyphony solely on the MIDI capabilities alone.

In this case, the card's output channel is irrelevant; typically, the card is only capable of two channels of digital sound. A Envy sound card for PC, 5.1 channel for slotSound cards for computers were very uncommon until 1988.

For the majority IBM PC users, the internal was the only way for early PC software to produce sound and music. The speaker hardware was typically limited to. The resulting sound was generally described as 'beeps and boops' which resulted in the common nickname 'beeper'.

Several companies, most notably, developed techniques for digital sound reproduction over the PC speaker like. The resulting audio, while functional, suffered from heavily distorted output and low volume, and usually required all other processing to be stopped while sounds were played. Other home computers of the 1980s like the included hardware support for digital sound playback and/or music synthesis, leaving the IBM PC at a disadvantage when it came to multimedia applications. Three early ISA (16-bit) PC sound cards showing the progression toward integrated chipsetsWhen game company opted to support add-on music hardware in addition to built-in hardware such as the and built-in sound capabilities of the and, what could be done with sound and music on the IBM PC changed dramatically.

Two of the companies Sierra partnered with were Roland and AdLib, opting to produce in-game music for that supported the MT-32 and AdLib Music Synthesizer. The MT-32 had superior output quality, due in part to its method of sound synthesis as well as built-in reverb. Since it was the most sophisticated synthesizer they supported, Sierra chose to use most of the MT-32's custom features and unconventional instrument patches, producing background sound effects (e.g., chirping birds, clopping horse hooves, etc.) before the Sound Blaster brought playing real audio clips to the PC entertainment world. Many game companies also supported the MT-32, but supported the Adlib card as an alternative because of the latter's higher market base. The adoption of the MT-32 led the way for the creation of the / and standards as the most common means of playing in-game music until the mid-1990s.Feature evolution Early bus sound cards were, meaning they couldn't record and play digitized sound simultaneously, mostly due to inferior card hardware (e.g., ). Later, ISA cards like the SoundBlaster AWE series and Plug-and-play Soundblaster clones eventually became full-duplex and supported simultaneous recording and playback, but at the expense of using up two IRQ and DMA channels instead of one, making them no different from having two half-duplex sound cards in terms of configuration. Towards the end of the ISA bus' life, ISA sound cards started taking advantage of IRQ sharing, thus reducing the IRQs needed to one, but still needed two DMA channels.

Many bus cards do not have these limitations and are mostly full-duplex. It should also be noted that many modern PCI bus cards also do not require free DMA channels to operate.

Also, throughout the years, sound cards have evolved in terms of digital audio sampling rate (starting from 8-bit 11025 Hz, to 32-bit, 192 kHz that the latest solutions support). Along the way, some cards started offering ', which provides superior synthesis quality relative to the earlier -based solutions, which uses. Also, some higher end cards started having their own RAM and processor for user-definable sound samples and MIDI instruments as well as to offload audio processing from the CPU.For years, sound cards had only one or two channels of digital sound (most notably the series and their compatibles) with the exception of the card family, the Gravis GF-1 and AMD Interwave, which had hardware support for up to 32 independent channels of digital audio. Early games and -players needing more channels than a card could support had to resort to mixing multiple channels in software. Even today, the tendency is still to mix multiple sound streams in software, except in products specifically intended for gamers or professional musicians, with a sensible difference in price from 'software based' products. Also, in the early era of ', sound card companies would also sometimes boast about the card's polyphony capabilities in terms of MIDI synthesis.

In this case polyphony solely refers to the count of MIDI notes the card is capable of synthesizing simultaneously at one given time and not the count of digital audio streams the card is capable of handling.In regards to physical sound output, the number of physical sound channels has also increased. The first sound card solutions were mono.

Stereo sound was introduced in the early 1980s, and came in 1989. This was shortly followed by channel audio.

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The latest sound cards support up to 8 physical audio channels in the speaker setup. Crippling of features.

Main article:Most new sound cards the audio loopback device commonly called 'Stereo Mix'/'Wave out mix'/'Mono Mix'/'What U Hear' that was once very prevalent and that allows users to digitally record speaker output to the microphone input.and other manufacturers fail to implement the chipset feature in hardware, while other manufacturers disable the from supporting it. In some cases loopback can be reinstated with driver updates (as in the case of some Dell computers ); alternatively software ( or ) can be purchased to enable the functionality. According to Microsoft, the functionality was hidden by default in Windows Vista (to reduce user confusion), but is still available, as long as the underlying sound card drivers and hardware support it. Ultimately, the user can connect the line out directly to the line in.In laptops, manufacturers have gradually moved from providing 3 separate jacks with TRS connectors - usually for line in, line out/headphone out and microphone in to just a single combo jack with TRRS connector that combines microphone in and line out.Professional sound cards (audio interfaces).

An professional sound card with itsProfessional sound cards are special sound cards optimized for low-latency multichannel sound recording and playback, including studio-grade fidelity. Their drivers usually follow the protocol for use with professional sound engineering and music software, although ASIO drivers are also available for a range of consumer-grade sound cards.Professional sound cards are usually described as 'audio interfaces', and sometimes have the form of external rack-mountable units using, or an optical interface, to offer sufficient data rates. The emphasis in these products is, in general, on multiple input and output connectors, direct hardware support for multiple input and output sound channels, as well as higher sampling rates and fidelity as compared to the usual consumer sound card. A spinoff of the classic IBM SN76489 by SquareinatorIn 1984, the first had a rudimentary 3-voice sound synthesis chip (the ) which was capable of generating three square-wave tones with variable, and a pseudo- channel that could generate primitive percussion sounds. The Tandy 1000, initially a clone of the PCjr, duplicated this functionality, with the Tandy TL/SL/RL models adding digital sound recording and playback capabilities. Many games during the 1980s that supported the PCjr's video standard (described as ', 'Tandy graphics', or 'TGA') also supported PCjr/Tandy 1000 audio.In the late 1990s many computer manufacturers began to replace plug-in sound cards with a ' chip (actually a combined audio /-converter) integrated into the.

Many of these used 's specification. Others used inexpensive slot accessory cards.From around 2001 many motherboards incorporated integrated 'real' (non-codec) sound cards, usually in the form of a custom chipset providing something akin to full compatibility, providing relatively high-quality sound.However, these features were dropped when AC'97 was superseded by Intel's standard, which was released in 2004, again specified the use of a codec chip, and slowly gained acceptance.

As of 2011, most motherboards have returned to using a codec chip, albeit an HD Audio compatible one, and the requirement for Sound Blaster compatibility relegated to history.Integrated sound on other platforms Various non-IBM PC compatible computers, such as early like the (1982) and (1985), 's and, 's and, the, 's, and from manufacturers like, have had their own motherboard integrated sound devices. In some cases, most notably in those of the Macintosh, Amiga, C64, PC-98, MSX, FM-7, and FM towns, they provide very advanced capabilities (as of the time of manufacture), in others they are only minimal capabilities. Some of these platforms have also had sound cards designed for their architectures that cannot be used in a standard PC.Several Japanese computer platforms, including the PC-88, PC-98, MSX, and FM-7, featured built-in sound from by the mid-1980s. By 1989, the FM Towns computer platform featured built-in sound and supported the format.The custom sound chip on, named Paula, had four digital sound channels (2 for the left speaker and 2 for the right) with 8-bit resolution (although with patches, 14/15-bit was accomplishable at the cost of high CPU usage) for each channel and a 6-bit volume control per channel.

Sound playback on Amiga was done by reading directly from the chip-RAM without using the main CPU.Most arcade games have integrated sound chips, the most popular being the Yamaha OPL chip for BGM coupled with a variety of DACs for sampled audio and sound effects.Sound cards on other platforms. Turbo Sound board manufactured by NedoPC, revision AThe earliest known sound card used by computers was the, a music device for, and is widely hailed as the precursor to sound cards and MIDI. It was invented in 1972.Certain early arcade machines made use of sound cards to achieve playback of complex audio waveforms and digital music, despite being already equipped with onboard audio.

An example of a sound card used in arcade machines is the card, used in games from. For example, on the Midway T Unit hardware. The T-Unit hardware already has an onboard OPL chip coupled with an OKI 6295 DAC, but said game uses an added on DCS card instead. The card is also used in the arcade version of Midway and 's for complex looping BGM and speech playback (Revolution X used fully sampled songs from the band's album that transparently looped- an impressive feature at the time the game was released).computers, while equipped with built-in sound capabilities, also relied on sound cards to produce better quality audio. The card, known as, uses a sound chip. Prior to the Moonsound, there were also sound cards called MSX Music and MSX Audio, which uses and chipsets, for the system.The series of computers, which did not have sound capabilities beyond a beep until the, could use. The first, in 1978, was, with 3 voices; two or three cards could be used to create 6 or 9 voices in stereo.

Later ALF created the, a 9-voice model. The most widely supported card, however, was the. Sweet Micro Systems sold the Mockingboard in various models. Early Mockingboard models ranged from 3 voices in mono, while some later designs had 6 voices in stereo. Some software supported use of two Mockingboard cards, which allowed 12-voice music and sound. A 12-voice, single card clone of the Mockingboard called the was made by Applied Engineering. In late 2005 a company called ReactiveMicro.com produced a 6-voice clone called the Mockingboard v1 and also had plans to clone the Phasor and produce a hybrid card user-selectable between Mockingboard and Phasor modes plus support both the SC-01 or SC-02.The that initially only had a beeper had some sound cards made for it.

One example is the TurboSound. Other examples are the Fuller Box, Melodik for the Didaktik Gamma, AY-Magic et.c. The Zon X-81 for the ZX81 was also possible to use on the ZX Spectrum using an adapter.External sound devices Devices such as the could be attached to the parallel port of an IBM PC and feed 6- or 8-bit PCM sample data to produce audio. Also, many types of professional sound cards (audio interfaces) have the form of an external FireWire or USB unit, usually for convenience and improved fidelity.Sound cards using the interface were available before laptop and notebook computers routinely had onboard sound. Cardbus audio may still be used if onboard sound quality is poor. When Cardbus interfaces were superseded by on computers since about 2005, manufacturers followed. Most of these units are designed for mobile, providing separate outputs to allow both playback and monitoring from one system, however some also target mobile gamers, providing high-end sound to gaming laptops who are usually well-equipped when it comes to graphics and processing power, but tend to have audio codecs that are no better than the ones found on regular laptops.USB sound cards.

USB sound cardUSB sound 'cards' are external devices that plug into the computer via. They are often used in studios and on stage by including performers. DJs who use typically use sound cards integrated into or specialized DJ sound cards. DJ sound cards sometimes have inputs with phono to allow to be connected to the computer to control the software's playback of music files with.The USB specification defines a standard interface, the USB audio device class, allowing a single driver to work with the various USB sound devices and interfaces on the market.

Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux support this standard. (PDF), Yamaha, archived from (PDF) on 2013-10-13., Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, 14 July 1999.

Chapter 3: PC 99 basic requirements (. Requirement 3.18.3: Systems use a color-coding scheme for connectors and ports. Accessed 2012-11-26. ^ Latimer, Joey. Archived from (PDF) on September 6, 2014. Computer Gaming World.

Retrieved November 3, 2013. Computer Gaming World. September 1989.

Retrieved November 4, 2013. English, David (June 1992). Retrieved November 11, 2013. Computer Gaming World (advertisement). Retrieved July 3, 2014. Letters from Paradise. Computer Gaming World.

January 1994. Pp. 120, 122.

Brooks, M. Evan (May 1994). Computer Gaming World.

Free Download Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro October 2019 Pre-Activated (x86-x64) Multilingual ISO it is a personal computer operating system that is part of the. Dear Internet Archive Supporter. I ask only once a year: please help the Internet Archive today. Right now, we have a 2-to-1 Matching Gift. Activator for windows 8.1 free download all in one windows 8.1 iso best windows 8.1 iso bootable usb windows 8.1 iso bootable windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 pro pre activated iso 64 bit kickass.

Retrieved September 7, 2017. 2013-05-20 at the Installing an LG driver on many Dells with Sigmatel 92xx chip, including the Inspiron 6400 and other models can add support for stereo mix. Reference dates from 2007 and covers Windows XP and Vista. Retrieved September 7, 2017. ^ John Szczepaniak. Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 2011-03-29.

Reprinted from, 2009. Archived from on 2017-04-04. Retrieved 2017-04-04., including suitable cards and software. Archived from on 2008-04-09.

Retrieved 2008-02-03. Retrieved September 7, 2017.External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to. Soundcards Museum. Archived from on 2007-03-03.

Retrieved 2007-03-03. How Stuff Works.