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78-475: Released around 1984, the original MPU-401 was an external breakout box providing MIDI IN/MIDI OUT/MIDI THRU/TAPE IN/TAPE OUT/MIDI SYNC connectors, for use with a separately-sold interface card/cartridge ("MPU-401 interface kit") inserted into a computer system. For this setup, the following "interface kits" were made: In 2014 hobbyists built clones of the MIF-IPC-A card for PCs. Later, Roland would put most of

156-617: A Yamaha OPL4 sound chip. Prior to the Moonsound, there were also sound cards called MSX Music and MSX Audio for the system, which uses OPL2 and OPL3 chipsets. The Apple II computers, which did not have sound capabilities beyond rapidly clicking a speaker until the IIGS , could use plug-in sound cards from a variety of manufacturers . The first, in 1978, was ALF's Apple Music Synthesizer , with 3 voices; two or three cards could be used to create 6 or 9 voices in stereo. Later ALF created

234-473: A computer under the control of computer programs . The term sound card is also applied to external audio interfaces used for professional audio applications. Sound functionality can also be integrated into the motherboard , 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 video cards with HDMI to output sound along with

312-468: A digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which converts recorded or generated digital signal data into an analog format. The output signal is connected to an amplifier, headphones, or external device using standard interconnects, such as a TRS phone connector . A common external connector is the microphone connector. Input through a microphone connector can be used, for example, by speech recognition or voice over IP applications. Most sound cards have

390-445: A line in 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 analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to digitize this signal. Some cards include a sound chip to support the production of synthesized sounds, usually for real-time generation of music and sound effects using minimal data and CPU time. The card may use direct memory access to transfer

468-551: A Music Quest PC MIDI Card 8BIT clone. In 2017/2018 hobbyists developed a revision of the Music Quest PC MIDI Card 8BIT clone that includes a wavetable header in analogy of the Roland MPU-401AT. The MPU-401 can work in two modes, normal mode and UART mode . "Normal mode" would provide the host system with an 8-track sequencer, MIDI clock output, SYNC 24 signal output, Tape Sync and a metronome; as

546-595: A United Kingdom-based distributor and supplier of gaming accessories that had already been Turtle Beach's exclusive distributor and support center for the UK and Ireland since January 2011. In 2013, Turtle Beach began working on a deal that would eventually see them merge with the San Diego –based audio technology manufacturer, Parametric Sound Corporation, in January 2014. Parametric had gone public in 2010. In April 2014,

624-542: 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. As of 2024, sound cards are not commonly programmed with the audio loopback systems commonly called stereo mix , wave out mix , mono mix or what u hear , which previously allowed users to digitally record output otherwise only accessible to speakers. Lenovo and other manufacturers fail to implement

702-587: A clone of the PCjr, duplicated this functionality, with the Tandy 1000 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-compatible , 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 an audio codec chip (a combined audio AD / DA -converter) integrated into

780-554: A collection of other gaming accessories like keyboards , computer mice , and mousepads . In 2016, the company entered a partnership with OpTic Gaming , an esports organization, for the team to use its Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset. Turtle Beach also released the Stream Mic for users who broadcast from their consoles and PC. In 2017, it released the first headsets (the Stealth 600 and 700) that could connect directly to

858-515: A few other programs that supported Ensoniq equipment. During its time as Voyetra Turtle Beach, it leveraged Voyetra's close ties with PC manufacturers by providing sound cards bundled with Voyetra software and drivers. It sold millions of sound cards to Dell Computer under the Turtle Beach brand. In 2001, Voyetra Turtle Beach developed AudioTron, one of the first standalone Internet audio receivers. The device enjoyed considerable success in

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936-471: A line of earbuds ("Battle Buds") designed for mobile gaming. In 2019, Turtle Beach bought Hamburg -based company Roccat GmbH for 19.2 million US dollars. Roccat "[...] belongs to the 10 best-selling gaming peripheral brands in Europe and, according to the latest Newzoo consumer surveys, is one of the four leading brands in terms of awareness, buying behavior and preference for gaming keyboards and mice in

1014-412: A majority position in Turtle Beach. In 2011, the company released a limited-edition, officially licensed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 headset. In 2012, it entered into a partnership with Major League Gaming (MLG) that saw the release of headsets specifically designed for tournament gaming and consumer headsets that had official MLG branding. The same year, Turtle Beach acquired Lygo International,

1092-505: A power stage, though in many cases they can adequately drive headphones. Professional sound cards are sound cards optimized for high-fidelity, low-latency multichannel sound recording and playback. Their drivers usually follow the Audio Stream Input/Output protocol for use with professional sound engineering and music software. Professional sound cards are usually described as audio interfaces , and sometimes have

1170-442: A profitable company. In 1988, Turtle Beach began to work on developing its first hardware product, a hard disk–based audio editing system. Among the first of its kind, the product was named the "56K digital recording system" and was released in 1990. In 1990, Turtle Beach began developing its second PC sound card . This card used high quality A/D and D/A , a high quality synthesizer from eMu, and an onboard DSP chip. This product

1248-517: A result of these features, it is often called "intelligent mode". Compare this to UART mode, which reduces the MPU-401 to simply relaying in-/outcoming MIDI data bytes. As computers became more powerful, the features offered in "intelligent mode" became obsolete. Implementing these in the host system's software was more efficient. Specific hardware was no longer required. As a result, the UART mode became

1326-572: A software downmix at a fixed sampling rate. Modern low-cost integrated sound cards (i.e., those built into motherboards) such as audio codecs like those meeting the AC'97 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 surround sound ), but they usually have no actual hardware polyphony for either sound effects or MIDI reproduction – these tasks are performed entirely in software. This

1404-704: A sound card called the Creative Music System (C/MS) at about the same time. Although the C/MS had twelve voices to AdLib's nine and was a stereo card while the AdLib was mono, the basic technology behind it was based on the Philips SAA1099 chip which was essentially a square-wave generator. It sounded much like twelve simultaneous PC speakers would have except for each channel having amplitude control, and failed to sell well, even after Creative renamed it

1482-458: A speaker configuration such as 2.0 (stereo), 2.1 (stereo and sub woofer), 5.1 (surround), or other configurations. Sometimes, the terms voice and channel are used interchangeably to indicate the degree of polyphony, not the output speaker configuration. For example, much older sound chips could accommodate three voices, but only one output audio channel (i.e., a single mono output), requiring all voices to be mixed together. Later cards, such as

1560-658: A standard PC. Several Japanese computer platforms, including the MSX, X1, X68000, FM Towns and FM-7, have built-in FM synthesis sound from Yamaha by the mid-1980s. By 1989, the FM Towns computer platform featured built-in PCM sample-based sound and supported the CD-ROM format. The custom sound chip on Amiga , named Paula, has four digital sound channels (2 for the left speaker and 2 for

1638-605: Is Sound Blaster compatibility ... It would have been unfair to have recommended anything else." The magazine that year stated that Wing Commander II was "Probably the game responsible" for making it the standard card. The Sound Blaster line of cards, together with the first inexpensive CD-ROM drives and evolving video technology, ushered in a new era of multimedia computer applications that could play back CD audio, add recorded dialogue to video games , or even reproduce full motion video (albeit at much lower resolutions and quality in early days). The widespread decision to support

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1716-581: Is a PC speaker driven by a timer. Sound cards were made for the C-Bus expansion slots that these computers had, most of which used Yamaha's FM and PSG chips and made by NEC themselves, although aftermarket clones can also be purchased, and Creative did release a C-Bus version of the SoundBlaster line of sound cards for the platform. Devices such as the Covox Speech Thing could be attached to

1794-538: Is intended for generic home, office, and entertainment purposes with an emphasis on playback and casual use, rather than catering to the needs of audio professionals. In general, consumer-grade sound cards impose several restrictions and inconveniences that would be unacceptable to an audio professional. Consumer sound cards are also limited in the effective sampling rates and bit depths they can actually manage and have lower numbers of less flexible input channels. Professional studio recording use typically requires more than

1872-454: Is similar to the way inexpensive softmodems perform modem tasks in software rather than in hardware. In the early days of wavetable synthesis , some sound card manufacturers advertised polyphony solely on the MIDI capabilities alone. In this case, typically, the card is only capable of two channels of digital sound and the polyphony specification solely applies to the number of MIDI instruments

1950-494: The AdLib sound card, had a 9-voice polyphony combined in 1 mono output channel. Early PC sound cards had multiple FM synthesis voices (typically 9 or 16) which were used for MIDI music. The full capabilities of advanced cards are often not fully used; only one (mono) or two ( stereo ) 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

2028-605: The Apple Music II , a 9-voice model. The most widely supported card, however, was the Mockingboard . 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

2106-707: The Game Blaster a year later, and marketed it through RadioShack in the US. The Game Blaster retailed for under $ 100 and was compatible with many popular games, such as Silpheed . A large change in the IBM PC-compatible sound card market happened when Creative Labs introduced the Sound Blaster card. Recommended by Microsoft to developers creating software based on the Multimedia PC standard,

2184-734: The Phasor was made by Applied Engineering. The ZX Spectrum that initially only had a beeper had some sound cards made for it. Examples include TurboSound Other examples are the Fuller Box, and Zon X-81. The Commodore 64, while having an integrated SID (Sound Interface Device) chip, also had sound cards made for it. For example, the Sound Expander, which added on an OPL FM synthesizer. The PC-98 series of computers, like their IBM PC cousins, also do not have integrated sound contrary to popular belief, and their default configuration

2262-537: The VelocityOne Race for racing. Turtle Beach creates gaming headsets for devices such as the Xbox One , PlayStation 4 , Nintendo Switch , PC , mobile and tablet devices. It is considered one of the leading gaming audio brands. Gaming headsets have been Turtle Beach's primary product offering since around 2005. It initially began releasing headsets for PCs and consoles of that generation including

2340-696: The Xbox 360 , Wii , and the PlayStation 3 . The early models were often given the Ear Force branding with a letter or number designation to differentiate between consoles (e.g. headsets for the Xbox 360 were a part of the "Ear Force X" series while those for the PlayStation 3 were part of the "Ear Force P" series). Turtle Beach headsets are generally cross-compatible between current-generation consoles like

2418-535: The Xbox One console wirelessly. The Stealth 600 went on to be the best-selling Xbox One gaming headset for 2018. It also entered into a console-only sponsorship deal with Splyce . In 2018, the company launched a new line of PC-specific headsets called "Atlas." It received input and feedback from esports teams, OpTic Gaming and Astralis , during the design process. It also released the Elite Pro 2 headset designed for console gaming. In December 2018, it released

MPU-401 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2496-606: The ZX Spectrum , MSX , Mac , and Apple IIGS . Workstations from Sun , Silicon Graphics and NeXT do as well. In some cases, most notably in those of the Macintosh, IIGS, Amiga, C64, SGI Indigo, X68000, MSX, Falcon, Archimedes, 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 bus architectures that cannot be used in

2574-440: The motherboard . Many of these used Intel 's AC'97 specification. Others used inexpensive ACR slot accessory cards. From around 2001, many motherboards incorporated full-featured sound cards, usually in the form of a custom chipset, providing something akin to full Sound Blaster compatibility and relatively high-quality sound. However, these features were dropped when AC'97 was superseded by Intel's HD Audio standard, which

2652-510: The 1970s where it developed sound cards , MIDI synthesizers, and various audio software packages and network audio devices. The company began making gaming headsets in 2005. Turtle Beach has roots dating back to 1975 in Elmsford, New York , founded as "Turtle Beach Softworks" by Roy Smith and Robert Hoke. The company's first product was a graphical editing system that supported the breakthrough Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard. The Mirage

2730-524: The Audio Advantage USB sound cards in 2010). By 2007, Voyetra Turtle Beach had released several headset models including those that were wireless and those that had surround sound capability. Its models were initially designed specifically for the Xbox 360 , PC, or Nintendo Wii . Turtle Beach released its first pair of headphones designed specifically for the PlayStation 3 (Ear Force P21) in 2009. In October 2010, Stripes Group acquired

2808-517: The CPU. Later, the integrated audio ( AC'97 and later HD Audio ) prefer the use of a software MIDI synthesizer, for example, Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth in Microsoft Windows . With some exceptions, for years, sound cards, most notably the Sound Blaster series and their compatibles, had only one or two channels of digital sound. Early games and MOD -players needing more channels than

2886-678: The Fast Lane, will not work with SoftMPU. In 2015, a PCB (HardMPU) was developed that incorporates SoftMPU as logic on hardware (so that the PC's CPU does not have to process intelligent MIDI). Currently HardMPU only supports playback and not recording. Physical MIDI connections are increasingly replaced with the USB interface, and a USB to MIDI converter in order to drive musical peripherals which do not yet have their own USB ports. Often, peripherals are able to accept MIDI input through USB and convert it for

2964-515: The German PC gaming market [...]". In 2020, Roccat represented Turtle Beach's PC branch, but in 2024 Turtle Beach retired the brand entirely. Turtle Beach acquired Performance Designed Products (PDP), a controller manufacturer, for $ 118 million on March 13, 2024. VelocityOne is the brand name for Turtle Beach's simulator controllers for flight simulators and racing simulators. It initially released flight simulator equipment and in 2024 released

3042-640: The IBM PC platform were not designed for gaming or multimedia applications, but rather on specific audio applications, such as music composition with the AdLib Personal Music System , IBM Music Feature Card , and Creative Music System , or on speech synthesis like Digispeech DS201 , Covox Speech Thing , and Street Electronics Echo . In 1988, a panel of computer-game CEOs stated at the Consumer Electronics Show that

3120-519: The MT-32 were made to be less expensive. By 1992, one sound card vendor advertised that its product was "Sound Blaster, AdLib, Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing Compatible!" Responding to readers complaining about an article on sound cards that unfavorably mentioned the Gravis Ultrasound , Computer Gaming World stated in January 1994 that, "The de facto standard in the gaming world

3198-531: The Midway T-Unit hardware. The T-Unit hardware already has an onboard YM2151 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 Aerosmith 's Revolution X for complex looping music and speech playback. MSX computers, while equipped with built-in sound capabilities, also relied on sound cards to produce better-quality audio. The card, known as Moonsound , uses

MPU-401 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3276-499: The PC speaker like RealSound . The resulting audio, while functional, suffered from the 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 Commodore 64 included hardware support for digital sound playback or music synthesis, leaving the IBM PC at a disadvantage when it came to multimedia applications. Early sound cards for

3354-625: The PC's limited sound capability prevented it from becoming the leading home computer, that it needed a $ 49–79 sound card with better capability than current products, and that once such hardware was widely installed, their companies would support it. Sierra On-Line , which had pioneered supporting EGA and VGA video, and 3-1/2" disks, promised that year to support the AdLib, IBM Music Feature, and Roland MT-32 sound cards in its games. A 1989 Computer Gaming World survey found that 18 of 25 game companies planned to support AdLib, six Roland and Covox, and seven Creative Music System/Game Blaster. One of

3432-702: The Sound Blaster brought digital audio playback to the PC. 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 MPU-401 , Roland Sound Canvas and General MIDI standards as the most common means of playing in-game music until the mid-1990s. Early ISA bus sound cards were half-duplex , meaning they couldn't record and play digitized sound simultaneously. Later, ISA cards like

3510-415: The Sound Blaster cloned the AdLib and added a sound coprocessor for recording and playback of digital audio. The card also included a game port for adding a joystick , and the capability to interface to MIDI equipment using the game port and a special cable. With AdLib compatibility and more features at nearly the same price, most buyers chose the Sound Blaster. It eventually outsold the AdLib and dominated

3588-563: The Sound Blaster design in multimedia and entertainment titles meant that future sound cards such as Media Vision 's Pro Audio Spectrum and the Gravis Ultrasound had to be Sound Blaster compatible if they were to sell well. Until the early 2000s, when the AC'97 audio standard became more widespread and eventually usurped the SoundBlaster as a standard due to its low cost and integration into many motherboards, Sound Blaster compatibility

3666-474: The SoundBlaster AWE series and Plug-and-play Soundblaster clones supported simultaneous recording and playback, but at the expense of using up two IRQ and DMA channels instead of one. Conventional PCI bus cards generally do not have these limitations and are mostly full-duplex. Sound cards have evolved in terms of digital audio sampling rate (starting from 8-bit 11025 Hz , to 32-bit, 192 kHz that

3744-754: The Stealth 600 and 700 models for the Xbox One can wirelessly connect directly with the console. Those same models for the PlayStation 4 do not have that feature. In some cases, the differences between one console-specific model and another are cosmetic. As of 2018, Turtle Beach sells a number of wired and wireless headsets under several different families. These include: Elite (Elite Pro 2 + SuperAmp, Elite SuperAmp, Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset, Elite 800,); Stealth (Stealth 700, Stealth 600, Stealth 350VR, Stealth 300); Recon (Recon 200, Recon Camo, Recon 150, Recon 50, Recon Chat); Atlas (Elite Atlas, Atlas Three, Atlas One); and there are also standalone products, including

3822-478: The Stream Mic and Battle Buds. Recon products are generally entry-level and offer great game sound and microphone performance to better immerse players in their game and to allow them to communicate with other online players. Stealth products add premium features like wireless connectivity, surround sound, larger speakers, memory foam , etc. Elite series models are generally considered professional level and/or high-end gaming headsets. The Atlas series of headsets

3900-541: The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PCs, as well as most mobile and tablet devices. Many models are console-specific, but share the same branding and can often be used across platforms (e.g. the Stealth 300 has a model for both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, but both are technically compatible with one another and the Nintendo Switch, and PC, etc.). Certain features on console-specific models may not transfer from one platform to another. For instance,

3978-530: The companies Sierra partnered with were Roland and AdLib, opting to produce in-game music for King's Quest 4 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

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4056-464: The company was sold by ICS to Voyetra Technologies in Yonkers, New York . The new combined company would eventually be known as Voyetra Turtle Beach. Voyetra was originally founded by Carmine Bonanno and Fred Romano in 1975 as Octave-Plateau, one of the original companies included in the MIDI standard, and had developed drivers and software for nearly every sound card manufacturer in the world during

4134-522: The company's name was changed to Turtle Beach Corporation, it began trading under the stock ticker symbol "HEAR," and opened a new corporate headquarters in San Diego, California. Parametric's "UltraSound" technology, which uses speakers to direct sounds only to specific areas, also came under the purview of Turtle Beach. In 2014 and 2015, the company released official Titanfall and Star Wars Battlefront -branded headsets. It also began releasing

4212-408: The dominant mode of operation. Early UART MPU-401 capable cards were still advertised as MPU-401 compatible . In the mid 2010s, a hobbyist platform software interface, SoftMPU, was written that upgrades UART (non intelligent) MPU-401 interfaces to an intelligent MPU-401 interface, however this only works for MS-DOS . It also does not work for all games. Especially early Sierra games, such as Jones in

4290-505: The early 1990s. As Voyetra Turtle Beach, the company sold millions of sound cards to Dell in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, the company released its first Ear Force gaming headset model, the AXP. The headset was geared toward computer gamers. Over the following years, the company began focusing primarily on its lines of PC and console gaming headsets, steering away from sound cards almost completely (it did release updated versions of

4368-589: The electronics originally found in the breakout box onto the interface card itself, thus reducing the size of the breakout box. Products released in this manner: Still later, Roland would get rid of the breakout box completely and put all connectors on the back of the interface card itself. Products released in this manner: By the late 1980s other manufacturers of PCBs developed intelligent MPU-401 clones. Some of these, like Voyetra , were equipped with Roland chips whereas most had reverse-engineered ROMs ( Midiman / Music Quest ). Examples: In 2015 hobbyists developed

4446-473: The feature in hardware, while other manufacturers disable the driver from supporting it. In some cases, loopback can be reinstated with driver updates. Alternatively, software such as virtual audio cable applications 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

4524-515: The first manufacturers of sound cards for the IBM PC was AdLib, which produced a card based on the Yamaha YM3812 sound chip, also known as the OPL2. The AdLib had two modes: A 9-voice mode where each voice could be fully programmed, and a less frequently used percussion mode with 3 regular voices producing 5 independent percussion-only voices for a total of 11. Creative Labs also marketed

4602-403: The first year of its release, but was soon faced with tremendous competition from similar products. Turtle Beach opted out of the network audio market in 2004. Sound card Line in or out via one of: Microphone via one of: A sound card (also known as an audio card ) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from

4680-660: The form of external rack-mountable units using USB , FireWire , 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. On the other hand, certain features of consumer sound cards such as support for 3D audio , hardware acceleration in video games , or real-time ambiance effects are secondary, nonexistent or even undesirable in professional audio interfaces. The typical consumer-grade sound card

4758-466: The latest solutions support). Along the way, some cards started offering wavetable synthesis , which provides superior MIDI synthesis quality relative to the earlier Yamaha OPL based solutions, which uses FM-synthesis . Some higher-end cards (such as Sound Blaster AWE32 , Sound Blaster AWE64 and Sound Blaster Live! ) introduced their own RAM and processor for user-definable sound samples and MIDI instruments as well as to offload audio processing from

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4836-403: The majority IBM PC users, the internal PC speaker was the only way for early PC software to produce sound and music. The speaker hardware was typically limited to square waves . The resulting sound was generally described as "beeps and boops" which resulted in the common nickname beeper . Several companies, most notably Access Software , developed techniques for digital sound reproduction over

4914-468: The market. Roland also made sound cards in the late 1980s such as the MT-32 and LAPC-I . Roland cards sold for hundreds of dollars. Many games, such as Silpheed and Police Quest II, had music written for their cards. The cards were often poor at sound effects such as laughs, but for music were by far the best sound cards available until the mid-nineties. Some Roland cards, such as the SCC, and later versions of

4992-405: The right) with 8-bit resolution 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 video games have integrated sound chips. In the 1980s it was common to have a separate microprocessor for handling communication with the sound chip. The earliest known sound card used by computers

5070-419: The samples to and from main memory , from where a recording and playback software may read and write it to the hard disk for storage, editing, or further processing. An important sound card characteristic is polyphony , 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

5148-640: The sound card is capable of producing at once. Modern sound cards may provide more flexible audio accelerator capabilities which can be used in support of higher levels of polyphony or other purposes such as hardware acceleration of 3D sound, positional audio and real-time DSP effects. Connectors on the sound cards are color-coded as per the PC System Design Guide . They may also have symbols of arrows, holes and soundwaves that are associated with each jack position. Sound cards for IBM PC–compatible computers were very uncommon until 1988. For

5226-488: The traditional DIN connectors . While MPU-401 support is no longer included in Windows Vista , a driver is available on Windows Update . As of 2011, the interface was still supported by Linux and Mac OS X . Voyetra The Turtle Beach Corporation (commonly referred to as Turtle Beach ) is an American gaming accessory manufacturer based in San Diego , California . The company has roots dating back to

5304-549: The two channels that consumer sound cards provide, and more accessible connectors, unlike the variable mixture of internal—and sometimes virtual—and external connectors found in consumer-grade sound cards . In 1984, the first IBM PCjr had a rudimentary 3-voice sound synthesis chip (the SN76489 ) which was capable of generating three square-wave tones with variable amplitude , and a pseudo- white noise channel that could generate primitive percussion sounds. The Tandy 1000, initially

5382-581: The underlying sound card drivers and hardware support it. Ultimately, the user can use the analog loophole and connect the line out directly to the line in on the sound card. However, in laptops, manufacturers have gradually moved from providing 3 separate jacks with TRS connectors – usually for line in, line out/headphone out and microphone – into just a single combo jack with TRRS connector that combines inputs and outputs. The number of physical sound channels has also increased. The first sound card solutions were mono. Stereo sound

5460-482: The video using that connector; previously they used a S/PDIF 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 voice over IP and teleconferencing . Sound cards use

5538-508: Was a standard that many other sound cards supported to maintain compatibility with many games and applications released. When game company Sierra On-Line opted to support add-on music hardware in addition to built-in hardware such as the PC speaker and built-in sound capabilities of the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000 , what could be done with sound and music on the IBM PC changed dramatically. Two of

5616-410: Was called "MultiSound." The MultiSound product competed with more established products of the day from Advanced Gravis (now defunct), Ad Lib, Inc. (now defunct), Creative Labs , and Media Vision . CCRMA 's Music Kit and DSP Tools running on Motorola 56001 DSP, initially developed for NeXTcube system, was later ported on NeXTSTEP with Turtle Beach Fiji/Pinnacle DSP cards. In December 1996,

5694-425: Was designed specifically for use in PC gaming. The newest series, Battle Buds, is a set of gaming earbuds designed to be compatible with mobile devices along with PCs and all consoles. Turtle Beach has also developed sound cards , MIDI synthesizers, and various audio software packages and network audio devices. In 1988, Turtle Beach developed its first product, a hard disk–based audio editing system. The product

5772-414: Was introduced in the early 1980s, and quadraphonic sound came in 1989. This was shortly followed by 5.1 channel audio. The latest sound cards support up to 8 audio channels for the 7.1 speaker setup. A few early sound cards had sufficient power to drive unpowered speakers directly – for example, two watts per channel. With the popularity of amplified speakers, sound cards no longer have

5850-409: Was named the "56K digital recording system" and was released in 1990 and was considered the first of its kind. Its card, 56K-PC, was based on a Motorola 56000 DSP chip, and offered non linear playlist editing of stereo audio files. The 56K system was popular among radio stations and mastering studios because it replayed exactly the same digital stream that it recorded. The company has also developed

5928-548: 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. Many home computers have their own motherboard-integrated sound devices: Commodore 64 , Amiga , PC-88 , FM-7 , FM Towns , Sharp X1 , X68000 , BBC Micro , Electron , Archimedes , Atari 8-bit computers , Atari ST , Atari Falcon , Amstrad CPC , later revisions of

6006-648: Was the Gooch Synthetic Woodwind , a music device for PLATO terminals , 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 Digital Compression System card, used in games from Midway . For example, Mortal Kombat II on

6084-453: Was the first low cost sampling device that allowed musicians to play realistic choirs, pianos, horns, and other instruments in their performances. The software, called "Vision", connected the Mirage to a PC and used the PC's screen and graphics to make the programming and editing of sounds much easier. Ensoniq decided to resell Vision through their dealer network and Turtle Beach Softworks became

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