From: davecole@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (David Cole)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: FAQ: list of known PC Soundcards - midNovember
Date: 12 Nov 92 14:58:30 GMT
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.


November 1992   updated 11/12/92 by David Cole
 
List of Sound Cards/Devices for PC computers 

Does not include combo video/sound cards.  Includes parallel port devices. 
Does not include the many external MIDI synthesizer modules.

Prices are from recent ads or reports; letters after prices refer to vendor
 list at end of card list. 
I will try to keep this somewhat up to date.
 
comments, corrections, rumors, updated and useful info to:

dcole@ua.d.umn.edu 

Thanks to those who provided update info!

Cards are listed in groups by their main sound generating
capabilities.  Within groups, are roughly in "street" price order, if
known. 

An overview of the main types of soundcard technology follows the list of
cards.

The cards:

I. DACs: (playback of digitized sound only; commercial ones are mono) 
 
Disney Sound Source $15-29  mono 8-bit DAC; limited freq. range; 
         connects to parallel port; contains speaker, volume knob, 9volt
         battery; often bundled with 
         Disney software; support growing? (Sierra games now support it)
         Not compatible with other DACs.  Win3.1 driver available. 
Covox Sound Thing   circa $79;  8-bit DAC; includes speaker; 
         connects to parallel port 
[various plans for homemade parallel port DACs have appeared]  


II. mono FM synthesizer, no DAC: (made to play music, not
digitized sound; can play some digitized sound files with special
software) 
 
Adlib          $49 (BBS) 11 voice FM mono, no DAC 
               The original.  
Sound Runner    Adlib clone (ad in May 1992 Comp. Gaming World; no price) 
Gameblaster    Extinct. "Creative Music System" 12 voice.
IBM Music Feature: full featured Yamaha synthesizer.  Similar to Yamaha FB-01.
		Extinct. sold for $300-$500.  Midi port. Stereo? 

III. mono FM synth with DAC:  (play music plus digitized sound
files, also record sound; most are Sound Blaster compatible)
 
Boomboard      $79 CompUSA:    SB clone, identical to:  
Thunderboard   $84 Chips & Bits:  SB clone from MediaVision  22khz
               8bit DAC, Yamaha 3812 11 voice mono synth chip 
               Version with Windows software at slightly higher price.
SoundBlaster   $75 Sam's Club:  11 voice FM mono, 8 bit DAC, 
               joystick, MIDI but only with adapter.  Adlib
               compatible. 
               The original improvment on the Adlib card (added
               the DAC).  Seen on clearance -- discontinued??
Sound Commander F/X      SB clone from "Media Sonic" w MIDI and 
                         echo; upgrades to stereo  
ATI Stereo F/X $109: SB clone with additions.  11 voice FM with
               stereo effects; MIDI adapter optional; free speakers 
               included "for limited time") 
Okey Dokey Audio Card II: $149 direct from MidiLand; playback at 44.1 Khz
Audioport      $199 list; $135C; external, portable, connects to 
               parallel port, 11 voice FM, 8-bit mono 22khz DAC;
               includes 1.5" speaker (MediaVision)
Covox Sound Master II 
               $229 direct from Covox; $149C; 11 voice adlib FM; DAC; 
               midi cables; special voice control software 
		reportedly NOT SB compatible
 

IV.  FM STEREO synth and DAC: 
 
Sound Blaster Pro   $185 11-voice FM stereo, 22 mono. included 
               MIDI cables with Voyetra sequencer software.  
               Proprietary CD ROM interface - only worked with Panasonic
               CD-ROM drive.    . Introduced late 1991. Discontinued.
                    Replaced by following 2 cards mid-1992:
Sound Blaster Pro Basic  (circa $150) uses newer Yamaha OPL-3
                    20 voice FM chip.  Does NOT include midi kit.
Microsoft           $289 list. uses AD1848 SoundPort chip for 16bit sound.
                    Same circuit as Compaq Business Audio.
                    Yamaha OPL-3 FM synth chip.  NO MIDI ports.  With speech
                    recognition software.  $149 as uprade from Gateway 2000.
Sound Blaster Pro   (circa $185) as above (OPL-3) but with MIDI kit. 
Adlib Gold 1000     $179C  20 voice FM stereo (new Yamaha chip);
                    12-bit stereo DAC; various upgrades including
                    2 SCSI options;  "fully MPC compatible"; shipping??                    shipping? (Adlib resurrected from bankruptcy)
Adlib Gold 2000     $245C above with SCSI; [16 bit AT card?] not
                    shipping 
Pro Audio Spectrum  was $229C stereo FM, DAC; replaced by 
Pro Audio Spectrum Plus $135C
                    16 bit AT card; full SB compatilbility, 44k 
                    8-bit stereo DAC; 20 voice Yamaha YMF265 
                    (OPL-3) stereo FM synth chip; General Midi; 
                    MIDI adapter optional 
Pro Audio Spectrum 16   ($195C) same as PAS Plus, but with
                    16 bit stereo DAC; mic & line-in;
                      hardware SB compatible 

 
 
V. Digital sample synth, stereo, no DAC: 
 
Roland LAPC-1       $369L. MT-32 synthesizer on a card plus some
                   additional patch RAM and sound effects; (same as CM32L
                   module); 512K sample ROM plus digital osc.; 128 patches in
                   ROM playable on 8 midi channels, plus seperate channel with
                   35 percussion instruments and 33 sound effects; MPU 401   
                     compatible MIDI port optional  (c. $150)
                   introduced circa 1989. No software included.
 
Roland SCC-1        $369L Sound Canvas synth on a card; General MIDI 
                    compatible; no DAC; digital sound sample 
                    synthesis; 16 voice stereo; digital effects 
                    (echo, delay, chorus) full MPU401 MIDI port;
                    3 Meg sample ROM
                    can emulate Mt-32 preset voices (but not 
                    downloadable SYSEX); minimal software included. 
                    introduced end of 1991.


VI.  Digital sample synth with DAC: 

Gravis Ultrasound   (circa $140) records 8bit plays 16 bit.  16bit record 
                   option forthcoming.  Stores samples in RAM (256K expandable
                   to 1 Meg.  Introduced October 1992.
 
DAK BSR Mediamaster   $199 from DAK, 16 bit option $50, midi $50
		    stores samples in 384k RAM. claims Adlib, SB 
		    compatibility

Audio Master (Omni Labs) $249C MPC compliant, SCSI port

Turtle Beach MultiSound   $579C;    16 bit DAC @ 44k.  
                    Uses EMU Proteus digital sample 
                    synthesis from Proteus 1/XR synth (32 voice 
                    polyphonic). 4 Meg sample Rom.  Introduced early 1992.
                    General Midi.  Not SB compatible.  No SCSI port??  
 
 
VII. Unknown types: 

Sound Galaxy        Probably SB clone? 

Sound Star          $49.95 direct from "American Pacific 
                    Concepts"; $14 from Chips&Bits 
                    Probably a mono parallel port DAC?

IBM PS/1 audio/joystick card: only for PS/1  3 tones + DAC?

Other IBM cards

PC Symphony

Compuadd Card



VIII.  Announced cards

 
Digitan		    Uses Sierra "Aria" sample player chipset. Due October.

Cardinal	    Uses Sierra "Aria" sample player chipset.  Due 1992.
                Is this the Cardinal "SoundStudio" card?  It appears to
                only be FM, not level 2 or 3 Aria sample playing capability.

Ensoniq             Major US Synth maker.  Due 1993.  Around $350 list.

Genoa AudioBahn

Soundblaster 16     similar to SB Pro, but with 16 bit record. To have
                       optional sample playing daughter card: WaveBlaster,
                       which may use EMU chips
                    $189 in Computability Ad       Due late Nov. 1992

PAS 16              Media Vision has licensed voice recognition software from
Dragon Sysytems (as did Microsoft Windows Audio Card above) and
will add it to PAS 16


Vendors: (letter after price)

Best Buy = Midwest chain of electronics/appliance stores
BBS = Better Business Systems (Calif) 1-800-653-9992  mailorder multimedia
C = Computability  (Milwaukee)  1-800-558-0003;  (414) 357-8181 mailorder
CB = Chips and Bits (mailorder games: Vermont) 1-800-753-4263
DAK - mailorder electronic gadgets (Los Angeles)
L = Leighs Computers (New York) 1-800-321-6434;   (212) 879-6257 
		Mailorder; specialize in MIDI hardware/software
Sam's Club: membership warehouse discount store; division of 
WalMart


OVERVIEW of soundcard types:

 There are three main ways soundcards produce sound: 

1. DACs (digital-to-analog converters): these take a digitized sound file and
 convert it to an analog audio signal. 
Pros: can play ANY sound.  Can be used with voicemail.
Only way to reproduce someone's voice. Simple and cheap hardware. 
Cons: Require ENORMOUS files. many kilobytes per second of sound, doubled 
if stereo.  

For music, the way to trade flexibility for much smaller files is to
use a SYNTHESIZER which takes a brief command as input and kicks out a lot of
sound.  There are two main types of synthesizers used on soundcards:

2. FM synthesizer: use Frequency Modulation to produce many sounds. Method
pioneered commercially by Yamaha (famous DX-7 synth).  Yamaha has made most of
the chips used on soundcards for FM synthesis.   Example: Adlib card.
Pros: cheap.  Versatile.  Many experienced users.
Cons: Hard to make sound like acoustic instruments.  Difficult to program.
	Soundcards have mostly used limited 2-operator implemention. Newer
        1992 designs use more powerful 4-operator Yamaha OPL-3 chip, 
	but there has been little software support for this chip.  
	FM reportedly not capable of deep bass.

3. Sample players: playback and manipulate digitized samples of sounds. They
loop the samples to play sustained notes, and shift the frequency to play
notes of different pitch, and can often add vibrato, dynamic filtering, a
loudness envelope (so the sound rises and decays in volume), etc.
First cards were from Japanese sythesizer maker, Roland.
Pros:  can provide high accuracy acoustic instrument sound (e.g.
piano, percussion instruments).
Cons: more expensive than FM (needs ROM or RAM to store the samples). Can't
produce some electronic sounds FM can.
Two subtypes: cards that have the samples stored in ROM (e.g. Roland LAPC or
SCC-1, etc.); cards that store the samples in RAM (e.g. Gravis Ultrasound).


Other differences between cards:  many cards combine one of the two forms of
music synthesis with a DAC (e.g. SoundBlaster and clones have FM synthesizer
and DAC).  Within the 3 basic
types above, cards vary considerably in how capable they are and how good they
sound.  Especially important are: stereo vs. mono, resistance to noise,
inclusion of effects (e.g. reverb) makes for much better sound, sampling rates
and size of samples (higher numbers are better, "CD Quality" is becoming
the desirable standard (16bit stereo samples at 44k samples per second). MIDI
ports (vary in quality and many are extra-cost option).  MIDI ports are needed
to connect external soundmaking modules or keyboards.  They are not needed by
everyone.  Some DACs include hardware compression (e.g. SB). Note
that cards do not always record at the same quality level they play at.  Many
cards include lots of nice software, some include little or none (notoriously,
 Roland). Sample player synthesizers vary in the size of samples they will
store and in the quality and diversity of samples.  Synthesizers vary in how
many notes they can play simultaneously ("polyphony"); in how many
different preprogrammed sounds ("patches") they have; and in how many
different timbres
(different intruments) they can play simultaneously ("multitimbral").  MPC 
and General Midi are standards that set minimums for these synthesizer specs:
24 (as I remember) note polyphony, 128 standardized patches, and 16
multitimbral. Cards introduced before 1992 are unlikely to meet these specs.  
Some cards have ports that can be connected to cd-rom drives.  Some of these
ports meet SCSI specs, but the Soundblaster Pro has used a proprietary port
that can only be used with certain drives made by Matsushita ("Panasonic").
Many of these cards are also sold "bundled" with cd-rom drives and disks.


Disclaimers:  The information herein is provided "as is" and is
not warranted for accuracy.  Vendors and manufacturers revise
specificaions and prices frequently.  Nothing  herein represents
the views of the University of Minnesota.  

Dave Cole
dcole@ua.d.umn.edu