Sound Cards

Main

Sound Cards were additional peripherals that enhanced the sound output of an IBM PC to something more than simple beeps. There was no standard at the time, which led to a plethora of options and highly variable price points and capabilities. Once CD Audio arrived however, the war for sound card dominance was primarily over, with Creative as the primary winner.

Emulated Sound Cards

• #AdLib Gold 1000
• #AdLib Music Synthesizer Card
• #Covox Speech Thing
• #Creative Music System
• #Creative Game Blaster
• #Creative Sound Blaster
• #Creative Sound Blaster Pro II / Sound Blaster 16
• #Disney Sound Source
• #Innovation Computer Corporation SSI 2001
• #Gravis Ultrasound
• #PC Speaker
• #Roland MT-32
• #Roland Sound Canvas (SC-55)
• #Tandy 3 Voice

Gravis Ultrasound

With certain games, this card really stands out. Technology wise, it is very comparable to a Sound Blaster 16. The GUS allowed custom sound banks to be loaded to it as well as the use of wavetables to mimic real-life instruments.

The Gravis Ultrasound was an advanced synthesizer released by an unlikely manufacturer: Canadian joystick company Advanced Gravis. Its audio was far ahead of any other consumer device of the time, supporting wave-table synthesis, stereo sound, 14-channel playback at 44.1 KHz or a whopping 32 channels of playback at 19.2 KHz.

However, the Ultrasound eschewed any attempt at backwards-compatibility with AdLib or Soundblaster cards. Programs had to be written to specifically take advantage of its capabilities. Many DOS users kept a Sound Blaster in their PC in addition to an Ultrasound, in case they needed to run a program that did not support the more advanced card.

One quirk of the Ultrasound is that, unlike most synthesizers, it did not come with any voices pre-installed on the card. All voices had to be installed from disk either at driver load time or by the application. Because of this, a set of drivers and "patch files" is needed in order to use the Ultrasound in DOSBox.

Roland MT-32

The gold standard for games from 1987-1992. Many composers created their music on this, so it is the most "original" sound for games of the period. At an original price of $695 though, you might have been considered a rich douche-bag if you had one. This was not an internal sound card but rather an external midi box. Sometimes known as LAPC-I if used with a MPU-401.

Roland Sound Canvas (SC-55)

A 24 voice external device which supported the General MIDI standard. It had a sound bank of 128 instruments. Roland's follow-up to the MT32. The SC-55 was the first sound module to incorporate the new (at the time) General MIDI format. It overtook MT-32 as the standard from around 1993. It quite often sounds amazing. This one was even more expensive than the MT-32 though, so there were only 3 verified owners in the entire world. Sometimes know as SCC-1.