One of the most exciting eras of personal computing occurred in the late 1980s. pc At that time they were not very powerful for multimedia tasks, the possibilities of adding features such as instrumental music, video and even video games similar to those of consoles generated great enthusiasm for the new peripherals that appeared, especially for more graphical operating systems such as Windows. Some of the most important were definitely the sound cards, today almost forgotten. Have you ever had one?
Maybe you’ve never used one. audio or sound card, so you may not have much idea what we mean. You most likely envision a small board that plugs into your computer’s motherboard just like a video card or NVMe SSD.
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Well, that’s exactly how they looked. By the late 1980s, most PCs never came with a very advanced audio solution. Almost all had, at most, those remembered’pc speakers‘, which were nothing more than simple speakers included in the motherboard that could emit simple monophonic sounds and quite basic.
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PC speakers: nostalgic technology that is not surprising
The ‘PC speakers’ (which were standardized among compatible IBM computers) were the only way in which a video game —to give a very common example— could offer from sound effects to background music. They sounded more or less like this:
Of course, we are talking about the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. Music in video games was already a serious thing and many of the home consoles that were marketed at that time had authentic works of art such as soundtracks. Most used synthesis (with synthesizer chips), but they also used samples (pre-recorded sound) like the Super Nintendo.
AdLib: the first sound card for gamers
PC game developers were not limited to composing melodies only for PC speakers, since, at that time, the so-called sound cards. One of the first to gain popularity was the card AdLib Music Synthesizer Card (released in 1987), this peripheral used the Yamaha YM3812 FM synthesizer chip and was marketed as the missing piece for PC gamers to make their experience real (i.e. arcade-like or console-like).
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This advertisement shows the difference between the sound of a PC speaker and a first generation AdLib card:
After this, the sound card market exploded and not only gamers were the only ones interested. The possibility of creating music in some way caught the attention of enthusiasts who wanted to listen to artistic pieces on their computers. Of course, in the late 1980s, the multimedia capabilities of PCs were still poor (the CD was relatively new), and buying a sound interface was too expensive.
The trackers: the climax of enthusiasts
Thanks to the sound cardsthe well-known trackers, which were nothing more than small programs to create music through codes to program these new sound cards. In enthusiast circles, very famous music tracks began to appear to ‘test’ these cards.
There were also new niches to fill. Roland (well-known brand of musical instruments) launched its line of MIDI synthesizer modules, with hundreds of sampled real instrument sounds and studio quality (incredible hardware pieces like the MT-32 and Sound Canvas SC-55).
Others also tried to offer cheap alternatives, such as the Disney with your device SoundSource. AdLibfor its part, had to face competition from the Gravis Ultrasound and, later, from Creative Labs’ Soundblaster line.
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Soundblaster cards: the fierce competition
There are many rumors that Creative Labs was unfair in competing with AdLib. The truth is that, in the early 90s, the small company that had started this revolution ended up being overtaken by this new company and its flagship product: Soundblaster cards.
The Soundblasters used the same synthesizer yamaha that the AdLib had in their circuit and that was the main problem of these companies, that used parts that we could find in retail stores, so it was not difficult for competitors to appear.
Soundblaster’s Fall
For most of the ’90s, the Soundblaster line dominated the sound card market, until its own nemesis arrived in the worst way: Realtek.
It is possible that you do recognize – or at least have seen – the name of ‘Realtek‘ in some computer configuration. The short story is that in the late 1990s, this small chipmaker struck a deal with Intel (which has since dominated the CPU industry).
This agreement led to the majority of computers that were sold with Intel processors (that is, CPUs from the Celeron and Pentium lines) arriving with on-chip audio thanks to Realtek. From overnight to morning, sound cards were no longer a necessitybut just a plus.
This is the reason why the audio card market has been relatively forgotten, at least for what they were in the 90s. We can still find many basic and professional models on the market, but the truth is that the era in which they were a necessary good has already expired.