The Ensoniq AudioPCI is a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)-based sound card released in 1997. It was Ensoniq's last sound card product before they were acquired by Creative Technology. The card represented a shift in Ensoniq's market positioning. Whereas the Soundscape line had been made up primarily of low-volume high-end products full of features, the AudioPCI was designed to be a very simple, low-cost product to appeal to system OEMs and thus hopefully sell in mass quantities.
Towards the end of the 1990s, Ensoniq was struggling financially. Their cards were very popular with PC OEMs, but their costs were too high and their musical instrument division was fading in revenue. Pressure from intense competition, especially with the dominant Creative Labs, was forcing audio card makers to try to keep their prices low.
The AudioPCI, released in July 1997, was designed primarily to be cheap. In comparison to the wide variety of chips on and sheer size of the older Soundscape boards, the highly integrated two chip design of the AudioPCI is an obvious shift in design philosophy. The board consists only of a very small software-driven audio chip (one of the following: S5016, ES1370, ES 1371) and a companion digital-to-analog converter (DAC). In another cost-cutting move, the previously typical ROM chip used for storage of samples for sample-based synthesis was replaced with the facility to use system RAM as storage for this audio data. This was made possible by the move to the PCI bus, with its far greater bandwidth and more efficient bus mastering interface when compared to the older ISA bus standard.
AudioPCI, while designed to be cheap, is still quite functional. It offers many of the audio capabilities of the Soundscape ELITE card, including several digital effects (reverb, chorus, and spatial enhancement) when used with Microsoft Windows 95 and later versions of Windows.
AudioPCI was one of the first cards to have Microsoft DirectSound3D 4-speaker playback support. The 4-speaker mode is only activated by software supporting the DirectSound3D quadraphonic mode. An oddity is that the rear channel was connected to the same output jack as line input. The jack switches modes if 4-speaker output became active.
The DOS and Windows drivers support sample-based synthesis through Ensoniq's ".ecw" patch set format. Several patch set choices are available, varying in size and instrument quality (2, 4, or 8 MB).
The ".ecw" file format (Ensoniq Concert Wavetable) was never made open as had been hoped for by enthusiasts. [1] Consequently, there are very few custom wave sets available, in contrast to the huge availability of home-made releases in E-mu's SoundFont format. It was particularly unfortunate because the AudioPCI used system RAM for patch set storage which in itself offers tremendous potential for new patch sets over the traditional ROM storage previously used. It is also disappointing considering the incredible popularity and longevity of the Ensoniq ES1370 chipset and its descendants, some of which were still in use six years after the original AudioPCI board, and the fact that DOS drivers for the far newer Sound Blaster Audigy still use ".ecw" wave sets. These newer cards are unable to use SoundFonts in DOS, limiting them to the three official .ecw wavesets from the late '90s and one incomplete unofficial waveset. [2]
The AudioPCI supported DOS games and applications using a software driver that would install during DOS, or the DOS portion of Windows 9x. This driver virtualized a Sound Blaster-compatible ISA sound card through the use of the PC's NMI and a terminate-and-stay-resident program. This allowed the AudioPCI to have more compatible out-of-the-box DOS support than some of its PCI competitors for the time.
For example, the competing Monster Sound from Diamond Multimedia was limited to running DOS games in Windows 9x-DOS command windows, meaning DOS compatibility was frequently only reliable through an additional ISA sound card. Creative was struggling with the challenge of legacy support as well, and had created the SB-Link, an interconnect that allowed access to the serial-IRQ and PC/PCI grant/request sideband signals offered by some PCI chipsets of the time, in order to achieve DOS compatibility for their Sound Blaster AWE64-variant PCI sound cards. SB-Link was also used by a number of other chipset vendors, such as ESS and Yamaha.
While Ensoniq's approach generally worked with most games, some older games had problems detecting the virtualized hardware on some systems. In addition, the DOS driver required a memory manager such as EMM386 to be loaded, which not only required additional conventional memory space but also put the CPU into Virtual-86 mode, conflicting with games that utilized a modified form of protected mode, called 'flat mode'. This mode allowed fast, direct access to the system's entire RAM without requiring a memory manager or memory protection mechanism. This is not a requirement exclusive to AudioPCI, however, as a number of ISA sound cards used it as well, including the Creative AWE ISA series.
The AudioPCI DOS driver included Ensoniq Soundscape 16-bit digital audio and sample-based synthesis support, along with support for Sound Blaster Pro, AdLib Gold, General MIDI, and MT-32. However, without actual hardware for FM synthesis, FM music and sound effects were simulated using samples, often with unacceptable results. Therefore, it was practical to configure DOS games to utilize the General MIDI synthesizer and digital sound effects, whenever possible, for better sound quality. DOS MIDI utilizes the same .ecw patch set files as Windows MIDI.
Part of the deal when Ensoniq was purchased by Creative Labs was to integrate the AudioPCI DOS driver into the upcoming Sound Blaster Live!. Creative added Sound Blaster 16 emulation to the driver and removed the Ensoniq SoundScape support. AudioPCI itself was re-branded as several Creative Labs sound cards, including the Sound Blaster PCI 64, PCI 128, Vibra PCI, and others. The Ensoniq ES1370 audio chip was renamed Creative 5507 and revised into AC'97-compliant variants, the ES1371 and ES1373, and used for several more years on card and as integrated motherboard audio.
Cards with ES1370 run natively at 44 kHz sampling frequency, meaning that 12, 24, 32 and 48 kHz become resampled. Resampling means lower sound quality, worse synchronization and possibly higher CPU utilization. Cards with ES1371 run at 48 kHz conforming to AC97, so 11, 22 and 44 kHz become resampled. For few soundcards feature multiple quartzes or a PLL, resampling is often used with all its potential problems.
Creative Labs Malvern (which was the former Ensoniq company that had been acquired) later released the Ectiva 1938 (EV1938). This single chip PCI audio controller was based on the ES1371/ES1373 and was register compatible with these previous chips. The main difference between the EV1938 and previous chips was the inclusion of a built-in AC'97 codec (hence producing a cheaper, single chip audio solution). The EV1938 was also used for both integrated audio on laptops/motherboards and on cards, such as the "Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V" (CT4730).
The AudioPCI ES1370 was developed by Ensoniq. One important feature of this chip was that it used the PCI bus, instead of the ISA bus commonly used by sound cards at that point. It was one of the first PCI sound card solutions to offer MS-DOS legacy compatibility without special hardware extensions to the standard PCI slot. When paired with a capable codec, such as the AK4531 (pre-AC'97), the ES1370 supported the then-latest in 3D audio positioning through 4-speaker surround sound. The chip was also a PCI bus master device that was designed to provide high-speed access to system RAM and resources, for sample synthesis data and effect processing. Depending on the drivers, it may also be called the Sound Blaster 64/128 in the device manager.
ES1370 was one of the first audio chips to support the Microsoft DirectSound3D audio API. When programs took full advantage of the API's capabilities, the ES1370 was capable of both global spatial and localized 3D sound effects, in both 2 and 4-speaker mode. The chip was capable of spatializing all audio automatically, but still required DirectSound3D usage for specific localization of sounds.
The ES1370 is also emulated as a piece of virtual hardware in QEMU and VMware.
Ensoniq/Creative ES1371 and ES1373 (AudioPCI 97) are AC'97-compatible versions.
The CT5880 chip is a relabeled ES1371, may be found on some cheap cards i.e. SB Creative VIBRA 128 PCI.
Creative EV1938 (AudioPCI 64V) is virtually identical to ES1371/ES1373 and is a later (cost reduced) product.
A sound card is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from 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 Blaster is a family of sound cards and audio peripherals designed by Singaporean technology company Creative Technology. The first Sound Blaster card was introduced in 1989, and since then, the Sound Blaster brand has become synonymous with high-quality computer audio.
Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally samplers and synthesizers.
The Gravis UltraSound or GUS is a sound card for the IBM PC compatible system platform, made by Canada-based Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd. It was very popular in the demoscene during the 1990s.
There have been various families of Yamaha audio controllers labelled as YMF7xx.
Sound Blaster X-Fi is a lineup of sound cards in Creative Technology's Sound Blaster series.
Soundscape S-2000 was Ensoniq's first direct foray into the PC sound card market. The card arrived on the market in 1994. It is a full-length ISA digital audio and sample-based synthesis device, equipped with a 2 MiB Ensoniq-built ROM-based patch set. Some OEM versions of the card feature a smaller 1 MiB patch set. It was praised for its then-high quality music synthesis and sound output, high compatibility and good software support.
The SoundscapeDB is an Ensoniq-designed and produced MIDI daughtercard designed to interface with the "Waveblaster" pin header available on many older sound cards. It was released in 1994.
The Ensoniq Soundscape OPUS (SS-3016-NCD) is a Gateway 2000 OEM sound card, and possibly was used by other OEMs, but was never sold to Ensoniq's customers directly. It was a Soundscape-like board, using the Ensoniq "OPUS" multimedia sound chip that only was used on these OEM boards. It had a 1MB patch set ROM chip, resulting in a lesser MIDI quality compared to the Soundscape and Soundscape ELITE. The "OPUS" cards again carry the Motorola 68EC000 CPU. The variety of CD-ROM interfaces have been removed. Otherwise, however, the card is simply a cost-reduced Soundscape-compatible board with similar capabilities.
The Soundscape Elite was Ensoniq's high-end ISA PC sound card offering. It offers the highest MIDI quality of any PC sound card Ensoniq produced. The board is an evolution of the company's previous Soundscape S-2000. The Soundscape ELITE was launched in March 1995.
The SiS 630 and SiS 730 are a family of highly integrated chipsets for Intel and AMD respectively. At the time of release they were unique in that they not only provided VGA, Audio, LAN, IDE and USB functionality on board, but were also in a single-chip solution. At the time of release (1999) most chipsets were composed of physically separate north-bridge and south-bridge chips. Only later have single-chip solutions become popular in the mainstream, with chipsets such as the nVidia nForce4.
Sound Blaster Live! is a PCI add-on sound card from Creative Technology Limited for PCs. Moving from ISA to PCI allowed the card to dispense with onboard memory, storing digital samples in the computer's main memory and then accessing them in real time over the bus. This allowed for a much wider selection of, and longer playing, samples. It also included higher quality sound output at all levels, quadrophonic output, and a new MIDI synthesizer with 64 sampled voices. The Live! was introduced in August 1998 and variations on the design remained Creative's primary sound card line into the early 2000's.
Sound Blaster Audigy is a product line of sound cards from Creative Technology. The flagship model of the Audigy family used the EMU10K2 audio DSP, an improved version of the SB-Live's EMU10K1, while the value/SE editions were built with a less-expensive audio controller.
The Sound Blaster 16 is a series of sound cards by Creative Technology, first released in June 1992 for PCs with an ISA or PCI slot. It was the successor to the Sound Blaster Pro series of sound cards and introduced CD-quality digital audio to the Sound Blaster line. For optional wavetable synthesis, the Sound Blaster 16 also added an expansion-header for add-on MIDI-daughterboards, called a Wave Blaster connector, and a game port for optional connection with external MIDI sound modules.
Sound Blaster Advanced Wave Effects 64 ISA sound card from Creative Technology. It is an add-on board for PCs. The card was launched in November 1996.
The Sound Blaster AWE32 is an ISA sound card from Creative Technology. It is an expansion board for PCs and is part of the Sound Blaster family of products. The Sound Blaster AWE32, introduced in March 1994, was a near full-length ISA sound card, measuring 14 inches (356 mm) in length, due to the number of features included.
Windows Sound System (WSS) is a sound card specification developed by Microsoft, released at the end of 1992 for Windows 3.1. It was sold as a bundle which included an ISA sound card, a microphone, a pair of headphones and a software package.
The Media Vision Pro AudioSpectrum family of personal computer sound cards included the original 8-bit Pro AudioSpectrum (1991), the 8-bit Pro AudioSpectrum Plus, 16-bit Pro AudioSpectrum 16, Pro AudioSpectrum 16 Basic and 16-bit Pro Audio Studio. All PAS cards with the exception of Pro AudioSpectrum 16 Basic could connect to CD-ROM drives—variants having SCSI or various proprietary interfaces—and many were sold in multimedia kits with compatible CD-ROM drives.
E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling music workstations.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)