Sound Blaster: How the PC got its voice

In this segment of Retro Reverie we revisit the age of bleeps and bloops and watch PC sound evolve into the seamless technology that it is today.

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[lapean]

I love when the nerdiness of something lines right up with the nerdiness I am looking for. Keep it up!

[ecdhe]

The Sound Blaster was my first sound card on my first compatible PC, and adding the Korg extension board just blew my mind. However, the sound chip is now part of a motherboard these days. So what was a cool add-on is now a commodity.

[TonimanGalvez]

It is a shame, Sound Blaster Pro and the other FM Sound Blasters could not use the sample capability for music instruments like Megadrive does, because the use of Midi format. They needed a special format for that.

[cwgd]

Well made video! I am still rocking an X-Fi Titanium. One of the biggest issues with Creative was always their driver support. Their software has also traditionally been pretty garbage since the Windows Vista days. I see they have a new software suite now that may be better, not really sure. I think one of the biggest changes in the PC gaming space is that everyone uses either 2 channel "studio" speakers or headphones. Nobody is setting up surround sound anymore, which is a real shame. I still use and love my Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker setup.

[marcelofrau]

I still remember having such good days with an Creative Sound Blaster 16.. then I upgraded to a Sound Blaster AWE32.. It was so nice.. not to mention those CDROM kits they were selling back then loaded with a lot of fun games. I miss this. RIP Sim Wong Hoo. those were very good old days..

[Supernerdland]

Great job mate! Concise but detailed history here. Keep this up for sure!

I remember in the day getting my first Soundblaster card and upgrading from the awful late 90s onboard audio I was working from. Forget what exact model it was but it was swank for me at the time and such an upgrade. Now I am rocking a Sound BlasterX G6 external DAC/Amp and it does lovely for its pricepoint.

[JasperTedVidalTale]

Kings Quest's IBM PC Speaker music is NOT digitized.

[Goit_Goit]

Sound blasters went to silicone heaven, along with all the calculators.

[puffthecatpuff]

If it wasn't for integrated audio, our first PC with audio wouldn't have had audio.

My Dad didn't want to buy an extra card.

[zedamex]

I remember when EAX was all the rage but then the next windows release stopped it in its tracks due to how the card interfaced as a whole. Windows own audio layer kinda broke it.

[antonharmacinski]

This was literally my childhood. Having a joystick/pad port was game changing as a kid. It was like the next level. It's so weird to me now how WADS and mouse are so popular when back when I was a kid all you wanted to do was use a joystick so it was more like the arcade experience. The evolution of tech and the way it's used and adopted over the years has been so interesting and amazing.

[teixeiracleber]

Sound blaster is a turn of QUALITY'S TO IS, TO OR PAST, SOUNDBLASTER IS A BIG MOMENT OF D.O.S. AUDIO SISTEM...

[summerlaverdure]

> "the sound of the OPL chips is so iconic, that modern clone cards are still being made to this day to properly capture the sound of the 90's "
> proceeds to a clip of tracker music that takes absolutely *NO* advantage or utilization of the OPL chips ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Geardos]

soundblaster live was cool, in windows 98 you could install hacked drivers to give it much of the abilities of some EMU professional audio cards, that were based on similar hardware. Gave a sweet software mixer setup with accelerated realtime effects.

[lol-og]

Definitely they still work better than on board sound. I have an Asus mobos that was over 1100.00 USD and it has dedicated layers in the mobo per channel to keep signal to noise down and crosstalk not to mention the chip is top of the line used for audio even has Japan made caps but my Soundblaster still has superior sound in 2024

[Uhfgood]

Didn't know they were still around. I don't need much nowadays, since I don't tend to play games as much, and I don't have much reason for outputting to speakers any way.

[psilimit]

Where did all the SoundBlasters (or sound cards in general) go?

On-board sound is now good enough (as you mentioned). If you want high quality sound, you now get an external DAC for your PC. As the PC is full of interference bouncing around, putting the soundcard outside greatly reduces noise.

Needing better sound, but NOT much better sound is...to niche to sell (or develop) sound cards.

If you put a sound card in your rig today, part of the reason you do it is BECAUSE you WANT to put a sound card in your rig.

BTW, Xonor makes a very good $35 soundcard.

[jonny-b]

I have a Creative Sound Blaster Z SE. It's pretty good. I got it for my surround system and EAX in old games only to realize the sound system I got for a christmas gift has no analog input/output. It's just digital or HDMI ARC. Do anyone know how to get around this? Or do I have to just buy an old sound system with analog inputs? I only found 1 new model that still has analog 3.5mm ports, or whatever. Which is the ONLY way I can get Windows to recognize more than just stereo channels? I wish I would have done more research and bought the older one that still hardware accelerates EAX. Instead it's all audio through alchemy and software, instead of using the hardware due to Windows changes. Sucks.

[JFD]

Funny thing; I just bought a Sound Blaster Katana V2X soundbar, for the simple reason of my current monitor, the Sony Inzone M9, having speakers weaker than the typical smartphone speakers of today!

What happened to the Sound Blaster? In my case, it grew out of the PC into the Real World! :p

[teixeiracleber]

From BRAZIL, IM REMEMBER A SOUND OFF OR SOUND FOR BEEPER PC, AND PUT A BIG SPEEKER TO BETTER AUDIO... 8-)