Turtle Beach Systems
Encyclopedia
Turtle Beach Systems is a sound card
and headphone manufacturer and direct competitor with Creative Labs-branded Sound Blaster
. In 1995, the company merged with Voyetra, a company that made custom software for sound cards, to form Voyetra Turtle Beach Inc which is headquartered in Elmsford, New York
, USA.
sampling keyboard. The Mirage was the first low cost sampling device that allowed musicians to play realistic choirs, pianos, horns, and other instruments in their performances. The software, called "Vision", connected the Mirage to a PC and used the PC's screen and graphics to make the programming and editing of sounds much easier. Ensoniq decided to resell Vision through their dealer network and Turtle Beach Softworks became a profitable company.
Over the following years, the company developed a few other programs that supported Ensoniq equipment but realized that they needed to develop more generalized products. They retooled their product into "SampleVision", which initially supported the Akai
S900, but was designed with an extensible framework, allowing other samplers to be supported. The SampleVision series was among the first to offer a Macintosh-like user experience on the PC (which at that time did not have Microsoft Windows
to provide its GUI).
In 1988, Turtle Beach began to work on developing its first hardware product, a hard disk based audio editing system. Among the first of its kind, the product was named the "56K digital recording system" and was released in 1990. It was based on a Motorola 56000 DSP
chip, and offered non linear playlist editing of stereo audio files. The 56K system was popular among radio stations and mastering studios because it replayed exactly the same digital stream that it recorded.
In 1990, Turtle Beach began developing its first PC sound card. This card used high quality A/D
and D/A
, a high quality synthesizer from eMu, and an onboard DSP chip. This product was called "MultiSound." The MultiSound product competed with more established products of the day from Advanced Gravis (now defunct), Adlib (now defunct), Creative Labs, and Media Vision (now defunct).
Turtle Beach was then acquired by Integrated Circuit Systems, a maker of clock chips for the PC market. ICS wanted to broaden its market to include the new multimedia chips and peripherals, deciding to buy existing lines rather than build anew.
With the addition of ICS's resources, Turtle Beach offered a full line of PC peripherals, releasing 8 new products within the 18 months following the sale. The MultiSound Monterey, The Tahiti, Maui, Audio Advantage sound cards rounded out its hardware product line, with products at every price point. On the software side, the company released "Wave for Windows", a sound editing program that was ahead of its time, but also ahead of the hardware curve; "Quad", the first multitrack recording application for the PC; and several other software titles.
Seen often in corporate acquisitions, the original founders were soon no longer in the company. Martin Goldberg was brought in to run the company and after moving its operations to San Jose, ICS sold Turtle Beach to Voyetra Technologies, Inc. in 1996. Voyetra, founded by synthesizer pioneer Carmine Bonanno in 1975, had developed drivers and software for nearly every sound card manufacturer in the world during the early 1990s. The purchase of Turtle Beach allowed Voyetra to leverage its close ties with PC manufacturers by providing sound cards bundled with Voyetra software and drivers. After the purchase, the company changed its name to Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc. and sold millions of sound cards to Dell Computer
under the Turtle Beach brand.
In 2000, Voyetra Turtle Beach developed AudioTron
, one of the first standalone Internet audio receivers. The device enjoyed tremendous success in the first year of its release, but was soon faced with tremendous competition from similar products. Turtle Beach opted out of the network audio market in 2004.
Recently, Turtle Beach has diversified its product line to include USB audio devices, video capture
products and a wide variety of headphones, including the Ear Force line of multi-channel PC and gaming headphones.
The 56K was designed to be connected to the AES-EBU or S/PDIF
jacks on a professional DAT recorder. With the included SoundStage graphical audio editing software, a 56K system installed in a 286, 386 or 486 Intel PC running Windows 3.0 or 3.1 can be used as a complete post-production digital audio editing solution. The 56K system consisted of three major components:
Audio Advantage - Popular line of USB sound cards, all of which have digital S/PDIF
outputs. It comes in three models: Micro, Amigo, and Roadie.
Audio Advantage PCMCIA - old soundcard for notebooks, Hurricane architecture
Cancun FX - wavetable upgrade board for waveblaster connector
Catalina - 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 Dolby Digital
Surround Sound, EAX
2.0 with on board sound processing. Based on VIA Envy24HT-S audio chipset.
Daytona PCI - early PCI card introduced November 1997, S3
Sonic Vibes 86C617 Chipset, Downloadable Sounds (DLS), hardware wavetable, SRS 3D Audio Enhancement
Part Number : TBS-0660-01V
EAR Force - Line of gaming headsets for most gaming platform such as; PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Models available range from wired stereo headsets for PS3 and Xbox, to wireless models with Dolby Digital decoding for Xbox. Features include Chat Boost (boosts chat level if soundtrack gets loud), mic monitoring, etc. All current models are as followed (Xbox 360) X41, DX11, X31, PX21, X11, X12, XLC, PX5, (PS3) X41/PBT, DPX21, PX21, P11, PBT, PX5, (Wii) W3, D2, (PC) HPA2, Z2, and Z1
Malibu Surround 64 - 4MB 64-Voice ISA bus Wavetable Sound Card introduced 1997. Uses Kurzweil hardware synthesis
64 voices including 32 hardware voices and 32 software voices, 4MB instrument samples compressed to 2MB ROM. Crystal CS4237B PnP chipset.
Maui - Maui was an inexpensive wavetable synthesizer add-on card. It used the ICS WaveFront synthesizer chip (as did the Monterey and the Rio) and offered optional RAM slots that would allow users to add up to 8 megabytes of their own .WAV format sounds (up to 16-bit 44.1KHz) to the wavetable playback. This process, called SampleStore, pre-dated the Creative/Microsoft "SoundFonts" concept by two years. This card was intended for Sound Blaster owners who wanted to improve their MIDI playback by adding wavetable synthesis. Because of SampleStore and WavePatch, a professional-grade sound programmer for all WaveFront-equipped cards, many music enthusiasts used the Maui as a cheap yet high-quality studio sampler
.
Monte Carlo - Monte Carlo was the first Turtle Beach sound card that was not designed in-house. It was based on a Crystal semiconductor reference design for a "Sound Blaster Compatible" card.
Montego DDL - Dolby Digital Live
-capable. 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, EAX
2.0 with on board sound processing, based on the Aureal AU8820 (Vortex) chipset. Priced around $80 USD. See also: Montego DDL Control Panel
Montego A3DXstream - unrelated to the current Montego DDL in every way but the name.
Montego II Quadzilla - the Montego II was a family of cards that replaced the original Montego card. The card was based on the Aureal
AU8830 (Vortex 2) chipset but differed from the reference Aureal design. The Quadzilla was the 4-channel version and achieved this via a separate daughtercard, whereas the other AU8830 cards such as Aureal Vortex SQ2500 and Diamond
Monster Sound MX300 used a single card.
Monterey - Multisound Monterey was the first cost-reduced version of the MultiSound. In essence the synthesizer (the Emu Proteus) was replaced by the less expensive Rio card that was based on the ICS WaveFront chipset. The DSP and A/D was identical to the MultiSound, as the Monterey was a simple combination of the Rio mounted onto the Tahiti.
Multisound Classic - was a 430 USD full-length ISA
sound card produced from 1992 to 1994. It contained an EMU
Proteus 1/XR professional MIDI rack engine with 2 MB
or 4 MB ROM sample pack and a Motorola
56001
/ 68000
DSP
chip pair for wave
recording and playback. The card supported Windows 9x
officially and can be used on Windows NT 4.0
and Windows 2000
using Peter Hall's drivers. The sound quality and feature set offered by MultiSound Classic was truly revolutionary at the time, but Creative Labs acquired EMU in 1994 and the supply of XR chips stopped. The card had to be redesigned accordingly, creating the Tahiti. A detailed analysis of the MultiSound's hardware is here
Multisound Fiji - last real professional ISA cards from Multisound line. Motorola 56002 chipset, Audiophile quality 20-bit DAC/ADC, >97 dB Signal to Noise Ratio, DSP-based Hurricane Architecture, Optional Digital S/PDIF I/O (with daughterboard), MPU-401 compatible, WaveBlaster compatible header, Enhanced Full Duplex, Windows 95 Plug'n'Play compatible. Compatible with Windows 95, 98, 98se and Me in Plug'n'Play mode ; NT4, 2000 and XP (using the last NT4 non-Plug'n'Play driver and settings).
Multisound Pinnacle - same as Multisound Fiji but with additional specifications : full-length ISA card, Hardware Wavetable Synthesis (Kurzweil/HOMAC Synth Engine), 4 MB Patch Set (2 MB Wavetable ROM - using proprietary Kurzweil compression), User Expandable Sample Set (supports up to 48 MB of Sample RAM on board, using two 32 bits SIMM sockets for FPM RAM), EIDE CD-ROM Interface.
Quad - 4-track recording software for PC meant to somewhat mimic a 4-track cassette recorder.
Rio- The RIO was a daughtercard MIDI synthesizer that was compatible with the Sound Blaster daughtercard pinout. This product was intended for Sound Blaster owners who wanted to improve their MIDI playback by adding wavetable synthesis. The RIO offered one RAM slot that would allow users to add their own sounds to the wavetable playback, and was compatible with the WavePatch sound programmer. Unlike the Maui, however, the Rio used a SIPP slot for its expansion memory; compatible RAM was rather difficult and considerably more expensive to obtain.
Riviera - affordable Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Sound without on board sound processing. Based on C-Media CMI8738 audio controller chipset.
Santa Cruz - Based on the Cirrus Logic
SoundFusion (aka Crystal 4630) DSP. It featured four analog channel outputs, a line input and microphone input are included on the back panel. Also included is a connector TB dubbed the "VersaJack." The VersaJack has multiple functions selectable by software including digital SPDIF output, a second analog input, analog output or 5th and 6th speaker outputs. This card also supported an open source software based EAX. Dell Computer
offered this card as an audio upgrade for some of its computers.
Tahiti - Multisound Classic derivative without the on-card synthesis. Motorola 56001 chipset.
Tropez 32 / TBS-2000 - cost reduced versions of Tropez+ without SIMM slots. Only 1MB or 2MB wavetable ROM.
Tropez Classic - non PnP ISA card from same era as original SoundBlaster AWE32 and Gravis Ultrasound
MAX. ICS Wavefront wavetable chipset, OPTi 929
, 2MB ROM, 3 SIMM slots for max 12MB wavetable RAM.
Tropez Plus - PnP
version of Tropez Classic. CS4232, ICS Wavefront, 3 SIMM slots for RAM.
TBS-929, TBS-930, TBS-931 - OEM low-cost cards for CD-ROM upgrade kits all uses OPTi
chipset. TBS-931 uses OPTi 82C931, older are similar as Monte Carlo line.
Sound card
A sound card is an internal computer expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs. The term sound card is also applied to external audio interfaces that use software to generate sound, as opposed to using hardware...
and headphone manufacturer and direct competitor with Creative Labs-branded Sound Blaster
Sound Blaster
The Sound Blaster family of sound cards was the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95, which standardized the programming interface at application level , and the evolution in PC design led to onboard...
. In 1995, the company merged with Voyetra, a company that made custom software for sound cards, to form Voyetra Turtle Beach Inc which is headquartered in Elmsford, New York
Elmsford, New York
Elmsford is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. Roughly one mile square, the village is fully contained within the borders of the town of Greenburgh...
, USA.
History
Turtle Beach was founded in 1985 as "Turtle Beach Softworks" by co-founders Roy Smith and Robert Hoke. The company's first product was a graphical editing system that supported the breakthrough Ensoniq MirageEnsoniq Mirage
The Ensoniq Corporation's Mirage was an 8-bit sampler introduced in 1984. Priced below $2000 with features previously only found on more expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI, it became a best seller....
sampling keyboard. The Mirage was the first low cost sampling device that allowed musicians to play realistic choirs, pianos, horns, and other instruments in their performances. The software, called "Vision", connected the Mirage to a PC and used the PC's screen and graphics to make the programming and editing of sounds much easier. Ensoniq decided to resell Vision through their dealer network and Turtle Beach Softworks became a profitable company.
Over the following years, the company developed a few other programs that supported Ensoniq equipment but realized that they needed to develop more generalized products. They retooled their product into "SampleVision", which initially supported the Akai
Akai
Akai is a consumer electronics brand, founded by Saburo Akai as , a Japanese manufacturer in 1929. It is now headquartered in Singapore as a subsidiary of Grande Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, which also owns the formerly Japanese brands Nakamichi and Sansui. The Akai brand is now used...
S900, but was designed with an extensible framework, allowing other samplers to be supported. The SampleVision series was among the first to offer a Macintosh-like user experience on the PC (which at that time did not have Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
to provide its GUI).
In 1988, Turtle Beach began to work on developing its first hardware product, a hard disk based audio editing system. Among the first of its kind, the product was named the "56K digital recording system" and was released in 1990. It was based on a Motorola 56000 DSP
Digital signal processing
Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
chip, and offered non linear playlist editing of stereo audio files. The 56K system was popular among radio stations and mastering studios because it replayed exactly the same digital stream that it recorded.
In 1990, Turtle Beach began developing its first PC sound card. This card used high quality A/D
Analog-to-digital converter
An analog-to-digital converter is a device that converts a continuous quantity to a discrete time digital representation. An ADC may also provide an isolated measurement...
and D/A
Digital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
, a high quality synthesizer from eMu, and an onboard DSP chip. This product was called "MultiSound." The MultiSound product competed with more established products of the day from Advanced Gravis (now defunct), Adlib (now defunct), Creative Labs, and Media Vision (now defunct).
Turtle Beach was then acquired by Integrated Circuit Systems, a maker of clock chips for the PC market. ICS wanted to broaden its market to include the new multimedia chips and peripherals, deciding to buy existing lines rather than build anew.
With the addition of ICS's resources, Turtle Beach offered a full line of PC peripherals, releasing 8 new products within the 18 months following the sale. The MultiSound Monterey, The Tahiti, Maui, Audio Advantage sound cards rounded out its hardware product line, with products at every price point. On the software side, the company released "Wave for Windows", a sound editing program that was ahead of its time, but also ahead of the hardware curve; "Quad", the first multitrack recording application for the PC; and several other software titles.
Seen often in corporate acquisitions, the original founders were soon no longer in the company. Martin Goldberg was brought in to run the company and after moving its operations to San Jose, ICS sold Turtle Beach to Voyetra Technologies, Inc. in 1996. Voyetra, founded by synthesizer pioneer Carmine Bonanno in 1975, had developed drivers and software for nearly every sound card manufacturer in the world during the early 1990s. The purchase of Turtle Beach allowed Voyetra to leverage its close ties with PC manufacturers by providing sound cards bundled with Voyetra software and drivers. After the purchase, the company changed its name to Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc. and sold millions of sound cards to Dell Computer
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
under the Turtle Beach brand.
In 2000, Voyetra Turtle Beach developed AudioTron
AudioTron
The Turtle Beach AudioTron AT-100 and AT-101 are 1U rack-mountable, hi-fi network music players. An AudioTron can stream digital music files from personal computers or NAS devices without the need to install server software on these storage devices since the AudioTron is based on Windows CE and is...
, one of the first standalone Internet audio receivers. The device enjoyed tremendous success in the first year of its release, but was soon faced with tremendous competition from similar products. Turtle Beach opted out of the network audio market in 2004.
Recently, Turtle Beach has diversified its product line to include USB audio devices, video capture
Video capture
Video capture is the process of converting an analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital video. The resulting digital data are computer files referred to as a digital video stream, or more often, simply video stream...
products and a wide variety of headphones, including the Ear Force line of multi-channel PC and gaming headphones.
Brands
56K - The 56K Digital Recording System was the first of the Turtle Beach audio systems for the IBM PC platform. It made use of the Motorola 56000 Digital Signal Processor for accelerating digital audio data transfers through the IBM PC's ISA bus.The 56K was designed to be connected to the AES-EBU or S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
jacks on a professional DAT recorder. With the included SoundStage graphical audio editing software, a 56K system installed in a 286, 386 or 486 Intel PC running Windows 3.0 or 3.1 can be used as a complete post-production digital audio editing solution. The 56K system consisted of three major components:
- The 56K-PC Digital Signal Processor Card (a 16-bit digital audio processor on a full-length ISA board).
- The 56K-D Digital Interface Box, which allows your DAT machine to talk to the computer via AES/EBU or S/PDIF-compatible digital formats.
- The SoundStage digital audio editing software.
Audio Advantage - Popular line of USB sound cards, all of which have digital S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
outputs. It comes in three models: Micro, Amigo, and Roadie.
Audio Advantage PCMCIA - old soundcard for notebooks, Hurricane architecture
Cancun FX - wavetable upgrade board for waveblaster connector
Catalina - 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
Surround Sound, EAX
Environmental audio extensions
The environmental audio extensions are a number of digital signal processing presets for audio, present in Creative Technology's later Sound Blaster sound cards and the Creative NOMAD/Creative ZEN product lines...
2.0 with on board sound processing. Based on VIA Envy24HT-S audio chipset.
Daytona PCI - early PCI card introduced November 1997, S3
S3 Graphics
S3 Graphics, Ltd is an American company specializing in graphics chipsets. Although they do not have the large market share that they once had, they still produce graphics accelerators for home computers under the "S3 Chrome" brand name.-History:...
Sonic Vibes 86C617 Chipset, Downloadable Sounds (DLS), hardware wavetable, SRS 3D Audio Enhancement
Part Number : TBS-0660-01V
EAR Force - Line of gaming headsets for most gaming platform such as; PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Models available range from wired stereo headsets for PS3 and Xbox, to wireless models with Dolby Digital decoding for Xbox. Features include Chat Boost (boosts chat level if soundtrack gets loud), mic monitoring, etc. All current models are as followed (Xbox 360) X41, DX11, X31, PX21, X11, X12, XLC, PX5, (PS3) X41/PBT, DPX21, PX21, P11, PBT, PX5, (Wii) W3, D2, (PC) HPA2, Z2, and Z1
Malibu Surround 64 - 4MB 64-Voice ISA bus Wavetable Sound Card introduced 1997. Uses Kurzweil hardware synthesis
64 voices including 32 hardware voices and 32 software voices, 4MB instrument samples compressed to 2MB ROM. Crystal CS4237B PnP chipset.
Maui - Maui was an inexpensive wavetable synthesizer add-on card. It used the ICS WaveFront synthesizer chip (as did the Monterey and the Rio) and offered optional RAM slots that would allow users to add up to 8 megabytes of their own .WAV format sounds (up to 16-bit 44.1KHz) to the wavetable playback. This process, called SampleStore, pre-dated the Creative/Microsoft "SoundFonts" concept by two years. This card was intended for Sound Blaster owners who wanted to improve their MIDI playback by adding wavetable synthesis. Because of SampleStore and WavePatch, a professional-grade sound programmer for all WaveFront-equipped cards, many music enthusiasts used the Maui as a cheap yet high-quality studio sampler
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
.
Monte Carlo - Monte Carlo was the first Turtle Beach sound card that was not designed in-house. It was based on a Crystal semiconductor reference design for a "Sound Blaster Compatible" card.
Montego DDL - Dolby Digital Live
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
-capable. 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, EAX
Environmental audio extensions
The environmental audio extensions are a number of digital signal processing presets for audio, present in Creative Technology's later Sound Blaster sound cards and the Creative NOMAD/Creative ZEN product lines...
2.0 with on board sound processing, based on the Aureal AU8820 (Vortex) chipset. Priced around $80 USD. See also: Montego DDL Control Panel
Montego A3DXstream - unrelated to the current Montego DDL in every way but the name.
Montego II Quadzilla - the Montego II was a family of cards that replaced the original Montego card. The card was based on the Aureal
Aureal Semiconductor
Aureal Semiconductor Inc. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-late 1990s for their PC sound card technologies including A3D and the Vortex The company was the reincarnation of the, at the time, bankrupt Media Vision Technology...
AU8830 (Vortex 2) chipset but differed from the reference Aureal design. The Quadzilla was the 4-channel version and achieved this via a separate daughtercard, whereas the other AU8830 cards such as Aureal Vortex SQ2500 and Diamond
Diamond Multimedia
Diamond Multimedia is a company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology. They have produced graphics cards, motherboards, modems, sound cards and MP3 players, however the company began with the production of the TrackStar, a PC add-on card which emulated Apple II computers...
Monster Sound MX300 used a single card.
Monterey - Multisound Monterey was the first cost-reduced version of the MultiSound. In essence the synthesizer (the Emu Proteus) was replaced by the less expensive Rio card that was based on the ICS WaveFront chipset. The DSP and A/D was identical to the MultiSound, as the Monterey was a simple combination of the Rio mounted onto the Tahiti.
Multisound Classic - was a 430 USD full-length ISA
Industry Standard Architecture
Industry Standard Architecture is a computer bus standard for IBM PC compatible computers introduced with the IBM Personal Computer to support its Intel 8088 microprocessor's 8-bit external data bus and extended to 16 bits for the IBM Personal Computer/AT's Intel 80286 processor...
sound card produced from 1992 to 1994. It contained an EMU
E-mu Systems
E-mu Systems, Inc. is a synthesizer maker and pioneer in samplers and low-cost digital sampling music workstations.-History:Founded in 1971 by Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum, E-mu began making modular synthesizers...
Proteus 1/XR professional MIDI rack engine with 2 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
or 4 MB ROM sample pack and a Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
56001
Motorola 56000
The Motorola DSP56000 is a family of digital signal processor chips produced by Motorola Semiconductor starting in the 1980s and is still being produced in more advanced models in the 2000s. The 56k series was quite popular for a time in a number of computers, including the NeXT, Atari Falcon,...
/ 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
DSP
Digital signal processor
A digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
chip pair for wave
Digital audio
Digital audio is sound reproduction using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. Digital audio systems include analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion , digital storage, processing and transmission components...
recording and playback. The card supported Windows 9x
Windows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced since 1995, which were based on the original and later modified Windows 95 kernel...
officially and can be used on Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was the next release of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996...
and Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
using Peter Hall's drivers. The sound quality and feature set offered by MultiSound Classic was truly revolutionary at the time, but Creative Labs acquired EMU in 1994 and the supply of XR chips stopped. The card had to be redesigned accordingly, creating the Tahiti. A detailed analysis of the MultiSound's hardware is here
Multisound Fiji - last real professional ISA cards from Multisound line. Motorola 56002 chipset, Audiophile quality 20-bit DAC/ADC, >97 dB Signal to Noise Ratio, DSP-based Hurricane Architecture, Optional Digital S/PDIF I/O (with daughterboard), MPU-401 compatible, WaveBlaster compatible header, Enhanced Full Duplex, Windows 95 Plug'n'Play compatible. Compatible with Windows 95, 98, 98se and Me in Plug'n'Play mode ; NT4, 2000 and XP (using the last NT4 non-Plug'n'Play driver and settings).
Multisound Pinnacle - same as Multisound Fiji but with additional specifications : full-length ISA card, Hardware Wavetable Synthesis (Kurzweil/HOMAC Synth Engine), 4 MB Patch Set (2 MB Wavetable ROM - using proprietary Kurzweil compression), User Expandable Sample Set (supports up to 48 MB of Sample RAM on board, using two 32 bits SIMM sockets for FPM RAM), EIDE CD-ROM Interface.
Quad - 4-track recording software for PC meant to somewhat mimic a 4-track cassette recorder.
Rio- The RIO was a daughtercard MIDI synthesizer that was compatible with the Sound Blaster daughtercard pinout. This product was intended for Sound Blaster owners who wanted to improve their MIDI playback by adding wavetable synthesis. The RIO offered one RAM slot that would allow users to add their own sounds to the wavetable playback, and was compatible with the WavePatch sound programmer. Unlike the Maui, however, the Rio used a SIPP slot for its expansion memory; compatible RAM was rather difficult and considerably more expensive to obtain.
Riviera - affordable Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
5.1 Surround Sound without on board sound processing. Based on C-Media CMI8738 audio controller chipset.
Santa Cruz - Based on the Cirrus Logic
Cirrus Logic
Cirrus Logic is a fabless semiconductor supplier specializing in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits . They are presently headquartered in Austin, Texas. Their audio processors and audio converters are found in many professional audio and consumer entertainment products,...
SoundFusion (aka Crystal 4630) DSP. It featured four analog channel outputs, a line input and microphone input are included on the back panel. Also included is a connector TB dubbed the "VersaJack." The VersaJack has multiple functions selectable by software including digital SPDIF output, a second analog input, analog output or 5th and 6th speaker outputs. This card also supported an open source software based EAX. Dell Computer
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
offered this card as an audio upgrade for some of its computers.
Tahiti - Multisound Classic derivative without the on-card synthesis. Motorola 56001 chipset.
Tropez 32 / TBS-2000 - cost reduced versions of Tropez+ without SIMM slots. Only 1MB or 2MB wavetable ROM.
Tropez Classic - non PnP ISA card from same era as original SoundBlaster AWE32 and Gravis Ultrasound
Gravis Ultrasound
Gravis UltraSound or GUS is a sound card for the IBM PC compatible system platform, made by Canada-based Advanced Gravis Computer Technology Ltd...
MAX. ICS Wavefront wavetable chipset, OPTi 929
OPTi 929
The OPTi 929 was a sound chip integrated onto sound cards sold in the early to mid 90's. It provided Sound Blaster and AdLib compatibility, as well sample-based synthesis through the MPU-401 interface. The set of samples was on a ROM chip....
, 2MB ROM, 3 SIMM slots for max 12MB wavetable RAM.
Tropez Plus - PnP
Plug-and-play
In computing, plug and play is a term used to describe the characteristic of a computer bus, or device specification, which facilitates the discovery of a hardware component in a system, without the need for physical device configuration, or user intervention in resolving resource conflicts.Plug...
version of Tropez Classic. CS4232, ICS Wavefront, 3 SIMM slots for RAM.
TBS-929, TBS-930, TBS-931 - OEM low-cost cards for CD-ROM upgrade kits all uses OPTi
Opti
Opti may refer to*Daihatsu Opti, a car*OPTi Inc., a manufacturer of computer components*OPTI Canada, an oil company*Optimist , a type of boat...
chipset. TBS-931 uses OPTi 82C931, older are similar as Monte Carlo line.
See also
- Aureal SemiconductorAureal SemiconductorAureal Semiconductor Inc. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-late 1990s for their PC sound card technologies including A3D and the Vortex The company was the reincarnation of the, at the time, bankrupt Media Vision Technology...
- Creative Labs
- E-mu SystemsE-mu SystemsE-mu Systems, Inc. is a synthesizer maker and pioneer in samplers and low-cost digital sampling music workstations.-History:Founded in 1971 by Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum, E-mu began making modular synthesizers...
- Ensoniq Corporation
- Roland CorporationRoland Corporationis a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
- Yamaha Corporation