A sound card is a semiconductor circuitry that allows you to work with sound on a computer. The very first computers, for about 10 years, did not involve the use of sounds, and all that could be heard from them was the clicks of various electronic-mechanical relays and the monotonous beeping of the built-in speaker, which voiced the state of the system and the operation of some applications and games.
The progenitor of the sound card can be considered a device from Covox Inc, which was connected to the printer port of the IBM PC and could play digital monaural sound. In addition, this fact suggests that Covox was the first external sound card.
Since 1988, Creative began to produce sound cards based on a Yamaha processor. However, the artificial sound of the instruments was still far from perfect, and the audio files occupied a huge amount of memory - about 10 megabytes per minute of sound.
Further, the sound card became a repository of MIDI sounds, and multimedia files contained links to commands for playing a particular sound.
With the advent of more powerful processors, since about 1998, most manufacturers integrated EAX technology and an audio processor into a sound card, switched to PCI buses, and until now the principle of extracting sound from a computer has not changed significantly.
Modern sound cards are divided into built-in, embedded and external. Built-in cards are in the general scheme of the motherboard. All audio inputs and outputs are also on it. Sound processing is carried out by the central processor. Installing a sound card driver is not required here.
Currently, due to the increase in the productivity of the central processor of computers, many motherboards have integrated sound cards that are characterized by increased power and high quality characteristics.
Embedded sound cards can be connected at the request of the consumer in special PCI slots. They have their own powerful processor that provides high quality sound. Among them are multimedia, semi-professional and professional sound cards.
The multimedia sound card is designed for the home user. It is able to provide Hi-Fi sound quality and look decent in combination with 5.1 computer speakers.
Semi-professional sound cards are designed for consumers with high demands on good sound. As a rule, along with quality they are distinguished by a high cost.
Professional sound cards are designed to meet the needs of musicians and their producers, arrangers and those involved in the recording and production of music, the highest quality playback and minimal distortion of sound. Such cards are capable of processing any 3D sound. Software is specially developed for them and additional professional equipment is produced.
External sound cards - as a rule, they are located outside the computer case and are connected to it through the USB 2.0 or FireWire interface. They allow you to solve the following problems:
- Get rid of electromagnetic interference from other computer components that affect sound quality and create phonetic noise. In embedded cards, this problem is usually solved by additional insulation, which leads to a rise in the cost of the device.
- Connecting a large number of cables, including from microphones, a mixing console, an amplifier, to the block of an external sound card, is much easier than hanging this bundle of wires together with others on one computer.
- The portable sound card can be connected to any mobile device having the required connector, for example, to a laptop.