First post, by eddman
I have to admit I know little about sound and audio beyond the surface level knowledge about general differences between sound cards and how to set up audio in games.
In old games there are usually two audio options that need to be configured, "Digital" and "Music". Let's take AWE32 as a sound card sample.
"Digital" is used for effects, speech, etc. and is processed by the card's digital portion and the so called DSP chip, which apparently uses PCM audio.
"Music" is for, well, music and either uses FM synthesis, processed on the card's OPL3 or CQM chip, or Sample-based synthesis, processed on the EMU8000 chip.
I know that initially, because of storage constraints, recorded digital music wasn't used until CDs became commonplace. However (and I might be misunderstanding this), apparently PCM sampling (if that is even a correct term) was also a thing.
Was the lack of digital music solely because of storage issues, or were there other limitations? Did that also apply to "PCM sampled" music? Is this also what people refer to as "MOD sound", chiptune, etc. or are these different things?
P.S.
I might've used a few wrong terminologies up there. The audio scene is too complex; the more I read, the more confusing it gets.