First post, by Ryccardo
I'll attempt to write a short history of PC sound, which I'm sure is missing something which in turn is related to my ultimate question:
- First (ignoring the PC Speaker, PCjr sound, and the parallel port DACs) was the Roland MPU series, a subset of which (dumb mode) became the de facto standard for MIDI;
- [the IBM music card, which mostly failed, between a lack of applications and the common knowledge that everyone and their mom could make PC accessories that were better featured and cheaper than 1st party];
- Then the AdLib, with an OPL (2) based synthetizer that is NOT midi compatible, you'd need a more or less hypothetical converting player;
- Then the Sound Blasters, adding PCM sound to a still non-natively-MIDI synth, which eventually started including a gameport+external MIDI combo socket;
- ?????
- SB compatibles with wavetable MIDI
- ?????
- Today's (2004 or so?) integrated sound chips that don't do MIDI at all, they expect software to convert it to PCM
So I'd like to know, when did it became (first possible at all/reasonable) for an average program to just pump out MIDI events and have them turned into actual sound?
In other words, I have a turn of the millennium mobo with integrated sound (don't remember the audio chip brand, sorry) that gives me the choices of standard MS/Roland software emulation, native playback, or "MPU compatible" output, and I'm fairly sure it's some FM implentation but it couldn't possibly be an OPL-like thing used directly… or is it?