pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-02-16, 03:28:When SB 16 came out it was in 1992 which was still mostly DOS era games, thereby breaking SB Pro 2 backward compatibility
SB16 was almost fully compatible with earlier Sound Blasters, it only extended Sound Blaster capabilities (like SB Pro extended SB 1.0). The only thing that couldn't do was CMS music... that was deprecated since SB 1.5 (had sockets instead of CMS chips).
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-02-16, 03:28:what is what Creative's intended market to sell to users for? Windows users?
Any home user who cared about better sound quality. Not professional musicians, they got better (better quality and more expensive) cards to choose from. Also, it was an evolution to keep in pace with competitors who were selling other 16 bit "home" sound cards.
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-02-16, 03:28:I know most play with this SB 16 models but not optimal: both DOS in mono, and no support SB Pro 2.0 would certainly need for another sound card clone that supports Pro 2.0.
Again, I had a SB16 (withous ASP) and alter a SB Awe 64 Gold. I choose SB16 for games that supported them, and SB Pro for games that didn't support them (even going all way down to Adlib sound for very old games). Never had a problem to play games with those cards.
OTOH, the so-called SB 16 PCI (and every PCI card) had many problems with older games.
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-02-16, 03:28:Also I'm not familiar what is needed for game and windows to support 16 bit feature? As if Creative "wants" you to buy SB 16 theirs which is not funny.
Games would need some routines to output sound to the new card (not too much different to SB Pro and earlier routines), and also 16 bit samples (or upsampling 8 bit samples, but if your game had only 8bit samples I'd use a 8bit output mode). Keep in mind that, in worst case, you could ship a game without 16 bit sound and still would work on SB 16.
Windows would only need an adequate driver (provided either by Microsoft or Creative). Windows is capable or resampling to match the quality/frequency of your output sound card, so no changes in applications would be needed (but still I guess that you could get some CPU cycles more if you avoid to output 16 bit samples to a 8 bit card).
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-02-16, 03:28:Back in the day after 1994, I had Sound Blaster 16 MCD with ASP IC installed (CT1750) or something like that, but not sure on model, but 100% sure what I had, MCD with ASP. I can remember that was sounding not quite as clear to what I heard with natural sounds like real life sounds would do, even on 8 bit audio.
Marketing mumble. I think that ASP feature was mostly overlooked, and it was supported by few software developers. Also (unless your ASP is actively involved or SB16 DAC was way better than SB Pro) I don't think that a SB16 could enhace sound from 8 bit samples.
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-02-16, 03:28:Since then, motherboards that got integrated audio IC was used for some time (using Athlon XP and P4 when had to upgrade from PII 350 computer).
I used Sound Cards up to my actual computer, an AMD Ryzen. Although I believe that integrated sound cards offer all features that common users needs, they suffered from higher CPU usage and worst quality (mostly due to shitty DACs). I've heard some humming coming from speakers (that 50Hz associated with european power) on many computers due to their sound circuits not being properly isolated.
When I bought that Ryzen motherboard, I had to put aside my sound card (because I had no PCI slots, only PCIe) and it sounds fine. I guess that (at some point) integrated sound cards have reached a point where quality is not an issue anymore.
derSammler wrote on 2020-02-16, 09:16:Also, 16-bit audio at 44 KHz was required to fulfill MPC Level 2.
I guess that MPC2 is another marketing mumble, and the target was selling multimedia packs instead of standalone components (i.e.: suggesting you to buy an entire pack instead of a CD-ROM drive for a computer that already had a sound card installed). Does anybody have seen any program that requires MPC2?
I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...
I'm selling some stuff!