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Some of you may have seen this elsewhere, but if not you may find it interesting, nostalgic, or just plain boring. For our members who can remember starting with Commodore sound chip SID 6581 and those of us who had no idea. http://www.yvan256.net/soundcards/Check out this site for the complete history: http://www.crossfire-designs.de/?lang=en...icle=soundcardsDolby Digital, dts, EAX... all being terms, that advertising world throws around. Sound possibilities, that were only located in cinemas some time ago, already find move in our home. You hear the Enterprise already coming from the back. You can localize your opponents in Games after your hearing. Full sound always and everywhere. You could think, it has never been different, probably you don't want to imagine that it has ever been different. We actually are much too pampered - are we?! After all, you should consider that meanwhile our oh-so-styled miracle crates were gray as mice not far ago, and their acoustic possibilities haven't been a large difference. Limited to a simple whistle, at least in different pitches... but stop here! It's very unlikely that we just switched from PC Speaker to 5.1 sound from just one day to another - in the opposite! How did we actually get to the point, where we are these days? What do all these sound options mean in the old games? Does MIDI really sound so bad as you remembered? This article should bring little light behind these questions, it explains the technology in the interesting years of development from its origin until approximately 1995, and should show, what we actually already knew, but often won't see: that a name and good marketing often mean more than advance and innovation... For the complete correctness of the content, I don't take over any liability - the article originated in extensive investigations. Heavy effort flowed into avoiding wrong statements, however this definitely could not exclude their appareance either... Any information regarding this is welcome! Index Introduction Continuing 1981 - PC Speaker 1983 - PCJr / Tandy 1986 - Covox Speech Thing 1987 - The real sound... 1988 - Game Blaster and LAPC-1 1989,1991 - The first Sound Blasters 1991 - Competition! 1992 - 16 Bit by market leader, SCC-1 1993 - The AWE32 1995 - End of an era: GUS PnP Conclusion and links Background Glossary
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It is always fun to read about microcomputer history. Thanks for sharing.
This is oddly written. Perhaps English is not this person's first language?
I go back to 1977 with the first Tandy computers, and the original Apple. These are not mentioned in the article. Still, it's a great subject to review.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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I remember the old TRS-80 wow........
I think that's about the time that the commadore 64 came out and was the hot item.
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Ah, how I miss my old Commodore 64s... Mostly for Star Wars arcade, mind you, not the musical applications 
----- Do you love the Floyd as much as I do? If so, click away the moments that make up the dull day: www.canadianpinkfloyd.com
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Quote:
This is oddly written. Perhaps English is not this person's first language?
I'm thinking maybe German, since one of the headings was "Weitere Links".
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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For those with a yearning for more of this nostalgia, there are several freeware SID chip VSTi emulations. I use one now and then for certain effects on songs. I used one on the last half of this one I did for the February Album Writing Month this year - you can hear it in the last 1/3 of the song. http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/fawm2009/Scott%20Lake%20-%20Lunch.mp3I use one from Oli Larkin
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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XPro & Xtra Styles PAK Sets On Sale Now - Until May 15, 2026!
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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Holiday Weekend Hours
As we hop into the Easter weekend, here are our holiday hours:
April 3 (Good Friday): 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM PDT
April 4 (Saturday): Closed
April 5 (Easter Sunday): Closed
April 6 (Easter Monday): Open regular hours
Wishing you an egg-cellent weekend!
— Team PG
Update to Build 10 of RealBand® 2026 for Windows®!
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