List of Soundcards: add new SB16, etc.
David Cole
Until I revise the list, here are some updates:
The Oct 27 issue (gee, they must deliver these mags in a special DeLorean)
of PC Magazine, p. 61, announces 3 products from Creative Labs:
Sound Blaster 16, with 4 operator 20 voice FM, volume, bass, treble controls,
onboard mixer, and midi port. List price $349. (But Computability ad in same
issue lists it for $189).
Of more interest to me was the next product:
MIDI Blaster: external general midi device with PCM sampled sounds and
20-instrument polyphony. 128 instuments, 33 effects, and 55 percussion (they
call 'em "drums"). List: $499.
Interesting. Sounds like direct competition for the Roland modules. In the
photo, the MIDI Blaster has a very strange shape. Why isn't it sold as a card
product?? If they wholesale it at 50% of list, it should sell for around
$275.
Last product was: Port Blaster, list $199. 8-bit DACs and 4op FM. Their
answer to Media Vision's "Audio Port". Plugs into parallel port.
BTW I saw somewhere that Creative Labs paid Brown-Wagh some whopping amount to
terminate B-W's rights to exclusive distribution (if I remember correctly, it
was $15,000,000). The amount paid for Adlib recently is small spuds compared
to that. Creative will have to sell quite a few Blasters just to pay off B-W.
Other manufacturers: The new Microsoft card is to be the "Windows Sound
System" at $289 list. 16 bit digital, but no midi or joystick ports.
Supposed to ship this month (October).
The new DAK $200 "Media Master" card just happens to have similar specs to the
RTM/Omni Labs "Audio Master" card -- which calls its chip the "Media Master
Sound Circuit". Might be more than coincidence....
Cardinal Technologies, who is supposed to ship a card based on the new Sierra
"Aria" chipset, is in fact listed in PC Week as shipping FM (OPL3) cards since
August. "Sound Studio", they modestly call it. (Cardinal makes Video boards
and modems also, they are in Lancaster, PA).
Several other new cards due this Fall, using Sierra and Ensoniq chips.
Cheers,
Dave Cole