sound cards 04 by Publication Critique
Published Date: 05/05/08
When I was a kid, the best sound cards were not very good. Many of us were amazed by them when they could play the most simple FM synthesizer sound on to our computers. Midi and Mod Sound files were the only thing that you could really get to play on your computer. MP3s were unheard of. Even the best soundblaster cards were not very good, and digital speech was almost comically bad.
Times sure have changed since then. Nowadays, sound cards can do some really amazing things. In fact, almost anything that your stereo can do a sound card also do. Not only does the sound card play back music, it also allows you to record your own songs, and can mix and process them as well. Combined with sound editor programs, good sound cards are almost enough to run your own home recording studio. Basically, all you need is a mixer board, sound cards, a few microphones and a computer. The rest of it is making music!
Back in the day, having the right audio card was extremely important. You could not hear the sound in your games without them, and sometimes you could not even play the games. Nowadays, almost all computers come with sound cards that are compatible with just about anything. Even the cheapest soundcards have full quality audio. The difference between them and the better sound cards has to do with certain advanced features. For example, some of the really high quality sound cards can do three-dimensional audio. This can give the impression that certain sounds are closer or farther away from the listener, even if you do not have particularly good speakers setup. For just listening to music, it doesn't make that much difference, but for serious video game players it is quite important.
Of course, very few people upgrade their sound cards nowadays. All of them ? even the most low quality ones ? are of such high caliber that usually the one that comes with your computer is good enough. Instead, people get new graphics cards for their computers. Although the sound card makes very little difference, the graphics card is huge. Being able to play all the latest video games depends on having the latest and best graphics cards. If you don't, you can't keep up with other gamers. You will be left out of some of the most new, exciting games being made.
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