what is Sound Card?
If you're looking to improve your audio or build a PC, you're probably wondering if you need to buy a sound card. Fortunately for you, the age where this was a necessary buy for a PC is long gone, but there are still some situations where you may want to consider buying one. Let's go over them quickly.
A sound card is a component that translates digital signals to an analog one
In short, a sound card is an optional component that converts the digital signal your computer outputs for sound, and translates it into an analog signal for your headphones or speakers. While you might be saying to yourself. "Hey, that's just like a DAC," you'd be right. These components are both designed to take the job of parsing signals into sound away from the computer.
But where a sound card differs is that it is almost always installed inside the computer case itself, not an external component. It's usually connected to the motherboard via a PCI or PCle card slot.
By using these connections, the card can supply sample power to your speakers, surround sound system, or headphones-provided the don't have special power requirements, that is. Additionally, it won't take extra wires to link everything up to the motherboard: You can just drop the card in the slot, and screw the backplate into place.
When should you buy a sound card?
In general, most computers will handle the sound card's job with an integrated circuit on the motherboard. Laptops especially will rarely use a separate sound card, as space is at a premium in today's thin notebooks.
"When your computer's audio is notice by worse than your phone's, you Want to get a soundcard."
But sometimes your desktop PC will provide crackly sound or have difficulty supporting the standards you want with your music. When your computer's audio is noticed by worse than, say, your phone's - you want to get a soundcard. Almost nobody will need to, but there are still certain circumstances where you'll want one.
When your music sounds bad
Crappy PC audio is almost universally caused by noise created by other components, and a lack of shielding around the motherboard. A sound card sidesteps this issue by giving its internal components shielding and distance away from the noisiest parts of your PC. Even a crappy sound card will usually offer a slight improvement over your motherboard's noisy circuitry if and only if you can audibly hear an issue with the stock setup. Nine times out of ten, through, a soundcard isn't something you need to buy for better audio.
When your music isn't supported
Some ultra-cheap computers will simply not have any audio output at all. While it's excessively rare nowadays, every so often there's no way to listen to your music with a computer, or you're limited to crappy Bluetooth. In this instance, you'll want either a sound card, or an external DAC and amplifier.
If you're a collector or FLAC or lossless audio files, even some high-end motherboard-based audio chips won't support playback at your collection's native sample rate or bit depth. In that case, you'll want a sound card to get your audio at the quality it's supposed to be at.
When you need more ports than your computer provides
Those of you with stick desktop setups with studio monitors, microphones, and headphones might need more inputs and outputs than their PC currently provides. In this case, sound cards will often allow you to add optical out, surround sound out, and more.
If toy're music producer-or are looking into recording with your computer-a sound card is probably the best way to go when you consider that many of the components you'll be using need certain inputs and outputs that only a sound card provides. In this case, we recommend getting a high-end sound card or interface to meet your rack's needs.
What do all those ports on the back do?
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Taking a peak at the back of your soundcard can be a bit intimidating, especially if you're trying to figure out where to plug in all those blasted wires. Luckily, they're all color-coded to avoid abvious problems.
You will likely not need to use all of these ports, they're there to meet the most demanding users, In all likelihood, you're going to use the 3.5 mm ports and little else.
When should you buy an external DAC and amplifier?
If you have a laptop or a compact computer unit, adding a PCI or PCle-based sound card just isn't in the cards.
In that case, you'll want to pick up something called a DAC (or DAC and amplifier) to stand in for the sound card outside of the computer. These will often connect to computers or phones via a USB cable (and before you ask: no, the cables don't matter). The DAC and amp unit will perform the same functions as a soundcard, just outside of the computer.
Before you leave the store, be sure to check to see if the DAC has a volume knob or buttons. You may also need to pick up an amplifier if the DAC unit doesn't provide enough output for your speakers or headphones.
How Sound card Works?
Before the invention of the sound card, a PC could make one sound- a beep. Although he computer could change the beep's frequency and duration, it couldn't change the volume or create other sounds.
At first, the beep acted primarily as a signal or a warning. Later, developers created music for the earliest PC games using beeps of different pitches and lengths. this music was not particularly realistic-- you can hear samples from some of these soundtracks at crossfire Designs.
Fortunately, computers' sound capabilities increased greatly in the 1980s, when several manufactures introduced add-on cards dedicated to controlling sound. Now, a computer with a sound card can do far more than just beep. It can produce 3-D audio for games or surround sound playback for DVDs. It can also capture and record sound from external sources,
In this article, you'll learn how a sound card allows a computer to create and record real, high-quality sound.
Analog vs. Digital
Sounds and computer data are fundamentally different. Sounds are analog- they are made of waves that travel through matter. people hear sounds when these waves physically vibrate their eardrums. Computers, however, communicate digitally, using electrical impulses that represent 0s and 1s. Like a graphics card, a sound card translates between a computer's digital information and the outside world's analog information.
The most basic sound card is a printed circuit board that uses four components to translates analog and digital information :
- An analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
- A digital-to-analog converter (DAC)
- An ISA or PCI interface to connect the card to the motherboard.
- Input and output connections for a microphone and speakers.
Instead of separate ADCs and DACs, some sound cards use a coder/decoder chip, also called a CODEC, which performs both functions.
In the next section, we'll explore the analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversions that take place on the sound card.
X-FI
One of the newest advances in sound card technology is, or Xtreme Fidelity, from SoundBlaster manufacturer Creative features :
- "Active Modal Architecture," which gives people different sound options for games, leisure use or music creation
- A Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with 51 million transistors
- Multiple processing engines, each of which performs specific sound operations.
- A 24-bit Crystallizer, which reveres some of the sound quality loss inherent in 16-bit CD recording
ADCs and DACs
Imagine using your computer to record yourself talking. First, you speak into a microphone that you have plugged into your second card. The ADC translates the analog waves of your voice into digital data that the computer can understand. To do this, it samples, or digitizes, the sound by taking precise measurements of the wave at frequent intervals.
The number of measurements per second, called the sampling rate, is measured in KHz. The faster a card's sampling rate,the more accurate its reconstructed wave is.
If you were to play your recording back through the speakers, the DAC would perform the same basic steps in reverse. With accurate measurements and a fast sampling rate, the restored analog signal can be nearly identical to the original sound wave.
Even high sampling rates, however, cause some reduction in sound quality. The physical process of moving sound through wires can also cause distortion. Manufactures use two measurements to describe this reduction in sound quality :
- Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), expresses as a percentage
- Signal to Noise Ration (SNR), measured in decibels
For both THD and SNR, smaller values indicate better quality. Some cards also support digital input, allowing people to store digital recordings without converting them to an analog format.
Next, we'll look at the other components commonly found on sound cards and what they do.
Methods Of Sound Creation
Computers and sound cards can use several methods to create sounds. One is frequency modulation (FM) synthesis, in which the computer overlaps multiple sound waves to make more complex wave shapes. Another is wave table synthesis. which uses samples of real instruments to replicate musical sounds. Wave table synthesis often uses several samples of the same instrument played at different pitches to provide more realistic sounds. In general, wave table synthesis creates more accurate reproductions of sound than FM synthesis.
Other Sound Card Components
In addition to the basic components needed for sound processing, many sound cards include additional hardware or input/output connections, including :
Digital Signal Processor (DSP): Like a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP is a specialized microprocessor. It takes some of the workload off of the computer's CPU by performing calculations for analog and digital conversion. DSPs can process multiple sounds, or channels, simultaneously. Sound cards that do not have their own DSP use the CPU for processing. Memory : As with a graphics card, a sound card can use its own memory to provide faster data processing. Input and Output Connections : Most sounds cards have, at the very minimum, connections for a microphone and speakers. Some include so many input and output connections that they have a breakout box, which often mounts in one of the drive bays, to house them. These connections include :
- Multiple speaker connections for 3-D and surround sound.
- Sony/philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF), a file transfer protocol for audio data. It uses either coaxial or optical connections for input to and output from the sound card.
- Musical Instruments Digital Interface (MIDI), used to connect synthesizers or other electronic Instruments to their computers.
- FireWire and USB connections, which connect digital audio or video recorded to the sound card.
Game designers use 3-D sound to provide fast-paced, dynamic sound that changes based on a player's position in the game. In addition to using sound from different directions, this technology allows realistic recreations of sound traveling around or through obstacles. Surrounds sound also uses sound from several directions, but the sound does not change based on the listener's actions. Surrounds sound is common in home theater systems.
Like a graphics card, a sound card uses software to help it communicate with applications and with the rest of the computer. This software includes the card's drivers, which allow the card to communicate with the operating system. It also includes applications program interfaces (APIs), which are sets of rules or standards that make it easier for software to communicate with the card. The most common APIs include :
- Microsoft : DirectSound
- Creative : Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) and Open AL
- Sensaura : MacroFX
- QSound Labs : QSo
- Next, we'll look at integrated motherboard and external sound control options.
3-D VS SURROUND SOUNDS AND DRIVERS & APIS
Game designers use 3-D sound to provide fast-paced, dynamic sound that changes based on a player's position in the game. In addition to using sound from different directions, this technology allows realistic reactions of sound traveling around or through obstacles. Surrounds sound also uses sound from several directions, but the sound does not change based on the listener's actions. Surrounds sound is common in home theater systems.
Like a graphics card, a sound card uses software to help it communicate with applications and with the rest of the computer. This software includes the card's drivers, which allow the card to communicate with the operating system. It also includes application program interfaces (APIs), which are sets of rules or standards that make it easier for software to communicate with the card. The most common APIs include :
- Microsoft : Direct Sound
- Creative : Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) and Open AL
- Sensaura : MacroFX
- QSound Labs : QSound
Other Options for Sound Control
Not every computer has a sound card. Some motherboards feature integrated audio support instead. A motherboard that has its own DSP can process multiple data streams. It may also support 3-D positional and Dolby surround sound. However, in spite of these features, most reviewers agree that separate sound cards provide better audio quality.
Laptops usually have integrated sound capabilities on their motherboards or small sound cards. However, space and temperature control considerations make top-of-the-line internal cards impractical. So, laptop users can purchase external sound controllers, which use USB a FireWire connections. These external modules can significantly improve laptop sound quality.
SHOPPING FOR A SOUND CARD
Numerous factors affect a sound card's abilities to provide clear, high-quality sound. When shopping for a sound card, pay attention to :
- ADC and DAC data capacity, measured in bits
- Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and total harmonic distortion (THD)
- Frequency response, or how loudly the card can play sounds at different frequencies
- Sampling rate
- Output channels, such as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound
- Supported application programming interfaces (APIs)
- Certifications, including Dolby Master and THX
Anyone investing in a top-of-the-line sound card should also have high-quality speakers. Even the best sound card cannot compensate for poor speaker quality.
Writer: Mr. Krishan Kumar Saini
Today we have learnt Basics about Sound Card. Hope this lesson is helpful for you.
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