Upgrading and Repairing PCs

Choosing the Best Audio Adapter for Your Needs

Although sound features in computers have become commonplace, the demand for sophisticated uses for sound hardware have grown and demanded more and more powerful hardware. If your idea of a perfect multimedia PC includes any of the following, the plain-vanilla multimedia hardware found in many of today's PCs won't be sufficient:

• Realistic 3D and 360° sound for games

• Theater-quality audio for DVD movies

• Voice dictation and voice command

• Creating and recording MIDI, MP3, CD-Audio, and WAV audio files

Table 16.1 summarizes the additional hardware features and software you'll need to achieve the results you want with your high-performance audio adapter. The following sections examine in detail these advanced uses and the features you'll need for each.

Table 16.1. Audio Adapter Intended Uses and Features Comparison

Intended Use	Features You Need	Additional Hardware	Additional Software
Gaming	Game or USB port; 3D sound; audio acceleration	Gaming controller; rear speakers	Games
DVD movies	Dolby 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 decoding	Dolby 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 speakers compatible with audio adapter	MPEG/DVD decoding program
Voice dictation and voice command	Audio adapter on software's compatibility list or equal to SB16 in quality	Voice-recognition microphone	Voice-dictation software
Creating MIDI files	MIDI In adapter	MIDI-compatible musical keyboard	MIDI composing program
Creating MP3 files	Digital audio extraction	CD-R or CD-RW drive	MP3 ripper
Creating WAV files	Microphone	CD-R or CD-RW drive	Sound recording program
Creating CD audio files	External sound source	CD-R or CD-RW drive	WAV or MP3 to CD audio conversion program

The following sections discuss many of these special uses in detail.

Gaming

Thanks to the widespread availability of audio adapters, game playing has taken on a new dimension. Support for 3D and surround digitized sound and realistic MIDI music in current games has added a level of realism that would otherwise be impossible even with today's sophisticated graphics hardware. Mere stereo playback isn't good enough for hardcore gamers who want to be able to hear monsters behind them or feel the impact of a car crash. These users should choose sound cards with support for four or more speakers and some form of directional sound, such as the Creative Labs EAX technology used in Sound Blaster Live! and the Audigy/Audigy 2 series or Sensaura 3D Positional Audio (3DPA) used by ESS, VideoLogic, Cirrus Crystal Logic, Analog Devices, C-Media, and NVIDIA. Many sound cards feature support for these standards, either through direct hardware support or through software emulation and conversion. As with 3D video cards (see Chapter 15, "Video Hardware"), most cards today merely need to work with the 3D audio APIs included in the current revision of Microsoft's DirectX technology.

Any audio adapter built in the last few years will still work with today's games, thanks in large part to the Hardware Emulation Layer (HEL) built into DirectX. HEL emulates the features of newer hardware, such as 3D sound, on older hardware. However, as you can imagine, the task of emulating advanced performance on older hardware can slow down gameplay and doesn't produce sounds as realistic as those available with today's best audio adapters.

Sound Card Minimums for Gameplay

The replacement of the old ISA Sound Blaster Pro standard by PCI sound card standards has helped improve performance a great deal, but for the best gameplay with current and forthcoming titles, you need to consider sound cards with the following features:

• 3D audio support in the chipset. 3D audio means you'll be able to hear sounds appear to move toward you, away from you, and at various angles corresponding to what's happening onscreen. Microsoft's DirectX, version 9, includes support for 3D audio, but you'll have faster 3D audio performance if you use an audio adapter with 3D support built in. DirectX 9 works along with proprietary 3D audio APIs, such as Creative's EAX and EAX 2.0, Sensaura's 3D Positional Audio, and the A3D technology from now-defunct Aureal.

• 3D sound acceleration. Sound cards using chipsets with this feature require very little CPU utilization, which speeds up overall gameplay. For best results, use a chipset that can accelerate a large number of 3D streams; otherwise, the CPU will be bogged down with managing 3D audio. This can slow down gameplay, particularly on systems with processors running under 1GHz or that are running at a high-resolution, high-color depth setting (1,024x768/32-bit).

• Game ports with support for force-feedback game controllers if your game controllers aren't USB compatible. If your games don't work properly with USB controllers, or your force-feedback game controllers use the game port only, check the game port features to make sure you'll feel as well as hear and see the action. Note that many recent game cards no longer include a game port or might use an additional slot for the game port connector.

Features such as these don't necessarily cost a ton of money; many of the mid-range audio adapters on the market ($50–$100 at retail) support at least the first two features. With new 3D audio chipsets available from a number of vendors, it might be time for you to consider an upgrade if you're heavily into 3D gaming.

Legacy (MS-DOS) Game Support Issues

Support for the classic Sound Blaster Pro standard was once the primary requirement for a good gaming audio adapter, but with the rise of great Windows-based games and the development of DirectX, this is no longer the case for many users.

If you want to play both MS-DOS and Windows games on the same computer, you need to understand the implications of the changes in the newer audio adapters. Emulating the Sound Blaster with a PCI-based sound card is difficult because today's PCI audio adapters and motherboard-based audio solutions don't use separate DMA channels the same way that ISA cards and motherboard resources do. DMA support is vital to achieving a high degree of compatibility with software written for the older Sound Blaster Pro or Sound Blaster 16 cards.

Four methods are used by PCI-based sound cards to emulate Sound Blaster at the DMA hardware level demanded by older DOS and some early Windows games:

• DDMA (Distributed DMA), developed by Compaq

• TDMA (Transparent DMA), developed by ESS Technology

• PC/PCI interface, developed by Intel and Creative Labs

• TSR (memory-resident) utility programs

Distributed DMA and Transparent DMA are similar; both convert calls to the 8237 DMA controller (no longer present on PCI-based motherboards) into calls to a master DMA central resource, which converts the signals into a form compatible with the way PCI-based systems handle DMA transfers. No external connector is required for these features; just enable the Sound Blaster compatibility feature in your audio adapter's setup to activate these features. This is the easiest way for you to achieve Sound Blaster compatibility if you still need it.

The PC/PCI interface, which uses a 6-pin ribbon cable to connect the sound card to a special motherboard header, is supported by several recent Intel and third-party motherboards and some recent sound cards made by Creative Labs and others. However, it is no longer supported by Creative Labs' latest products (the Audigy and Audigy 2 series). If you want to learn more about PC/PCI (also called the SB-Link connector), see the section "SB-Link Connectors" in Chapter 12 of Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 12th Edition, included on the DVD with this book.

All these methods require that the feature be built into both the motherboard and the sound card. Many recent PCI-based sound cards support the first two of these options, easing the issue of finding a match between your motherboard and your sound card's method of emulating the Sound Blaster.

The least desirable method for emulating a Sound Blaster under DOS has made a comeback after fading from view a few years ago: requiring the user to load a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program into RAM before starting the DOS-based game or educational program. For example, the Sound Blaster Audigy and Audigy 2 series modifies the DOS-mode Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files to use the memory-resident SBEINIT.COM driver along with the Windows HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE memory managers to enable DOS games to run. A poorly written driver could also cause problems with sound card detection by your game and compatibility problems with some games.

For these reasons, if you have an older sound card that works well with your DOS-based games, you might want to keep it installed if you can spare the hardware resources it uses. Additionally, if you bought an early PCI-based sound card that doesn't work well with DOS games, consider upgrading to a model that uses a high-quality method of emulating the Sound Blaster Pro.

Avoiding Game Port Conflicts

On older systems that use multi-I/O type cards to provide serial and parallel ports and on low-cost systems based on integrated audio chipsets such as the Intel 810, an audio card's game port could be a potential area of conflict because these cards sometimes also include a game port. You must disable one of the game interfaces if you have duplicate game ports. To learn how to disable a duplicate game port, see the section "Resolving Resource Conflicts," later in this chapter.

In many cases, you might not need to use the game port/MIDI port for gaming controllers. Many current game controllers often offer both USB and the traditional game port connectors, allowing you to use the control with either type of connector, although some features might work only when the USB port is used.

The game port is still useful for older games that might not recognize a USB-attached game controller or for specialized controllers such as rudder pedals for some flight sims. If you have invested in a high-performance game port, such as the Thrustmaster ACM Game card (www.thrustmaster.com) designed for fast PCs, and sophisticated controllers, such as driving wheels, force-feedback joysticks, and so on, you should disable the sound card's game port and use the separate one you installed. If you have a plain-vanilla standard game port, remove it or disable it and use the game adapter port on your audio adapter, especially if you plan to use the MIDI port.

Tip If your sound card uses a header cable and a second expansion slot for the game port, as is the case with the Sound Blaster Audigy and Audigy 2 series, but you don't use the game port for anything, you can disconnect the game port from your sound card and free up a PCI slot.

DVD Movies on Your Desktop

You don't need a dedicated DVD player to enjoy the clarity, control, extra features, and excitement of DVD movies. DVD-ROM drives help bring the DVD movie experience to your PC, but having a DVD-ROM and a DVD movie player program is only part of what you need to bring the big screen to your desktop.

To get the most out of your desktop DVD experience, you need the following:

• DVD playback software that supports Dolby Digital 5.1 or better output. One of the best choices is Cyberlink's PowerDVD4.x, available from www.gocyberlink.com.

• An audio adapter that supports Dolby Digital input from the DVD drive and will output to Dolby Digital 5.1–compatible audio hardware. Some will remix Dolby 5.1 to work on four-speaker setups if you don't have Dolby 5.1 hardware or will accept S/PDIF AC3 (Dolby Surround) input designed for a four-speaker system; some can also pass through Dolby Digital audio to speakers that can perform the Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding. Some high-end audio adapters now support 6.1 and 7.1 speaker configurations; these also work with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

• Dolby Digital 5.1-compatible stereo receiver and speakers. Most high-end sound cards with Dolby Digital 5.1 support connection to analog-input Dolby Digital 5.1 receivers, but some, such as the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live!, Audigy, and Audigy 2 Platinum series and the Hercules Digifire 7.1, Game Theater XP 7.1, and Fortissimo III 7.1 support digital-input speaker systems. Depending on which types of speakers you are using and how they are attached, you might need to switch your mixer settings in Windows from analog to digital to hear sounds from your applications (movies, games, and so on).

To learn more about speaker terminology and how to ensure your speaker configuration is correct, see the section "Speakers," later in this chapter.

Voice Dictation and Control

Some audio adapters are equipped with software capable of voice recognition that can be used to control some of your computer's operations. You also can get voice recognition for your current adapter in the form of add-on software. Voice recognition, as the name implies, is when your computer is "taught" to recognize spoken word forms and react to them. Voice recognition products generally take two forms: those that are designed to provide a simple voice interface to basic computer functions and those that can accept vocal dictation and insert the spoken text into an application, such as a word processor. The minimum standard for most voice-recognition software is a Sound Blaster 16 or equivalent sound card.

Voice Command Software

The voice interface application is clearly the simpler of the two because the software has to recognize only a limited vocabulary of words. With this type of software, you can sit in front of your computer and say the words "file open" to access the menu in your active Windows application.

For the average user, this type of application is of dubious value. For a time, Compaq was shipping computers to corporate clients with a microphone and an application of this type at little or no additional cost. The phenomenon of dozens of users in an office talking to their computers was interesting, to say the least. The experiment resulted in virtually no increased productivity, a lot of wasted time as users experimented with the software, and noisier offices.

However, for users with physical handicaps that limit their ability to use a keyboard, this type of software can represent a whole new avenue of communication. For this reason alone, continued development of voice-recognition technology is essential.

Note Voice-recognition applications, by necessity, have to be somewhat limited in their scope. For example, it quickly becomes a standard office joke for someone to stick his head into another person's cubicle and call out "Format C!" as though this command would erase the user's hard drive. Obviously, the software must be incapable of damaging a user's system because of a misinterpreted voice command.

Voice Dictation Software

The other type of voice-recognition software is far more complex. Converting standard speech into text is an extraordinarily difficult task, given the wide variation in human speech patterns. For this reason, nearly all software of this type (and some of the basic voice command applications, as well) must be "trained" to understand a particular user's voice. You do this training by reading prepared text samples supplied with the software to the computer. Because the software knows what you're supposed to be saying beforehand, it can associate certain words with the manner in which you speak them.

Users' results with this type of application vary widely, probably due in no small part to their individual speech patterns. I've heard people rave about being able to dictate pages of text without touching the keyboard, whereas others claim that correcting the many typographical errors is more trouble than typing the text manually.

Note For more information about voice-recognition, see "Voice Dictation Software" in Chapter 20 of Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 12th Edition, included on the DVD-ROM accompanying this book. Current vendors of voice-dictation software include ScanSoft. Dragon NaturallySpeaking; www.scansoft.com IBM. ViaVoice; www.ibm.com Microsoft. Microsoft Office XP English, simplified Chinese, and Japanese editions; www.microsoft.com Corel. WordPerfect Suite 2002 Professional; www.corel.com

Sound Producers

Sound producers are people who intend to create their own sound files. These can range from casual business users recording low-fidelity voice annotations to professional musicians and MIDI maniacs. These users need an adapter that can perform as much of the audio processing as possible itself, so as not to place an additional burden on the system processor. Adapters that use DSPs to perform compression and other tasks are highly recommended in this case. Musicians will certainly want an adapter with as many voices as possible and a wavetable synthesizer. Adapters with expandable memory arrays and the capability to create and modify custom wavetables are also preferable.

Many of the best sound cards for hardcore gamers also are suitable for sound producers by adding the appropriate sound-editing programs, such as Sound Forge, and by equipping the card with the appropriate connectors for SPDIF digital audio and MIDI interfaces. The latest Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum and Platinum EX include internal (Platinum) and external (Platinum 2) breakout boxes with these features. Hercules' Game Theater XP 7.1 also includes a breakout box. The Creative Labs Extigy provides features similar to those found on the Audigy 2 Platinum series, but it can be added to any system with a USB port. Most other audio cards designed for sound production features add jacks to the traditional trio of connectors on the rear card bracket.