Sound Blaster 16

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Sound Blaster 16
Sound Blaster 16 (CT-2940)
Date Invented:	June 1992
Invented By:	Creative Technology
Connects to: Motherboard via one of ISA Socket built-in SCSI adaptor CD-ROM Drive via ATAPI IDE interface
Manufacturer:	Creative Technology

Sound Blaster 16 is an ISA sound card from Creative Technology. It is an add-on board for PCs.

[edit] Overview

Sound Blaster 16 (June 1992), the successor to Sound Blaster Pro, introduced 16-bit digital audio sampling to the Sound Blaster line. They also, like the older Sound Blasters, natively supported FM synthesis through a Yamaha OPL-3 chip. The cards also featured a connector for add-on daughterboards with sample-based synthesis capabilities complying to the General MIDI standard. Creative offered such daughterboards in their Wave Blaster line. Finally, the MIDI support now included MPU-401 emulation (in dumb UART mode only, but this was sufficient for most MIDI applications). The Wave Blaster was simply a MIDI peripheral internally connected to the MIDI port, so any PC sequencer software could use it.

The Sound Blaster 16 had a socket for an optional digital signal processor dubbed the Advanced Signal Processor (ASP or later CSP). This chip added some special functionality to SB16, such as speech synthesis through the TextAssist software, QSound audio spatialization technology on wave playback, and special general audio compression and decompression. The chip was quite unpopular, mainly due to negligible industry support. Applications needed to include programming for the ASP chip otherwise it would be left unused. AWE32 often had the socket as well, however, support for the ASP was dropped thereafter.

The Sound Blaster 16 featured the then widely used TEA2025 operational amplifier which, in the configuration Creative had chosen, would allow approximately 700 milliwatts (0.7 watts) per channel when used with a standard pair of unpowered, 4-Ohm multi-media speakers. An onboard jumper could be used to redirect the audio signal around the TEA2025 allowing for line-level output to an external amplifier/receiver or powered multi-media speakers.

The various models and known model numbers:

Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects

Sound Blaster 16 SCSI-2 with a built-in SCSI adapter. ASP socket.
- CT1770
- CT1779
Sound Blaster 16 MCD "Multi-CD" with all of the old proprietary CD interfaces (no ATAPI). ASP socket.
- CT1230
- CT1230C
- CT1230S
- CT1239
- CT1239C
- CT1239S
- CT1260 (Vibra version)
- CT1750
- CT1759
Sound Blaster 16 Basic Edition Empty ASP socket, Panasonic CD-ROM interface, Wave Blaster header.
Sound Blaster 16 Value Edition No ASP socket or Wave Blaster header. A cost-reduced board.
Vibra 16 A cost reduced SB16 with Plug and Play, but lacks separate bass and treble control, ASP socket and Wave Blaster header.
Sound Blaster 16 IDE with the then-new ATAPI IDE interface for CD-ROMs. ASP socket.
Sound Blaster 16 ASP with the ASP chip included. Includes CD-ROM interface(s).
- CT2290
Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects a cheaper and simpler redesign of the Sound Blaster 16, released in 1997, packaged with Creative's WavEffects wavetable software.
- CT4170
- CT4171
Sound Blaster 16 PCI it is called a Sound Blaster 16, but it has little in common with the ISA variant. This board is based on the acquired Ensoniq AudioPCI technology.
- CT4740

[edit] Daughterboard bugs

A large number of Sound Blaster 16 cards have a flawed digital sound processor onboard that causes various issues with MIDI daughtercards attached to the Wave Blaster header. The problems include stuck notes, incorrect notes, and various other flaws in MIDI playback. The particular Sound Blaster 16 cards that are affected carry DSP versions 4.11, 4.12, and perhaps newer revisions. Older versions such as 4.05 may not be affected. There is no workaround for this flaw and it occurs with all operating systems.^[1]^[2]^[3]