![]() If an MS-DOS program wanted to use any other audio hardware, such as a MIDI interface like the Roland MPU-401, or a sound card like the Creative Labs' Sound Blaster (ie, back then, these were the two most popular add-on cards for MIDI, and digital audio, respectively), the program had to manipulate the audio hardware directly, controlling it in order to make sound. ![]() In fact, all that it supported was the internal PC speaker. The MS-DOS operating system was very primitive when it came to supporting audio/MIDI hardware. ![]() ![]() It was Microsoft's precursor to Windows, and it was a text-based (ie, no graphical interface like we have now) operating system. (Remember that digital audio and MIDI are two entirely different things, although both typically serve the purpose of recording and playing musical performances).Īt the time, the only operating system much in use for the IBM PC was called MS-DOS. Some other cards dealt with only MIDI input and output. Some of the cards dealt only with digital audio playback and recording. Soon after the IBM "personal computer" (ie, PC) first appeared in the consumer market in 1984, companies began to make cards that plugged inside of the computer in order to play and record music/audio/speech (since the IBM PC didn't have that capability built in). MIDI/Audio cards for a PC MIDI/Audio cards for a PC
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