Sound Card

A computer program sends input and receives output of audio signals to and from the sound card

  • as a provider of output: the sound card provides data to the speakers
  • as a receiver of input: the sound card may receive analog data from a microphone, which it then converts into digital data.

Sound cards use a digital-to-analogy converter, converting recorded digital signal data into an analog format to be played over speakers.

The sound card may have direct memory access to transfer samples to and from main memory. Normally the digital data is only saved to long term storage once the program has received a request from the user indicating the desire.

A sound card provides input and output audio signals to and from a computer

A soundcard is able to process and output multiple independent voices/sounds simultaneously.

  • ex. 2.0 (stereo), 2.1 (stereo+subwoofer), 5.1 (surround)

An music.engineering.audio-interface (Private) is normally described as a "professional sound cards"