DirectSound (Windows 2000) means Unlimited Channels
Jul 23 '01
The Bottom Line DirectSound, introduced in Windows 2000, makes a basic, two-channel soundcard sound like expensive, multi-channel hardware.
This isn't an article on a particular sound card, but a recent change in the Windows OS that will affect what you look for in a sound card. Before Microsoft introduced Windows 2000 and DirectSound, the number of channels that a soundcard had available in its hardware was an important factor when purchasing a sound card.
Most standard cards come with two channels, or one stereo channel. This means that Windows could only play one stereo sound at a time. I'm just talking about digitized, or waveform sounds, and not the additional sounds services that soundcards provide, such as MIDI and analog inputs. When an application was playing a sound, other applications would remain silent because all of the sound channels were being used. More expensive soundcards came with four or more channels (two of more stereo channels). This meant that two or more stereo sounds could play at the same time. Windows was limited to playing only the number of sounds that your hardware could support.
I had a pleasant surprise when I first installed Windows 2000. Windows 2000 introduced DirectSound, which adds an additional software layer between applications and the sound hardware. This layer uses today's high-speed CPUs to mix all waveform sounds before they go to the soundcard. This means that you could have a basic, two-channel soundcard, yet any number of applications could be producing sounds, and you would hear all of them. I noticed that my previously limited soundcard was now playing all of the sounds from my applications, even if they were playing at the same time!
Here's a practical example. On my Windows NT box, which doesn't have DirectSound, I am playing an audio stream from an internet radio station. If another application wants to beep, I will not hear it, since the audio stream is taking up the only stereo sound channel available. This makes chatting on AIM a little difficult. On my Windows 2000 box, however, any application can make itself heard while an audio stream is playing. DirectSound just mixes the applications' noises with the audio stream on the fly. I could run three audio streams at the same time, and hear the resulting cacophony as the three were smoothly mixed together into the computer's single stereo channel. I would also hear if someone on AIM was trying to get my attention.
If you have Windows 2000 or another version of Windows that supports DirectSound, along with a CPU powerful enough to support it (my 266 MHz Pentium MMX has no problem), then you probably can save money on a soundcard by eliminating the need for more than two waveform channels (or one one stereo channel).
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