Ensoniq Soundscape S-2000 - Compatibility

Compatibility

The digital sound section of the card is compatible with a wide array of hardware, and has its own high-quality native Soundscape mode. Of critical importance at the time was support of the Creative Labs Sound Blaster, a card that was the ubiquitous sound standard of the day. Soundscape can emulate the Sound Blaster 2.0, an 8-bit monaural device with FM synthesis capability. While digital audio effect emulation is quite good, the FM synthesis emulation leaves much to be desired. Emulating FM synthesis through software was too demanding for system CPUs at the time (typically an 80486), and so Ensoniq mapped FM synthesis to the card's General MIDI support, meaning that the FM music did not sound correct because it was composed with FM synthesis in mind, not real instruments. This could be especially poor if the game was an older title that used FM synthesis for sound effects.

The reasoning behind using emulation instead of real hardware was cost and demand. At the time Soundscape arrived, the General MIDI option was available in almost every game and was substantially superior to FM synthesis. FM synthesis hardware support for games at the time required an additional chip, the Yamaha OPL-2 or OPL-3. PC gamers at this point would also often have two sound cards anyway, having upgraded to wavetable audio from their Sound Blaster-supporting audio card. The Soundscape's Sound Blaster emulation could be toggled on or off, and so in the case with dual cards, one would choose General MIDI to run on the Soundscape, while choosing the other sound card for Sound Blaster support. So the need for real OPL-3 hardware was not typically very great. However, it was very important for mind share amongst consumers, and was critical for OEM system sellers because adding a separate card would add cost to the system.