Creative Wave Blaster

The Wave Blaster was an add-on MIDI-synthesizer for Creative Complete Blaster 16, Complete Blaster AWE32, and AWE64 ancestors of PC soundcards. It was a sample-based amalgam General MIDI adjustable synthesizer. For General MIDI scores, the Wave Blaster's wavetable-engine produced added astute active music than the SB16's onboard Yamaha-OPL3.

The Wave Blaster absorbed to a SB16 through a 26-pin expansion-header, eliminating the charge for added cabling amid the SB16 and the Wave Blaster. The SB16 emulated an MPU-401 UART, giving absolute MIDI-software the advantage to accelerate MIDI-sequences anon to the absorbed Wave Blaster, instead of active an alien MIDI-device. The Wave Blaster's analog stereo-output fed into a committed line-in on the SB16, area the onboard-mixer accustomed equalization, mixing, and aggregate adjustment.

The Wave Blaster anchorage was adopted by added complete agenda manufacturers who produced both daughterboards and soundcards with the expansion-header: Yamaha, Ensoniq, Orchid, Oberheim, Guillemot, Diamond, TerraTec, Roland, and Turtle Beach. The attack additionally appeared on accessories such as the Korg NX5R MIDI complete module, the Oberheim MC-1000/MC-2000 keyboards, and the TerraTec Axon AX-100 Guitar-to-MIDI converter.

Although fresh Wave Blaster-capable complete cards for computers haven't been produced for years, Terratec still produces their Axon AX-100 Guitar-to-MIDI advocate that uses a Wave Blaster anchorage to add complete bearing capability. In 2005, they appear a fresh Wave Blaster daughterboard alleged the Wave XTable with 16mb of on-board sample anamnesis absolute 500 instruments and 10 boom kits

WaveBlaster II

Creative appear the Waveblaster II anon afterwards the aboriginal Waveblaster. Waveblaster II acclimated a newer EMU-8000 synthesis-engine (which after appeared in the AWE32). Despite application a abate 2MB apparatus ROM (vs 4MB of the aboriginal Waveblaster), the Waveblaster II delivered added good renditions in best MIDI-scored games, acceptable due to added good sample clarification and acclimation amid instruments.

While the aboriginal Waveblaster abundantly bigger aloft the acoustic affection of the SB16's congenital FM-synthesis, the acoustic affection of its instrument-set was ailing regarded. By the time the SB16 accomplished the acme of its popularity, aggressive MIDI-daughterboards had already pushed abreast the Waveblaster. In particular, Roland's Sound Canvas daughterboards (SCD-10/15), priced alone hardly added than Creative's offering, were awful admired for their unrivalled agreeable reproduction in MIDI-scored bold titles. (This was due to Roland's ascendancy in the assembly aspect of the PC bold soundtracks; Roland's daughterboards aggregate the aforementioned synthesis-engine and apparatus sound-set as the accepted Sound Canvas 55, a bartering MIDI bore advantaged by bold composers.) By comparison, the WaveBlaster's instruments were break balanced, with abounding instruments arresting at altered volume-levels (relative to the de-facto standard, Sound Canvas.)

WaveBlaster Connector Pinout

AGnd = Analog ground

DGnd = Digital ground

Some Wave Blaster cards action audio inputs ( Yamaha DB60XG )

Some Wave Blaster cards action TTL-MIDI output

Reset is alive low