Many eons ago, in the 80s and 90s, a dedicated sound card was a must have for any PC gamer or musician. Your machine built in hardware was limited to bleeps and bloops, or at best some convoluted tricks to fudge low res samples. Just having music and effects that didnt grate on your ears was a major advancement. Youd no more consider skipping a sound card back then than you would a 3D graphics card today. As youve probably noticed, though, dedicated sound cards seem to have dropped off the...
