HardSID PCI SoundCard

Windows device driver information for HardSID PCI SoundCard

The HardSID PCI Soundcard is based on the MOS Technology Sound Interface Device or SID chip which was immortalized and made popular by the Commodore 64. It was the 2nd SID based device that is non-Commodore to penetrate its target market. This SID soundcard’s edge over other SID soundcards is that it is a straightforward hardware interface to SID chips which makes it more ideal for SID music players, emulator use and direct programming. The other SID soundcards in its class can only react to MIDI data and necessitates the conversion of music events to MIDI and back. The first HardSID soundcard released in 1999 was an ISA bus card that has one slot for a SID chip. Even the very first version of the HardSID soundcard had full support for the 8580 and 6581 SID models and their revisions.

The features of the HardSID PCI soundcard include a VSTi interface that has an update rate of 8000 hertz on all registers of SID, a VSTi pin Wave-in used to route 8000 hertz signals to every register and complete automation for all parameters of VSTi. It efficiently provides high quality sounds and support for up to a maximum of 4 SID chips such as any combination of 6582, 8580 and 6581. The HardSID PCI Soundcard also employs playback of users’ most listened to SID tunes that is cycle-accurate and hi-speed playback plus digitized sound with low utilization of the CPU. It can likewise deliver the smooth playback of SID tunes while users are working on their PCs by using a large playback buffer for applications that are non-VSTi. This HardSID card is supported by almost all SID player applications such as ACID64 player and the sidplay. It is highly recommended you run a free registry scan for and HardSID PCI SoundCard errors before installing any driver updates.