Creative Wave Blaster

{{short description|MIDI synthesizer}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{Refimprove|date=June 2018}}

{{weasel|date=January 2016}}

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Image:SB16-CT2940.JPG with Wave Blaster header (top right)]]

Image:Roland SCB-55 on Diamond MX300.jpg Monster Sound MX300 with a Roland Sound Canvas SCB-55 daughtercard attached.]]

The Wave Blaster was an add-on MIDI-synthesizer for Creative Sound Blaster 16 and Sound Blaster AWE32 family of PC soundcards. It was a sample-based synthesis General MIDI compliant synthesizer. For General MIDI scores, the Wave Blaster's wavetable-engine produced more realistic instrumental music than the SB16's onboard Yamaha-OPL3.

The Wave Blaster attached to a SB16 through a 26-pin expansion-header, eliminating the need for extra cabling between the SB16 and the Wave Blaster. The SB16 emulated an MPU-401 UART, giving existing MIDI-software the option to send MIDI-sequences directly to the attached Wave Blaster, instead of driving an external MIDI-device. The Wave Blaster's analog stereo-output fed into a dedicated line-in on the SB16, where the onboard-mixer allowed equalization, mixing, and volume adjustment.

The Wave Blaster port was adopted by other sound card manufacturers who produced both daughterboards and soundcards with the expansion-header: Diamond, Ensoniq, Guillemot, Oberheim, Orchid, Roland, TerraTec,

{{cite journal

| last = Walker | first = Martin

| title = Terratec Audiosystem EWS64 XXL

| url = http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul99/articles/terratec.htm

| journal = Sound on Sound

| issue = July 1999

}}
Note: they also sold Microwave PC (multiple-wavetable synthesizer module).

Turtle Beach,

{{cite web

| title = Turtle Beach HOMAC (Rockwell / Kurzweil) Wavetable Daughterboard, 4MB

| url = http://www.amoretro.de/2014/07/turtle-beach-homac-rockwell-kurzweil-wavetable-daughterboard-4mb.html

| work = AmoRetro.de

| date = 7 July 2014

}}
Note: using Kurzweil sound on Rockwell chip.

and Yamaha. The header also appeared on devices such as the Korg NX5R MIDI sound module, the Oberheim MC-1000/MC-2000 keyboards, and the TerraTec Axon AX-100 Guitar-to-MIDI converter.

Since 2000, Wave Blaster-capable sound cards for computers are becoming rare. In 2005, Terratec released a new Wave Blaster daughterboard called the Wave XTable with 16mb of on-board sample memory comprising 500 instruments and 10 drum kits. In 2014, a new compatible card called Dreamblaster S1 was produced by the Belgian company Serdaco. In 2015 that same company released a high end card named Dreamblaster X1, comparable to Yamaha and Roland cards. In 2016 DreamBlaster X2 was released, a board with both a Wave Blaster interface and a USB interface.