Creative Wave Blaster

Sound Blaster 16 with Wave Blaster header (top left)

File:MX300andSCD15.JPG

Diamond Monster Sound MX300 with a Roland Sound Canvas SCD-15 daughtercard attached.

The Wave Blaster port is an internal connector / header on some sound cards from the 1990s that allowed sample-based synthesis MIDI playback capability to be added to sound cards. The standard was first used for Creative Wave Blaster daughterboard upgrades for Creative Sound Blaster 16 sound cards. It was also used on several cards already equipped with MIDI capabilities, such as the Creative Sound Blaster AWE32, where it enhanced MIDI capabilities. The 26-pin Wave Blaster port is an internal MIDI interface that carries the same MIDI signals to the daughterboard that would otherwise be carried over a MIDI cable, in addition to two analog audio lines carrying stereo left and right channels from the daughterboard.

The Wave Blaster port was also adopted by other sound card manufacturers who produced both sound cards with the connector and daughterboards for use on them, such as Yamaha, Ensoniq, Orchid, Oberheim, Guillemot, Diamond, TerraTec, Roland, and Turtle Beach. It has 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.

Although new Wave Blaster-capable sound cards for computers haven't been produced for years, Terratec still produces their Axon AX-100 Guitar-to-MIDI converter that uses a Wave Blaster port to add sound generation capability. In 2005, they released a new Wave Blaster daughterboard called the Wave XTable with 16mb of on-board sample memory comprising 500 instruments and 10 drum kits.

WaveBlaster Connector Pinout

Pin	Function	Pin	Function
1	DGnd	2	-
3	DGnd	4	TTL-MIDI input
5	DGnd	6	+5 Volts
7	DGnd	8	TTL-MIDI output
9	DGnd	10	+5 Volts
11	DGnd	12	Audio R in
13	-	14	+5 Volts
15	AGnd	16	Audio L in
17	AGnd	18	+12 Volts
19	AGnd	20	Audio R out
21	AGnd	22	-12 Volts
23	AGnd	24	Audio L out
25	AGnd	26	!Reset

• AGnd = Analog ground
• DGnd = Digital ground
• Some Wave Blaster cards offer audio inputs (Yamaha DB60XG)
• Some Wave Blaster cards offer TTL-MIDI output
• Reset is active low

External links

• Waveblaster pin-out information
• Terratec Wave XTable (Broke Link as 15/4/08)
• Terratec MKII Update