E-MU 1616M PCI

Hello,

technical characteristics that motivated the choice: the price / performance ratio announced, the number of inputs, built-in effects, the brand, I did not know at the time that E-MU was bought by creative labs.

external instruments connected to it are:
1 Behringer UMX 490 USB Keyboard 61 keys connected USB 2 on the PC.
1 Keyboard USB M-Audio Axiom 25 USB 2 connected to the PC.
AKAI EWI 1 EWIUSB connected USB 2 on the PC.
1 pedal midi (noon 5 pin plug) (low organ pedal) connected to the midi-in micro-dock E-MU
1 electric bass in Mic 2 micro-dock E-MU
1 Shure SM58 mic input 1 microphone-dock E-MU
And it all works together

What system: a PC mounted home today is Asrock motherboard that I highly recommend (forget ASUS, MSI, I tried everything from long Asrock is the best). USB3 SATA3, video card (ATI) integrated. 2 SSD 120 GB each. 16 GB of RAM, no swap file (pagefile). All integrated in a flight case with an old 15-inch LCD monitor integrated additional graphics card with 2 video outputs external monitor to put a + great at home when I bump sounds, and receive a 2nd output to video projector the scene, already tested with a small video projector. Otherwise I have everything plugged into the same flight case:
Micro-dock connection (RJ45 + 48 Volt 4 outlets USB2, USB3 4 outlets, 5 outlets power supply, 9 volt power ... what you want, stomp, recorder, etc. ... it avoids lug adapters or batteries

For what purpose: rehearsals and scenes. I use Ableton Live, tracks routed via ASIO PatchMix this E-MU PCI1616. For now I have about a dozen MIDI tracks in Ableton Live, Reason in rewire routed with 5 instruments mentioned above, and some tracks wav, Reason for return and also for pre-recorded sequences sonos WAV format on the PC. I think up to thirty tracks for a few months, or +. I also have a pedal that I made from a circuit recovered in a PC keyboard that I adapted to put electrical switches (to RCS) foot so connected to the PC via USB, to control Ableton sequences.
The CPU is an AMD 3.6 GHz 8 cores. We located not too expensive today.

I appreciate being able to route subsets of "slices" of Ableton Live 6 outputs to a mono) microphone-dock.

UTILIZATION

Drivers: I think this is the weak point of the whole, but I ended up finding various W7 64 and it works fine, no crashes, even after 3 hours of intensive use Again, in an overheated room.
not updated, followed quite low from E-MU (Creative Labs), I think their team DEV else to do .. and it's a shame, but I do not have a problem , it's okay.

Software: I wrote High at the top of the stack is Ableton Live, below is found rewire, Reason 5 and other software, such as the saxophone EWI. I will try other software in a short time.

How many tracks: Well, it's clear, I do not register with this configuration. To save, I have a standalone digital recorder Zoom R24 (24 tracks with 8 recordable simultaneously) which works very well and is not expensive at all (I highly recommend). Cons by reading I read about a fortnight tracks no worries, I'm sure to exceed fifty, at least for MIDI and 7 or 8 mode wav.

Latency: Topic poorly understood and controversial. There is software to test it. For me, this is the time lag between when I press a key on the keyboard (or breath in EWI) and when the sound comes from the speakers. This is what counts as a musician. And you should know that it depends not only on the sound card ... I use ASIO drivers provided by E-MU, and I have no noticeable latency (and I'm demanding on this point), even with multiple MIDI tracks / rewire playing and two keyboards simultaneously with 4 agreements notes each. The E-MU has much to do, but also PC config, especially the 3.6 GHz CPU 8 cores and 16 GB of RAM. Board, it is better a 4 cores at 3.5 GHz or 3.6 that 8 cores at 2.9 GHz (if it exists). CPU speed plays a lot of latency.

For example, I'm impressed with the bass, I get low on micro-dock driving directions from PatchMix to Ableton Live on a track wav, I added 3 vst effects (Preamp tubes, cabinet simulation HP, reverb) , reroute everything to an input of Patchmix Host Asio. And when I play a note on the bass, I do not perceive any latency. It's as if I was plugged directly into the amp.

GETTING STARTED

Installation: Nothing to say, except to find the right drivers. ==> Do not forget to disable in the BIOS the onboard sound card on the motherboard, it can disrupt serious ....

Configuration: At the beginning it is quite confusing, read the manual, and we understand little by little, it is a long experiment, I think it might be a little + intuitive. But the hardest part is to understand the music software that you will use, and make them work with the E-MU 1616. Ableton, I still find it hard to dip some aspects, but it just must READ the doc several times if necessary.

Incompatibilities: No, no, as stated above +, disable in the BIOS the internal sound card and it runs .... if you have the right drivers.

Manual: relatively clear. For cons, I struggled to find where it is written that if one uses a sampling frequency higher than 44.1/48 Mhz ..... Effects integrated into the sound card does not work any more. this is bad, it made me mad, it is nowhere stated before purchase. This is handy built-in effects, it consumes zero CPU.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 3 or 4 years.

I have not tried other external sound cards previously only integrated sound card for motherboards.

what I like least: The integrated effects that do not work at 88.2 MHz (sax my software runs at this frequency). It is almost prohibitive, but I did not know before purchasing.

what I love most: imperceptible latency with a good PC, the software Patchmix is ​​very well done, the doc not so bad.

price / quality ratio: No picture, it is definitely worth the price!

Yes I would do this choice, despite the problem that effects only work 44.1 MHz. For higher frequencies, we can circumvent the problem by inserting external effects hardwares, but must spend + .....

What characteristics have motivated your choice?
I do not know it was a big card and full opportunity ect ..

With which the instruments or systems do you use?
measured for only a micro, xp, seven.

For what purpose?
music not mix and acoustic measurement which is not much

What is your config (Motherboard / CPU / RAM / Disk ,...)?
big gamer kind of config: SSD, 2GB RAM, E8500 cpu ect ..

UTILIZATION

The drivers are stable?
it does not even give me want to laugh

What software do you use most often?
no

How many tracks you get to record / play simultaneously?
never

Are they updated frequently?
update and reinstall every time

What you get lag?
no idea

GETTING STARTED

The installation is done it without problems?
yes

Have you encountered any incompatibilities?
I lost all these problems I think it's me that is not compatible

The general configuration is easy?
yes

The manual is clear and sufficient? ...
yes

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you use it?
+ 4 years of use

Have you tried many other models before buying it?
No, the first sound card

What is so special that you love the most, least?
irrelevant now

How would you rate the quality / price?
no picture I do have

With experience, you do again this choice?
I do not want to hear about E-MU never ever
if I made a gift of crap I slay with a hammer.

I regret the day or the sound card came into my life four years of fighting is too much after that if someone buys this brand sound card and bin there will be problems when it deserves to be ignored

I speak of PCIe, the pramp, the dock dport.
pc, and plug ing SAW reaper

Windows 7 64-bit.

UTILIZATION

perfect for what I do.

soft reaper, Komplet 8 and plug-in.

GETTING STARTED

yes, but the same problem as all the cards that allow routing in all directions ... .. to understand, and me .. and I have the brain can not be adapted ..!

OVERALL OPINION

quality-price ratio, correct.
no problem of stability never had a bug ...
I also have a 9632 rm on another pc, the rms best latency; 3ms.la emu .. 6 ms;
otherwise, no diffrence notorious.
buy without risk.

What characteristics have motivated your choice?
ADDED 14/08/2010: More than a year and a half after my first opinion, know that I stand by everything that follows. E-MU is a bunch of amateurs. Proof Now: NO DRIVER FOR WINDOWS SEVEN IS STILL AVAILABLE TO DATE. It's pro, right? Mind you, given the quality of their drivers that is perhaps better that way .... A word, hello! (MOTU VIVE!)

I bought this card which offers high quality converters and pre-amp micro totally reliable and an array of input and output for the comprehensive range of price (449 euros). ASIO 2, integrated 32-bit DSP ... In short, a creature ttrès very attractive for a small portfolio like mine. To have as rich caractéritiques among the best manufacturers, we must at least double the price ...

For what purpose?

Exclusively computer music.

What is your config (Motherboard / CPU / Ram / Hard ,...)?

ASRock Wolfdale1333-GLAN / M
Intel Dual Core E2140@1.60gHz
3gb RAM

With which instruments or systems to use you?

No nstruments direct vocal mic, and everything else controlled by plugins midi keyboard instruments.

UTILIZATION

The installation is done it without problems?

Installation could not be simpler. You open your PC, you spit the card into a PCI slot, the PC is closed, it reliela catre Internal Dock with External using a digital interface cable provided, insert the installation CD and LZE voila.

Have you experienced any incompatibilities?
Problems, oh yes! (But I will discuss later). I do not know exactly with what this card is incompatible ... Perhaps with all that is not at Creative. For those who do not know it yet, E-MU is the professional sector. Finally, "professional" they are the ones who say ...

The general configuration is easy?
Very. Everything is made from PatchMix that is taken in hand very quickly.

The manual is clear and sufficient?
The rapid manual paper will not teach you much unless you start in the cartesontologie, and the full manual. Pdf aptly named: it is comprehensive and clear. And well translated, which is not the case ... Toujouse

GETTING STARTED

Here, I would not follow the order of questions, since I use have not been. The sound card produces clacs so strong in my monitors and my headphones that I refused to turn them on for longer when you know the price of these things. So the headphones I tried in vain to solve this seemingly intractable problem, technical support E-MU pitiful who knows even less than me and that is one week to respond to each mail ( which means they probably are overwhelmed ...) was unable to help me in any way. Other than uninstalling and reinstalling the sound card on forever, or to optimize my PC by reducing the maximum occupancy of the processor, that any beginner computer music already knows and is a long time.
For those who have already dealt with Creative, I think they will absolutely not be surprised if I venture to suggest that the problem of their equipment is usually not on this technology because there they are very competitive, but the quality of their drivers that are absolutely null and updated once every 36 months. It is certainly a technical and physical configuration peculiar to run their products, which is much more restrictive than the apparent universality of what they offer.

OVERALL OPINION

How long have you use it?
It's been a month since I am struggling with.

What is so special that you like most and least?
Pros: very complete
Cons: uh, it's no use to be full of drivers with more than rotten

Have you tried many other models before buying it?
it would indeed be great to try this kind of stuff before buying it because I would not have made that mistake ...

How would you rate the quality / price?
It's the biggest trap of this card. We believe in one unbeatable value for money, and ultimately the only thing that remains with you is the price.

With experience, you do again this choice?
Never, never! I'm going to E-MU disparître my horizon and I finally turn to brands unfortunately much more expensive, but that does not make us laugh when we read "Professional" on the carton.
I highly recommend this card to anyone who wants to work peacefully.