KVR Audio

PinothyJ · Post by **PinothyJ** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:27 pm

E-MU products look pretty fantastic for their price but what I want to know is, well, are they really? The E-MU 1820 and the E-MU 1212M are what I'm looking around at currently and, from what I've read, sound like a pretty affordable and worthwhile products. I, however, know absolutely nothing of E-MU as a company or of their products, in terms of quality, durability and reputation.

so tell me, what's the story (morning glory)…

LINKS:
http://www.emu.com/products/category.asp?category=505
http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp ... oduct=9872
http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp ... oduct=9870

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:45 pm

i have a 1820m with emulatorX2 & i love them!!!!

had it for a few years now,

no problems with the latest drivers

Subz

vins · Post by **vins** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:57 pm

i have a 1820m as well and i also really love them!! plenty of in- and outputs. latency is incredibly low. i'd buy it again any time!

vins

Cosmic Bandito · Post by **Cosmic Bandito** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:59 pm

They are pretty great for the price. I just picked up a 1212m for $129 shipped.

The drivers are very sensitive to the PCI buss and power options in windows etc..,so it may not jive with certain motherboards, components etc. You also need a decent processor or you will get crackles at low latencies. I would check around at productionforums.com first.

Since I just bought the 1212m and a X2 4400+, I decided to do a fresh install of windows (lotsa fun). But everything running smooth now!

ViktorW · Post by **ViktorW** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:01 pm

I had a 1212m PCI card with the EmulatorX software and sold it after 2 weeks because the drivers had some problems with my computer and the EmulatorX software was not at all to my liking, it produced CPU spikes and was a pain to use, at least for me.
I liked the sound though. If the drivers are better now, and the hardware sure is, then it should be okay I guess.

Vik

Dunc · Post by **Dunc** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:02 pm

Whilst the sound quality of the 1820m is excellent, the drivers are not as good...

I have an issue with the use of my 1820m and Podium where Podium reports a sample position gap because, and this is from podiums developer, the EMU drivers do not report the sample position correctly to Podium. Frits (the podium developer) does not think that the audio would suffer but it is very disconcerting to see such a thing happening.

I have reported this to the EMU forum in the hope of getting new drivers and got a reply stating they would investigate, that was a year ago and I'm still waiting...

Anyway, I don't really stress my card out too much and so far the audio seems fine but, I would like them to address the sample position reporting sometime before the card goes out of date.

PinothyJ · Post by **PinothyJ** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:26 pm

My motherboard seems compatibily according to those forums, but for those who have had problems, what motherboard do you have?

just in case…

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:33 pm

I've read nothing but trouble very recently:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=170220
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=170712
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2414988

PinothyJ · Post by **PinothyJ** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:40 pm

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:45 pm

I'll have to add: for every user that's complaining there are probably thousands that don't have any issue at all... You hardly hear good news (unless asked, see above!) because that's expected.

raikard233 · Post by **raikard233** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:03 pm

I have a 1212m and all it's ok with Ableton, then the 32 asio channels and the dsp mixer are a great feature of these cards.
But with FLStudio i've some troubles related to the driver, and for the vst fx dsp plugin i must do some workaround to get it to work.
I've contacted emu today...i hope on a fast reply..

Great cards with great features but they haven't good drivers.

thisdude · Post by **thisdude** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 4:38 pm

after looking at specs, the biggest factor is driver support. emu's been around for a long time and is part of a huge company so you know they'll be around for a while. i have an xboard49 and the pm5 monitors. both are excellent values and strong performers.

living sounds · Post by **living sounds** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:04 pm

As long as you only work on a PC and can live with a slightly complicated interface and not the best of drivers (but totally usable) the 1820m/1212m are great soundcards. Do an easy mod to them and you get converters that beat anything in the price range by a wide margin and even a lot of the more expansive stuff. I wouldn't buy the 1820 (without m) as this one hasn't got the same converters as the 1212m/1820m.

butter · Post by **butter** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:31 pm

I've had good luck with my EMU card. The A/D/A converters are top-notch for a low cost card.

vonRed · Post by **vonRed** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 6:12 pm

I consider the patchmix software (AKA slightly complicated driver) an asset. There's a nice article about it in sound on sound, so read that to find out if you'd like it.

E-MU products look pretty fantastic, are they really?