KVR Audio

galwaypark · Post by **galwaypark** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:11 am

Hi all !
After years of analog, I'm finally getting into the magic world of DAWs

So, I'm planning on getting me a Terratec EWX 24/96 ( I've found a good deal, about 80 $). Any users here?
What latency am I looking at? (Athlon 1.8, 512 MB RAM)
Also, I've seen a lot of posts about driver problems. I'm on Win2K, did Terratec sort that out? If not, is it really such a big deal?
And I've seen that it doesn't support multiclient mode. Now, what in the world does that mean?

(in newbie terms, please..)
Any info would be great.
Thanks.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:33 am

I am drunk and very pissed of at my work situation but I will try nd comment on my EXW2496. I have had one for about a year now. It has served me well. I have ahd a few problems but I think they were my fault. Pops and so on. I have always had reasonably low latency. Around 7ms which is sufficient for my needs. Good sound quality. Ovwerall I have been happy with the card but my currrent opinion is that I would probably go fopr an external alternatative (usb2) if I were looking at a card these days. Look at the EMU0404 as well. Although I have had no experience with the EMU card it is apparently really good value for money.

Overall the EWX2496 has been good. Couldn't have been happier but if I were buying something today it would probably be a differebnt card. Mainly because I am interected ina nan external alternative; If it is the cheapesat card you can find and that is im,portant to you then it is sure to serve you well.

Ixox · Post by **Ixox** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:34 am

I have my EW24/96 for more than 3 years.
Works perfectly for me on windows 2000.
I cannot get a very low latency... about 8 ms.

No multiclient means only one application can use it at the same time...
It can be annoying if it's the only audio card you have.
I use on the same machine the motherboard build in chipset for audio (which is multi client) and winamp and other current windows utilities use it.

Today for less than 100$ you can have the M-audio 24/96 and the EMU 0404.
80$ for a EWX24/96 is not a very good deal. That sounds normal.

ew · Post by ew » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:37 am

Welcome to K-v-R

I've been a happy EWX user for over three years,and I'll try to answer your questions...
Latency-you won't be having any trouble getting down around 3-5 ms at 44.1k(128 to 256 as a buffer size).My decrepit 933 PIII's happy at 256.
Drivers-it depends on what apps you have.I run the build 128 driver myself instead of the latest(5.40),because the new one and Reason don't get along.Besides that and some standalone versions of plugins taking a long time to close(which is traceable to the ASIO driver),I haven't had any troubles(XP here).
Not being multi-client-all this means is that you can't have two apps that use the driver open at the same time(for example,the standalone of EXT and the standalone of DR-008,both of which use the ASIO driver).
ew

bebop · Post by **bebop** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:39 am

Hello,

the terratec ewx2496 is an excellent choice , I've been working with it for 2 years now and it never failed. The drivers are really mature now and the latency can go down to 1.5ms @44.1khz and 0.7ms @96khz, which is perfect for real time. Actually most of the time it's set for 1.5ms here, whatever the sample frequency (I just double the buffer to 128 samples when working 96khz, which makes 1.5ms as well). At this latency with your system you should be able to play say half a dozen of vsti plus another dozen of fx (it all depends but that should do it)

Also about multiclient driver support it's true when the asio driver is busy you can't open another asio driver (that would be multiclient), but only if you really need it for some special set up it doesn't matter.

Anyway it's a good card, the sound is quite correct (it's my standard for 2 years so I can't really judge anymore, but hey if it had been bad I'd have changed already!

)

The only thing maybe is the card's age (4 years old?). It is old now, it means the drivers major bugs and updates are behind, but also that it doesn't use the latest latest technology... hmmm, after all, does it matter?

Then in the same price range you can find an Audioplhile2496 (old too), an Emu 0404 (new)...
80$ isn't precisely cheap for a terratec ewx2496, even if the card is new. It's the price (2 years ago I paid some 160 maybe)

in short : good choice, not the best, but good choice imo

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:42 am

bebop wrote:Hello,

the terratec ewx2496 is an excellent choice , I've been working with it for 2 years now and it never failed. The drivers are really mature now and the latency can go down to 1.5ms @44.1khz and 0.7ms @96khz, which is perfect for real time. Actually most of the time it's set for 1.5ms here, whatever the sample frequency (I just double the buffer to 128 samples when working 96khz, which makes 1.5ms as well). At this latency with your system you should be able to play say half a dozen of vsti plus another dozen of fx (it all depends but that should do it)
Also about multiclient driver support it's true when the asio driver is busy you can't open another asio driver (that would be multiclient), but only if you really need it for some special set up it doesn't matter.

Anyway it's a good card, the sound is quite correct (it's my standard for 2 years so I can't really judge anymore, but hey if it had been bad I'd have changed already! )

The only thing maybe is the card's age (4 years old?). It is old now, it means the drivers major bugs and updates are behind, but also that it doesn't use the latest latest technology... hmmm, after all, does it matter?

Then in the same price range you can find an Audioplhile2496 (old too), an Emu 0404 (new)...
80$ isn't precisely cheap for a terratec ewx2496, even if the card is new. It's the price (2 years ago I paid some 160 maybe)

in short : good choice, not the best, but good choice imo

wtf. I would love to know how you have achieved that. Not that I doubt you just that Ihave never gotten close to those figures without poppity pop pop pop.

galwaypark · Post by **galwaypark** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:06 am

Thanks for the info, guys.

Ixox wrote: No multiclient means only one application can use it at the same time...
It can be annoying if it's the only audio card you have.

Still confused: do you mean I can't use more than one programm at the same time, say Sonar hosting FM7 or sampletank or any other VSTis, for instance (not that I own any of them yet

), or does it only apply to standalone apps, like say, trying to run Sonar and Cool edit at the same time? Or am I way off here?

Thanks.[[/u]

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:09 am

Yes. You can only run one program at a time that is accessing the ASIO driver. For example I can't use EnergyXT at the same time as playing a song in Winamp or Fruityloops.

galwaypark · Post by **galwaypark** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:15 am

morelia wrote:Yes. You can only run one program at a time that is accessing the ASIO driver. For example I can't use EnergyXT at the same time as playing a song in Winamp or Fruityloops.

Aah, I see...
But I can use a host full of VST-s and VSTi-s, with all of them working fine?

(sorry, I'm really new here...)

Thanks.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:20 am

Yeah no problem there. You can open up Sonar and run 6000,000 dxi's (vst/vsti's with the right converter software) if your cpu has the power.

galwaypark · Post by **galwaypark** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:27 am

Thanks a lot.
I think I might go with it, then.

Spratman · Post by **Spratman** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:02 am

I'd recommend the Ewx over the m-audio audiophile...To get the latency down with the EWX you do need to do things to Windows XP, it can go very low and become very reliable at those levels. Just don't expect to be running networks, im's and other things at the same time.

Though if I were to be buying something today I'd buy something totally different. Perhaps one of those new EMU cards (not the cheapest one, but hey, I usually run things into the ground).

Spratman ;0

Staffi · Post by **Staffi** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:51 pm

Just thought I'd add my two penneth, I've had an EWX2496 for about three years and it has served me well, but I would not buy one now considering some of the deals you can get. Of course it depends what you want but the Terratec DMX6fire is a more up to date card by the same company and has more flexible input options. Also if your thinking of wanting to record more than 2 mono (or 1 stereo) input at a time (do you have a band to record?) - you should go for something with more in/outs. Also do you have an external mixer? If not a multi in/out card can be very useful as you can leave lots of different source inputs plugged in all the time rather than have to fiddle with leads etc.

But for total bread and butter in/out its fine. (You may sense a certain desire to upgrade my EWX2496 in this post!)

galwaypark · Post by **galwaypark** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:18 am

Well, after all, I went and bought EWX, mostly because I found a relatively good deal on it (it costs around 200 $ here where I live, that is if you can find one at all, and I got it from a friend for like 70 $).
Secondly, I have no need for multi ins/outs, as I have access to a decent studio (for drum recording and stuff). I just want to get some things done at home, so it seemed like a good deal.
So far, I'm very pleased, thanks for the useful feedback

Terratec EWX - opinion please?