E-MU 1616m, 1212m, 1820m, 0404 Audio Interface - Complete Windows 10 (1903 & Above) Installation Guide

[gvnz]

hi there. Recently i became interested again in music making, and upon discovering this discussion, decided to update my daw a bit. So i kept the case, power supply, cpu fan and my trusty 0404 pci. Found an Asus pro h610m-c d4-csm motherboard that comes with a PCI slot, built the system, installed win 10,updated to the current version, followed instructions on page 1 aaaaand... it works! wonderful! thanks so much to everyone that made this possible!

BUT

you know, i always had a soft spot for the 1820m, could't justify it back the when it was new, but now i can find it for cheap on the used market, and finding i did.

unistalled the 0404, out the old, in the "new", repeat the procedure, everything works again.

for a while

then all of the sudden silence. Turn off PC, on again and it works. Another day same issue, then again, and now it seems now matter how many times i shut down and boot up again, there is just silence.

it looks like this: upon booting, the audiodock lights up, the patchimx starts correctly, the audiodock switches to the right sample rate. If i play a youtube video, an audio file or really anything that outputs audio from the windows mixer to the "WAVE 1/2" pachmix strip (and yes, i tried also creating other windows audio strips) i get no signal in the patchmix, while the windows mixer's vu meter shows there should be audio there.
If i start reaper, i get no errors, the asio driver seems to work just fine, i can choose my inputs and outputs, but no audio there either: in fact when i press play on the transport bar, nothing happens, the time bar doesn't even move, the play button is illuminated like if it was playing, but nothing moves. When i press stop reaper works jus as normal, no crash, no error.


inserting a signal on any of the audiodock inputs i can see it in the patchmix with a peak meter, also loading a signal generator in the patchmix, i can hear the signal in my monitors.


i'm running widows 10 64bit version 22H2 build 19045.5737

sorry for the wall of thext, but has anyone any idea how to fix this?

[Aero312]

No soundcard error when launching REAPER, but no sound in REAPER. Does Preferences > Device allow you to select the E-MU ASIO driver? And you are sure you are correctly sending a Patchmix Channel to REAPER?

Check the thread at the link below (scroll to about the middle of the page) and make sure your Microdock/ Soundcard version is compatible:

viewtopic.php?t=371831&start=315

[gvnz]

No soundcard error when launching REAPER, but no sound in REAPER. Does Preferences > Device allow you to select the E-MU ASIO driver? And you are sure you are correctly sending a Patchmix Channel to REAPER?

yes and yes

your Microdock/ Soundcard version is compatible:

viewtopic.php?t=371831&start=315

thanks for the link, i can confirm that the card,cable and audiodock are compatible.

something that i should have added to my previous post, don't know if it helps, is that when i reinstalled the drivers, after entering safe mode and running the commands in the powershell, a the very end i got this error

IMG_20250425_185217.jpg

it probably happened in the previous successful attempts too, but since everything seemed to be working fine i forgot about it.


EDIT

ok, maybe i found the issue... bad edi cable. While checking things with music playing i just barely touched the connection to the pci card and suddenly there was music! i've read that any shielded cat5e below 3m should work, any recommendations?

[planetearth]

No soundcard error when launching REAPER, but no sound in REAPER. Does Preferences > Device allow you to select the E-MU ASIO driver? And you are sure you are correctly sending a Patchmix Channel to REAPER?

yes and yes

your Microdock/ Soundcard version is compatible:

viewtopic.php?t=371831&start=315

thanks for the link, i can confirm that the card,cable and audiodock are compatible.

something that i should have added to my previous post, don't know if it helps, is that when i reinstalled the drivers, after entering safe mode and running the commands in the powershell, a the very end i got this error

IMG_20250425_185217.jpg

it probably happened in the previous successful attempts too, but since everything seemed to be working fine i forgot about it.


EDIT

ok, maybe i found the issue... bad edi cable. While checking things with music playing i just barely touched the connection to the pci card and suddenly there was music! i've read that any shielded cat5e below 3m should work, any recommendations?

Excellent sleuthing!

From what I've seen of people looking to replace the Ethernet cable, any quality cable should be sufficient. You're not going to find one with the choke on it, but most of the posts in threads about this interface say the choke isn't crucial for the cable to work; it just helps cut down on interference.

That said, I wouldn't necessarily get "Amazon Basics" cable, but any good, shielded Ethernet cable should work. I would keep it to under 6 feet/2 meters, if possible. The original cable is actually a bit shorter than that, but there aren't many Cat 5e cables below 6' long yet above 3' long.

Are you sure the connection issue is the cable and not the jack it plugs into? They tend to have a lot of strain on them over the years.

Steve

[gvnz]

Are you sure the connection issue is the cable and not the jack it plugs into? They tend to have a lot of strain on them over the years.

new worry unlocked!

no but seriously, i think it's the cable, on one end it doesn't properly snap in place because the springy piece of plastic on the rj45 that is supposed to lock it in place is broken, so doesn't take much for some pin to not make proper contact. What threw me off is the fact that apparently the audiodock still partially functions even if the cable is partially disconnected, i would have thought it was more of an "all or nothing" situation.

i've seen a cat8 cable on amazon, 2m is the minimum for my setup, will see how it goes

[planetearth]

Are you sure the connection issue is the cable and not the jack it plugs into? They tend to have a lot of strain on them over the years.

new worry unlocked!

no but seriously, i think it's the cable, on one end it doesn't properly snap in place because the springy piece of plastic on the rj45 that is supposed to lock it in place is broken, so doesn't take much for some pin to not make proper contact. What threw me off is the fact that apparently the audiodock still partially functions even if the cable is partially disconnected, i would have thought it was more of an "all or nothing" situation.

i've seen a cat8 cable on amazon, 2m is the minimum for my setup, will see how it goes

Ah, yes, once that plastic clip breaks, it's difficult to keep the Ethernet cable plugged into anything. And yes, the dock still kind of works even with cable partially unplugged, but you get some bizarre issues.

I don't know that Cat 8 cable will get you any better results than a well-shielded Cat 5e, but I know they both cost roughly the same at the 2-meter length, so you have nothing to lose.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Steve

[Aero312]

I had to replace the RJ-45 plug on my Microdock and soundcard in order to get the cable to lock properly. Found the part for PC board here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P25XS3X?re ... asin_title

[gvnz]

reporting back, new cable has arrived. It clicks in, seems to be working, but i had to push it all the way in after the click, no connection otherwise. Time will tell. Thanks aero for the link,hope i don't need it.

edit

no wait, it connects, dock light up but no audio out. oh well, i have a new cool-looking lan cable.

[eq1]

^ The whole idea of E-MU choosing a cat5 cable was so they could be easily replaced, in a pinch (OK, maybe not the whole idea, but a part of it). Says so in the manual. Don't you have an ethernet cable laying around, or maybe your neighbor has one? I know I have a few scattered around the house, somewhere...

[planetearth]

Do you still get audio if you press on the connection at the PCI card when using the new cable?

And is this a PCI or PCIe card you're using?

Steve

[Aero312]

Just want to add an update on my install dilemma, which from above others will see I've been troubleshooting for about three weeks now on a new system.

I finally got the 1616m to work exactly as it should be working with no glitches. Here's what I had to do:

1. E-MU PCI card is installed using a PCIe to PCI bridge. Built-in soundcard is disabled in BIOS. The card is on it's own IRQ with no other device.

2. Clean install of Windows 10 Pro using a USB drive containing an earlier version (21H2) created with Rufus to boot and install. No internet connection.

3. Disabled both Windows Defender and Auto-updates using Group Policy Editor.

4. Now connect to internet to update drivers on my system through Device Manager for certain hardware, including the built-in Intel graphics card and the PCIe to PCI bridge. This takes maybe 2-3 minutes and occurs almost automatically after selecting the "update driver" option for hardware that has an ! and error code. At this point, all but the E-MU card are functioning properly according to Device Manager. Reboot and disconnect the internet.

5. Now install E-MU drivers and Patchmix software:

a. Use EmuPMX_PCDrv_US_2_30_00_BETA from Creative website
https://support.creative.com/downloads/ ... 11#type_11

b. Install with Microdock off, reboot into safe mode to switch the CTOSS2K.sys file that gets installed in System32 > drivers with the updated ctoss2k.sys file provided by eq1 above (I cannot switch files unless in safe mode). Reboot.

c. Install Patchmix, EmuPMX_PCApp_US_2_20_00 (also latest version from Creative website above), reboot. Turn on the Microdock, Patchmix will auto launch. Note: there is no reason to either disable the two startups for the E-MU software or to turn off the Microdock each time you do a reboot. Upon reboot the Microdock first clicks back on and then Patchmix loads afterwards (in that order every time), which is the same thing as manually turning on the Microdock and then clicking on the Patchmix icon.

6. With Microdock on, I then did a clean install of my DAW (REAPER).

7. Upon launching REAPER for the first time it asked me to set up the audio device, and I could select E-MU ASIO for the driver. I loaded a default session for Patchmix at 44.1 kHz (to match REAPER Project settings) No errors of any kind encountered. It was at this point that when I checked function of the Microdock and Patchmix I was amazed it was working perfectly as it should. No noises, clicks, or pops, even when in Preferences > Device I selected more than just a pair of inputs (first: ASIO in 1 last: ASIO in 32, which was unlike my last attempt). I could also record simultaneously from both A and B mic inputs at the Microdock in stereo and it worked as expected with no glitch.

Here is a summary of the things I did this time that I had not done when unsuccessful:

1. New install of Windows 10 Pro, with built-in soundcard disabled in BIOS first.

2. Earlier version of Windows 10 Pro that I knew was working on a different Windows 10 PC (21H2).

3. Immediately disabled Windows Defender and Auto-updates, then connected to internet only to update hardware drivers in Device Manager.

4. After installing E-MU software exactly as mentioned above, I did a clean install of my DAW (REAPER).

I do not know which one made the real difference, but I'm guessing it was the Windows 10 clean install. I also do not know if there's something preventing proper install with versions more current than 21H2. I do not know at this point if I will try to update to 22H2 because I finally have this working properly and am enjoying the relief that my E-MU 1616m is back in action 100%.

EDIT: I went one step further to see which of the 4 above may have been important.

The install outlined above also worked using Windows 10 Pro version 22H2, and I updated right after install, and Windows Defender and Auto-update was NOT disabled. On the drive I first installed 21H2, I simply ran Windows update, it installed 22H2, and this is all still working fine. The update did not uninstall the E-MU drivers. So, of the four two of these is not necessary:

1. New install of Windows 10 Pro, with built-in soundcard disabled in BIOS.

2. Earlier version of Windows 10 Pro that I knew was working on a different PC (21H2) --*not necessary because latest version of 22H2 creates no problem, even if updating from 21H2.

3. Immediately disabled Windows Defender and Auto-updates, then connected to internet to update hardware drivers in Device Manager. --*not necessary. Defender does not appear to interfere with E-MU driver and Patchmix install.

4. After installing E-MU software exactly as mentioned above, I did a clean install of my DAW (REAPER).

Here's what I think was important (to do in this order):
1. Built-in soundcard is disabled in BIOS and E-MU card is in place
2. Clean install of Windows 10 Pro
3. Clean install of DAW (REAPER), necessary because of clean Windows install and to select ASIO when first launching the DAW.
4. And of course, following the install method of E-MU drivers and Patchmix above

[planetearth]

Thanks for documenting this so thoroughly. I'm sure it will help someone.

Steve

[eq1]

So basically it sounds like you had some borked install of W10 on your 'new' machine, that and/or you needed updated drivers for some hardware. Other than these things I'm not seeing anything else that made a difference...

Why not do it all again, but this time move to Windows 11!

[Aero312]

I can't pinpoint exactly what was wrong in my case, but as I see above others are saying they're doing exactly what's required to install the drivers and Patchmix, but yet they keep getting noise or ASIO drivers are not available, I would say in addition to following the instructions for driver and Patchmix install before you give up try doing it as I did in this order:

1. Disable the built-in soundcard in BIOS and install the E-MU soundcard for the 1616m. In my case, even though I was using a PCI 1010 E-MU card with a PCIe to PCI bridge, it indeed works as if I've got a PCI slot on the motherboard. After installing Windows it will detect the bridge and download a MIcrosoft driver for it.

2. Next do a clean install of Windows. After install go to Device Manager and check to see all hardware except the E-MU soundcard are all working properly with no errors. You can also run a Windows update to get drivers.

3. Install the drivers and Patchmix app for the E-MU 1616m as per above instructions.

4. Do a clean install of your DAW, and upon running it for the first time make sure the Microdock is turrned on and Patchmix has been launched afterwards. Select the E-MU ASIO driver in your DAW device preferences. Make sure all the inputs are available.

And BTW I did not install the CTASIO64.dll driver, and I use the 64-bit Tokyo Dawn plugins like NOVA dynamic EQ and also a 64-bit mastering plugin called Ozone Elements and these do not crash when I use them.

[eq1]

...BTW I did not install the CTASIO64.dll driver, and I use the 64-bit Tokyo Dawn plugins like NOVA dynamic EQ and also a 64-bit mastering plugin called Ozone Elements and these do not crash when I use them.

Interesting. Are you using VST3 or VST2? I was using VST3, it was a cut and dried case: before switching to CTASIO64, TDR Nova would crash Reaper if I closed the FX window with TDR Nova active during playback; after switching, no problem. If you're using VST3, I guess we'd have to chock it up to the vagaries of different hardware and OS builds, interactions between the two, driver conflicts, etc. Or maybe you haven't tried closing an FX window with Nova active during playback?