info@krispenhartung.com

Is anyone on the list currently using the E-MU 1616 cardbus audio interface w/ Win XP & MAX/MSP, and with success? I purchased a unit and had some major problems, but also determined with tech support that the unit was defective (no signal from the mic preamps and who know what else associated with that). So I am hoping that the defect was the cause of the communication issue with max.

Basically, when I selected the E-EMU ASIO driver in max, there was no audio, and my CPU usage jumped to over 85%, basically crippling the system and eventualy hanging it. Again, I hope all this was the result of the defect in the unit, but I will find out this Thursday when a new interface arives. I just wanted to ensure I wasn't up against an insurrmountable compatability issue.

Is anyone on the list currently using the E-MU 1616 cardbus audio interface w/ Win XP & MAX/MSP, and with success? I purchased a unit and had some major problems, but also determined with tech support that the unit was defective (no signal from the mic preamps and who know what else associated with that). So I am hoping that the defect was the cause of the communication issue with max. 

anyone-successfully-using-the-e-mu-1616-cardbus-w-win-xp-maxmsp

I wanted to follow-up with my own request here, for the benefit of any future max users who happen to encounter problems with the E-MU 1616 cardbus audio interface. I bought this interface to run on a Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad T60p (commerical/business class notebook), with 2Ghz duo core processors, 2gig of RAM, XP Pro, newest version of MAX/MSP, etc.

In short, I could not get the E-MU ASIO driver to perform with an acceptable degree of latency, and even though the Directsound driver functioned properly, it did not yield an acceptable latency either. I could get the ASIO driver to perform with minimal latency, but not without using I/O Vector Size and Signal Vector Size settings that caused CPU utilization to skyrocket into 80% and above.

After several hours of phone calls with both Sweetwater Sound and E-MU tech support, the most acceptable conclusion at this point is that the E-MU ASIO driver and MAX/MSP are not playing well together...more reasonably that there are compatibility issues with the E-MU ASIO driver.

Long story short, I sent the unit back and am using a simple Edirol UA-25 USB interface (whose ASIO driver works perfectly fine with max with acceptable latency) for the interim, until I buy mac book pro on January and a RME Fireface 400.

I wanted to follow-up with my own request here, for the benefit of any future max users who happen to encounter problems with the E-MU 1616 cardbus audio interface. I bought this interface to run on a Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad T60p (commerical/business class notebook), with 2Ghz duo core processors, 2gig of RAM, XP Pro, newest version of MAX/MSP, etc. 

After several hours of phone calls with both Sweetwater Sound and E-MU tech support, the most acceptable conclusion at this point is that the E-MU ASIO driver and MAX/MSP are not playing well together...more reasonably that there are compatibility issues with the E-MU ASIO driver.  

Quote: info@krispenhartung.com wrote on Thu, 28 June 2007 16:24

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> After several hours of phone calls with both Sweetwater Sound and E-MU tech support, the most acceptable conclusion at this point is that the E-MU ASIO driver and MAX/MSP are not playing well together...more reasonably that there are compatibility issues with the E-MU ASIO driver. 

Actually, it's also very difficult to find a good laptop/soundcard combination that works at low latency.

For example, imagine that a "correct" Acer Aspire 1692 (Pentium M 1.73 GHz, RAM 2 Go) and a RME Multiface don't work well together at any low latency in either Max/MSP or Cubase SE3.

With desktop machines it's really easier ...

btw did you check using the E-MU WDM driver instead of ASIO ?

Quote: info@krispenhartung.com wrote on Thu, 28 June 2007 16:24
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> After several hours of phone calls with both Sweetwater Sound and E-MU tech support, the most acceptable conclusion at this point is that the E-MU ASIO driver and MAX/MSP are not playing well together...more reasonably that there are compatibility issues with the E-MU ASIO driver.  
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btw did you check using the E-MU WDM driver instead of ASIO ?


Quote: julien breval wrote on Thu, 28 June 2007 15:09

> Actually, it's also very difficult to find a good laptop/soundcard combination that works at low latency.

Although, I've been fortunate so far. My last card was a basic Indigo IO cardbus unit...no bells and whistles, just 1/8th inch input and output, but with outstanding performance and very low latency. But mini jacks...too bad. My card before that on an older laptop was a Creative Labs Audigy cardbus...excellent performance and low latency. And this litle Eidrol UA-25 seems to be performing well too. It wasn't until I decided to go with a larger breakout box that the problem arose. But, I'm VERY confident that a new macbook pro and RME Fireface 400 unit will kick butt. I think that combination has been tried and tested by many users.

> For example, imagine that a "correct" Acer Aspire 1692 (Pentium M 1.73 GHz, RAM 2 Go) and a RME Multiface don't work well together at any low latency in either Max/MSP or Cubase SE3.

> btw did you check using the E-MU WDM driver instead of ASIO ?

Yes. No better than the directsound driver.

> btw did you check using the E-MU WDM driver instead of ASIO ? 

Yes. No better than the directsound driver. 

Anyone successfully using the E-MU 1616 cardbus w/ Win XP & MAX/MSP