Anybody here using the E-Mu Emulator X?

Well the way I'm picturing it is there becomes the likelihood of windows
trying to use the card while I'm trying to work with the Emu synths.

If that happens, the sample rate and bit depth would be changed in order to
accommodate the event, thus shifting me out of whatever project settings I'd
be working in at the time.

That shift would or could distort the synths output.

It may be fine to have windows use it at time, but I'm not too sure that's
the case. Echo always recommended avoiding windows using the Echo cards for
that very reason, so I kinda took it that this would apply to all similar
cards.

Prince Lee

...

Why does that trouble you? I've not noticed any problems
letting Windows use my audio card.

After my recent bout of Creative Bashing I went to Sam Ash and checked
out the EMU line, including the Emulator X.

I will say this...the drivers seem solid, the audio convertors are not
that bad, and the functionality/ease of use is pretty straight forward.
Much easier in concept than Kontakt or Giga 160 (last one I
owned)and it comes with a lot more too

The first kink for me was I noticed is that it imported/supprts almost
every sample format..except NI stuff. That bugged me a lot, since I have
loads of Kontakt samples. Now I could convert them with a utility
program...but you know...kind of a waste for me.

Another thing is the DSP, which at first glance appears to be a SB Live
Hold Over, but after digging in a little seems to be another useful tool
to reduce your CPU usage. Almost like a junior, errr...very junior UAD
card. It works, but I didn't critically test the limits when the sampler
and the sound card were being taxed. Still it is a gimme in a big
package of gimmies.

A very cool utility feature was the Network tracker thingy. Basically if
you have samples strewn across a bunch of hard drives through out a
network in your studio, Emu X keeps track of them for you for instant
recall. Not a deal breaker, but definitely a handy thing to have for
organization.

EMU X does comes with a boatload of samples, amoung them a sampled Grand
piano and loads of drum stuff. The drums though seemed to me to be
Proteus 1 drums junk and whatever else they relased since updated a
little. The Grand Piano was useable, although simliar to the Giga Grand
which didn't sit so well in the mix. I think someone who can really play
might like it more. The rest of the samples all seem to be made of the
*Ear Candy* type junk that sound really impressive in a demo, but end up
not serving much of a purpose. Not as bad as the ubiquous *Orchestra
Hit* that went around in the 80's...but kind of the same idea.

My conclusion is that if the drivers hold up, and the card doesn't
conflict it appears to be the *Studio Projects* type deal for samplers
and sound cards.

PapaNate

Well it's like this, my main card is my Layla24, which I use to record
ofcource, and at the moment I have a Revolution 7.1 in place for system use.
I'd be replacing it with the Emu card as that is pretty much my only option,
(not that I'd mind because I hate M-Audio's Revo drivers).

Window's is going to try to use one of these cards either way, I won't let
it touch my Layla24 and that leaves the Emu as the victim of being the
window's default card. I'm thinking that won't be a good thing either,
especially when trying to use the Proteus or Emulator.

...

I don't understand. You can tell Windows which device to
use. But what's wrong w/the E-Mu card?

My cousin has the Proteus X, hearing it has got me trying to find a way to
get one into my system. My only problem would be that Windows would try to
use the Emu card for a default sound device and I don't like that idea too
much. ;-(

Prince Lee

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