Emu 1616m

[john]

Hey

Guess what I bought today? Yep you guessed it, bread milk and cheese.... oh ok, it was a 1616M.

Despite advice against it and a few concerns about it working with my system I bought one from my local retailer on the understanding that if it didn't work with my system I could return it at no cost to me. Fair enough.

First impression out the box, looks nice.

2nd thing? Frustration at a lack of a decent set up tutorial, let alone decent tutorials for more complex stuff. As usual with many items of tech gear the support materials are ill thought out and not nearly enough.

Installation worked as described in the manuals which was good, though the supporting literature could have been simpler.

After some mucking about I got it to work. So far I've only tried the headphone output on the pcmcia card, one of the front line inputs, and one front microphone input. Unfortunately both my guitars currently have an earth problem, which is annoying on my electric and makes the bugged acoustic completely useless. So I'll need to trackdown the earth problems and fix them.

Although... I am thinking about a new guitar. I've sold my Kawasaki to fund this upgrade, and I intend to make the most of it.

Anyway... the 1616M. Effects are pretty easy to use, patch mix app could be easier to use but it is functional. Suprisingly little noise from a laptop system. Bundled synths are pretty good, though a lack of default patches/library for two of the bundled soft synths was pretty crap.

For me this is a major liberator. A mobile recording set up. Who knows, I might even record some songs

Anyway, I'll post more as I explore.

Cheers

John

[john]

Hey

Just a quick update.

I've since done some more work with the 1616M and i have to say I'm pretty impressed. My laptop has 1 Gb of RAM and even with a hefty sample bank loaded and multiple effects running with either Sonar, Cubase or Abelton I still haven't had any real problems.

I haven't yet finished the tracks I've been working on, as I get a feel for this new set up. I'll post them for review when the time comes and add a link from this thread.

I've also since purchased Emulator X, EMUs software sampler. It's pretty easy to operate and the basis sounds it comes with are pretty good. So far no real issues other than the help files could provide some more in the way of practical tutorials, if not one example project that you can build as you work through the tutorials.

Cheers

John

[hariossa]

I'm glad to read that you're recording again!!

looking forward to hear the new tunes!!!

[Thrithwaite]

Hey. I've just been thinking about a new audio card for my computer. I'm about to upgrade the mobo and chip soon, so I thought I might go for a new card as well. At present I have an Audigy, which is ok I guess! I'd just like something a little better! I've been looking at the E-mu 1212m. What do you think?

[typo]

looks pretty nice. better check for availability for vista drivers (if you have vista lol)