I'm impressed by the specs on the 1616m, so much so that I'm waiting to receive mine now. I'm impatient to see the SOS review on this product. Has anyone tested it with a full load of ins and outs? (Maybe Martin Walker...) I'm a little concerned with card bus compatibility issues mentionned on some websites http://www.procom.no/index.php?target=http%3A//www.procom.no/infoShop/isPr oductDisplayer.php/details/23731 Actually, upon closer scrutiny of Emu's own specs there's a little note mentionning that total ins and outs may vary depending on the PCMCIA controller in your system. Would've been nice to see this info BEFORE paying to have it shipped. I hope my PCMCIA controllers is one of the ones that work flawlessly...

El Rengo
Countdown 2005

Edited by SloJo el Rengo (23/08/05 11:53 PM)

Quote SloJo el Rengo:

---

I'm impressed by the specs on the 1616m, so much so that I'm waiting to receive mine now. I'm impatient to see the SOS review on this product. Has anyone tested it with a full load of ins and outs? (Maybe Martin Walker...) I'm a little concerned with card bus compatibility issues mentionned on some websites http://www.procom.no/index.php?target=http%3A//www.procom.no/infoShop/isPr oductDisplayer.php/details/23731 Actually, upon closer scrutiny of Emu's own specs there's a little note mentionning that total ins and outs may vary depending on the PCMCIA controller in your system. Would've been nice to see this info BEFORE paying to have it shipped. I hope my PCMCIA controllers is one of the ones that work flawlessly...

El Rengo
Countdown 2005

---

I've given mine a pretty good workout but have not tried a full load of ins and outs. The only issues I've experienced so far have been with removing the card without running the safely remove hardware routine which can cause my laptop (Thinkpad T42) to hang.

Welcome to the SOS Forums El Rengo!

My Emu 1616M review will be in the next issue of SOS. I didn't experience any problems with my PCMCIA controller chip either (ENE CB1410), and dont' worry - such issues aren't unique to the Emu 1616M. It's just that some controllers aren't as capable as others when faced with a multi-channel audio workout.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Thanks for your welcome and reply Watcher of the Skies (and advice from Marsnic),

I'm looking forward to reading your review in SOS. My controller is a Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515. From the scant info I've gathered, some Toshiba Satellites use the same PCMCIA controller. My computer is a Compaq Presario 4000 with an AMD64 3500+ CPU, I record on Cubase. I tested my new computer with a borrowed Motu MKII and recorded a glitch-free ten simultaneous tracks for 20 minutes at a time(I achieved this using the internal 4200 rpm drive... I'll be using a 7200 rpm USB 2 external when up and running). I'm hoping to be able to use an ADAT multipreamp to at least match ten analogue ins using the 1616m. Will keep all posted.

El Rengo,
Countdown 2005

Edited by SloJo el Rengo (25/08/05 12:05 AM)

Quote SloJo el Rengo:

---

Thanks for your welcome and reply Watcher of the Skies (and advice from Marsnic),

I'm looking forward to reading your review in SOS. My controller is a Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515. From the scant info I've gathered, some Toshiba Satellites use the same PCMCIA controller. My computer is a Compaq Presario 4000 with an AMD64 3500+ CPU, I record on Cubase. I tested my new computer with a borrowed Motu MKII and recorded a glitch-free ten simultaneous tracks for 20 minutes at a time(I achieved this using the internal 4200 rpm drive... I'll be using a 7200 rpm USB 2 external when up and running). I'm hoping to be able to use an ADAT multipreamp to at least match ten analogue ins using the 1616m. Will keep all posted.

El Rengo,
Countdown 2005

---

hi El Rengo,

i have a laptop with exactly the same PCMCIA controller, and i will receive my 1616m in a few days (i hope!) so i will report you as soon as i've got mine..

Olaf

Now that's a helpful reply olafmol

By the way, don't feel you have to buy a USB 2 external hard drive El Rengo - at least try the internal one first, as it may be capable enough to record the number of audio tracks you require.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

The 1616m seems quite an interesting little piece of hardware, and I'm looking forward to reading Martin Walker's review... In the meanwhile, can anyone explain what's the difference between it and the (cheaper) 1616? Is it only the converters, or is there anything else I can't quite grasp?

only convertors

Hi all,

Olaf, glad to know I'm not alone in this. I was out for the weekend, but I tested the 1616M summarily when I received it Friday. First tests are very conclusive. Only tried 6 tracks for now, and low sampling rates. The quality of vocal tracks using a CAD179 condenser mic are amazing . Will experiment some more. Thanks for the advice Martin, I already have my 7200rpm (it'a a heavy one though), I'll try the internal drive before looking into buying a light-weight external 7200rpm.

El Rengo,
Countdown 2005

Edited by SloJo el Rengo (30/08/05 03:03 AM)

Let us know how you get on with your internal drive.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

update: received my 1616m yesterday. Unfortunately on my Acer Travelmate 4001 laptop with its Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 PCMCIA chipset i encounter some problems.
It seems that some kind of bussing problem introduced by probably the ACPI setting of my XP SP2 installation irregularly causes a dropout of the PCMCIA audio stream, together with a CPU spike (don't know which one of the 2 is the cause and the effect) which results in a short buzz in the audio stream. I have disabled all background processes, services etc. that might be a problem, and also disabled all hardware devices that might cause trouble. I also checked for IRQ conflicts but these aren't apparent. This also doesn't solve the problem.

A friend of mine had the same problem with his Acer Travelmate 4001 laptop using an Echo Indigo PCMCIA card, and he solved it by switching his XP installation from ACPI to Normal mode. This solved the audio dropouts but introduced some other problems with non-functioning USB and wireless network functionality. He didn't do a clean install though. But apparently it's not adviced to use normal (aka non-ACPI) mode with a laptop as a lot of the laptop's (powersaving) hardware seems to be dependend on this ACPI layer.

Anyway, i'm in doubt about returning the 1616m and switching it for a firewire presonus firebox. I think i will try to setup a second partition and windows XP installation in normal mode first, and see if that works fine with both my laptop and the 1616m. If so i will probably keep the 1616m and do a clean installation of my laptop.

Anyone ever tried to install a second XP installation on a laptop in non-ACPI mode? Is that possible?

cheers! Olaf

With these new probs regarding PCMCIA on Sonoma laptops, I hear completely de-activating the WiFi part of the laptop (via the bios and/or elsewhere when you're not using WiFi) may well help.

--------------------
http://Infekted.org ~ Access Virus news & community

Quote Tímo:

---

With these new probs regarding PCMCIA on Sonoma laptops, I hear completely de-activating the WiFi part of the laptop (via the bios and/or elsewhere when you're not using WiFi) may well help.

---

thanks for the tip, but i already had my WiFi chipset/device disabled in the hardware profile.

Luckily, i've found a clean solution to my problem! The spikes/dropouts where created by the dreaded Microsoft Smart Battery devices, after disabling them in my hardware device list the 1616m runs clean as a baby. The only downfall to disabling the smart battery devices is that my laptop thinks it's always running on mains power, even when i disconnect the mains power. I can live with that though.
I dunno if this is a bug(?) from microsoft, or from my hardware, but it seems like a smart battery together with a TI PCMCIA chipset and an audio PCMCIA card gives trouble. Luckily this can be resolved, as described above.

Still there is a funny thing with the EMU 1616m: it seems that the ASIO4ALL V2 drivers can reach much lower latencies without any problem than the EMU ASIO 2.0 drivers. I can easily reach the 64bytes minimum buffersize using ASIO4ALL V2, but with EMU ASIO 2.0 drivers i need to stick around 7ms latency with most audio projects to avoid crackle. I know that ASIO4All basically is an ASIO-wrapper around the WDM drivers, but the 1616m WDM drivers seem to be only stereo, and not multi-stream. It seems to me that the EMU ASIO drivers can be hugely improved in performance.

Olaf

Yeah I have found the same with my Emu1820. On the software I want to use (digital vinyl emulation) I can only get down to the 10ms (512 samples?) using the Emu ASIO drivers (makes it impossible to scratch). Using ASIO4ALL I get right down to the 64 sample size. Pefect. But it's only 1 channel so a bit useless.
Although some people have reported being able to get down lower on the same software, so it's probably a combo of drivers AND my hardware (I did spend a lot of time tweaking and stripping my O/S and various other things, but to no avail).
The RME RPM card I had could get lower, so I do blame Emu a bit!

--------------------
http://www.skratchworx.com

Quote Deft:

---

Yeah I have found the same with my Emu1820. On the software I want to use (digital vinyl emulation) I can only get down to the 10ms (512 samples?) using the Emu ASIO drivers (makes it impossible to scratch). Using ASIO4ALL I get right down to the 64 sample size. Pefect. But it's only 1 channel so a bit useless.
Although some people have reported being able to get down lower on the same software, so it's probably a combo of drivers AND my hardware (I did spend a lot of time tweaking and stripping my O/S and various other things, but to no avail).
The RME RPM card I had could get lower, so I do blame Emu a bit!

---

i wouldn't say it's your hardware that is the problem, because with the ASIO4ALL drivers your hardware can reach 64bytes. I really think EMU/Creative has to hire some specialised pro audio-driver company/programmers to rewrite their drivers.

Olaf

Apparently new drivers are in beta-test stage
Pasted from the Emu production forums

---------
***Since the next update is now in beta test, we're going to let this little tidbit out...

1.81 will feature
-2 in 8 out MCWDM.
-More ASIO improvements
-88.2/176.4
-new FX presets
-FX import/export utilties
-"load FX on startup" option
-Full installer package

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems
-------------

--------------------
http://www.skratchworx.com

Quote Deft:

---

Apparently new drivers are in beta-test stage
Pasted from the Emu production forums

---------
***Since the next update is now in beta test, we're going to let this little tidbit out...

1.81 will feature
-2 in 8 out MCWDM.
-More ASIO improvements
-88.2/176.4
-new FX presets
-FX import/export utilties
-"load FX on startup" option
-Full installer package

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems
-------------

---

very nice news! but why they keep on focussing on those mediocre FX and installer packages is a real mystery. The first focus really should be on ASIO/WDM drivers and perfomance/stability. I guess the Creative influences still give the edge to consumer-focus instead on a semi/pro user focus..anyway, development is a good thing

Olaf

Excellent news indeed, and the 88.2kHz support will certainly please a lot of people. The option to disable 'Load FX on Startup' is also something that worked well on my 1616M review model, shortening the boot-up time considerably in favour of loading them only when you specifically ask to use them.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Quote SloJo el Rengo:

---

Hi all,

Olaf, glad to know I'm not alone in this. I was out for the weekend, but I tested the 1616M summarily when I received it Friday. First tests are very conclusive. Only tried 6 tracks for now, and low sampling rates. The quality of vocal tracks using a CAD179 condenser mic are amazing . Will experiment some more. Thanks for the advice Martin, I already have my 7200rpm (it'a a heavy one though), I'll try the internal drive before looking into buying a light-weight external 7200rpm.

El Rengo,
Countdown 2005

---

Hello El Rengo,

did you already test the recording-load on your system with 10+ audio channels? If there is anything i can do for you let me know

Olaf

Olafmol,

I haven't been able to test 10+ yet as I haven't got my ADAT yet. May have to borrow one (if I can). But I did test 8 using SPDIF and all went well. I've been following your comments on another forum and my understanding is that you've experienced a slight problem. Just thought I'd let you know I had no problems even with the default power setting on my computer. As far as midi goes, I've not been able to replicate Martin Walkers results, my latency results using the same tester came in at about 4ms. If I have time I may post the whole result (more or less the same as the guy on the other forum). I also have an impression that recording midi as you record audio may create some noise. (Have to make sure it's not coming from some other source) So, this is the update on my testing.

If you've got any more info, please let me know.

El Rengo

Quote SloJo el Rengo:

---

I've been following your comments on another forum

---

Sorry guys, I just realized that Olaf's comments are all on this forum. As for the midi latency results, I read the post on the unofficial Emu forum. Actually, concerning the midi latency issue, anyone have any ideas as to why we get such divergent results? Any system tweaks related to this?

El Rengo

Quote olafmol:

---

Luckily, i've found a clean solution to my problem! The spikes/dropouts where created by the dreaded Microsoft Smart Battery devices, after disabling them in my hardware device list the 1616m runs clean as a baby.
Olaf

---

I had some problems running guitar plugged in buzzing that went away when I disconnected and ran in battery mode. I know this thread is a bit old but wondering if you can tell me EXACTLY where this is in control panel>system>hardware...

thanks

PS> Plus I am looking at the 1616M, how does it sound compared to Motu Traveler then Fireface and is there a PCI convertor card I can buy to use on the DAW desktop?

thanks
again

Quote Musicianinthemaking:

---

Quote olafmol:

---

Luckily, i've found a clean solution to my problem! The spikes/dropouts where created by the dreaded Microsoft Smart Battery devices, after disabling them in my hardware device list the 1616m runs clean as a baby.
Olaf

---

I had some problems running guitar plugged in buzzing that went away when I disconnected and ran in battery mode. I know this thread is a bit old but wondering if you can tell me EXACTLY where this is in control panel>system>hardware...

thanks

PS> Plus I am looking at the 1616M, how does it sound compared to Motu Traveler then Fireface and is there a PCI convertor card I can buy to use on the DAW desktop?

thanks
again

---

what you are describing is most probably a ground loop problem, and has nothing to do with enabling/disabling microsoft smart battery.

Olaf

alternatively, the buzzing with guitar plugged in could be due to single coil pickups being inundated with noise from the typical Laptop switchmode mains PSU.

try turning around slowly, and see if there's a change in the noise level and/or tone, as you do so....

if this happens, then you need to plan your set up in such a way as to keep the PSU as far away as possible, and orientated in a direction which minimises the noise picked up by the guitar.

Max

--------------------
if you don't know who i am, i aint gonna tell you.

i have the same problem with glitchs on my cardbus.
I have the TI PCIxx21/X515 controller..
what specifically in the device mangager did you disable to fix this.. I don't see anything specifically called "microsoft smart battery"
but i do see alot of battery related stuff.. im just worried i will overcharge the battery if I disable the wrong thing.

thanks so much!

to fix the hum you need an ebtech hum-x... it works like magic to make the ground loop noise disappear... i couldnt believe how well it works!

Alright,
So I found a post on the NI forum that explained a bit more...
right click my computer - manage- device manager-
you disable
Microsoft ACPI -Compliant Control Method Battery

this fixed my intermitent pops and crackles!!! woah.. i am so happy!
no i can enjoy the uber low latency of my echo mona cardbus with no negative side effects!
i am running 10-20 tracks with 10-20 effects at 64 samples in ableton live 5.2 no problem using asio4all.... with echo's drivers i use 128 samples.
thank you thank you!

for good measure i also disabled
Microsoft AC adapter
and my firewire port which im not using
I also disabled power saving for my usb hubs...
not sure if the last stuff was necessary

also,
disabling the battery stuff will not overcharge your battery... that is controlled in hardware.. you are just not allowing the OS to see the charge level... a small sacrifice for clean low latency audio in my opinion!

whew!


thanks guys!
hope this helps you with your almost perfect pcmcia audio...

Welcome to the SOS Forums veggieryan!

Sorry no-one was around to reply to you on Saturday between 6am and 9am local time (why doesn't that surprise me )

I did report on olafmol's tweak back in PC Notes December 2005 ( www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec05/articles/pcnotes.htm ), although you seem to have got the problem sorted out for yourself before the rest of us woke up


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic