Forums - Computer music & technology
Subject: APS effects
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Original Message 1/16 13-Dec-98 @ 02:45 AM - APS effects
Message 2/16 13-Dec-98 @ 05:25 AM - RE: APS effects
As far as sample compression and what not... I really dont think there is any going on in the APS. Im not sure what you're getting at, but as far as I know your samples are just uncompressed wave files uploaded into system ram that are played back according to their soundfont specs. So if you got a 22k drum sample sitting on your disk and load it into the APS its gonna take up 22k of system RAM. I dont know if that answers that question or not... but I dont think any compression is taking place. Remember... soundfonts will sound just as good or bad as the raw samples you build them with. The soundfont I built of a 909 kick sounds just as good as the original .wav file I built it from. All soundfonts are is a sample format similar to Akai or other E-mu sample formats.
And the effects... you can pile em up in almost any combination on any midi channel. You could for example have only chorus and reverb on channels 1-4, have chorus, reverb and distortion on channel 5, have delay and compression on channel 6, and have all 14 effects on channel 7. Just an example. Very flexible routing and all 14 effects can be used simultaneously. And they sound excellent.
Message 3/16 13-Dec-98 @ 06:54 AM - RE: APS effects
Message 4/16 13-Dec-98 @ 06:54 AM - RE: APS effects
Message 5/16 13-Dec-98 @ 12:38 PM - RE: APS effects
It's specs contains figure 4 (busses) that should be a max. number of effects available to use at the same time. I never even heard about a soundmodule capable of utilizing 14 effects simultaneously, for example acclaimed Yamaha SW1000XG known for its unique effect-processing capabilities has 5 effect busses, 3 of which are applicable to all channels simultaneously and 2 to only one specific channel.
Message 7/16 13-Dec-98 @ 05:30 PM - RE: APS effects
Okay... I just did a little experiment on my own computer to confirm E-mu's claim, and yes, I actually have 16(?) effects on one midi channel. Granted, some of these "effects" are shelf and parametric EQs. And yes, once you use one effect as an insert on one channel you cant use it again on another.
If you dont beleive me just browse on over to the E-mu site and read up on the card on your own for christs sake. It's all spelt out quite plainly there.
Message 8/16 13-Dec-98 @ 06:30 PM - RE: APS effects
I've read my name mentioned here as a good source of info on APS. Might be, but I think that there already has been said what I'd say.
Regarding compression of wav - never heard of it in assosiation with APS. To the best of my knowledge no compression is applied. That has been explained quite well by Astro. Subjectivly: it seems to me that a wav sounds just as good played from Soundforge wav-editor as from Vienna soundfont-editor as an intrument in a soundfont.
When it comes to effects I'll just have to confirm what has been said above. Yes - you can use all of the effects simultaniously. You have 4 effects which you can use globally on all the tracks. However only 2 of the 4 per track. In addition to that you can insert the rest of the 16 effects locally on each track. An effect used on one track can't be used again on onthers.
Since you are considering going from TerrorTec to APS you probably want to know about APS's weaknesess. Apparently there is a kHZ convertion going on when recording to audio. From 41 to 48 and then to 41 again. Some people claim that the sound quality gets worse from that. And I'm sure that it is but I haven't noticed it.
Another silly thing: There is only one wav strip on the mixer. According to E-MU (or so my salesman says) a fix for that will be comming out. That fix will also give better and additional effects.
Good luck folks. Lets keep in touch.
Rafael
Message 9/16 13-Dec-98 @ 08:08 PM - RE: APS effects
Very informative. As far as a sampler goes it looks like the APS has the edge. Mainly coz the Terratec effects are crap. I'm gonna hold on to it a while longer I suppose, to see what Terratec will do about it. Unfortunately their software development is really slow. I owned the card 8 months before the Ed!son instrument editor was usefull. Also soundfont is a much more universal format. It took me years to get a guitar sound that I was happy with. It seems like this is the next holy grail. APS hasn't arrived in Australia yet but I can't wait to check it out. The thing that fucks me off is that I already have a few tts.soundsets CD roms and down the track if I change to a soundfont based card then what a prick to change all the sounds over. And no way am I gonna stick more than one card in my puter. There's enough weirdy conflicts goin' on there already. Bloody micro crap! Whinge bloody whinge. I'm startin' to sound like a whingin' pom. Fuck that! Rock on! I mean; Program on. Dale
Message 11/16 18-Dec-98 @ 07:35 PM - RE: APS effects
You can use APS with another card provided the other card isn't a piece of junk with drivers programmed by drunken chimpanzees. But yeah, even with good components some PCs are very uncooperative little bastards so I can see where you're coming from.
As for the SRC issue with APS, yes it's a problem but then again for the price the APS is one outstanding product. Maybe it is not a true "pro" product...but again, for the money it is THE best thing on the market IMHO. Just remember, record and mix everything at 48kz until you are ready to 'master' to CD (i.e. in Soundforge or whatever.) A SRC UP to to 48 from 44.1 isn't really a bad thing.
As for switching to Soundfont, that's a bummer but over time that will absolutely work in your favor. Besides, Emu is selling boatloads of great samples for almost nothing.
As for the effects, they are described accurately above. Look for future enhancements as well.
Happy recording.
Message 12/16 19-Dec-98 @ 02:09 PM - RE: APS effects
I guess that it isn't really possible to decide whether it is a professional card or not. It's up to the individual producer to decide subjectively. I don't think that Michael Jackson or any of these guys uses APS to record his albums, but I think that that goes for the competing products as well. My point is that APS is a better product than the products used by professionals to make commercial albums only a few years ago.
Rafael
Message 13/16 19-Dec-98 @ 04:52 PM - RE: APS effects
The APS uses system ram to hold the soundfont banks. I'm considering getting one, and my system is a p166 w/ 64megs of ram and I'm running cakewalk 7 pro audio. I generally create a drum track in fruitloops or rebirth (mod), then I'd use the sound fonts to put bass and backing tracks, then have one or two patches to play live.
Does this system seem workable with my lower end system (according to the aps specs)?
Thankz
LB
Message 14/16 19-Dec-98 @ 05:14 PM - RE: APS effects
Message 15/16 19-Dec-98 @ 07:12 PM - RE: APS effects
Your machine is just fine. When I was buying APS it was demoed to me on a P133 32Mb. The only thing that took time in Windows was drawing the mixer-window. It took few secs (I don't remember - maby up to 5 sec.). On my machine, a p300 96Mb it still takes a sec or two. Playing the APS-demoes on the p133 machine went successfully as well. I couldn't notice any delays while playing the song. E-MU says that APS can be used with a P133 but they recommend using it with a p200.
Ram is not a problem. You can't use more then 32Mb in soundfonts anyway, no matther how much RAM you have onboard, because APS won't let you.
Rafael
Message 16/16 20-Dec-98 @ 01:01 AM - RE: APS effects
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