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Subject: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

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Original Message 1/12 17-Dec-98 @ 07:08 AM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

Andrew

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E-MU APS The card does it all and for under US$600. Synth,h/d,sampler & mixer.If you find something better for the same price buy it other wise this is the one to buy.

Andrew.....

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Message 2/12 17-Dec-98 @ 05:11 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

stephenb

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Alternatively, you could get a Terratec EWS64S for �150, or with spdif for �210.

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Message 3/12 17-Dec-98 @ 06:34 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

anywhere

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Bottom line: Opinions are like assholes; everybody's got one. Don't believe anyone when they tell you what's the best, especially the manufacturers. You need to research and listen for yourself!! Every piece of gear has pluses and minus. There is no "one card fits all". And beware of new cards like the APS from EMU. Sure, it looks good, but the verdict is not entirely in. These guys who say it's great before thoroughly evaluating it are the ones that are selling it 3 months later for half the price!!!

What are your priorities? Sound quality or just songwriting? If you want quality, buy dedicated pieces (software, digital I/O card, and external converters). If ease of use and simplicity are the prevailing factors, then mabye the APS will work.

Check out all your options.

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Message 4/12 17-Dec-98 @ 08:46 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

Rafael

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Anywhere

Many good points there. But have you actually got an APS??? I don't think so...

Dedicated pieces - and get everything you need and get it to work properly together for a reasonable price? Never heard of such a phenomenon.

To the nameless person that has started this thread: Beware of equipement freaks. They get kicks out of owning/reading about stuff with great specs on the paper. How about playing some music in stead, folks??? If you are like me; you are doing this for the music a product like APS might be for you. The funny thing about the people that critizise this line of products is that don't actually say what they'd recommend. Apparently they are still looking.

I've had APS for 3 months now and I'm not selling it.

Rafael

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Message 5/12 18-Dec-98 @ 06:33 PM - Good reply

anywhere

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I agree with your points, Rafael. You need to decide what you want and what's important to you.

The problems is, it usually takes a some time to get to know your software thoroughly. Once you have some experience and can get things crankin', you start to see the limits of your gear. Damn, it doesn't do this, or that. This is what sucks. There is no all-in-one solution. On the APS card, I would question the quality of the converters, as it seems to be a secondary feature to the sampler. The mic pre-amps obviously are not going to be top notch, espcially with 1/4 inch connectors!! Also, the lack of direct X support is another drawback. And software bugs? We'll find out soon enough on this....

Not that the APS is bad, but I want to know it's limitations, too, before it cost me 500 or so to find out.

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Message 6/12 18-Dec-98 @ 06:43 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

astro (jmc

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damn...

anywhere: I think the APS has been out for longer than you think... since at least July if I recall correctly. That seems like enough time for any software bugs to surface... and I havent heard of a single software bug with APS. Browse the the APS newsgroup at news.soundblaster.com to see what other users have been saying about the card. I've owned mine for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it. I dont know about the recording quality yet, since I havent recorded anything, but I can tell that the DACs sound excellent... no noise at all.

I will agree with you though that lack of DirectX support does kinda suck. But they've (of course...)promised us DirectX support in a future driver release. I know, Im not holding my breath either. But since you have a good deal of nice hardware effects built in, I really haven't felt a need for any kind of directx support.

Just my opinion... I know you dont have the APS... but thought Id try to clear some things up for you..

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Message 7/12 18-Dec-98 @ 06:45 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

astro

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err... that was supposed to be "I know you dont haTe the APS..". May make more sense to you that way...
still half asleep... cant type..

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Message 8/12 18-Dec-98 @ 07:12 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

Since July?

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Rafael,

I follow the audio cards pretty closely, and I've only recently seen it in stores...Must have missed it.

The built in effects are nice, freeing up the cpu.

Since you have it, why don't you answer some questions:

Say you have a song sequenced. Can you individually capture each track to the hard disk (and in sync)? And in mono (for snare drum or kick)?

Can you use the built in effects outside of their software? For example, in Cubase?

I have the reality demo. could you compare aps with reality, if you've heard it?

Thanks for any responses.

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Message 9/12 20-Dec-98 @ 01:16 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

POTS & PANS

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SPEC'S DONT WRITE SONGS TALENT DOES. SOME OF OUR MUSIC HERO'S WROTE MUSIC ON EQUIPMENT THAT BUY TODAYS STANDARDS WOULDN'T GET A MENTION IN THE EQUIP MAGAZINES.REMEMBER ANALOGE IT DIED IN THE ASS WHEN DIGITAL CAME ABOUT.IT TOOK THE TALENTS OF SOME ARTISTS TO USE THAT EQUIP TO THE BEST OF THEIR ABILITIES AND ALL OF A SUDDEN ALL THAT ANALOGUE EQUIPMENT IS COOL AND EVERYBODY WANTS ONE.IF YOU HAVE TALENT YOU COULD WRITE A SONG ON POTS & PANS.

DONT LOSE YOURSELF IN A FAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Message 10/12 20-Dec-98 @ 04:27 PM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

Lettus Be

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I'm considering the APS BUT my concerns are
no direct X ( should be coming)
isn't there a prob with the 48hz lock on the digital out? (but it's a software thing that will be fixed?)
The patches for the synth are loaded into system memory and is limited to only 32 megs.

The other card that looks interesting NOW is the Terratec EWS. With the addons and the Virtual Sampler instrument editor (supposed to be better than the Ed!son editor from Terratec)

But for me all I want in a card is a sampler/synth in that order.

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Message 11/12 21-Dec-98 @ 10:42 AM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

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My opinion is that there're 2 main alternatives today : YAMAHA SW1000XG and EMU APS and each has its pluses and minuses. APS is a great relatively inexpensive solution for those interested in creation .wav or .mp3 rather than .mid files as the final product, since E-MU company does not declare APS's compliance to any well-established standard ( GM is not counted because its evident obsoleteness ), whereas Yamaha purposefully makes its product line in full compliance to XG standard, ensuring exellent level of compatibility between XG synthesizers of different generations and full controllability of EVERY synth and mixer parameters including realtime filters, envelopes, equalizers and effects' basic parameters through MIDI, and, what is more, XG provides nearly 100% Roland GS and GM compatibility on the low level, i.e. correctly process Roland sysex messages (F0 41...F7), has limited MT-32 compatibility and all these guarantees, that absolute majority of midi files ever created will sound correctly on SW1000XG.
However, SW1000 does not have sampling capabilities so far and this makes APS more attractive purchase for those who needs sampling.
Speaking about effect processing capabilities i'd like to notice difference in ideologies implemented on these two cards, APS's way seems to be a bit more flexible, but Yamaha boasts more quantity of effects...on the whole there are tasks APS is capable to cope with while SW1000 is not, and vice versa.
Well, i can not say unambiguously who is the best of them - if someone's task is creation music based on sampling principle, let this one could go with APS and be happy, however if someone interested in listening to MIDIs, in utilization alternative synthesis capabilities ( for example virtual acoustic, formant synthesis, FM etc. ) and needs flexible control via MIDI, then SW1000XG is the best solution, although somewhat more expensive taking in mind plugins' prices...

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Message 12/12 22-Dec-98 @ 07:55 AM - RE: TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SOUNDCARD I'M LOOKING 4 1

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hmm..reasonable

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