graham
January 1, 2008

Rating: 8/10

The reason i bought the e-mu 0202 was to upgrade the sound produced by my laptop. I'm a great believer in quality, and the normal laptop audio line out when linked to my hifi wasn't very good.
So how good was the e-mu....in a word, excellent.
The quality was everything i hoped for. What was also pleasing was the input quality...being linked to a hi fi i can record radio broadcasts, etc, and what was particularly useful were the external line in gain controls...much easier than going through internal sound controls. And of course, the mute button.
Instillation was simple enough, so all in all a good product.

As a test, i compared the sound quality achieved with the e-mu against the soundblaster audigy zs soundcard installed on another of my computers.
I would say that the e-mu was slightly better...a deeper crisper sound. There were no compatibility problems switching from one sound card to the other, so on my pc anyway operating dual sound cards wasn't a problem.
The final test was against my main pc which has the m audio audiophile 2496 soundcard. There was only one winner in this test...the audiophile.

There are many usb audio devices available. I have no idea what they sound like, but for simplicity and quality this one is a good buy, and does the job.

Beatnik
December 29, 2007

Rating: 9/10

For external soundcards in the budget category, it comes down to offering from Behringer, M-Audio and Creative. Behringer got shove for its lack of USB connectivity. My M-Audio monitors are simple but carry big bang for the buck so they came a close second. Creative make excellent gamecards but are lesser-known for their pure audio applications, hence my qualms, although my previous Soundblaster is awesome. The E-mu packs 1/4" outs plus a 1/8" for plug'n-play simplicity; a neat ground-loop solution (yet to be tried for its effectiveness); but what sold me was the impressive software array. I'm not a fan of hacks and cracks so this is an excellent way for a budding computer musician to don his audition rags at a sweet price.
Cons? It ain't heavy (lacks meaty studio quality and tactility), but he's my brother.
Kinda like Behringer here - Best you'll get on a budget.

ISSAKHA
December 4, 2007

Rating: 8/10

I have bought last year my first midi keyboard to use with computer software .I purchased one Photon x25 16 keys from Xlectonic in Hammersmith .This keyboard can even be used as primary soundcard and recognised by my sequencer software.It can coonnect another midi or audio interface to play live.And most of all it is robust and fits in a rugsack.Bravo Alesis

rai
July 2, 2007

Rating: 7/10

Im running a 2.66 gig processor
VST32 on xp sp2
Emu 1212m soundcard..

First the sound is amazing on the emu card but there's something wrong with the link between Cubase and the card,the card crashes out now and then and just leaves an annoying loud beep, i then have to reboot..

As this is my first time using this card i yet dont understand how to set the send and returns, im just getting by on default settings.

When im using synth bass plugins or reason it would clip as if the processor or the soundcard is struggling too, i never had this problem with sound blaster live.
Although the latency is low which is very good i think i will certainly try another card.

lawrence kirkham
June 24, 2007

Rating: 9/10

All round an excellent and fast ,clean sounding interface that I use with my laptop a Dell inspiron make sure you have a usb 2.0 interface(to get the best out of it) before you purchase.The install was quick and slick and Cubase le installs no problem. While it,s plugged in it becomes your default sound card . I knocked one point of because although the preamps are top notch there is NO PHANTOM POWER(for condenser mikes) a big omission, to get it you have to buy the next model up the 0404.

lawrence kirkham
June 24, 2007

Rating: 9/10

All round an excellent and fast ,clean sounding interface that I use with my laptop a Dell inspiron make sure you have a usb 2.0 interface(to get the best out of it) before you purchase.The install was quick and slick and Cubase le installs no problem. While it,s plugged in it becomes your default sound card . I knocked one point of because although the preamps are top notch there is NO PHANTOM POWER(for condenser mikes) a big omission, to get it you have to buy the next model up the 0404.