Calling all Terratec EWS88MT user...

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Argo
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James Argo

James Argo

Fancy Rock N' Roll
Those days of Delta 66 has gone for me now... It's broken along with the HD failure few weeks ago :( I can't use 'em anymore. Now, something catched my eyes recently on computer store near home. And they offered Terratec EWS88MT on a fairly good price. I rarely heared any comment about this card. Searched around this BBS, not really satsfied. So, I'll ask here, if there's any Terratec EWS88MT user around, I need to hear your comment based on experience. FYI, it'll be sitting next to my current SB Live! (MIDI wise..), use 'em both with SONAR 2.2XL in WinXP. Thank's.
 
Aaah, those are very good links, alfalfa. Thanks. I appriciate that. Still I'm open for any comment here.

;)
Jaymz
 
Jaymz,

The Terratec EWS88MT is a seriously good choice, particularly if you're getting a good deal. :)

Go for it buddy.

Both the EWX24/96 and the EWS88MT share the same drivers and control panel...:) So we can whine about latency and other issues together :D

Happy days ahead for Green House Music!

--
BluesMeister
 
Aaah, my Intergalaxy inteligent fella Captain BluesMeister... It's a good idea if both our space ship will have similiar engine.. I should have known you are one of those great Terratec EWX24/96 expert user :cool: . Actually, since I didn't need multi simultaneous input anymore, I am thinking of getting the Terratec EWX24/96 .

Why don't you need multi simultaneous input anymore, Jaymz ?

Because one of my friend's -rather larger- studio (which I helped design & run for years called MP studio) has just implemented P4 based DAW running SONAR with Terratec EWS88MT beside his long time used 3 ADAT...
And since I work there part time, he offered me to use his studio in anytime I want for free... So whenever I need to capture more than 2 input, I can always use his studio. For Green House Music Lab., I'm thinkin' of pickin' the EWS24/96, and save the budget for upgrade in guitar section... (could be compressor, multiFX, amps, etc..). And yess... it would be very nice that we can share our experience...

;)
Jaymz
 
Jaymz,

I have had no major dramas whatsoever with my EWX24/96. It's a fine audiocard and the installation was devoid of drama.

The only minor problem I ever encounter is when playing music CDs, I have to go into the control panel and change the synch to External otherwise you'll hear nothing through the squeakers.

Sometimes it fails to play music (even though I can see the meters in the Control Panel dancing up and down) so I have to toggle again between Internal and External synch. That always fixes the problem and all is well.

That really is the only issue. Occasionally I get crackling instead of music, but the Internal/External re-synch fixes that too.

The latest version of the EWX Control Panel has fixed a minor anomoly with the sliders. If you right click on the grey area where the sliders move up and down, it narrows them to a slim band. Previous versions of CP didn't remember that the slider tracks been narrowed. Those grey areas act as meters with coloured bars bouncing up and down. The colours change from yellow to red as you head towards signal saturation.

My CD-ROM has a digital-out that connects to the EWX via the S/PDIF so I can have digital transfer of music-CD signal (if your CD-ROM is suitably equipped). The only downside to this is that I have to set a jumper on the EWX to enable this - and in turn the jumper disables the optical input. :(

Your task (should you choose to accept it) is to route the CD through the IDE ribbon-cable and have the optical input fully functional. I know this is possible, but I don't know how to do it. I believe it required CD-ripping software to accomplish this - but as I don't have a CD-burner, I haven't explored this possibility.

Now having said all of that, I would strongly urge that you check out the new Echo MiaMIDI and compare it with the EWX. The MiaMIDI would be my No1 choice if I was starting over.

--
BluesMeister
 
No problem, Your exelency BluesMeister. As the CD will always be routed to the SB Live! card beside it. :cool:
I'm not realy sure about the Echo MIA MIDI card. No dealer around town sels one of them. Gotta check again...

;)
Jaymz
 
Bluemeister if you want to get CD audio via the ide reader (CDDA) try using the CD reader plugin for winamp 2.x. You dont need a burner - any cdrom drive works.
http://www.url.ru/~copah/CDReader.htm

I think winamp3 can do it as part of its standard setup but I have not used winamp3. Foobar2000 also has it as standard and WMP9 as well (I think).

Using CDDA will avoid you having to change to external sync. It may also stop any occasional clicks and pops you may be getting (I believe cd drives regularly send out digital signals even if nothing is playing). I also worry about the high jitter levels of the spdif outputs on cdrom drives - anytime you are using external sync to the cd drive you are using the cheap clock in the cd drive. Make sure DMA is enable on the cdrom drive. CPU utilisation will also be higher using CDDA.

James, its best not to use your soundblaster live for CD audio. If you are connecting the Cdrom drive to the live with the analog cable, you are using the dacs on the cdrom which are the cheapest and crappiest dacs on the planet. You will notice a huge difference using CDDA to play cd audio on your pro sound card, using its high quality DACs. I have both a soundblaster live and an Echo Mia. Even using CDDA on the Mia compared to the live is a big difference let alone compared to the CDroms analog output.

ps: The Mia is a great soundcard - I guess I am biased since I have one :)

Oh if you are using Win2k or winxp be aware of kmixer resampling that reduces the quality of any audio that uses the mme/directsound drivers. You should use the Asio output plugin for winamp for bit perfect output when listening to CDs. Good reason to avoid WMP.
http://www.aikis.or.jp/~otachan/
 
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Your highness, alfalfa... may the God of knowledge and happines be with you all the way. I gratefully thank you for your present to my humble people. Allow me to wish you both, Australian people the best :cool:

;)
Jaymz
 
I have the ews88mt now for 2 months and I am (after having 2 broken Guillemot Isises) EXTREMELY happy with it.
Sound, drivers, speed, etc. etc.
And not to forget the price and the ability to add more Terratecs later on the same system to create a possibility to record and playback 16, 24 or even 32 tracks at once. So indeed: go for it!
 
Alfalfa,

Great information, thanks for that. I'm printing it out right now... :)

And I endorse what Jaymz said :D

--
BluesMeister
 
You're welcome guys, glad to help (Jaymz you are one funny dude :D).

If you are having trouble figuring out which link to click on for the asio output plugin for winamp2 (the page is nearly all japanese) look for out_asio.dll. I am happy sticking with winamp2.8 because I have it working reliably but let me know if you try winamp3 (or foobar2000) and get it to work.
 
And just to reinforce what Alfalfa said, I've copied this from the SOS PC Music forum.

Martin Walker is a well-respected contributer to SOS magazine & forums:

Martin Walker
SOS author, PC Moderator,

From: Gloucestershire, UK
Registered: 30 November 2000
Posts: 2356

Posted 16 April 03 20:49

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott CAN dispose of his SB card

Hi Scott!

And welcome to the SOS Forums!

We've answered this one before on various occasions, but as you're new, here it is again

Most modern CD player software can digitally extract audio via the IDE cable, as data, so you don't need an audio cable from the CD to a soundcard to hear it. The audio quality is normally better this way as well, since the D/A converters on the majority of CD drives are significantly inferior to those of most musician's soundcards.

See if your CD player software has a ‘digital' playback option. If so, select it and hear the improvement. If not, download one of the many freeware CD players that do have the option. Then you can remove your SB card and its dozens of driver files.

Martin

--
BluesMeister
 
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