Ive run into a problem, some help please?

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Malice_227

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Well, I was all set to get the EMU 1820M. I was checking off the requirements to make sure my PC was compatable, I actually had to download sisoft sandra to get alot of my PC info. Know what I discovered? I only have 1 PCI slot, I have no room for the daughter card.

So I have a very important question, how big a difference is their between the 1820 and the 1820M? I know the converters are supposedly better on the M, but how much better? Its so typical for me to run into a problem like this, I guess its better I found out now beFORE I reluctantly sold my digital camera to buy the 1820M.

I think my system is compatable with the 1820, but just to double check, maybe you guys can confirm it for me?, My specs are:

-OS: windows XP professional
-Processor: AMD Duron M3 processor (851 MHz)
-Motherboard: (brand) Microstar (model) MS-6330 (version) 2.1
-Chipset: VIA technologies INC VT8363/5 KT133 system controller
-Ram: 320 megs of SDRAM
-Yes I have a CD rom and enough disk space.

I know its a very crappy PC, but will the EMU 1820 be compatable with it? And is the 1820M much better then the 1820? If so, is it possibal to use the 1820M without the daughtercard? and is it worth it for me to get the 1820M over the 1820 without the ability to use the daughercard?

I appretaite your input, thanks in advance.
 
Honestly, you can never tell about any pro cards with any chipsets out there. On the AMD side, people tend to side with the nforce and (back in the day) AMD chipsets. People are kind of annoyed at VIA chipsets...although their chipsets are much better these days.

Here is my guess...(and it's JUST a guess)...since the chip the card is based around is at least somewhat similar to what Creative Labs has been using for a while in their Audigy 2, and I haven't seen hardware compatibility problems between those and various chipsets, you should be okay. (THIS IS JUST A GUESS!)

You have an older chipset, however, and back in the day, there was quite a bit of talk about how your particularly chipset had peculiarities when it came to PCI timing, and if your motherboard drivers aren't up to date, you might see some whacky audio problems...

Also, it doesn't sound like you really need word clock IO or SMPTE striping, or what not. You don't need the daughter card to run. You don't need the sync card included in the 1820m to take advantage of the better converters; the converters are in the 1820m audiodock.

I personally use the 1820 (non-M) and the spec is still quite good as pro audio cards go. Sounds better than my Aardvark Q10. Once you get to the M series, you get up into top-end Lynx territory, which is one of the elite of the elite.

Try to get it from a brick and mortar store that will allow returns. I was able to get a guarantee out of that from my local Sam Ash; thankfully, I didn't have to use it. :)
 
Thanks for replying sklathill. I guess Im just going to have to check store policys on returns. I was going to order from sweetwater, it's a little hard to find a store carrying that product that will ship to Canada.

If the 1820 sounds better then the Aardvark Q10, then I dont feel like I can go wrong with it, though I can't help but wonder what the 1820M sounds like, id love to hear some sound samples from someone on the board. Anyways, with the 1820 I can order it tommorow, so I think thats what Im going to do.

Thanks.
 
Why don't you save your money and upgrade your system first? That system is very antiquated and a $400 state of the art soundcard will go to waste on it.

The general rule when it comes to computer upgrades is that you get a new system when current CPU speeds are double what you already have. You're way beyond that point now.

That's like putting high performance Z rated racing tires on an old Toyota Tercel...
 
I get what your saying brzilian, I was actually contemplating buying the parts and building a new PC at one point, but I do all of the recording one instrument at a time, and I apply the vst effects and the like after the tracks are recorded, so Im hoping I wont have too much trouble.

I dunno, I sold my amp to get a new soundcard, and If I buy a PC or upgrade the one I have now, it'll be a long while before I can get a soundcard. Do you think Ill have much trouble using the card like I said above? Im really itching for a soundcard, and as long as I can use it like I record now Im fine, but if Im going to have alot of problems maybe I should get a new PC.

Thanks for your input brzilian.
 
Malice_227 said:
I get what your saying brzilian, I was actually contemplating buying the parts and building a new PC at one point, but I do all of the recording one instrument at a time, and I apply the vst effects and the like after the tracks are recorded, so Im hoping I wont have too much trouble.

I dunno, I sold my amp to get a new soundcard, and If I buy a PC or upgrade the one I have now, it'll be a long while before I can get a soundcard. Do you think Ill have much trouble using the card like I said above? Im really itching for a soundcard, and as long as I can use it like I record now Im fine, but if Im going to have alot of problems maybe I should get a new PC.

Thanks for your input brzilian.
Click to expand...

You are definetly taking your chances when you know your chipset had major issues with soundcards in the past.

I'd rather save my money, but a new system and have peace of mind than mess around with a dinosaur. You don't even have an Athlon - math intensive apps will really suffer on a Duron once you start applying those effects. No fancy soundcard will help you then...

Just my $.02
 
When they say daughter card, does it take another PCI slot or just another space in the computer? Even if you need two actual PCI slots, you can get a mainboard for ~$65 that will work just fine.
You could probably even get another VIA based mainboard with out having to totally reformat and reinstall you stuff, at least I've had lots of luck installing a new mainboard in a VIA based PC with a newer VIA chipset without XP Pro getting too pissy. It just finds a few new things when it boots up.
Is this a brand name PC or a custom built?
 
Well, it is chancy, that's why Im going to be cautious of return policys. Right now, and for the past few years I've been using a crappy soundblaster LIVE in cubase vst 5/32. The max tracks Ive had going was 16 channels at the same time (8 stereo), and I usually have 4-5 vst effects going on each one of those tracks. I have had the program stutter a little with the works of it, but it was never to the point where it made my work difficult.

Now I understand that I'm going to more then double the strain on the processor moving from 16 bit 44.1 Khz to 24 bit 92 Khz, but I can edit and mix 2-3 stereo tracks at a time if need be, Ive had to do that many times actually because 8 stereo tracks wasnt enough for the full song. So to me, it still seems doable, and if its not, Ill have to return it. Before I order Im going to ask the person at the store weather or not its compatable anyways.

On to the PCI slots, I have only 1. I know I can get a motherboard for fairly cheap, but even 65 bucks extra is more then I can stretch, getting the 1820M would've been my complete limit, and to get the 1820M I would have to get a new motherboard with it as well. This used to be a brand name PC, a very very crappy brand name, Compaq.....Now, the only thing in it thats still "compaq" brand is the CD-ROM, but it still has a very slow processor by todays standards.

In anycase, as long as I can get the 1820 to work, and I can record at 24/96, and mix at least 2-3 (hopfully more) stereo tracks with 4-5 vst effects per track on at the same time, This card will work for me. If I can get 8 stereo tracks at 16/44.1 with 4-5 vst effects per track with a soundblaster LIVE, shouldnt I beable to get 2-3 stereo tracks of the same at 24/96 with the EMU 1820?
 
hey if you've been using VST 5.0 in XP Pro you're already a step ahead of me!!

I've been using VIA chipsets for years (inc the KT133) and never had any complaints. But I've not had this soundcard so I obviously don't have a lot to add!

My question is - why this particular card? If you were to get an M-Audio Delta you would have almost enough cash left to build a new system unit. I built a high-spec PC from scratch about 6months ago for £350, and that was with a £100+ graphics card, which you don't need for recording (just try not to get an onboard one that steals your system memory).
 
Hello noisedude. Im actually using vst 5.1 with XP, you have to get the update in order to use cubase vst with XP.

As to why I chose the EMU 1820, have you seen the specs? It looks to good to be true for the price, and Ive heard nothing but extremely posative things about it. One of the things I really wanna get away from is noise, and the SNR for the 1820 is great, the 1820M even better.

I basically want to get the best possibal sound quality with my money, the 1820 looks to be the best of what I can afford. My PC is crap I know, my graphics card and such isnt onboard though, running a Nvidia Geforce 2 and soundblaster LIVE (<---another thing I wanna get away from), but yea I can buy a whole new PC with the money it costs for even the 1820. One of my freinds has a causin who orders PC parts in bulk at factory prices and sells them, I can build a great PC for $700.00 Canadian, but it'll take me forever to get the money for the card again. In the past year or so, I've been learning and getting better at recording and mixing, and because of this I keep reaching the limit of what I feel I can do with different parts of my setup. This puts me in a frame of mind where I dont want to record a new song untill I get the equipment needed to justify my creation. So I guess you could say Im at a complete standstill untill I get a new soundcard.
 
1 PCI slot?

On the Via KT133?

I would suggest opening it up and checking. I don't think 1 PCI slot is what you'll find. Maybe it's just one interrupt which is being shared and Sandra is assuming it's only 1 PCI. 3 or 5 is more likely - I would think three, with the graphics interrupt being shared with the 1 and 3 slots, and the available interrupt for slot 2. This was actually very common back in the day, I don't know how modern micro-ATX boards configure interrupts nowadays.

The KT133 chipset is the dreaded chipset which had all sorts of issues with the Soundblaster, if you've got that working well you may not actually have a problem but you can never tell when a problem can occur. I would suggest a different mainboard. You can pick up a used board for very little money. Look on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3469166913&category=42012 as an example of what you can get with 50 bucks, less if you get lucky when bidding.

There are also some fantstic combo packs of a 2000+XP and mobo which will bring your CPU speed up to scratch as well. I saw one for about 86 bucks.

You guys don't know how lucky you are. We have to pay through our noses for this sort of stuff around here.
 
I understand how it is when you get frustrated when you seem you're standing still due to lack of gear. I feel much the same, and though I have a decent rig going, I know I goofed up on my priorites and now am the proud owner of a blazing fast (and very expensive) system with no software, no nearfields and no quality mics, not even a 57.

So atl least your priorites in life are better than me.
 
know what you mean ... bought a new computer but it meant i couldn't afford nearfields!
 
Ahhh, I got back 2 emails, 1 from a guy at sweetwater and one from EMU technical support. The guy from sweetwater thinks I should have no conflicts with the card, but said AMD has had problems with cards in the past, and the EMU guy said he dosnt think I can run the card with my processor speed.

So, I can buy a new processor and motherboard, or build a new PC. Not sure what I should do, but Im sick of this garbage PC holding me back with everything. Should I switch to an Intel processor? I like AMD because you can get faster PC's for cheaper, but EVERYTHING seems to be compatable with Intel, what do you guys think I should do?
 
Cheap bang for the buck - AMD
Guaranteed compatibility for the business of recording - Intel

I've never used Intel before, but I do know that when I upgrade next, it will be to Intel. Once you go beyond a certain boundaries, Intel seems to be the way. I went for a blazing fast AMD system with a SATA RAID array for audio, only to find that for recording I could not use the RAID at all - what a waste of money.

I would strongly suggest Intel.
 
Forgive me, Sangram, but it was your motherboard that gave you issues with SATA RAID, correct? Going with and equivalent Intel would have put you in the hole deeper.
 
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I know it's been a week since this thread was last written to, but no one actually mentioned that the 1820M sync daughter card is not actually a PCI card. All it needs is a slot to screw into your pc case (not a PCI slot) and connects to the 1010 PCI card with a ribbon cable.
The manual (you can download it from EMU) states on page 4 that it is not necessary to install the sync daughter card if you don't need sync functionality.
The 1820M *minimum* requirements according to the EMU site are for a 500MHz CPU and 128MB RAM. I would say you'd be okay for the time being - but I'll bet you'll feel the itch to upgrade pretty soon - as soon as you can throw $$$ at it :-)
Good luck.
 
blah said:
I know it's been a week since this thread was last written to, but no one actually mentioned that the 1820M sync daughter card is not actually a PCI card. All it needs is a slot to screw into your pc case
Click to expand...

That what I was kinda thinking from the pic but I've never actually seen one so I had no clue...
 
Thats great about the daughter card, I thought I read somewhere that it needs another PCI slot, then again I most likly have misread it or it was bad info. It dosnt matter now though, Ive since baught a new PC that has 6 PCI slots, but of course I dont have as much money so Im going to buy the 1820 non M. I just sent the last bit of money I need to go on my credit card, should be on there in 2-3 days or so, then I will be ordering the 1820.

My only concern now is how suceptibal (<---I know thats spelled wrong) the card will be to PC noise, right now Im using onboard audio, and as such I dont expect it to be very good, its just that my noise floor when using the mic input is -33db left and 27 db right. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the audio is on the motherboard, but I really HOPE that the EMU 1820 will sheild ALOT more noise then that, otherwise I'm basically screwed. Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough.
 
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