PCIe Audio Interfaces (Market overview April 2021)

PCI Express ("Peripheral Component Interconnect Express",abbreviated to PCIe or PCI-E) is a standard for connecting peripheral devices to the chipset of a main processor. PCIe is the successor to PCI, PCI-X and AGP and offers a higher data transfer rate per pin compared to its predecessors. .

Spoiler: PCIe-Audiointerface

PCIe-Audiointerface

Avid HDX PCIe Pro Tools Ultimate - 5798 €
Avid HDX PCIe Card only - 4111 €
ESI MAYA44 eX - 159 €
Focusrite RedNet PCIe R Card - 1099 €
Lynx Studio E22 - 859 €
Lynx Studio E44 - 1179 €
Lynx Studio AES-16e50 PCIe Card - 1059 €
Lynx Studio AES-16e PCI Express - 859 €
Marian Seraph 8+ XLR - 565 €
Marian Seraph AD2 MWX - 626 €
Marian Seraph D4 - 1179 €
Marian Seraph 8+ MWX TRS - 616 €
MOTU HDX-SDI PCIe - 1025 €
RME HDSPe RayDAT - 585 €
RME HDSPe AIO Pro - 729 €
RME HDSPe MADI - 1449 €
RME HDSPe AES - 969 €
RME HDSPe AIO - Mod-Broadcast - 769 €
SSL Dante PCIeR - 1799 €

Spoiler: PCI - Sound Card Info (Out of production)

PCI - Sound Card Info (Out of production)

E-MU - 1212m PCI (Out of production)
E-MU - 1820M PCI (Out of production)
M-Audio - Audiophile 2496 PCI (Out of production)
M-Audio - Delta 44 4 x 4 PCI Sound Card (Out of Production)
Infrasonic - Quartet v1.25.04 PCI (Out of production)
ESI - Maya 44 PCI (Out of production)
ESI - Juli@ PCI (Out of production)
ESI - ESP1010e PCIe (No longer available)
ESI - ESP1010 PCIe (No longer available)

Spoiler: PCIe? USB? Sorting Out Two COM / SFF Design Decisions

PCIe? USB? Sorting Out Two COM / SFF Design Decisions

Modern Computer-on-Module (COM) standards include multiple buses, either in a single connector or among several. Given these COMs’ plethora of bus interfacing options, which should your next design use?

Among all the bus types available in most COM specifications, only USB and PCI Express (PCIe) are well supported, high-level buses, with plug-and-play and excellent interoperability. A PCIe or USB design guarantees it will work with any vendor’s COM solution. Additionally, all of the current and up-and-coming COMs support both of these buses, letting you reuse your schematic and produce the same device for complementary—or competing—COM standards. Having the facts will make it easier to choose which bus to use in your next embedded peripheral design.

PCIe and USB are each fully supplied with operating system level interfaces, both built into the OS and available from a variety of third parties. The buses are mature and well documented, down to the nitty gritty details of implementation for new peripherals. However, there remain real differences between them that will help you choose which bus is right for your new embedded peripheral.

Latency Provides the Most Contrast between USB and PCI Express
A single USB transaction takes at least 125 microseconds, and empirically usually consumes 250 microseconds, even in Linux. 125 microseconds is significant in computer-based systems, especially in the embedded world where human input is often a smaller portion of the system’s total operation. This means USB takes longer to issue control events, like setting up a mode of operation, or polling for a status change.

PCIe, on the other hand, can complete a single transaction in anywhere from a fraction of a microsecond to around two microseconds, depending on the system architecture. This low latency allows more control requests to be issued, or better timing to be achieved even when using relatively few requests. The difference in latency effectively means USB is less “real-time” than PCI Express. Many applications don’t need microsecond latencies, but only PCIe can deliver it when necessary.

Do not confuse latency with bandwidth however. Both buses have real-world data rates in excess of 40 Mbyte/s. PCIe, however, can achieve speeds at least an order of magnitude greater than USB, theoretically as much as 250 Mbyte/s for a single PCIe lane. PCIe lanes can also be grouped (used in parallel.) You’re probably familiar with the 16x PCIe slots normally used for video cards. Grouping PCIe lanes can achieve a near linear increase in bandwidth while retaining the same low latency.

PCIe, then, is both less latent and higher-bandwidth than USB even can be. So why should you even consider USB?

USB is easy and inexpensive to design. USB Bus interface chips are simple, relatively low pin-count devices, allowing fewer layers to be used in the design. USB 1.1 even supports two-layer boards! With only one signal pair to route, the designs are truly simple.

Many USB Bus peripheral interface chips include a microcontroller. These chips provide sub-processors to handle the overhead of USB communication, and the busywork associated with things like streaming to an IDE device, or any FIFO you attach. This microcontroller implements the relatively high-level communication protocol you design. This lets you create designs quickly, at a low cost, and achieve incredible flexibility by modifying firmware instead of hardware. This firmware can be updated over the USB connection “in-system,” usually without the customers even noticing.

Additionally, the USB interface chips are very low cost and have relatively few support chips required. This keeps the unit bill of materials (BoM) costs low, which keeps production costs down. PCI Express, on the other hand, is an expensive, involved, very high pin-count design. Dozens of high-speed differential signals may need to be routed, compared to a single pair for USB.

PCIe designs also require more support components: often 3.3, 2.5 and 1.8 volt references are needed. Also, active PCIe signals are so fast (up to 8 GHz) that most silicon can’t accept the serial stream directly, and it must be processed by a special chip such as a PHY. The output of this device must be fed to an FPGA or other silicon to interpret.

The PHY, the FPGA and the nonvolatile storage used to load the program for all the devices on board are often only available as BGA packaged devices. BGA requires advanced solder facilities, reduces serviceability, and usually requires at least six-layer designs, greatly increasing cost across the entire design and production cycle.

A single FPGA-based PCI Express design may have three to five times the parts cost for the bus interface alone—completely excluding your circuitry! When you factor in the increased PCB, assembly, and test costs, PCIe is truly an expensive proposition compared to USB. Even if you use a COTS PCIe-to-local bus bridge chip instead of FPGAs (greatly reducing your device’s flexibility), design and parts costs exceeds USB by a significant margin.

Score one for USB for being easier and less expensive to design, and for its lower parts cost throughout.

PCIe does bring some more ammunition to the battle: backward compatibility. PCIe devices can be compatible with existing “old-school” PCI or PCI-X devices. This compatibility is obviously not in the bus connector; they are radically different. Rather, the lowest level software that communicates with memory and registers on the peripheral is easy to make 99% compatible with any existing PCI device. You can usually reach 100% compatibility if you stretch a little. This low-level software communicates with the hardware through the “register map” and plug-and-play subsystems, and very few PCI designs are cross-compatible at this level.

By designing your new peripheral to use the same register map as an existing PCI board, you can offer a low-cost migration path for customers dealing with the PCI end-of-life cycle; only the peripheral need change, the mission-critical software can remain identical despite the hardware upgrade. Your customers moving from a PC-104+-based embedded system can upgrade to a Pico-ITXe system using Pico-IO peripherals—with radically different size and bus connectors—and neither you nor they should need to modify the application or driver software they are using.

USB also provides some compatibility, but of a very different nature. USB devices have high-level interfaces; unlike PCI and PCIe devices with complex register maps and memory locations, USB is treated more as a collection of control functionality combined with a few high-bandwidth streaming pipes. Instead of issuing a dozen or more assembly language OUT DX,AX instructions, you might issue a single usb_control_request().

This means USB is definitely not low-level compatible with any existing PCI device.

Additionally, USB was—and is—designed with forward compatibility in mind: USB 2.0 controllers support USB 1.1 peripherals, and USB 1.1 hubs support USB 2.0 devices. You can even plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 3.0 hub without losing any functionality! You certainly can’t plug a PCI device into a PCIe slot—if you could there wouldn’t be an end-of-life problem in the first place—which is really a great selling point for USB: USB devices aren’t likely to become obsolete simply due to bus changes.

USB is very easy to future-proof; by designing a useful and flexible set of interface functions, all of your I/O designs can reuse the same high-level application or API, regardless of how many times you redesign the peripheral, or how many bits it handles. The high level application talks to a fairly high level control-request interface, and this control-request interface is shared among all of your USB devices.

Whether the forward-looking compatibility of USB or the backward compatibility of PCIe is more important for your design depends on the nature of your requirement. You should consider PCIe as your first choice if you are replacing a PCI device your customers use, especially if you don’t have the resources to modify your software. USB, though, will prevent this compatibility cycle from being an issue the next time you upgrade your system, and allows much greater compatibility within a product generation due to the higher-level nature of the interface.

So, the verdict is PCIe for compatibility with existing PCI products as summarized in Figure 1; USB for compatibility with multiple products in a single generation, and with products going forward. This multitude of pros and cons sums into several easy choices:

USB vs. PCI Express design variants

• If you must have the speed of PCIe, your decision is easy, choose PCIe.
• If you cannot modify the source code for an existing PCI-based embedded system or the customer’s software applications, or the expense of doing so is prohibitive, choose PCIe.
• If cost of design and production is a primary concern, USB rules the day.
• If your embedded device needs to support flexible peripheral options, USB virtually eliminates costs associated with swapping out I/O devices.

Designers must understand and weigh the benefits of each bus type. Cost, effort, bandwidth, latency and compatibility are different factors to consider, and depend on specific application needs. New form factors are constantly being created, and ACCES will continue to develop products across the many bus types to target virtually every application. Explore the possibilities!

Source: https://accesio.com/pcie-usb-sorting-out-two-com-sff-design-decisions/

image hosting

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2021

Spoiler: The Internal Card Option

The Internal Card Option

In this connection comparison, it would be remiss of me not to mention the classic option of an internal soundcard. PCIe-based soundcards have become rare in recent years, as many users have grown to appreciate the ability of being able to take their studio-grade recording interfaces out on the road and work remotely on laptop setups. The interface market reflects this.

For many years, interfaces which connected to the computer via a host PCIe card, such as this RME model, were the only option for high-bandwidth, low-latency audio. While USB has improved in that respect, and Thunderbolt seems finally to be catching up with PCIe, there’s no good reason to abandon a PCIe-based audio interface as a matter of principle — they’re still capable of great performance.
For many years, interfaces which connected to the computer via a host PCIe card, such as this RME model, were the only option for high-bandwidth, low-latency audio. While USB has improved in that respect, and Thunderbolt seems finally to be catching up with PCIe, there’s no good reason to abandon a PCIe-based audio interface as a matter of principle — they’re still capable of great performance.

Yet, in a situation where more bandwidth is required, PCIe still rules the roost for data transfer rates, with some of the lowest recording latencies currently available. It’s still seen on some of the more specialist broadcast-industry cards for this reason, and it means that some older cards by the likes of RME and Lynx still offer fantastic performance. If you own one of these and are planning on updating a desktop machine, it might be worth finding one with a PCIe slot available. However, the format’s performance is being strongly challenged by the newer Thunderbolt standards and interfaces.

Source: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/choosing-pc-audio-interface-sos-guide

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2021

It's a shame that this format is almost gone and will probably disappear soon. The cheaper ones at least will probably soon be gone since most, if not all, amateurs and bedroom producers go for USB or Thunderbolt cards these days. Avid, SSL and Focusrite will probably keep producing their cards for pro studios and media companies for a while longer though. Something I would like to see is more of the specialized laptops for audio with built in PCI-E interfaces. Something like the RME HDSPe AIO Pro, for example, would fit nicely in a 14-15" ultrabook!

 

15 years ago i had a emu 1820 soundcard pci not pcie with dsp it had alot of latency issue's but the sound was oke

 

Agreed. Using a RAYDAT over here.

 

Just a little reminder of how much bandwidth is needed for audio, per channel:

48kHz 24bit mono audio needs 144KB/s
96kHz 24bit mono audio needs 288KB/s

Therefore, 8 channels of 24bit 96kHz audio needs 2.3 MB/s of bandwidth. 16 channels needs 4.6MB/s etc. Interesting that you only need 18.4MB/s to be able to play 64 channels of 96kHz 24bit audio. Now if you need to do it full duplex, meaning recording and playing 64 channels simultaneously, you need only 36.8MB of bandwidth. That's about how much a plain bad old USB 2.0 could take.

More important than bandwidth is the protocol's priority, latency, and optimisation for streaming applications - being able to maintain that bandwidth without interruptions that can be caused by the dreaded DPC. In other words, drivers and programs in the background and OS' optimisation for streaming applications.

PCIe, just like its PCI predecessor, is therefore best for audio because PCIe is directly connected to the CPU, so its got the least latency, high priority, and least interruptions. Kinda like NVMe drives. USB is the worst for any kind of streaming because it suffers from all kinds of interruptions, its latency is hard to get down to sub 256 samples without crackles, and its priority is much lower on the list than PCIe's.

The "top list" of protocols good for streaming and low latency apps, goes in this order [from worst to best]: USB, FW, TB, PCI, PCIe.

That includes MIDI, too. MIDI timing is highly dependant on continuous performance of the interface protocol.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2021

It worked and the sound was great until I installed the PCI card in a new PC. Noise and crackling annoyed me and I had to constantly switch off the PC and press the start button for 10 seconds in order to get rid of the residual current. Then I had to buy a USB audio interface. Pity

INFRASONIC - QUARTET V1.25.04 PCI (Out of production)

Spoiler: Quartett

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2021

Got me thinking, a M.2 audio interface with a breakout box would be sweet actually for mobile.

I mean, TB/FW ain't bad for most purposes but they don't beat PCIe. I've still got an E-mu 1212m on my older computer and that bad boy is rock solid.

 

For Audio, isn't the CPU the overhead?

 

Add this too to your list.. https://www.esi-audio.com/products/esp1010/
Surprisingly i have it working great without any issues with the last driver they released on Windows 10



They also had a PCIe version also. FYI.

 

Thank You " denha " - i add this to " Out of production" .

ESP1010 is the perfect audio gear for multi channel recording applications in your home studio and for home entertainment.
Please note that ESP1010 is no longer available and has been replaced by ESP1010e.

ESI - ESP1010e PCIe (No longer available)

Take a look on ebay (Second Hand)

 

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My ESI Maya44 PCI and ESI Juli@ PCI still working, but now I use RME HDSP 9632 PCI in new built pc, with i9 9900K onboard and Windows 7
It works perfectly as I want

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2021

PCIe Digital Audio System

E-MU's 1212M PCIe Digital Audio System delivers everything you need to produce audio on a PC with professional results - 24-bit/192kHz converters and hardware-accelerated effects and mixing, and seamless compatibility with your favorite PC audio/sequencer software.

The 1212M PCIe also ships with ASIO2 and WDM drivers for Windows XP, XP x64, Windows Vista and Vista x64, as well as the E-MU Production Tools software bundle that includes E-MU's Proteus X LE, plus software by Steinberg, Ableton, IK Multimedia, and many more - everything you need to create, record, edit, master and burn your music.

The E-MU 1212M PCIe features:

Mastering grade 24-bit/192kHz converters - the same A/D converters used in Digidesign's flagship ProTools HD 192 I/O Interface delivering an amazing 120dB signal-to-noise ratio Hardware-accelerated effects - over 600 standalone and E-MU Power FX VST plug-in effects with no CPU overhead PatchMix™ DSP zero-latency hardware mixing and monitoring - with super-flexible patchbay - no external mixer needed Comprehensive analog and digital I/O plus MIDI - 12 inputs and 12 outputs, plus MIDI I/O Compatibility with most popular audio/sequencer applications - ultra-low latency 24-bit/192kHz ASIO2, WDM and 64-bit drivers

E-MU Production Tools Software Bundle - includes Cakewalk SONAR LE 6.3, Steinberg Cubase 4 LE, Ableton Live Lite 6 E-MU Edition, IK Multimedia AmpliTube LE and T-Racks EQ, Celemony Melodyne essential, Waldorf Attack, Waldorf D-Pole, Waldorf PPG Wave, SFX Machine LT, Creative EAX® ADVANCED HD™ ALchemy (Vista only), E-MU Proteus VX - everything you need to create, record, edit, and master is in the box.

Spoiler: RMAA Measurements for E-MU 1212M PCI

RMAA Measurements for E-MU 1212M PCI
RightMark Audio Analyzer test report

Device E-DSP Wave 24/192 loopback balances
Mode 24-bit, 192 kHz
Audio interface
Signal path external external loopback (line-out - line-in)
RMAA version 6.0.5 PRO
20 Hz - 20 kHz filter on
Signal normalization ON
deviation
MONO OFF
Frequency of the calibration signal, Hz 1000
Polarity inverted / inverted
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB +0.01, - 0.09 EXELLENT
Noise level, dB (A) - 117.7 EXELLENT
Dynamic range, dB (A 117.6 EXELLENT
THD,% 0.0009 EXELLENT
Harmonic distortion + noise, dB (A) -97.9 EXELLENT
Intermodulation Distortion + Noise,% 0.0014 EXELLENT
Channel crosstalk, dB -112.7 EXELLENT
IMD at 10 kHz,% 0.0026 EXELLENT
General service EXELLENT

www.head-fi.org/threads/rmaa-measurements-for-e-mu-1212m-pci.246066/

Spoiler: AKM - AK5394A - Super High Performance 192kHz 24-Bit ADC

Spoiler: Review

Emulator X Studio
1820M • 1820 • 1212M PC Soundcard & Software Sampler
Published in SOS June 2004

Emu's new range of soundcards offers an unprecedented level of flexibility, DSP power and sound quality for the price — with the added bonus of a very impressive software sampler.

Martin Walker

Emu X Header.s

Emu's new hardware interfaces all use the 1010 PCI card, with their proprietary E-DSP processing chip. The 1820 and 1820M also feature the Audiodock breakout box.

As part of the Creative Labs empire, and designers of the core chips used in the Soundblaster Live and Audigy ranges, Emu have been largely responsible for the feature set of a vast number of consumer soundcards in general use around the globe today. They also, of course, have a huge amount of experience designing hardware samplers and synths. However, the only soundcard previously released under the Emu name was the APS (Audio Production Studio), which I reviewed way back in SOS January 1999. This was essentially a stereo sampler with built-in effects, launched without ASIO drivers, and with a fixed 48kHz audio 'engine', just like Creative's Soundblaster Live and subsequent Audigy series.

This time around, Emu have launched a rather more ambitious range of five products based around their new 1010 PCI card. This not only supports 24-bit/192kHz multi-channel recording, but also provides up to 16 simultaneous hardware-accelerated effects, courtesy of the new 100MIPS E-DSP chip.

There are three audio interfaces in the range, and two of these are also available as bundles which include Emu's Emulator X software, heralded as 'the culmination of over 30 years of sampler development'. Emulating the designs of Emu's hardware samplers, with hard disk streaming or RAM playback, and using a complex engine with extensive modulation options, possibly its most intriguing feature is the inclusion of over 50 patented Z-plane morphing filters, as used in hardware such as Emu's Morpheus synth.

With support for sample formats including Akai, Emu's own EOS and EIII, Emagic's EXS24, Gigastudio and Steinberg's Halion, as well as Creative's Soundfont 2.1, this hardware/software combination promises to be extremely powerful, and as long as there are no stings in the tail it looks set to take the market by storm.

Emu 1820M Soundcard: Brief Specifications

Supported sample rates: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 96kHz and 192kHz from internal clock.
Mic/line inputs: two, balanced XLR with switchable global +48V phantom power and -10 to +50 dB gain range, or unbalanced TS quarter-inch jack with -12 to +28 dB gain.

Turntable input: twin phono, 47k(omega)/220pF input impedance, nominal 10mV RMS sensitivity.
Analogue inputs: six, balanced or unbalanced line-level TRS jack at -10dBV or +4dBu sensitivity.
Analogue outputs: eight balanced or unbalanced TRS quarter-inch jacks at -10dBV or +4dBu level, duplicated on four stereo 3.5mm jacks, plus headphone output with level control.
Digital I/O: co-axial S/PDIF in and out at up to 24-bit/96kHz, ADAT optical up to 24-bit/192kHz (switchable to S/PDIF format if required), Firewire port, all on PCI card, plus further S/PDIF optical output and two MIDI Ins and Outs on Audiodock.

Sync: word clock in and out, SMPTE in and out, MTC out.
DSP Core Effects: 1-Band Parametric, 1-Band Shelf, 3-Band EQ, 4-Band EQ, Auto-Wah, Chorus, Compressor, Distortion, Flanger, Frequency Shifter, Leveling Amp, Mono Delay 100 and 3000, Phase Shifter, Rotary, Speaker Simulator, Stereo Delay 100 and 1500, Stereo Reverb, Vocal Morpher.
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20kHz, +0/-0.35dB.
Dynamic range: 120dBA (analogue inputs and outputs).
THD + noise: -105dB (0.0006%) with 1kHz signal at -1dBFS.

The Full Range
All five products in the range include the 1010 PCI card featuring Emu's E-DSP chip. This provides the core processing, as well as co-axial S/PDIF in and out supporting up to 24-bit/96kHz and switchable to AES-EBU format if required, ADAT optical in and out at up to 24-bit/192kHz which is switchable to S/PDIF, and a Firewire IEEE 1394 port. The analogue I/O varies from model to model.
Emu X DSS bundle.s

If you want the Emulator X software but don't need the 1820M's multiple I/O, you could buy the Desktop Sampling System bundle which includes the 1010 and 1212M cards plus Emulator X.
The £149.99 1212M model includes an 0202 daughterboard, which connects to the 1010 PCI card via an internal ribbon cable and provides a stereo pair of balanced/unbalanced inputs and outputs on quarter-inch jack sockets, plus a standard MIDI In and Out. This combination is also available with the Emulator X software for £219.99.

The 1820 and 1820M packages include a very smart Audiodock external breakout box featuring two flexible mic/guitar/line preamp inputs with optional phantom power, six balanced line-level inputs, eight balanced line level outputs, a hardware stereo RIAA preamp for direct connection of a turntable, complete with ground lug, two MIDI Ins and Outs, four stereo speaker outputs configurable from stereo to 7.1 surround, a further optical S/PDIF output and a stereo headphone output. The Audiodock connects to the 1010 PCI card via a generous three-metre umbilical cable terminated in CAT5 (LAN) connectors. Emu say that this is a standard CAT5e network cable, and that you can use cables of up to 10 metres in length, but warn against plugging their specially RF shielded version into any other network connector.

While the 1820 retails at a very reasonable £299.99 and provides audio performance up to 24-bit/192kHz on a par with various other soundcards, with a claimed dynamic range of 111dBA, the 1212M and 1820M both have 'mastering grade' converters (the A-D converters used are apparently the same as those of Digidesign's HD192 interface), which provide an even flatter frequency response, plus significantly greater dynamic range of a claimed 120dBA.

The top-of-the-range £349.99 'M' version of the 1820 is also supplied with a Sync daughterboard that connects to the 1010 PCI card via an internal ribbon connector, and which provides word clock in and out, SMPTE in and out, and an MTC (MIDI Timecode) out. Finally, the 1820M is available with the Emulator X software as the Emulator X Studio package for £429.99.

Docking Procedure
Like various other cards including the Audigy range, the 1010 PCI card requires more power than can be supplied via the PCI slot if you have an Audiodock unit plugged into it (it consumes 1.25 Amps at 12 Volts), so in this case you need to plug in the supplied Power Converter cable, which connects directly to a PSU spur. Other connectors on the card are for the 0202 daughterboard (only used in the 1212 system), the Sync card, and two mysterious ones labelled Xcard In and Out, which strongly suggest that multiple cards will at some stage be able to be sync'ed together internally, although Emu wouldn't be drawn on this when I queried it, and the drivers only currently support a single 1010 card.

Emu EmulatorX-1
The Patchmix DSP utility lets you mix and route all the hardware input and output signals, plus the Wave and ASIO inputs and outputs, in virtually any way you please; you can also insert any combination of the DSP effects as aux sends, channel or main inserts.

You can either use the supplied stick-on rubber feet for desktop use, or four M3 6mm bolts and a standard 19-inch rack shelf, which will house two Audiodocks side by side. On the front panel are Neutrik combi sockets for mic (outer XLR) and guitar/line (inner TRS) inputs. Each one has red clip and green -12dB signal presence indicators, plus a rotary gain control calibrated from +20dB to +55dB when using the mic input and from -10dB to +25dB for line sensitivity. There's also a global +48 Volt phantom power switch with its own red LED indicator, and the preamps, which are apparently designed by Ted Fletcher of TF Pro, sounded good to me.

Unlike on many other soundcards, these two inputs are independent of the back-panel offerings, and there are six more quarter-inch jack sockets that all support both balanced and unbalanced sources, along with eight identical sockets for the line-level outputs. The outputs are also duplicated by four alternate 3.5mm stereo jacks, intended for powered speakers in formats up to 7.1 surround. All six inputs and eight outputs can have their sensitivity switched in pairs to either -10dBV consumer or +4dBu professional levels, as can the 1212M's single stereo analogue inputs and outputs.

Outputs 4L/R are designated as the stereo monitor outputs, although you can change this in the Patchmix DSP utility, while inputs 3L/R have a dedicated hardware RIAA-equalised preamp tied to them with its own pair of phono input sockets, plus a ground terminal (the low signals from deck cartridges are particularly susceptible to hum problems). This high-gain preamp can be disabled by plugging cables into the main 3L/R inputs, which will also mute its noise contribution.

Emu X Back.s
Eight analogue outputs are duplicated on quarter-inch stereo jacks for the easy connection of desktop speakers.
Emu X Front panel.s
The 1820's two front-panel analogue inputs are independent of the rear-panel I/O, and can be used to connect microphones, guitars or line-level sources.

The remaining Audiodock controls comprise a pair of MIDI In/Out sockets on the front panel, a second pair round the back, the umbilical connector for the 1010 card, a front-panel optical S/PDIF output to connect up a DAT or Minidisc recorder, plus a headphone output and volume control. The latter can drive a higher current than the other outputs for lower-impedance headphones (the manual spec quotes figures down to 33(omega)). Finally, there's a set of understated front-panel indicators that remain invisible until lit — these show MIDI input activity on the two ports, correct clock Lock status, External clock, which of the four sample rates is being used, and SMPTE timecode transmission and reception.

The manual misleadingly claims that the Audiodock 'has its own built-in power supply to isolate its 24-bit DACs and ADCs from the noisy computer environment', but like most other breakout boxes it derives the supply from its host computer. Emu also describe the inner TRS socket as a 'line-level/hi-Z input', but its impedance is specified as 10k(omega), and guitars with passive pickups like to see at least 100k(omega) (and preferably 1M(omega)) to avoid high-frequency loss, so while the Emu preamps have plenty of gain, for best results you'll really need a DI box to avoid getting a dull sound.

However, overall I was most impressed by the Audiodock's professional options, the number of extras, and the lack of any real compromises — the only one I spotted was that the Audiodock's rear-panel MIDI input only functions as a second discrete port if the Sync card's SMPTE input is disabled, and vice versa.

Drivers
The Emu 1010 drivers and applications only run under Windows 2000 SP4 and XP (most developers are now abandoning the Windows 9x platform), and I had no problems installing them on my Windows XP PC. Emu do warn Audigy 2 and 2ZS owners that when you've installed the 1010 card and rebooted, Windows may attempt to install older Creative drivers, but as long as you cancel this you can install the proper 1010 drivers and software and run both products alongside each other. By the time I was ready to install the 1820M card, Emu had posted a version 1.01 driver update that fixed various phase inversion issues with the Audiodock and 1212M inputs, SysEx timing problems, headphone distortion at 96kHz, and incorrect headphone attenuation at 192kHz, but luckily it's only a 1.43MB Hotfix download that you run over the existing installation, not a full install.

Currently, the ASIO drivers support sample rates of 96kHz and 192kHz, but not the MME-WDM ones. This will doubtless annoy Sonar users, although as always I suspect the majority of users will opt for 24-bit/44.1kHz format. Sadly, there are no GSIF drivers either, which means that you can't use this Emu range with Gigastudio.

E-Wire
If the already huge number of features wasn't enough for the boffins at Emu, they also managed to enable ASIO host applications to access the E-DSP effects as VST Inserts, using a specially designed VST/ASIO Bridge. This E-Wire plug-in lets you route audio to and from Emu's DSP effects, although the effect controls remain in the Patchmix DSP software. ASIO host applications that support latency compensation take care of all the timing, but Emu also thoughtfully provide a separate Delay Compensation plug-in to do this for those that don't. However, Emu's Patchmix DSP user interface is not under VST control, so unfortunately you can't automate the controls for the Emu effects within your sequencer.

Patchmix DSP
Along with the drivers, Emu supply their Patchmix DSP software, which is a virtual mixing console that goes a long way beyond those of most other soundcards. All users also get Lite versions of Wavelab and SFX Machine, and in the 1820M package you also get a full version of Steinberg's Cubase VST 5.1, while 1212 users get Steinberg's Cubasis VST.

Emu EmulatorX-2
Here you can see the Sync Card dialogue. Notice also that this 192kHz Session has greatly reduced I/O, with the TV window displaying only two ADAT inputs and reduced Audiodock options.
Emu have stuck with the sculpted-aluminium look of their previous APS E-Control mixer for the Patchmix DSP mixer, but this time the whole thing's a lot more sophisticated. It's divided into four main sections, with a toolbar across the top (although the normal Windows title bar is missing), the lower right Main Section displaying the main levels along with their insert effects, Aux sends and returns, monitor and sync settings, plus a multi-function 'TV' info window at top right. Displayed on the left are as many 'input strips' as you've created for physical inputs or computer playback channels. Mic/line inputs have mono input strips, whilst the others have stereo ones. Below these are six visible insert slots, although if you need more you can access them by using the vertical scroll bar alongside the slots to drag them into view. Into these slots you can drag and drop effects from the Effects Palette (see box for details), or right-click and select from various other options. When you click on each insert its various controls appear in more detail in the multi-function TV window.

The options include a peak-reading meter, trim control with up to ±30dB gain, variable-frequency sine wave, pink or white noise test tone, a send to an ASIO input or physical output, a send/return to a physical output and input (for adding external effects, for instance), or an ASIO direct monitor, in which case the mixer's strip signal is sent to an ASIO input during recording but monitored directly to avoid latency, and monitored via the ASIO host application during playback. This is an incredibly versatile selection. Below the inserts are pan controls, two aux sends, channel fader, mute and solo buttons, plus a handy 'scribble strip' for naming each channel.

Patchmix DSP is 'dynamically configurable', which basically means you can add or delete mixer strips as you wish up to the number of available inputs and DSP resources, while a horizontal scroll bar and adjustable-width window let you change the way it looks. On creation you can also decide whether the aux sends are pre- or post-fader, and each new strip will appear to the right of the existing ones, although you can drag any strip to a different position at will, and reorder the inserts in the same way. If you click on the Inputs button near the top of the multi-function TV window, you get a display of the input strip assignments for each physical and host signal.
Emulator X File Converter Formats

Emu supply a stand-alone File Converter utility that can convert many other sampler file formats into Emulator X's own EXB format. It's simplicity itself to use: you just drag and drop the source files into its upper window, select a destination folder, and then press the Convert button. It certainly worked well for me on files already on my PC hard drives in Gigastudio and Soundfont formats, but sadly it doesn't read non-native CD-ROM formats such as Akai S1000/3000 and Emu EIII/ESi (and will crash if you try). However, all these formats can apparently be written to DOS and accessed that way, and File Converter can apparently read Mac- as well as PC-formatted CD-ROMs.
The PDF manual contains extensive details of the various conversions, and the converter even attempts to deal with Gigastudio, EXS24 and Halion features like keyswitching and controller switching by splitting them into separate Presets, although release triggering is ignored.
The full list of supported file types is:

Akai S1000/S3000, S5000 & Z series, MPC 3000/2000, Mesa.
Emu E3/ESi, Emax II.
Samplecell I & III.
Tascam Gigastudio.
Soundfont.
Emagic EXS24 MkI & II.
Steinberg Halion I & II.
Creamware Pulsar/STS.
Propellerhead Recycle I.
Acidised WAV.
Main Section

To the right of the input strips is the Main Section. The two aux sends each have two visible slots, but again a scroll bar lets you access more if required. You can drag effects into these slots from the Effects Palette or any of the other input strip options except for send/return — if you send to an ASIO, Wave or Physical output, the return signal will need a dedicated input strip. There are six slots displayed for the Main Inserts, plus a scroll bar if you need to add more. To the right of these are the main stereo output level meters with latching clip indicators, the main output level fader, a display of the clock source, current sample rate, and successful lock, plus volume, balance and mute buttons for the monitor section.

The monitor mix itself is controlled from the Output Assignment section, accessed by clicking on the Outputs button above the info window. Like the Inputs display this shows both physical and host options in separate windows, but this time you can actively select whether each destination is connected to the Main or Monitor mix output by clicking in the appropriate box to link its patchbay graphic connection.

Digital Details
Any changes of sample rate must be made in the Patchmix DSP software rather than the host application, since various functions change, and restrictions apply. First, at 96kHz and 192kHz sample rates the effects are disabled. This is not unexpected, given that their processing requirements would double and quadruple respectively compared with 48kHz. The ADAT I/O is reduced from eight to four channels at 96kHz, and two at 192kHz, while the S/PDIF I/O completely disappears at 192kHz.

Emu EmulatorX-3
The Emulator X Multiset view lets you allocate Presets to each of the 32 MIDI channels, and tweak them in real time.

Meanwhile, while the 1212M still manages to run its stereo analogue I/O (and digital subject to the caveats above) at both 96kHz and 192kHz, with the two 1820 models you have to choose between the four-channel ADAT inputs or Line Inputs 2 and 3 at 96kHz, while at 192kHz there are four options: Mic and Line 2 inputs, Mic and ADAT inputs, Line Inputs 1 & ADAT, or Line Inputs 1 & 3.
Given the complexity of this mixer, it's welcome that the toolbar contains a set of buttons to load, save, and create new 'Sessions' containing every Patchmix DSP setting, including the I/O sensitivities and digital options, sample rate and so on, plus the effects routings and settings for the input, aux and main inserts. Four further buttons launch windows for choosing Session Settings for the I/O, clock and sample rate options, Global Preferences, the Sync Card SMPTE settings, and showing/hiding the Effects Palette.

Overall I found the Patchmix DSP software supremely configurable, although this can make it initially overwhelming, particularly for novice users. The only frustrating aspect for me was not being able to take an existing 44.1kHz Session, delete its ADAT and DSP aspects and change its sample rate to 96kHz or 192kHz — you can freely change from 44.1kHz to 48kHz, but going any higher means starting from scratch. However, Emu have thoughtfully provided six Session starting points for both 96kHz and 192kHz, and 13 '44/48' sessions including an E-Wire Example, Percussion EQ, a setup for Rightmark's Audio Analyser, and even a Guitar Tuner using six channels of test tones!

Small niggles include a difficult-to-read font for the insert slots and scribble strips, the inability to change your mind about pre/post aux send routing after creating an input strip, or any reminder of which you chose. I also found the red outline of the currently selected input strip quite subtle on my monitor, and a readout of available DSP resources would have been useful.

DSP Effects
Emu EmulatorX-6
The floating FX Palette lets you click and drag effects to the channel or main inserts or the two aux sends, shows any chained algorithms in its lower pane, and 'greys out' any that exceed the remaining DSP resources of the E-DSP chip. The effect parameters themselves appear in the right-hand 'TV' window.

After clicking on Patchmix DSP's FX button to launch the floating Effects Palette window you'll see a list of folders, each containing 32-bit effects that can be loaded into the channel or main inserts or the two Aux slots. The uppermost folder is labeled Core Effects, and contains 20 basic algorithms that cannot be deleted — see the 'Basic Specification' box for a full list.
Beneath this are folders containing presets created from one or more of the Core Effects in series, complete with all their settings — a list of the algorithms used appears in a small window below when you select it — and these are organised by default as Distortion Lo-Fi, Drums & Percussion, Environment, Equalisation, Guitar, Multi Effects, Reverb, Synth & Keys and Vocal. These presets can be renamed or deleted, and once dragged into an effect slot, can also be edited and subsequently saved as a new single or multi FX Preset.

Once you select the slot in question, its parameters all appear in Patchmix DSP's TV info window as a simple interface consisting of a set of horizontal 'faders' along with meters where appropriate, with dry/wet control and bypass and solo buttons at the top, and a drop-down list of Core Effect preset settings at the bottom, to which you can add your own user presets.

Each Core Effect takes a different amount of DSP resources, and as these are used up in your mix you'll find that some effects in the palette become 'greyed out' as further options — the delays, reverbs and multi-effect chains are the hungriest and tend to go first! Unfortunately there's no readout for remaining DSP resources, but as a rough guide, you can only launch two Stereo Reverbs or two Stereo Delay 1500s, or one of each, before they get greyed out as further options. Even then you'll probably have enough DSP power left to run a couple of dozen EQs, chorus, compressors and the like. Saving a Session defragments the DSP resources, so this is a useful ploy if you're running low.

Overall the DSP effects proved extremely versatile, and I particularly liked the simple yet versatile Speaker Simulator, the twin phoneme modulations of the Vocal Morpher, and the weirdness of the stereo Frequency Shifter. However, I must confess to being slightly disappointed with the Stereo Reverb, which is after all one of the prime candidates for DSP help. Although it's capable of reproducing plenty of useful ambiences, rooms and special effects, most of its longer tails were slightly metallic, and whilst it's significantly better than the majority of plug-ins bundled with MIDI + Audio sequencers, I've got several native plug-in reverbs in my collection that sound smoother.

Emulator X
The Emulator X software is based on the design of Emu's very popular hardware samplers, and described as a 'Desktop Sampling System'. It certainly has an impressive specification, with stand-alone or VST Instrument operation, 24-bit sampling and playback at up to 192kHz with phase-locked stereo, RAM or streaming playback from hard disk, ultra-high-precision pitch interpolation, and support for a comprehensive range of sample formats (see box). Above all it's the advanced synth engine that will make people sit up and take notice, since this has 54 different filter types that not only include the familiar multi-pole resonant designs but also multi-phoneme vocal and morphing filters, as seen in Emu's hardware synths and modules such as the Morpheus.
The two Emulator packages are effectively the 1212M and 1820M plus the Emulator X software for an extra £70 to £80. By the time you read this Emu will also be selling the software directly as an upgrade for existing users of these two cards for £109.99, with an initial special offer of just £69.99 until the end of May.

Installation is easy, but due to an oversight the comprehensive 192-page PDF manual needs to be copied across by hand and renamed as 'Emulator X.PDF'. The software checks for the appropriate Emu hardware before it will run, although it doesn't specifically use its DSP capabilities, so Emu could theoretically release Emulator X as a stand-alone product to those who already have other soundcards.

Emulator X is bundled with a 2GB library on four CD-ROMs. For me, the 401MB X Producer collection is the highlight, with over 1000 presets from the Proteus 2000 sound bank, but there's also the more aggressive Hip Hop Producer and the orchestral Saint Thomas Strings, plus a 20MB General MIDI sound set. The second and third CD-ROMs contain a Studio Grand Piano with eight dynamic layers, while Beat Shop One contains loads of kits, loops, and grooves.

Overview
The Emulator X display is divided into two non-resizeable main panes, with a toolbar across the top of them, and a status bar beneath containing such details as the number of samples playing, RAM use and CPU overhead. At the heart of the Emulator X architecture is the Voice, which comprises one or more samples and a synth engine. A Preset maps one or more Voices across the keyboard, and may incorporate velocity layers or real-time crossfades, while a Multi Setup is a collection of Presets each mapped to one of up to 32 MIDI channels. Finally, Presets are collected together into a Bank.

Emu EmulatorX-5
Despite the huge number of parameters on offer, Emulator X's Voice Processing editor is really easy to use, and incredibly flexible.

When you first load a Bank, its contents appear in the left-hand tree view as three folders for Presets, Samples and Multisets, and selecting one of these displays a list view of its contents in the right-hand pane, just like in Windows Explorer. Clicking on the Sampler Bank name box above the tree view switches the right-hand pane to the Multi Setup view, where you can choose Presets for each of Emulator X's 32 MIDI channels along with their level, pan, tuning and output routings, override the filter type, and alter any of up to 16 continuous controllers that may be mapped to various preset parameters. If you have a MIDI controller you can also map its various knobs and sliders to control Emulator X. Multi Setups for each song can be saved and recalled via the main Multisets folder mentioned earlier.

Selecting a specific Preset folder changes the view to the Preset Globals screen so you can permanently change the transposition and volume, controllers, choose from various scale tunings including such things as 19-tone and Gamelan, set initial positions for the 16 controllers, and modify various modulators and cords (more on these later on). This and the other editors can also be opened as separate windows if you prefer.

Things become even more interesting if you open a Preset Folder: you can edit its sample allocation or easily assign single samples or multisamples to different note or velocity ranges using click-and-drag editing in the Voices and Zones screen, layer or split multiple presets in the Links display, or edit the synth engine itself in its Voice Processing screen.

Opening the main Samples folder lets you see every sample used in the bank, and clicking on one opens the Sample Editor, where you get a large zoomable waveform display with loop points clearly marked, a transport bar for auditioning, and full control over the start and end points of the loop. A comprehensive set of DSP tools also becomes available on the main toolbar to edit the sample, including fades, pitch-shifting, time compression, sample-rate conversion, loop processing and so on. Most soft samplers rely on external editors for such functions, but since Emu use their own sample format an internal editor makes more sense. You can import WAV and AIFF files, and even record them using the Acquire function.

System Requirements
Because of the hardware acceleration provided by the E-DSP chip, hardware requirements for the 1820M are modest, and Emu state a minimum of an Intel PIII 500MHz or AMD K6 processor, 128MB of RAM, and 500MB of free hard disk space, although personally I'd recommend 512MB or more of RAM to successfully run a modern MIDI + Audio sequencer as well. If you're also running the Emulator X software you'll require a considerably more powerful PC, as it relies totally on the host CPU (there's no hardware help from the E-DSP chip) — Emu recommend a 2.4GHz P4 or faster and 1GB or more of RAM.

You'll also need to be running either Windows 2000 SP4 or XP, and have two spare PCI slot positions — one for the 1010 card and the other nearby to house the Sync card, although this doesn't actually plug into a slot, instead getting its power and other connections direct from the 1010 card.

Voice Processing
The Voice processing is extremely impressive, with a dynamic filter, dynamic amplifier, up to three six-stage envelope generators, two multi-wave LFOs, and up to 32 modulation routings. Emu call the latter 'cords', and they are displayed in four groups of nine, each with a huge number of possible sources and destinations, plus a tiny rotary Amount control. Even the cords themselves can be modulated by other cords.

Emu EmulatorX-4
With a large waveform display and an extensive range of editing, looping and DSP tools, Emulator X's Sample display is far more comprehensive than that of any other soft sampler I've reviewed to date.

The signal path is reasonably conventional, comprising an oscillator, filter and amplifier, but there are quite a few interesting twists en route. For instance, the oscillator lets you delay sample playback (useful when layering) and offset the start point (for missing out the transient at the start of a sample), and provides 13 different keyboard trigger modes to suit different mono and polyphonic instruments and playing styles. It also provides stereo chorus (although this doubles the number of voices used) and nine different glide (portamento) shapes.
The LFOs must be the most versatile I've seen, with 17 different waveforms including the usual suspects plus Octaves, Fifth+Octave, Sus4 trip and Pat: Neener (all of which provide simple arpeggios), Sine 1,2 and Sine 1,3,5 which combine several sine waves, Sine+noise, and the stepped Hemi-quaver.

The six-stage envelope generators can be set up using rotary controls or by clicking and dragging in the graphic display window, and you can start from a range of templates, to which your own designs can be added. In fact, every graphic display has its own template options, making design work much more pleasurable. As you might expect from its VSTi capabilities, many aspects of the Emulator X engine can also be sync'ed to tempo, including envelope times, LFO frequency and delay time, and oscillator delay.

For me, the highlight has to be the filter section, which goes beyond any other software synth/sampler I've ever used. Two thumbwheel controls for frequency and resonance, plus a graphic display, hide the massive 53 different filter types on offer. These cover all the classic low-pass, band-pass and high-pass types, but then move on to comb-filter responses of phasers and flangers, and complex responses with multiple peaks. In some models the frequency control is replaced by a control that morphs between two filter responses such as vocal cavities while the Q controls body size; in others, both controls may move multiple peaks in opposite directions, or change the frequency of some and the gain of others. Whether you want throaty 'talking' voices or ethereal movement in your sounds, I guarantee that if you've not come across Emu's filter set before you'll be blown away by it. I was also really impressed at the way Emu had managed to make so many Voice processing controls so accessible in a single display and yet so easy to use — far easier than the Gigastudio Editor for instance.

In Use
Previous Emu/Creative designs such as the Soundblaster range have been notorious for their fixed-sample-rate engines and hidden sample-rate conversion, so it's reassuring to confirm that there are absolutely no compromises of this sort in the new Emu range — what you choose is what you get. After detailed comparison with my own Echo Mia using a wide range of classical, jazz, rock and dance music I found the Emu 1820M to sound quite similar on playback but noticeably more revealing in the details, particularly in the reverb tails and with stereo imaging, suggesting a lower-jitter clock.

Emu X PCI card.s
The PCI card itself features a CAT5 connector for the breakout box, co-axial S/PDIF and optical ADAT digital I/O, and a Firewire port.

Rightmark's Audio Analyser provided some of the best results that I've measured to date. It reported a flat frequency response, with -0.5dB points at a low 7Hz and 20.5kHz at 24-bit/44.1kHz, a low THD of 0.0009 percent, and an exceptionally wide dynamic range of 118dBA — a good 10dB better than the Mia, which is one of the quieter soundcards around. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the MME-WDM drivers don't currently support 24-bit/96kHz or 192kHz sample rates, and since RMAA doesn't currently support ASIO drivers, I couldn't measure the audio performance at rates above 48kHz.

However, the ASIO drivers provided great performance, managing a 2ms latency with both Pro 53 and Cubase SX 2. I received exactly the same low latency using the ASIO drivers with Sonar 3.1, although I couldn't get the WDM ones to work much below 30ms on my PC.

Like Halion and Kontakt, Emulator X can either stream its sample data from a hard drive, or store it in RAM if you have enough and want to work out the drive to full capacity playing back conventional audio tracks. There are various pre-roll and sample buffer settings in its Preference dialogue to optimise performance, as well as a useful CPU Cap setting to prevent it from hogging more than a specified amount of your processor's capability. I ran it with no problems as a VSTi within Cubase SX 2, and with the VST Adapter 4 within Sonar 3.1, and with typical Presets it took about 35 percent of my P4C 2.8GHz processor when running 32 voices. However, its advanced engine can be rather CPU-greedy — the Dynamic Grand in the Proteus Composer bank, for instance, uses three samples per voice, so even with 32-note polyphony you'll be accessing and streaming 96 samples, taking about 65 percent CPU capacity on my PC.

In The Balance
During the last eight years or so I've reviewed over 60 different soundcards for SOS, and as you might expect, it's not often that they surprise or impress me any more. After all, many soundcards are permutations on existing designs, adding a mic/guitar preamp here and there, or providing the same set of features at ever lower prices. Many companies have tried to produce a soundcard with versatile I/O and DSP effects, but few have succeeded. Lexicon's attempts were too expensive for most and finicky about their PC host, Yamaha's DSP Factory was launched with very little software support, and Creative's own Audigy cards were hampered by confusing software and engine limitations.

In my opinion Emu are the first company to have got it right with their 1010 PCI card range, and have done so at prices that will result in some dropped jaws from their competitors. At an entry-level price of just £149.99 you can have extensive, freely configurable DSP effects as well as up to 32 virtual ASIO outputs with the basic 1212M stereo analogue in/out configuration, all at exactly the same high quality as the 1820M under review here. However, anyone considering the 1212M would be foolish not to pay the extra £70 for the incredibly versatile Emulator X software bundle with its 2GB library. Personally, I think Emu could cut also the hardware ties and sell loads more copies of the software by itself to those who've already bought soundcards.

If you have more ambitious I/O requirements, the versatile 1820M under review here should provide enough for the majority of users, especially since its ADAT I/O would let you add another eight analogue ins and outs by buying a third-party converter box. However, I do feel that the 1820 will become the poor relation, since for just £50 more the 1820M not only provides around 8dB more dynamic range and a flatter frequency response, but also the added features of the Sync daughterboard. Some potential users might consider a Firewire or USB 2.0 solution a better long-term purchase, but the basic PCI format is likely to be around for some years to come, so I don't personally think this is a worry. Overall, the 1820M and Emulator X bundle is the most impressive 'soundcard' that I've had the pleasure of reviewing for several years, and I've no doubts that it will sell and sell.

Published in SOS June 2004

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2021

Cool! What motherboard are you using for the 9900K that has a legacy PCI slot for the older HDSP 9632 PCI card?

 

@bluerover Asus Prime H370-Plus I bought two of them as a spare it has two PCI and two M.2 slots, I use integrated graphics for production, and I have drivers for Windows 7 if someone wants

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/All-series/PRIME-H370-PLUS/

 

It all ties together. CPU, PCIe bus & lanes, memory bandwidth, driver optimization, DAW integrity & optimization. USB 3.1 (Gen 1) should be the minimum standard for a modern entry level USB Audio device.

 

Last edited: May 3, 2021

That RME legacy card is still a great option. You can get em used for like $100-150.

 

Audio Interface DAWbench
https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.php?p=15205348&postcount=4631

 

indeed.
I used RME FireFace800 (until Windows 7). However, since it was necessary to change the OS to Windows 10 with a change in PC, the sound was encountered to be a mess that changes to the FireWire800 board using the Texus Instruments chip corresponding to the latest OS. This is not stable at all FW800. Even if FW400, "interruption of sound" such as a stutter effect is likewise.

Next, I was inserted into a Conversion connector with a PCI (non-PCIe) audio interface. Lynx L22 owned, and RME HDSP9632. The conversion board came from China. But they were not the ideal shape but much cumbersome.

The first converter board interferes with the audio interface board with each one using the SATA power connector and does not stain into the slot.If you disconnect the SATA power connector, you will be successfully connected to the connector. However, since the operation is unstable, we purchased the second conversion board.

This is also only that the power supply has changed to the IDE, and noise is riding from the power supply part.

The third conversion card worked properly with Japanese manufacturers. However, I was troubled with the symptoms of floating from the slot at the own weight of the connector behind the inserted and fixed audio interface.

So I searched for the PCIe version audio interface board. RME's HDSPe AIO is 4-5 years ago manufactured as a product discontinued (RME Distributer Synthax SAYS) After all, I imported from Germany with eBay. This is a very good product. However, a new WDM driver has an annoying issue that increases with increasing time.

While using this HDSPE AIO, I bought ESI Maya44 EX on the spare board, but unfortunately it was disappointed at three points.

One does not correspond to the 192 kHz output. And there are many white noise on Wolfson's DAC. Finally, it is the ASIO buffer. There is no benefit for PCIe, and buffer 256 does not make a beautiful sound. If it is not set to 512 or more, it can not be used in combination with the mixer.

Still much more than the USB interface audio.