I'm a Mac guy but I recently installed this ancient plugin on an actual 2003 Windows XP SP3 PC. I'm loving all the E-MU goodness and that it's basically ALL of E-MU's rack modules in software format. I'm sequencing it from a Mac and Ableton with Push 2!

BUT I have a problem that's driving me nuts, though. Can anyone help?

To be able to create a 'Library' and custom soundbanks by pulling patches from different modules (from different "Banks" a.ka .exb files), I need to be able to create a Library. But when go to the tab Library and try to create (index) it, I just keep getting this error msg:

"The Library's database could not be opened. Please ensure that ODBC drivers for Microsoft Access are installed".

I've tried going to Administrative Tools › ODBC Data Sources, but to the best of my knowledge I should have that driver installed. I can try creating a Data Source, but that doesn't seem to help at all.

 

Mac too and my e-mus live in racks, where they belong. all the old posts about this seem to go back to setting up correct configuration/dsn in

C:\Windows\System32\ODBCAD32.exe

see if that gets you somewhere with google. this stuff is obviously very old. Luckily, I have no pc I can test anything with. you could look on emusonacid, but it was mostly about samplers. people did love these cards, but they were also problematic for a lot of users. (aren't the emu-x products' $$ failure a big part of how/why Creative ended up with E-Mu?)

 

Last edited: Nov 6, 2021

There is a E-mu X3 R2R version on the sister site that runs on win10. I have no issues with it.

 

@liquidlove What version are you using? R2R version works pretty great here with W7.

 

It’s the R2R from the ’sister site’. And yeah, installed on an actual PC running XP with SP3. Which I think is 32-bit.

It’s working perfectly (with low latency too) other than the Library part. And there’s tooooons of great sounds, plus the CD-ROMs.

I think the ODBCAD32.exe solution helped with 64-bit versions.

 

ODBCAD32.exe is a 32-bit app, so it should work for 32-bit programs [just saying - I know you know that]. Well, whole XP is 32-bit, no trace of anything x64. ;) From what I can tell, you've done all the things correctly. It must be a problem with Emulator X3 then, but it's just my opinion, since I am using 64-bit version on W7 [which is beta!]. We need someone who's using 32-bit version with XP and have it working perfectly, too.

Without library import it's pretty unusable, eh? That's the main thing. Sorry I can't help. I guess maybe some ODBC KBxxxxxxx update from Microshit could help, but I suppose you have a nice, freshly installed XPSP3 there, so that's a blank shot, and where would you find MS KB updates for XP anyway.

Wish you all the best. You seem knowledgeable and I think you might find a solution yourself. Maybe reinstalling something? First adding Emulator X3 to ODBC database and then installing Emulator X3. You might have tried that already.

I have a tiny idea... have you fiddled with the background services in XP? Maybe you disabled something wrong?

 

Since you have a working X3 (although 64-bit), could you check if there is an actual Library file (.mdb?) in the Emulator X3 folder? Mine doesn't include anything so I don't have anywhere to point the DSN on.

Or better yet - could you send me (PM) a working Library file if you have all the factory (.exb) Banks? That's pretty much all I use, no custom sounds.

Just to clarify - my copy loads the Banks OK, but yeah, I can't create a Library so I could combine my favorite sounds.

 

Working OK on W7 64bit, never had that "Au divisi" (ODBC lol) prob..

Here's the file list:



As for XP, I'd recommend using XP-UE as it's fully updated/featured..

It's true that XP 64bit exists, but it had some limitations/stability issues.
I used it briefly before going for W7..

 

What is your pc spec? I remember that in the XP era, the Emulator X library was very slow to display on a PC with an AMD CPU (athlon 64?). It was normal on an Intel Core 2 Duo PC. It could be a graphics card issue rather than a CPU issue. I changed the PC and the issue was solved.