 "Getting around Creative Professional products" | 2009-09-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ZVK9JYTJCGIU |
| I mainly purchased this to go with my Creative Audigy ZS, that has a broken headphone monitor. The thing about this box is, you can hear all your inputs in real time, with minimum latency, well, a little from the optical. I use the optical out to go from the E-MU to the Creative Audigy, with guitars and mics. It's pretty straightforward, a little overpriced, and the unit will warm up. |
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 "Works as advertised, timely shipping" | 2009-07-29 |
| - Reviewed By collinsej |
It arrived a week ago.
I ain't no audiophile yet. I just wanted a USB soundcard (with the convenience of jacks on a desktop panel), guitar preamp, and with the option to use a midi connection jacks. I haven't tried out the last feature, but so far everything works well. I already have a USB microphone, so I don't know if I will be using the microphone inputs with phantom power. The drivers loaded without a hitch. It has a solid enough feel and pleasant styling for something that sits on my desktop.
I haven't tried out the accompanying software, it works well with my Voyetra Computer Music software. |
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 "Easy to setup and sound seems to be v.good (5 stars)" | 2009-05-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3OS405BTMAOL0 |
May 22, 2009
Preliminary review:
Just installed the drivers. The installer hangs at the very end, being an IT guy I figured that the drivers got installed properly. Rebooted the machine and started playing my wav files. I am using HD595 to judge the quality of the output. I'd recommend this to all who are looking for a low budget box with high quality converters.
The knobs on the box could be better. Wonder why EMU didn't bother to spend extra bit on that and I am sure customers wouldn't have minded paying bit more.
I am yet to do recording. I was in a hurry to write this preliminary review. Will post further updates after using the box for more time.
If the recording quality turns out to be v.good I might bump the rating to 5 stars.
June 09, 2009
Final review:
Tried recording as well with Shure SM58 mic. Overall performance of the EMU 0404 USB is as follows:
- Recording is crystal clear. Excellent frequency response. Use professional studio headphones to feel the quality. I am currently using Senn. HD595
- No latency could be felt. I guess it's close to zero.
- No issues with drivers. None! I am running this on WinXP. If you're using Vista, don't trust anything. Better switch to Mac OS if you don't have an option to switch back to XP.
- Installation of drivers is a breeze.
- Box seems to be made up of plastic/poly* materials but it's sturdy, not heavy metal though.
- Knobs could be of better quality as mentioned earlier.
- The range offered by the knobs is not great. It's not smooth/wide-range when it comes to setting levels. It's bit more sensitive than one would like. But overall, not an issue for a home/small studio.
- Like input (recording), output (playback) is also crystal clear. Fully supports 32-bit. I really think EMU has used very high quality ADC and DAC chips and very high quality of pre-amp circuitry.
- This product truly deserves 5 stars. In this price range, it's hard to find this kinda box with much quality. Thanks EMU!!
While I edit my review, I am not able to change the number of stars from 4 to 5. Consider my rating for this product as 5 stars!! |
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| "Easily the best product in its range" | 2009-02-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1SX229RQSJNE1 |
| The drivers work exceptionally well with my x64 system. That's what drew me to this product initially, because they boast compatibility with Windows Professional x64 so loudly. I was skeptical about the rest of the unit. But the 0404 is as quiet as they advertise, which is pretty darn quiet, and the lack of latency is incredible. All the controls you need the most--and use the most, like switching the live monitoring on and off so you can go from recording to mixing in a second--are right at the top of the unit (a really brilliant design idea, seeing as controls on the sides are that much harder to reach/see/use) The EMU0404 is as reliable as they come. My one qualm? The knobs on the unit feel a little cheap. I don't mean fragile, I mean cheap. The movement is so-so. And the input potentiometers create noise in the inputs when you adjust them. |
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| "Excellent product unless you run MacOS X 10.5 Panther" | 2008-02-13 |
| - Reviewed By maynard255 |
I bought this product a few months ago from another retailer. I use it with a MacBook 2ghz, 2GB RAM, blah blah blah. When I ran MacOS 10.4 Panther it worked great. The audio quality is excellent *IF* your source inputs are clean. By that I mean, if you're using a high quality microphone with XLR inputs you will get a very clean sound. I've also used it with a Martin D16RT acoustic guitar with builtin mic and a Taylor 812ce with builtin pickup and - again - it recorded extremely clean audio. The product works as advertised.
But, as of February 12th 2008, if you're running MacOS X 10.5 Leopard it doesn't work. I can't start standard audio applications like Garageband, they just crash. You'll have to remove the EMU driver to get the system back to normal too. Took me several hours to figure dig through the issue and determine the cause.
I hope EMU provides a driver update for 10.5 in the near future. But CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY if you're running Leopard. |
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| "Just what I wanted" | 2008-01-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3E9LXKYNSGKF5 |
| The Emu 404 was just what I wanted. While it is obviously not professional quality sound, it is perfect for home recording. My one suggestion is don't skimp on a mic. the better the mic the more you'll get out of this interface. |
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Expedited Available
