Emu 1616M PCI Digital Audio System User Reviews at zZounds

"The most amazing value in a sound card!" submitted October 9, 2007

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Sound: Better sepcs and sound quality than any of the RME interfaces. I'm running Vista (32-bit) and can set the ASIO buffer to 2ms in Ableton Live without any issues. Feature: Awesome Mic Pres and AD/DA converters (same as Pro Tools HD 192). Patch Mix DSP software lets you monitor vocals wet but record dry with no latency for the vocalist. Awesome! Ease of Use: Patch Mix DSP takes a few minutes to get your head around. Value: You won't find a better card for the money! Even if it was the same price as Fireface 400, this is better! Manufacturer Support: They actually answer the phone when you call! Very cool people. I had a question about using the PCI card in my Dell with PCI-X slots. Works great.

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Emu 1616M Interface Customer Review submitted June 5, 2007

By a customer from aol.com

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Musical Background: Recording/mixing egineer

Music Style: Progressive Metal/rock, dark funk.

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Sound: Sound quality along with the DSP effects are awesome. You can do a lot with this little system, and has produced a lot of clean takes for me. The preamps are are good, work well with my e609/e602 sennheiser mics. Also the analog inputs in the back are going to be used by my shure sm57's. All in all it's a great product. PS: They are dragging arse on the vista drivers so use xp for now. Value: worth the money! Pick it over a delta 1010 anyday of the week. Also if you like just kicking back and listening to music these dsp effect add a lot to your musical experience. Sound quality obviously beats the hell out of any of creative's mainstream soundcards.

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"The day we first met..." submitted May 28, 2008

By a customer from hotmail.com

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Musical Background: Solo musican.

Music Style: Electronic based

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Sound: Sounds amazing! I don't think you get any better for the price. Feature: I think it pretty much has every accessories you need. Ease of Use: Though the sound is amazing, the patchmix can be hard to understand. Once you figured it all out, it's really easy and direct. Just drag the FX to the channel and let the DSP do all the work. Quality: This is my first professional soundcard, and I am very satisfied with the Quality of this product. It does not have a cheep feel to it. Value: It's worth the money! Don't let anyone fool you. Manufacturer Support: I don't had to use support yet. The Wow Factor: It looks very nice. Overall: I just bought it, I think I'm going to use it for a long time. It does meet my musical goals. I would buy it all over agaig.

4 of 5 people (80%) found this review helpful. Did you?

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"get it" submitted August 2, 2009

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Musical Background: Active Musician & Recording Engineer

Music Style: acoustic, folk , experimental. electronica, screamo

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Sound: i record vocals & acoustic guitar using the E-MU 1616M PCI & AT4040 mic. Very pleased. Feature: the zero latency monitoring is awesome & very easy to use with FLStudio 8. Ease of Use: there's a learning curve. but it's worth it. Quality: i doubt there's a interface under a $1000 thats better. the only negitive is you must keep them cool. they will overheat, causing malfunctions. i keep a fan blowing above mine when i'm not recording. Value: nothing compares in it price range. it has the came converters as a protools set up. Manufacturer Support: their support is garbage. email only, they ussualy take 2 days to respond. to my knowledge EPR electronics no longer repairs E-MU's interfaces due to E-MU's lack of support. fortunately i havent needed support on my 1616M PCI in 2 years The Wow Factor: it's nothing aestheticly pleasing, but i could care less. Overall: overall it's the best

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"older tech, no manufacturer support, solid but poorly designed software but awesome electronics." submitted December 4, 2009

By a customer from laca.org

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Musical Background: pro

Music Style: pop rock

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Sound: The sound this product presents to your DAW is very good in my opinion. Feature: All the features you would need and more then required I would think. Ease of Use: I have been a computer specialist for almost 20 years, programming as well. I have owned two EMU interfaces and I always assumed I would get the thinking behind the patchmix DSP application which controls the audio for EMU cards. Nope. Its a bit confusing as others will attest. You will have to really fart around with it to get what you want out of it. However I know that has to do with its flexibility. Still , incredibly poorly laid out and executed. ( the software) Quality: Dont move it too much. One of my preamps (where the mic goes in in the front) is flaky now when you giggle whatever cable you have in there , but if using for recording should be fine. I have moved mine quite a bit and use for live performance. All my mixing is done digtially. Value: At the time these were a great value Manufacturer Support: EMU has no repair or support presence. I called the designated repair partner and I was told they don't do repairs anymore. the EMU website was down for three weeks and noboday at Creative ( the ownders of EMU) cared enough to fix it. Since its 2009 I would suggest looking at a non emu product as it seems to be dying out and the companies didn't merge oh to well I would assume. However, I have a 1616m and a EMU 0404 they are inexpensive flexible but the are legacy procucts. Overall: I am already looking for something else based on newer technology.

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"I've had problems with this product" submitted March 21, 2010

By a customer from sbcglobal.net

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Musical Background: hobbyist

Music Style: classical

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Sound: hard to say, since I had problems with it from day 1. after a few weeks of use, where it seemed to be functioning ok, suddenly I started to get popping noises. Recently I was playing back a song in my sequencer and it erupted in static. Now I can't get any sounds from it, and thus am sending it back. Feature: Seems to have a lot of features, but you have to really know what you're doing in order to use them. The documentation is quite opaque for a novice Ease of Use: manual not very clear. could not get stereo audio technica microphone to work. when audio interface started to make poppping and static sounds there was no troubleshooting section to solve issues. Quality: pcie card didn't fit snugly into computer. product is not reliable, since I've had lots of unusual problems with sound, and now I can't get any sounds. Value: If this product worked well out of the box, was well documented and had better support, I'd believe all the good press this product seems to get. Manufacturer Support: There is no phone support. In fact, the phone number for the company has been disconnected. At least tech support answers email, although it takes them at least a day to answer. With no ability to talk to anyone and resolve a problem quickly, you go back and forth by email, which doesn't work very well. I've been going back and forth for a week and a half now, since I've been having major problems with sound, and tech support is still asking introductory questions (e.g. are there stray cables inside your computer?, etc). At this rate it will take a year to resolve. Overall: When I researched audio interfaces, this one seemed to have such good press and seemed very high end for the price, but I've had nothing but problems, and with unclear/minimal documentation and minimal tech support, I've abandoned it for another brand.

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"Great sound. That's it for now." submitted January 20, 2009

By a customer from hotmail.com

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Musical Background: Recording Engineer

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Sound: A lot better than the Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS that I had. Sounds Great! BUT... Feature: It came with all the basic accessories. Ease of Use: BUT I had this thing for a week and feel like throwing it back in the box and sending it back. The Patchmix console that you're supposed to use with the interface is so f*cking confusing it's ridiculous. I have tried it with Adobe Audition 1.5, Magix Samplitude 10 and Wavelab, all with very inconsistent results. Just when I thought could record, I'd duplicate it, and there's no sound. When I do get sound running through the mic, there's no playback. WTF?? Manufacturer Support: I haven't contacted support yet but I will. Overall: For now.

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