Quote:

Glenn,
Would you please detail for us exactly what your recording requirements are? I can't make a suggestion based on what I think you're doing. Also, how much are you willing to spend and what do you want as far as inputs. Finally, what kind of interface are you looking for, Internal, USB, Firewire, or something else.

Thanks,

Gary



Gary:

Good questions. My needs are actually quite simple:

1. Audio IN/OUT - when I play the piano, Pianoteq generates the sound. I use only one instrument, so don't require multiple INS/OUTS.

2. Midi IN/OUT - for same reasons as above. The piano's midi signal triggers Pianoteq to generate piano sounds.

3. Stable ASIO operation (requires good drivers). Many otherwise good cards don't meet this.

4. Headphone out with volume control.

5. Good AD/DA converters.

6. Would like to have onscreen mixer.

7. Would like PCI - my computer is four years old and isn't PCIe, and I'm not in a hurry to change it.

All of the above were very well provided by the 1820M - which will hopefully be operational by Friday. Although, I'm not counting on it.

My piano is a (polished mahogany) Roland KR-7 http://www.roland.com/products/en/KR-7/index.html
Nice action, good touch. Isn't noticeably different from a good grand (at least to me).

As I've noted before, the piano and computer are in separate rooms (back to back on a common wall). I've run all the cables through the wall and they are not long - typically two metres in length.

The EMU was in the $500 plus range - as I recall, the exchange rate then was about $0.66 CAD = $1.00 US). Today it's about 0.97CAD = $1.00 US. I'm not afraid to lay out a similar sum today, and I'm not going to sacrifice for a few $$.

Firewire would be OK (better than USB?), but it seems that to enable the required throughput, an internal (PCI) would serve better. Besides I have two hole in the back of my computer where the 1820M was (it filled two slots, although one didn't connect directly to the MOBO - it connected to the 1010 card which was in a slot).

Hope that covers everything.

Glenn

PS - they've just released Pianoteq 3.5. Comes in two versions, Standard and Pro. I was part of the beta testing team for the new Pro version, and received a full Pro version no cost to me. It's quite interesting - there are 22 parameters that can be adjusted for each of the 88 notes. Actually this is a bit overwhelming, but can be useful if one likes to re-voice various notes of the piano. Much improved sound engine from version 3.0