emusonacid!

Hi,

Just got an e-6400 ultra last week. Been messing around with it and I've got the following questions:

1) The o/s is 4.1 - all things considered, should I stick with this or try to get a later version, and if so which one? How do you get your hands on the later versions?

2) Memory - it says it has 16Mb of sound memory. I take it this is only for use while the unit is powered up, right? As it doesn't store anything whilst off.

So I need to sort out some memory solutions - I wanna get an external hard drive. How do you set all this up? I also want to communicate between my pc > emu, which I take it has gotta be done over SCSI. Is the communication between emu > hard drive also via SCSI? Are you free just to buy any latest hard drive of any power / performance you want?

Any help would be much appreciated?thanks.

hi
and welcome

u could upgrade to 4.7 but has a few bugs but works ok here
most are on 4.6 or 4.7
hard drive size depends on what emu os u are running im shure
i guess some 1 else will answer that 1 @)
its up to u what hard drive u use many use in different ways
i got 2 hds 1 in me emu on ide 20gb then i got a scsi hd in my pc on the scsi chain 20 gb
if u are going to add a hard drive in your emu read this link carefully
http://www.basscadets.co.uk/emu/faq.htm

and scsi is a must for using with pc :)

and memory is for what ever samples u got loaded best max it out with 128mb u will find on ebay ect or hit search u find many links that way too

Here's my 2 cents, I think others will agree:

1. If your unit has 4MB of CPU Flash (Master --> Utils --> About --> Config), then update to 4.70, if not, update to 4.61. I take it you dont have the RFX32 card, so you should be fine with 4.70, otherwise stick with 4.61 as 4.70 has some buggy code for the RFX32 card (no problems if you don't have the card).

2. Yeah, just like in other synths (like Kurzweil K2000 for example) the sample RAM is used to hold samples loaded from disk and is cleared when you turn the unit off.

3. Depends on how many samples you have. If you don't have a lot, I would suggest getting a small internal SCSI drive (around 4GB or so, bigger ones cost $$$). This way all you'll need is a SCSI cable and a SCSI controller card for your PC. This will also take care of the Emu <--> PC communication and you will be able access the internal hard drive on your PC.

However, if you have more samples (I have 1,493 sample CDs, from Akai to Emu to Kurzweil), I'd suggest getting either a SCSI CDROM drive or a large external SCSI hard drive (or better yet both!). What I did was I grabbed a SCSI hard drive enclosure off eBay for pennies and then got this drive:

http://www.stalliontek.com/ProductDetai ... I15-003200

and stuck it inside. Works like a charm. Just make sure you have all your settings set right (SCSI ID, termination, parity, etc), as SCSI is picky about this stuff. Google will be your friend in this case.

This way you can keep all of your most favorite samples on the external SCSI drive hooked up to the Emu and then run another SCSI cable to your PC and have it connected in a chain.

Note: Don't attempt to put a large SCSI drive in your Emu, it will burn your power supply out and you'll be out of $132.50 + shipping for a new one.

If you're tech-savvy you can install a separate power supply just for the hard drive. I used a Sunfone dual voltage universal PSU which takes anything between 90 - 264VAC and gives me 2.0A at 5VDC and 2.2A at 12VDC. I wired this baby in parallel to the main PSU after the power switch.

Another thing worth noting is that the Emu can take both IDE and SCSI hard drives internally. However, if you go for an IDE drive then you will not be able to use SCSI to browse it and manage samples -- you will need a SCSI drive for that, which is why I think you should go for an external SCSI drive to save yourself the trouble. This way you'd be able to take it with you to another PC and you won't have to worry about opening up or burning out your Emu. Just make sure you get a drive that can fit all (or at least all the favorite) samples.

Good luck!

Perfect - thanks all for your replies. Looks like I've got a lot of research and head-scratching in store...

Bring it on

The other thing is: how do I go about updating to the later o/s versions?

Thanks

altus wrote:(I have 1,493 sample CDs, from Akai to Emu to Kurzweil),

...puuhhh....

Can you recomment some good EMU-CD Rom(s) wich utilise/make intensive use of the whole Modulation Matrix / Preset Editing Area.

Thank you

Michael

auditory hallucinations wrote:Perfect - thanks all for your replies. Looks like I've got a lot of research and head-scratching in store...

Bring it on

The other thing is: how do I go about updating to the later o/s versions?

Thanks

It's worth updating the OS to at least 4.61 as new features and bug fixes are available in this version....I went ahead straight to 4.70, and this is how it's done.

Since you currently have a pretty old OS, the upgrade involves two stages, but it's still pretty simple.

First of all, you'll need to download these two files to your computer's C drive (make sure it is C and not desktop). Get them off my ftp server here:

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~odeluga/FLASHPRP.EXE
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~odeluga/EOS470.EXE

Once the files are downloaded....In Windows, Click Start, then Run and type CMD in the Run box.

A DOS window will open....Make sure the prompt says C:\ If it doesn't, type cd.. and press enter (repeat until the prompt is C:\ )

Now, insert a (good) blank floppy disc in the drive...Make sure it is good by formatting it. Type format a: and press enter

When formatting has finished, type FLASHPRP.exe then press enter. When asked what drive to use, press a.

Take this disk out and label as 'Flash Prep Disk'

Insert another floppy and format it.

When formatting has finished, type EOS470.exe then press enter. When asked what drive to use, press a

Take this disk out and label as 'EOS 4.70'

Put the 'Flash Prep Disk' floppy in the EMU, turn the EMU on and wait....You may have to press the Enter button when the screen is blank to start the upgrade process.

When all disk activity has finished (make sure you give it enough time as disk access is sloooow)....Take the disk out and put in the 'EOS 4.70' disk.

Press Enter to get the update started....I believe the machine will reboot itself when it has finished....

One tip....Whenever disk activity seems to finish or hang, press Enter...For some reason I had to do this a number of times to fully update the OS...The bad thing is, the display doesn't give you any feedback so you have to just guess at what stage the process is at....Saying that, it's not difficult to do and should take no longer than 10 mins.

Goodluck.

ikechukwu,

I am very grateful - thank you!