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RFX - Is it really worth it?

PostPosted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 7:17 am
by palamino chuck
Okay. After falling in love with my ESi4000 turbo I decided to step up to something newer and I happened to come across an E6400 Ultra at guitar center (being an employee) for a great price. So naturally i took this baby home and started to do some research about these things and after reading numerous reviews on harmonycentral i thought that the RFX was a MUST HAVE.

However, after reading about all the possible problems here it has made me wonder; IS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

Bugs like noises getting their beginnings chopped off, random panning, and sudden bursts are totally unacceptable and if they are inescapable i'd rather do without the headache.

So please RFX users, tell me whether or not I should even bother to put one of these things in my beautiful baby!

thanks

PostPosted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:07 pm
by ron
I have decided to hold off buying the RFX stuff until the bugs have been fixed (and told E-MU support as much).

Would like to know how good the vocoder patch is though.

PostPosted: Sat Feb 07, 2004 12:04 am
by ra coon
just bought one , but I wouldnt hang around too long there are just about sold out at Emu, probably 5 left, I dont see them anywhere on ebay. But having 16 simultaneous effects can well be worth any minor bugs, how else can you achieve this, ....oh yeh , buy 16 effects processors and a mixer with 16 sends and returns, 16 cables , about 4 rack units, not forgetting expansion unit for 16 outs , spend the $449 and also get 16 channels of adat out and 8 channels of adat ins , not to mention some wicked phasers, ring modulators, muxsters ?(got to try that yet) vocoders, bpm delays, panning chorus's, stereo grungelator......etc...

PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:58 am
by Diginerd
I bought number 6 of the last 6 available, so there are definately 5 or less RFX left.

Remeber, if you buy it now it's under warranty and you can always hand it back..

PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 2:24 am
by palamino chuck
dude, I JUST talked to e-mu like last week and they said they were all out. are you telling me they still have them in stock?????

just wondering

PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 11:22 pm
by Diginerd
I hope so! they've charged my card..

CALL Emu, and speak to Mari in Sales and tell her I sent ya.

the website says all out, but she said there were 5 left after I finished buying.

I got the last new E-Synth Ultra though, I think they may have a refurb left, and THAT'S IT. No more ultras of any kind at Emu. A sad day.

Cheers,


Rob

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:28 am
by ra coon
alah!

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2004 8:52 pm
by dugawug
yeah, i was one of the people who went through some initial hell after getting my RFX card. for me and one other guy CM_LOCUSS, we ended up swapping our Preset RAM to find all our bugs go away. i couldn't be more psyched, on 4.7 and bugless!
however, this didn't fix anyone else's machines it seems. we all were looking to write EMU and have them fix EOS (they really have about 0 interest in making any more EOS versions) but we all gave up i guess. again, me, i don't have any problems to complain about anymore!

but i guess the point is that it's a full on gamble. you may be psyched, you may not be. and don't hold your breath thinking EMU is gonna fix the RFX bugs anytime soon.

after having the RFX some time, they're good, but could be better. but then again, how else are you gonna get 16 discreet effects on your voices? they're a rarity on ebay, but do exist. i got mine there for $250. i personally wouldn't pay too much more for them.

damn

PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 6:24 am
by palamino chuck
well...
my brand new RFX with A-DAT expansion has arrived and the tests shall begin tomorrow. E-mu tried to convince me over the phone that those bugs were totally isolated cases that only happened to a select group of users out there i.e. not a major problem for everyone. I hope that is the case. Regardless, this is waaaay too much of a hassle to worry about in my opinion. If there's any problem i'll just remove the RFX card and throw it in storage. Just in case, I'm gonna go ahead and get the standard ADAT out expansion and stop with the nonsense.

I just shelled out for Waves Platinum so i'm going to have access to some decent effects =) if this whole RFX business goes sour...

We'll see ;)

PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 7:51 pm
by Diginerd
Mine arrived today too. I'll report back over the next day or two..

PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 9:31 pm
by dugawug
yeah, you guys might be psyched. i've always been confused about the RFX bugs simply because i know of many people who don't get them. as much as i found a considerable group on this forum who does get them.
so it's been a deep mystery to many as to why some do, some don't with these bugs. that's why i've thought it's been somehow hardware related...how else could one guy run the exact same OS on his E4 and not get problems while another guy could?

again, my case was super wierd...changing preset RAM and i haven't had a bug since!!? the funny thing was that me and CM_LOCUSS shared our intial problem which was crazy freezing or Gen Trap errors but only w/ RFX. me and him were the only two on the forum with this exact problem. and then only me and him were completely fixed by changing the preset RAM out...????? totally bizarre i know.

anyhow, if you do happen to get crazy freezing on 4.7 or a lot of new Gen Trap errors (which are fatal) on 4.61, talk to me...

hope it goes well for you guys

PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 12:44 am
by palamino chuck
dugawug wrote:yeah, you guys might be psyched. i've always been confused about the RFX bugs simply because i know of many people who don't get them. as much as i found a considerable group on this forum who does get them.
so it's been a deep mystery to many as to why some do, some don't with these bugs. that's why i've thought it's been somehow hardware related...how else could one guy run the exact same OS on his E4 and not get problems while another guy could?


hope it goes well for you guys


thanks!

Actually... I noticed that certain MP7s and XL7s also have random bugs that include sudden nasty chirps of noise in addition to other random midi anomalies. not every one of them but about 2 out of ten will have these *WEIRD* ass bugs and i am not sure why but my assumption is that there are just some "bad apples" in the group. i have a part time job at guitar center so i've had my fair share of experience with various e-mu products. so this might just be an issue of pure chance running into good models or bad models (in my opinion)

PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 2:53 am
by Diginerd
Turns out that the Emu that arrived today along with my RFX has an SN beginning 0199, which means (and confirmed by trying) that the PSU isn't up to scratch.

Bugger.

Time for a new PSU for free as promised, or the whole lot goes back.

:grumble:

PostPosted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 5:16 am
by hexdecimal
since i can't get a turbo card for my esi4000, do you think that simply investing in a nice dsp rackmount with the same effects would work just the same or better???