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Unexplained Volume Bursts

PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2003 8:02 am
by automatikal
I recently got a refurbrished platinum and when I start using multiple outputs to route sounds i get these sudden loud bursts off distorted sognal. Its going to blow my monitors soon enough and i cant work on anything with more than like 6 channels. I've called emu and they dont know what it is but say they've heard about the phenomenon before. Has anyone here expirienced anything like this with an ultra seires emu's Adat or anolog outputs?? if so is there anyway to fix this without having to send it out?

Thank you

PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2003 11:59 am
by Silverman
Yep ive got the same problem in 2 of my banks :grumble:
In my case I have narrowed it down to bugs in the 4 and 6 pole low pass filters.I believe the problem apeared in 4.7, one of the developers hacked the old filter code to provide realtime resonance.

It really is a heart attack inducing noise, not what you expect from a ?1500 sampler(E6400 bought a couple of years ago with RFX).I have sent Steve Hodge the 2 banks in question and I believe the eos experts are working on the problem, though my e-mail communication seems to have dried up :roll:

Roll on 4.8 the sooner the better!!!

ps: do u have the RFX board?

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2003 2:32 am
by automatikal
thanks for the reply bro, i do have the rfx. Do you think if i switch to 4.6 the problem might go away? When i called emu they mentioned switching the OS and they're sending me the 4.6 disk. They also mentioned a test case they are working on. Maybe its yours!

ps: heart attack inducing is the perfect way to describe it.

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2003 10:53 am
by Silverman
Yeah, I never experienced this problem under 4.6, however you will loose the wonderfull RFX compressor plug in :cry:

I can't really go back my self because all my sampler drives are now FAT32 formated!The only work arround for my self is to avoid using the 4/6 pole low pass filters under certain circumstances.

The irony was that I was planning to use my machine for live/pa.If the noiseburst let one off under these circumstances, i'd be ran out of town and taken to the cleaners for speaker and ear damage!!

neway Roll on 4.8 :spliff:

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2003 11:24 am
by automatikal
you and i have alot in common my friend. i too am thinking about using my emu for ive application cant consider such a thing under the current circumstances. never used the rfx compressor i''ll have to look into that one before i switch to 4.6.
Any other side effects besides loosing that particular rfx patch and is 4.8 currently being worked on? if so is there a sceduled release date?

thanks again man :slayer:

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2003 11:59 am
by Silverman
Soz m8, I don't have any info on 4.8 and only really mention it as I sign of hope to myself and others.I believe from another forum thread that work is in progress:

viewtopic.php?t=58


Going back to 4.6 shouldn't be a problem if you have eos formated your hard drive.If you have used the new fat32 format, u will have to re-format your drive for 4.6 to read it.It shouldn't be an issue, but I believe the RFX plug in structure has also changed since 4.6.

The new RFX compressor plug in is well cool, particularly if u are into break beat 8-) Excellent for smashing up amen etc and puts sum of me analogue/outboard comps to shame.


Personally i'd be inclined to wait until a bug fixed operating system is available.However u may wish to switch back to 4.6 if u can't find work arounds to the burst noise and plan to go live sooner rather than later!

ps: the compressor plug ins will be great for live use and what sequencer are you planning to use?Have an command station lined up for the task meself,allows for drag an drop mid-files from computer, which is a real time saver :thumbs:

PostPosted: Mon May 05, 2003 10:35 pm
by automatikal
is this a rampant problem or did we just get bunk emu's?
it fills me with a great emptiness to think of compromising these features.

i plan on using the emu live as the brain for an electronic drum kit and 2 or 3 other controllers with logic as the sequencer.

PostPosted: Tue May 06, 2003 10:32 am
by Silverman
I don't think we have "bunk" emus.However I suspect that we have a motherboard/RFX combination which was over-looked by the 4.7 design team.The only reason I say this, is because I was told when I bought the sampler that my RFX card would not work in certain ultras!

Don't feel too bad about it, as EMU have a good reputation in on-going software development and i'm shure it will get sorted soon!

Here's another noise story :pimp:

I was bug testing the 2 burstnoise banks the other night on a pair of tiny Yamaha multimedia speakers with the volume a tiny notch obove zero.This was enuf to wake my girldriend up :biglaugh:

To put this into context, I stay in an old Edinburgh tenement flat with thick walls and 2 closed doors between us.She later described the noise like a stylus being scraped across a record!


4.8 please!!!

PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2003 4:30 pm
by Silverman
Good news!! the next os is being worked on.Heres a cut'npaste from the E5000 mailing list:

">In 4.6 I used
>to 'merge' this file into the song bank and then use the internal
>squencer to run that track live. The last time I tried in 4.7 to
>load something from a floppy, it just sat there for several minutes
>and wouldnt load.

Sorry it's a dumb bug that crept into 4.7 as a result of the addition of
FAT32. It's already been fixed for the next release. (Actually, your
floppy probably would have loaded eventually if you'd sat around for,
say, an hour...)"

-Steve

:grin: :grin:

PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2003 11:16 pm
by automatikal
nice one!!

hopefully its just a matter of time.
thanks for the reasearch gives me hope for the future!

PostPosted: Fri May 16, 2003 4:46 am
by sampleandhold
no.. none of you have bunk emu's and to tell you the truth it isn't the rfx card either... and i will tell you why.

i have an e 5000 ultra, with eos 4.1 i believe, and no rfx, and i know what you are talking about. it is a loud sudden sharp blast of a "signal" that only last for a second, if that. almost like when you destort the sampler using the the eq morphing filters and peak shelf filters. it is like a lowend destortion with a honk, as i decribe it. i just figured that it was the filter, so i backed of the q or the morph and it went away, if i remember right. it is like you are playing something then all the sudden you hear that blast, sometimes between notes, sometimes during a note, and it is really really loud. i even had it hit me one time just because. i wasn't even touching the sampler. it wasn't even playing.

i think this is what you are all talking about, and i hope that it makes you guys feel better that you are not the only ones. maybe it will get sorted in 4.7 or 4.8 huh.

oh and let me know if this is the same phenomenon that you guys are talking about...

PostPosted: Sat May 17, 2003 11:16 pm
by automatikal
interesting....sounds like the same thing. only it happens to me everytime i use my emu regardless of the filter,Q, etc. I got 4.6 in the mail but im moving so i had to break down the studio. when i get it up and running again ill load it in and see if it makes the diffrence.

thanks for the input

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 4:24 am
by Silverman
no.. none of you have bunk emu's and to tell you the truth it isn't the rfx card either... and i will tell you why.



Sampleandhold,if you had read my post carefully,you would have heard my desription of the noise.I understand the difference between DAC output distortion and what we are experiencing,so I don't think we are talking about the same thing.

If it isn't anything to do with RFX card.Why was I asked by Steve Hodge to remove mine, to see if the problem wen't away.Just for the record Steve is the EMU tech who designs the RFX algorithms.

Thanks for your input neway :spliff:

PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 7:32 am
by dugawug
yo yo, i know this thread is kinda ancient now and all, but i'm curious about this "outbursts" problem. well, first off, EMU obviously still hasn't fixed it in any new version of EOS, in fact, myself and a few others are on a bigtime push to all write EMU and demand a final bug free EOS version b/c honestly, they just aren't interested in doing it. they're going to software (wish i could) next year and are focusing 100% on that while not giving a damn about their old hardware users.

well anyway, what did you guys learn about this outbursts problem? so far i know it's tied to the RFX card and happens only on EOS 4.7. but i want to use 4.7 for the compression plug in, but can i avoid the outbursts by just not using the 4 or 6 pole lowpass filters? can i avoid it by avoiding certain output channels? if you do say, have a 4 or 6 pole lp filter on and it's gonna freak out on you, can you tell right away or does it just kinda happen every now and then? reason i ask, is i WILL be using my E4XT Ultra live and CANNOT risk this outburst thing cuz it sounds UGLY. any help on what i can do to run 4.7 and be 100% sure i won't encounter it is appreciated.

oh, p.s. write EMU an email requesting a bug free EOS version! many are writing and everyone's help counts. right now is kinda critical, otherwise, we're all gonna be stuck with these problems.
their address:
EMU.Support@customercare.creative.com

thanks

bursts galore

PostPosted: Fri Dec 19, 2003 5:41 am
by automatikal
honestly bro, i didnt spend enough time to really study it. i just wanted to get crackin on some buisness.
I do regret not being able to use the new os but.....sigh.

what i do remember is

1) not everyone who uses 4.7 has the problem and it seems kind of rare.

2) the 4/6 pole thing applied to me, but it didnt matter what output. That son of a bitch took no mercy.

3) It seemed like the more i had going on with filters and outputs the more often it would happen.

4) You will be able to tell when it happens and it will happen everytime you play back the song, although it doesnt seem to follow points in the song, the bursts just have a mind of their own.

i would try doing a song in the emu to see what what happens, once you got a bunch of channels routed to diffrent outputs with some filter automation and lots of voices you will either have the problem or not.

if you have an intensive song going in the emu and you dont hear the pulsing sounds of death, then chances are you are burst bug free.

Good Work on starting the movement. Software still cant hang with the emu as of now imo, so its about time for the bug free upgrade.