Hey folks... well, I'm not new to the idea of Creamware but new to the idea of actually buying a card. I've recently built a fresh box using an Asus A8V and an AMD64 3200. It's pretty quick, but I've found out that it seems I have the only motherboard in existence that is incompatible with my Echo Mia. Now I know that there has always been an advice to stay away from VIA chipsets, but I ran the Mia on a via chipset board with an athlonxp 1700 for years and it was just fine.
(please see this link for the story on the Mia incompatibility, which Echo is currently working on now with a new A8V board as of today)
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content ... 5548/?o=20
So, I am looking at either a Project or Pro, and really just want to hear if anybody is successfully using these boards on this motherboard? the Mia gives a Blue Screen of Death upon bootup in any PCI slot, and it appears to be a BIOS issue. Asus is not being very helpful, but maybe echo can fix it. Still, I really want to know this before I drop the money on a CW card because it will mean a) selling an elektron monomachine to get the money and b) i am stuck with it because my wife would kill me if i tried to build a new PC 2 months after I built this one , or just replaced the mobo.. :/
your advice is appreciated as I consolidate to get most of my gear INSIDE.
ums
hardware compatibility with ASUS A8V deluxe?
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UsedManateeSalesman
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:00 pm
here is the paste from creamware's support. i don't think the attitude is very nice, whether i know that VIA may or may not work with it... and his suggestion of replacing only the mobo for $100 is kind of silly, given that it would imply also replacing the CPU and memory... sounds like he is just having a bad day.
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The VIA chipsets are not suitable for Extensive Pro audio applications.
We do not guarantee the stability of our cards and VIA.
VIA simply are the worst chipsets on the market.
Why would you want to spend over $1000 dollars on a creamware card and
not use a suitable Mainboard with it that may cost about $100
Here is a list of Good main board with INTEL based Chipsets.
intel d865perl
ABIT IS7-E2-IntelR 865PE
P5AD2-E Premium--Intel 925XE chipset
Best regards,
NAME REMOVED by UMS
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The VIA chipsets are not suitable for Extensive Pro audio applications.
We do not guarantee the stability of our cards and VIA.
VIA simply are the worst chipsets on the market.
Why would you want to spend over $1000 dollars on a creamware card and
not use a suitable Mainboard with it that may cost about $100
Here is a list of Good main board with INTEL based Chipsets.
intel d865perl
ABIT IS7-E2-IntelR 865PE
P5AD2-E Premium--Intel 925XE chipset
Best regards,
NAME REMOVED by UMS
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It's true, VIA chipsets are incredibly flakey and don't have very good PCI performance, so it's a completely random shot wether it will work or not.
What you perceive as "attitude" is probably just the fact that you are probably the 10000th person to ask the question, even tho it is a widely known fact that VIA chipsets simply aren't suitable for high-end audio, especially with Creamware cards. Plenty of people have insisted on using VIA chipsets anyway, and have had lots and lots of problems. Just use the search function to look around for some older threads. There is absolutely nothing a PCI-card vendor can to do fix flakey PCI-bus implementation and handling chipsets.
His suggestion to replace your motherboard is *not* silly, it's actually a very good suggestion that will let you enjoy the maximum out of your DSP card right away, instead of spending months trying to get it to work unsuccessfully (and blaming Creamware for it, instead of recognizing the problem as being a flakey chipset.) Plenty of people have gone that route, so there's a fair bit of accumulated experience on this subject.
Even if you manage to get it to work, VIA chipsets are known for very bad PCI performance, which will directly affect your reverbs (and other things that use the computer's memory, like sampling and some delays) performance, i.e how many you can load at the same time.
You don't have to change the CPU and memory either if you decide to keep the motherboard, there are plenty of non-VIA chipsets motherboard around that will accomodate an AMD64 just fine. Just look for a NForce3 chipset motherboard, the Gigabyte KN8S seems to work pretty well (mine works perfectly but I'm not completely done setting things up -- but the few heavy-load tests I've done have been flawless.) You should be able to find one that accomodates your current memory modules also.
So, to answer your question, it is *strongly* disadvised (sorry if that's not a real word) to get a Scope card with your current motherboard, especially if the Echo Mia already bluescreens it. There's nothing Echo, Asus or Creamware can do about it.
What you perceive as "attitude" is probably just the fact that you are probably the 10000th person to ask the question, even tho it is a widely known fact that VIA chipsets simply aren't suitable for high-end audio, especially with Creamware cards. Plenty of people have insisted on using VIA chipsets anyway, and have had lots and lots of problems. Just use the search function to look around for some older threads. There is absolutely nothing a PCI-card vendor can to do fix flakey PCI-bus implementation and handling chipsets.
His suggestion to replace your motherboard is *not* silly, it's actually a very good suggestion that will let you enjoy the maximum out of your DSP card right away, instead of spending months trying to get it to work unsuccessfully (and blaming Creamware for it, instead of recognizing the problem as being a flakey chipset.) Plenty of people have gone that route, so there's a fair bit of accumulated experience on this subject.
Even if you manage to get it to work, VIA chipsets are known for very bad PCI performance, which will directly affect your reverbs (and other things that use the computer's memory, like sampling and some delays) performance, i.e how many you can load at the same time.
You don't have to change the CPU and memory either if you decide to keep the motherboard, there are plenty of non-VIA chipsets motherboard around that will accomodate an AMD64 just fine. Just look for a NForce3 chipset motherboard, the Gigabyte KN8S seems to work pretty well (mine works perfectly but I'm not completely done setting things up -- but the few heavy-load tests I've done have been flawless.) You should be able to find one that accomodates your current memory modules also.
So, to answer your question, it is *strongly* disadvised (sorry if that's not a real word) to get a Scope card with your current motherboard, especially if the Echo Mia already bluescreens it. There's nothing Echo, Asus or Creamware can do about it.
they probably never succeed...
I have a VIA Epia M 1Gig living in a 5.25" box as a notebook substitute. It's intended for programming and presentation only, but of course I couldn't resist to test it's audio capabilities.
It has a stunningly good sound quality, the best onboard I've heard so far, but that's about it.
Even the most simple (real time) loop modifications in DevineMachine ended as a stuttering chaos.
My Celeron 1G on Intel 815 is at least 4 times as powerful.
Kind of strange as this box is frequently sold for home multimedia applications - there seems to be a line between home and pro...
cheers, Tom
@UMS don't forget the software bundle(s) that come with the card - you'll probably ask yourself how you could live without that if you give it a try
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2005-07-12 03:44 ]</font>
I have a VIA Epia M 1Gig living in a 5.25" box as a notebook substitute. It's intended for programming and presentation only, but of course I couldn't resist to test it's audio capabilities.
It has a stunningly good sound quality, the best onboard I've heard so far, but that's about it.
Even the most simple (real time) loop modifications in DevineMachine ended as a stuttering chaos.
My Celeron 1G on Intel 815 is at least 4 times as powerful.
Kind of strange as this box is frequently sold for home multimedia applications - there seems to be a line between home and pro...
cheers, Tom
@UMS don't forget the software bundle(s) that come with the card - you'll probably ask yourself how you could live without that if you give it a try
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2005-07-12 03:44 ]</font>
I would get the card, wouldn't waste ages on sorting out VIA problems if they'd occur (as I done once before), and get another motherboard that with intel or nvidia chipset if it gave me headache. Cos there's a chance it will work, but some problems can't be solved with tweaks. And yes, as astroman says, once you see the possibilities of your new dsp card you will wonder how you could ever live without.
more has been done with less
https://soundcloud.com/at0m-studio
https://soundcloud.com/at0m-studio
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UsedManateeSalesman
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:00 pm
Hey, guys,
sorry about the delay in responding... first of all thanks for all your advice on this, and I agree that if the worst that happens is having to swap out mobos, well, I can manage that. And chances are I can at least make it work, if not 100% optimally...
I was looking to get the Project card with the summer plugin pack deal, but now I've decided to liquidate some more of my outboard gear that I'm not using and pick up the scope Pro. (Elektron Monomachine keyboard traded for cash + a roland system 100 model 101 keyb, and now waiting for someone to buy my MachineDrum.)
I really am more comfortable working inside the computer these days anyway, and my time is limited when it comes to music - plus the less "gear" my wife sees the happier she is, even though 14 sharc chips and all the software available to run under the scope system more than makes up for the "reduction"
Soooo, with that said, I'll be hanging around here and will get that Scope card as soon as I can sell the machinedrum. After that I'll pop up more actively, especially if I am able to make it work on this mobo
I'm very excited about the possibilities. MY first big "shift" in my perception of electronic music occurred in 1996 when I bought an audiomedia3 card for my old powermac which included Protools 4. I could play back 8 channels simultaneously and had my first experience with graphical multitrack editing... obviously things have improved from there but I see this as a literal quantum leap up.
-ums
sorry about the delay in responding... first of all thanks for all your advice on this, and I agree that if the worst that happens is having to swap out mobos, well, I can manage that. And chances are I can at least make it work, if not 100% optimally...
I was looking to get the Project card with the summer plugin pack deal, but now I've decided to liquidate some more of my outboard gear that I'm not using and pick up the scope Pro. (Elektron Monomachine keyboard traded for cash + a roland system 100 model 101 keyb, and now waiting for someone to buy my MachineDrum.)
I really am more comfortable working inside the computer these days anyway, and my time is limited when it comes to music - plus the less "gear" my wife sees the happier she is, even though 14 sharc chips and all the software available to run under the scope system more than makes up for the "reduction"
Soooo, with that said, I'll be hanging around here and will get that Scope card as soon as I can sell the machinedrum. After that I'll pop up more actively, especially if I am able to make it work on this mobo
I'm very excited about the possibilities. MY first big "shift" in my perception of electronic music occurred in 1996 when I bought an audiomedia3 card for my old powermac which included Protools 4. I could play back 8 channels simultaneously and had my first experience with graphical multitrack editing... obviously things have improved from there but I see this as a literal quantum leap up.
-ums
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hubird