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E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:53 pm
by rbratton
I've been using an E-MU 1820 audio interface on my music computer ever since Windows XP. It has a hardware card in the computer which attaches to a separate box that has connections for MIDI, mics, line inputs/outputs, speakers, S/PDIF, and headphones. Of course, this device is no longer supported with driver updates, but I love this interface and it still works great, so I haven't replaced it.

I was able to upgrade Windows to 7, 8, and finally 10 with surprisingly few problems. I was expecting each upgrade to fail due to the unsupported E-MU Beta driver. My computer has been nagging me about the latest Windows 10 Feature updates. I'm on version 1607 and there are 2 newer ones out there.

This is a long shot: Is anyone using an E-MU box and has been able to update Windows 10 to the latest version? Any problems? Any special procedures?

thanks,
randy

Re: E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 6:08 pm
by Djard
There might be a universal driver that works just as well and terminates the MS nag. You could try the ASIO4ALL by Steinberg Technologies. If unhappy, you can always uninstall the driver. The home edition (freeware) of Registrar Registry Manager will let you purge any leftover footprints in the registry, since virtually no software completely uninstalls.

Re: E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 7:02 pm
by rbratton
Thanks for the reply!

Do you have an E-MU 1820 (or similar) and does ASIO4ALL work with it instead of the original driver?

I've used ASIO with my USB (musical) keyboard, but the E-MU is definitely NOT USB. It has it's own protocols and therefore it's own special driver.

Back in April, I was able to successfully update the computer to Windows 1809 and it seems to be working OK. The Windows Update screen is now saying 1903 is out, but my device is not yet ready. (Of course, Microsoft doesn't give you any indication why they say it's not ready which would be too helpful.) All my other computers have been updated to 1903, so I still suspect it might be the E-MU and it's non-supported Beta driver.

thanks,
randy

Re: E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 7:31 pm
by Bill Reed
I think it's unlikely that a feature update would affect a driver that's been working. You can always try it, and roll back Windows if there's an issue.

BTW, ASIO4ALL is not a Steinberg product, and is a choice of last resort. A Card's native ASIO is always to be preferred.

Re: E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 4:12 am
by Djard
The generic ASIO4ALL driver worked me when I used a Focusrite, DBX and a 7.1 SS USB h'ware in my studio. I downloaded my copy from Steinberg, which is one of the manufacturers of the universal driver. If your h'ware mfr is proprietary-based, your only option is to contact them.

I agree that a Win update should not cause a driver to become outdated. To terminate the nag, run a search for the software reg update key, edit the DWord, changing the 1 to zero. Make a backup of your registry firstly.

Re: E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 5:23 pm
by rbratton
Thanks for all the replies.

Since I originally posted my question about 2 years ago, there has been a number of recent articles on the Internet about getting the E-MU box and Windows 10 to play nicely that I hadn't seen before. (The real issue is not USB -- it doesn't connect via USB, but an internal PCI card with a proprietary driver that hasn't been supported since 2011.) If I find out anything new, I'll report back.

Thanks!
randy

(Sigh -- I looked at some of my old posts on the "old" Finale forum. Joined in 2001 with about 390 posts. Too bad the stats didn't carry over.)

Re: E-MU audio interface and Windows 10

Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 9:27 pm
by rbratton
Hello All,

I finally made some progress with getting the E-MU box to play nicely with Windows 10 1903. Over the course of a few weeks, I tried several times to get Windows to allow the update from 1809 to 1903, but they always said it was available, but my computer wasn't ready. I finally uninstalled all the E-MU software/drivers and pulled the PCI card from the computer. After I did that when I looked for Windows updates, Feature Update 1903 was displayed. It installed w/o any further problems.

The biggest issue then was reinstalling the E-MU PCI card and s/w. There were a number of issues with getting it all working together with 1907, but you can find out more from the KVRAudio website threads linked below:

There was a long discussion about E-MU products and moving to newer versions of Windows:
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6&t=371831

And there was a newer thread about getting the E-MU box to work with Windows 10 1903 (as I posted earlier, it was working fine with feature update 1809):
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=529349

In following the steps in the above post, I finally got the the E-MU card working and all is well (knock wood) until probably the next Feature Update.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

thanks,
randy