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| The EWS88MT Multitrack system is fairly new. We have no idea how many users own it already. Maybe some EWSXL/S users consider to buy it and would like to know experiences from other users. That's why we publish reviews by other users on this page. The specifications of the system you will find at the bottom of this page. |
| by Gareth Joseph |
| I was one of the first people brave (or, some would say, foolhardy)
enough to buy one of Terratec's new multi-i/o cards. I run Cubase VST/24, Recycle 1.7 and SoundForge 4.5 on a clean but crowded Intel Pentium II with 128MB PC100 RAM and 17 GB of fast EIDE hard disk space. Even before I installed the EWS88MT, sharing the ISA and PCI slots with my EWS64XL (with MWPC) were a Turtle Beach Maui, a Yamaha SW60XG and two Voodoo2 graphics accelerators. Normal 2D graphics (and some 3D acceleration) are provided by an AGP 16MB Riva TNT. As well as music software, the only other software installed on this PC is games - of which there are only two installed at any one time. Although I have overall been very pleased with my EWS64XL, the card had needed tweaking just to get it working from the outset. Thus I was expecting a nightmare when it came to install the EWS88MT in my single free PCI slot. There were no free IRQs showing in device manager so this was to be a real test of not only the new Terratec card but also PCI IRQ sharing. Unbelievably everything worked first time out of the box. The ASIO drivers were seen immediately by VST and I was able to set the buffers to allow a playback latency of just 12ms - brilliant for VST instruments. Recording turned out to be a little more complicated and I have settled upon a buffer setting allowing a latency of 61ms to give all the tracks, plug-ins, etc plenty of CPU headroom. The EWS88MT uses one IRQ for everything, and on my system it shares that with the graphics card. It has four sets of outputs (digital, multi-analogue, midi and "monitor"). The monitor output is essentially a windows sound system compatible output - although it makes no compromises in quality here, it's 18-bit DAC is a massive improvement on the Codec of the EWS64XL. I have now disabled the Codec of the EWS64XL and transferred its IRQ to that card's Midi-2. The only native software for the card is a clear control panel where all the card's parameters are set. All possible routing options are available here, as are a variety of sample rates and buffer settings. By not trying to be all things to all men and concentrating instead upon a single aspect of computer audio technology, Terratec have at last come up with a winner. |
| Below we give you the 'on-the-box' specifications of
the EWS88MT as provided by Terratec. This may be helpful if you consider buying one,
because it's easier to read than that quick glance you get on the box in the shop. The EWS88MT can be combined with an EWS64XL, an EWS64XXL (the one with the MicroWave PC) and the EWS64S. |
| Technical Details |
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Harddisk recording system for PC's |
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PCI card and breakout box for internal or external use |
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Busmaster transfer supporting '24-bit 4-byte mode' (32-bit) |
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10 Inputs and Outputs in total |
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Simultaneous record and playback of 16 channels at up to 24-bit / 96kHz |
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8 Analog Inputs individually selectable between +4 dBu and -10 dBV |
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8 Analog Outputs globally selectable between +4 dBu and -10 dBV |
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24-bit / 96kHz analog to digital converters with 100
dB dynamic range and 64x oversampling (Data relates to technical specifications of the converters) |
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24-bit / 96kHz digital to analog with 110 dB dynamic
range and 128x oversampling (Data relates to technical specifications of the converters) |
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Input level adjustable with +18 dB gain in 0.5 steps |
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Stereo digital input (S/PDIF co-axial up to 24-bit / 96 kHz) |
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Stereo digital output (S/PDIF co-axial up to 24-bit / 96 kHz) |
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20 Channel mixer with 36-bit internal headroom |
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Hardware VU-meter for each channel (Our remark: in fact TT means VU-meters in the Digital mixer software that indicate the Input/Output levels of the hardware. The monitor channel has no VU-indicator) |
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Analog stereo monitor output, 16-bit / 48 kHz (3.5 mm jack socket) |
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2 Internal analog stereo inputs, 16-bit / 48 kHz
(Molex) These inputs can only be routed to the monitor output |
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MPU-401 compatible MIDI port |
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Shielded 5.25" module with 8 analog inputs and outputs (RCA Phono) and MIDI IN and OUT (5-pin DIN) for internal or external use |
| Software |
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Driver for Windows 95/98, Windows NT and ASIO |
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Control Panel for Windows 95/98, Windows NT |
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Emagic's microLogic 4.0 |
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SEK'Ds Samplitude Basic |
| System Requirements |
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Intel Pentium 200 MMX or faster |
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VGA with a resolution of 800x600 and 256 colors |
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32MB RAM |
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Windows 95/98 or Windows NT |
| System Recommendations |
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Intel Pentium II or AMD K6 350 CPU |
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ULTRA DMA or SCSI onboard controller |
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VGA with a resolution of 1024x768 and HiColor |
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64MB RAM |
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Windows 98 |
| Important notes |
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No Multicard support under Windows NT so far |
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Your system needs tot provide an average data transfer rate of 7.5 MB per second to playback 20 tracks with 96 kHz and 24 bits |
| Box contents |
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EWS88MT PCI card |
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EWS88MT 5.25" module |
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External link cable |
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Internal link cable |
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Internal plug converter |
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EWS88MT driver CD |
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Printed manual German / English |
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© 1998-1999, Computer ConText, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, except for contributions made by others. |
Latest update on page: 01-10-99 |
