Note that problems with third party software in relation with the EWS are discussed in The Cool CuCake Forge section. More specific information about the Ed!son sampling software you can also find in the Sampling Section. You can access these sections from the Main Menu or by clicking the links on this page (see Related Topics at the bottom).

Questions and answers from the official Terratec FAQ (dated 981228) have been implemented if applicable. These topics are preceded by a small Terratec logo.

When you compile a large soundset in Ed!son, after that, when loading it into the Setmanager, the Setmanager can crash. We asked Terratec support for comment.

This is a known bug, sometimes the system crashes, when you try to load a big soundset (as big as the memory on the card). Until now this happens only with 32 or 64MB Simms. I had this problem on my own and after three or four tries it was possible to load the soundset via the setmanager. This happens sporadically, but I hope we fix this problem soon. Till this, the best is to divide the soundset in some pieces and load them one after another into the Setmanager.

Contribution by Sascha Kamps, Terratec.

This is a bug which will be fixed with the next driver version. You only should upload one SoundSet at the moment.

Etienne Brauns wrote a comprehensive story about this topic and also drew a clear diagram. Go to our Download Page, section Documentation, download the file ewsrouting.zip, unzip it, print it, study it and don't forget to send Etienne a postcard.
Also the program AudioRoute from Morten Egelund Rasmussen is an excellent guide to know the routing of your EWS64XL. Again, go to our Download Page to get it.

Contribution by Ernst Mattar

It's really simple to start the EWS mixer in minimized mode:
Look into the Windows folder and search for the Autostart Folder in Start Menu. Right click the entry for EWS mixer and choose Properties. Under Shortcut select Run: Mimimized. Click OK. That's it.

This problem occurs with certain 'localized' Windows versions, especially the ones with very deviating character sets, like Hebrew and East-European languages. Terratec recognized this problem and promised to solve it in the final release. One user installed the US-version and the problem was gone. We will keep you updated on this, because we would not recommend to trade in your own 'national' version for the US-version just because of Ed!son.

Update 981107
It appears Terratec did not succeed yet in solving this problem in the final version of Ed!son. However, they promised to keep working on this. Meanwhile it's probably also a good suggestion to check if your font-size is set to 125% (Large characters) and if yes, to change this to small font size (100%). We noticed that this Windows feature is responsible for also messing up some other application-appearances. It's worth a try, but to be honest we don't think it solves the problem.
As we mentioned, it has TT's attention. Before you start complaining to hard, you should realise that TT doesn't have all the testing facilities MicroSoft has (see for instance the avi movie: the making of Windows98, which illustrates with how many different programs the operating system has been tested). Maybe you can send TT a copy of your Windows version, so that they can test it.

Update 981218
Terratec claims to have solved this problem in Ed!son version 1.21.

This is a very annoying problem. Not every user seems to have it, so there can be a conflict with specific software or hardware. We still did not figure out the exact cause. And it still can happen, even with the 2.0 drivers (also the 160198 version)!

Symptoms:

• You start the player from the Control Panel or the Programs list. You hear some disk activity, but the player does not appear. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del shows that the player locked up. End the task, it helps you shutting down Windows properly later on. Things like 'taskres' appear in the same list.
• The player sometimes locks up during playing a midi-file.
• Once EWS-Player has locked up, after a cold boot your loaded banks are gone. After a warm boot they only seem to be there, but in fact they are not or not responding. They occupy the memory on the card. A cold boot is the only solution to free up the card ram again.
• We still suspect a correlation between the Explorer and the Player.
• Opening the Player several times, let's say 3 or 4 times, ended up in a message that the Player was using a memory area that it was not allowed to use. We verified with another user, but he did not have that problem.

Comments and possible solutions [updated 25-12-1997]

Also with the final 2.0 drivers the player can lock up. It also blocks other EWS-applications: they won't start until you press Ctrl-Alt-Del and close the EWS-Player that way (including 2x 'Taskres').

Once this problem starts to occur, you won't get the player working again, no matter how many times you cold/warm reboot.

We have a feeling that installing new software after installing the EWS-drivers, messes up something. We found a temporary solution:

• Only run the 64XLW95d.exe program again. Let it unzip in the EWS64\W95drv directory and overwrite files without prompting (the standard setting).
• Do not perform anything else as mentioned in the normal installation procedure (so don't run Remove64.exe first).
• Reboot the computer.
• After that the EWS Player runs again.

Update 21 Jan. 1998.

We tried another solution, assuming there is 'something in the way' in memory: load the Player at start-up, so before some of the usual applications get the chance to claim any memory.
So we tried the following:

• Loading a bank at start-up (this is a default setting)
• Placing a shortcut to EWSPlay.exe in the Start-up folder.

So far this works. But we are not pleased yet. On the contrary...

Update 20 February 1998

For Matrox Millennium/Mystique video card owners: do not use the latest drivers (v. 1677-380), use the 1677-370 version. With version 380 the EWS-Player definitely locks up!
For more information contributed by other users have a look at our Verbal Jam discussion web.

Update 07 November 1998

The problem seems to be solved with the latest driver versions. We don't get any reports about this problem anymore.

Contribution by Tat

Check if you have the CODEC/WSS disabled. In that case it is normal for the switch to stay in B position. Enable the WSS/CODEC and the problem should be solved.

Contribution by Kay Bruns

• That's normal: the Routing Switch is only active with no Frontpanel installed and when you have to use the Game Port for connecting your Midi-devices.
• The A-B-C SWITCH is always locked to B with a disabled WSS. When you have 4 channel wave output you can pan your wave devices with the quadpad instead of the panning slider.

Some users are desperately seeking Clipp On/Off. They read about this button in the email list, but don't see it on the panel.

• First of all: it should be in the upper left corner of the Control Panel
• If you choose 'small mixer' (right mouse button on taskbar icon) and after that restored the Control Panel to normal proportions again, the Clipp-button is disappeared. Minimize the Panel to the taskbar and maximize it again. Buttons present again.
• Check if you still have hardware version 1.0. If so, you don't have a Clip On/Off button. Contact Terratec to upgrade your card to a higher hardware version.

The Sync-button in the top of the Control Panel is only visible if you use the Digital In/Out on the Front Panel (coaxial or optical).

Contribution by Purple Snail

• Open Windows Control Panel
• Choose System
• Device Manager
• Terratec Audio
• Double click Synthesiser
• Settings

Play around with the switches more. Try this one for instance:

• Set IN2 selector to M
• Set OUT1 switch to B

If you want Specci to display something while playing Midi-files:

• Go to the FX-panel and set the 'Record'-switch to 'Mix' instead of 'Audio IN'.
• Also make sure that Specci's Wave Device is set to 'EWS Wave Record'.

Contribution by Claus Riethmueller

Today I wrote two small applications which can convert 94b-banks to TTS and backwards. Get them from:  http://members.aol.com/cridi

It took me about ten seconds to understand the differences of the two bankformats and I even don't have a descripton of them.  Both fileformats are obviously based on RIFF chunks (4 byte strings before each section) - Terratec did nothing more than rename them, for example SAMP got to TTSA or PRIO to TTPR and so on...

Sometimes, probably with faster cd-rom players, the Media Player gets mixed up: it only plays the last track of the cd. When 'browsing' to the first track, it's willing to play it but not the subsequent tracks. It jumps to the last track again.
We noticed this effect with an A-Open 32 speed cd-rom. This is a very good and stable drive and other cd-play programs don't mess up like the EWS media player does.

So: something for TT to investigate.

Create a shortcut to your mixersetting and place it into the 'Start Up' group. This will open the 'Control Panel' load up the mixersetting and minimizes the 'Control Panel' to the taskbar.

Don't save the mixer setting as a MIX file but as a TTM file.

Save the same mixer setting again as a TTM file.

You should have a file called UNMUTE.EXE in your Windows directory. Once this file has been run everything should be OK again.

Note by Computer ConText: we haven't been able to find this file. We asked TT about this.

This error has occurred on systems on which the CD-ROM drive was not correctly installed under Windows and thus was not correctly listed in the Device Manager. Please follow the manufacturer's instructions enclosed with the CD-ROM drive.

This error message occurs on some systems. But you can neglect this message, the function of the Setmanager will not be reduced.

© 1998-1999, Computer ConText, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, except for contributions made by others.

Latest update on page: 19-04-99

Latest update on page: 19-04-99