Re: Creative & EMU

2008-03-31 Thread Ming
Thanks... that shed some light... ;)
One more thing, here's an excerpt from ALSA website:
http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Creative_Labs

"Creative actively preventing support due to no datasheets being
released to ALSA developers."

and here's another one on the same page:

"Emu have supplied hardware sample and datasheets to the developer."

It seemed to me that Creative & EMU have different attitude toward
Open Source (Linux & ALSA in particular), and since EMU is a
subsidiary of Creative, isn't it contradictive? :(


On 4/1/08, Farrell McGovern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Ming <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I'm a bit confused about those two brand names, are they related in
> >  any way? I've seen EMU products in creative-lab's website & in EMU's
> >  site, I've seen photos of their soundcard have a "creative lab"
> >  printed on it.
>
> Well, that involves some history...
>
> First of all, there was the Fairlight CMI, the first production
> digital sampler keyboard synth. People like Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel
> and such used it to great effect. Unfortunatelly, it cost a huge
> amount of money, and weighed a great deal, which made it hard to tour
> with. This created an opening for E-mu systems, which to that point
> had been making modular synths, and designing the chips to be used in
> them, and other synths. They became more popular than the Fairlight
> cmi because of their ease of use/transport, and cheaper prices.
>
> Another company, Ensoniq also jumped into the same field with the
> Mirage, and also built the own chips. It did to E-mu Systems the same
> thing that E-mu systems did to Fairlight. In addition,  one of the
> highlights of Ensoniq's career was use of their sound chips in the
> Apple IIGS, which gave it the full capabilities of some of the hottest
> synths on the market at the time.
>
> Both companies made excellent sampler keyboards (I own an Ensoniq
> EPS), as well as the chips to drive them. Creative had made lots of
> money making sound cards, the Sound Blaster in particular, because it
> had everything that not only average users of sound card wanted, but
> many things that mucians wanted. Before that, MIDI cards and such were
> super-expensive. the Sound Blaster was cheap, had a MIDI interface,
> Digital recording and playback, and synthesis. So they bought up both
> Ensoniq and E-mu Systems to get their hands on their respective music
> chip technologies. Both were relatively cheap, as in the 90's keyboard
> oriented music was pushed aside as Grunge & similar types of music
> dominated the music scene.
>
> So, Creative owns both Ensoniq and E-mu systems, and their respective
> chip technologies. Ensoniq doesn't exist as a separate company,
> although E-mu systems is a subsidiary of Creative.
>
> I hope that helps...
>
> ttyl
> Farrell
>
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Re: Creative & EMU

2008-03-31 Thread Farrell McGovern
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 2:30 AM, Ming <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm a bit confused about those two brand names, are they related in
>  any way? I've seen EMU products in creative-lab's website & in EMU's
>  site, I've seen photos of their soundcard have a "creative lab"
>  printed on it.

Well, that involves some history...

First of all, there was the Fairlight CMI, the first production
digital sampler keyboard synth. People like Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel
and such used it to great effect. Unfortunatelly, it cost a huge
amount of money, and weighed a great deal, which made it hard to tour
with. This created an opening for E-mu systems, which to that point
had been making modular synths, and designing the chips to be used in
them, and other synths. They became more popular than the Fairlight
cmi because of their ease of use/transport, and cheaper prices.

Another company, Ensoniq also jumped into the same field with the
Mirage, and also built the own chips. It did to E-mu Systems the same
thing that E-mu systems did to Fairlight. In addition,  one of the
highlights of Ensoniq's career was use of their sound chips in the
Apple IIGS, which gave it the full capabilities of some of the hottest
synths on the market at the time.

Both companies made excellent sampler keyboards (I own an Ensoniq
EPS), as well as the chips to drive them. Creative had made lots of
money making sound cards, the Sound Blaster in particular, because it
had everything that not only average users of sound card wanted, but
many things that mucians wanted. Before that, MIDI cards and such were
super-expensive. the Sound Blaster was cheap, had a MIDI interface,
Digital recording and playback, and synthesis. So they bought up both
Ensoniq and E-mu Systems to get their hands on their respective music
chip technologies. Both were relatively cheap, as in the 90's keyboard
oriented music was pushed aside as Grunge & similar types of music
dominated the music scene.

So, Creative owns both Ensoniq and E-mu systems, and their respective
chip technologies. Ensoniq doesn't exist as a separate company,
although E-mu systems is a subsidiary of Creative.

I hope that helps...

ttyl
 Farrell

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Creative & EMU

2008-03-30 Thread Ming
I'm a bit confused about those two brand names, are they related in
any way? I've seen EMU products in creative-lab's website & in EMU's
site, I've seen photos of their soundcard have a "creative lab"
printed on it. There was someone in this list that said that creative
soundcards have a bad latency, does that applies to EMU cards too? I'm
looking to get myself an EMU 0404 USB, any comment on that card?
Regards,

Ming

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