hi!

i installed 0404 a few weeks ago. until then, i had audigy 1 (kx drivers, etc...). configuration is: amd 2.0xp cpu, 512mb kingston ram, 80+60gb hdd (maxtor), gigabyte motherboard, radeon 9600, win xp sp2, last versions of drivers and patchmix from http://www.emu.com installed... first impressions are very good, except there are some problems that are more or less :( fixable, so here i am. :)

1) winamp problem. first thing i have tried, when i installed 0404, is to play some mp3 files using my good old winamp 5. it won't work. everything is ok for 10 seconds or so, and then strange noise, like hard-clipping occures, and after that, sound turns off. i tried different plugins such as wave out and direct out, but symptoms were still there. now i use windows media player, and everything is ok except:

2) (!) 0404 is unusable if there is ANY kind of activity of one of my CD/dvd-rom drives. i have 2 drives (reader and burner), and only reader is making problems with 0404. ofcourse, is it impossible to play music from that CD/dvd-rom. it is a Sony 40x dvd-rom drive. with audigy, everything was ok. burner is pioneer 108d, and 0404 works normally when i'm using 108d. if Sony reader is activated any time during playback, terrible noise is heard instead of music.

3) no sound when win starts up if patchmix's session settings is set to 48kHz. when i switch it to 44.1 (then sound comes in), and i return to 48, everything is ok. it works immiediatley after i click it. it would be nice if i didn't have to apply this "ritual medicine" manually every time i turn my computer on. does anyone know how to fix this, or have an idea what could i try to do about it?
[if default samplerate is set to 44.1 when windows starts, this problem does not occur.]

4) i have to say that 0404 works fine with Cubase sx 2 and no strange behaviour happened so far except that few times i had a problem with cubase. it happened during the playback of a mix (no recording was on) and this is what happened: small amount of mix repeated on and on. like there was no new music coming into buffers, so they repeated their contents (i am NOT trying to explain it, i am just trying to describe the event).. it lasted for 2-3 seconds and returned to normal.

5) sound and flexibility are light years ahead of audigy 1. i am glad i have 0404, but i would also like to have it more stable and reliable drivers. other than that, it is a fantastic product and i adore patchmix! :)

all the best and happy new year!