Customer Reviews

E-MU 0404 USB Audio Interface

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I need to point out that this is an *audio* interface first and foremost. Some of the other reviews only mention its MIDI capabilities. It is *also* a MIDI interface, but the primary purpose of this box is to facilitate the recording of audio. It has some great AD/DA converters to that end, along with the capabilities for very high sampling rates (unlike USB1 interfaces).

Another review also talked about using it as an external sound card. You certainly can do that, but it's a waste of money - other products exist that do the same thing better for cheaper, and without as much bulk or an external AC brick to deal with. No, if you're going to buy this box, buy it to record audio and/or MIDI.

If you're still confused as to why this thing exists, the bottom line is if you need it, you know it. This is a category of device designed for "advanced amateur" home recordists and musicians, who want to record their instruments and make their own demo tapes and need top quality and certain features that don't come stock in a standard PC sound card.

Now, as for this product vs. others in its category - I've only had it for a day, but so far, it does what it's supposed to. What you're really paying for are the DACs and the software, both of which are extremely important to home recording. The hardware other than the DACs is kind of cheap and flimsy, but it works. It's not going to stand up to abuse, though - it's all plastic, with gritty-feeling knobs and buttons and a thin plastic casing. One nice thing is having level displays on the box itself, which is something that some budget interfaces lack. Everything does work like it should.

A big question in audio interfaces is the actual interface itself between the box/card and your computer, which affects latency. I wanted something that I could use with any computer that I use, be it my laptop, my desktop, or a computer at my office. That ruled out PCI, which offers the best latency (but requires a breakout box if you want things like hardware level monitors), and it ruled out firewire too, because my laptop doesn't have the ports. I felt USB 2.0 was a decent compromise; it's not quite as good as firewire and definitely not as good as PCI, but it's a lot better than USB 1.1. If you can use PCI, though, Emu also offers a PCI version of this interface - just be aware that you'll be giving up a few features, plus the obvious portability. If you want USB 2.0 for the same reasons I did, this is honestly one of the few audio interfaces out there that can use it. (Most manufacturers assume you're either a pro, in which case you want firewire, or you're a total budget amateur, in which case you want USB 1.1.) There is definitely some latency when monitoring your recordings through the PC, but on the plus side the box does offer zero-latency hardware monitoring directly through the box.

The software bundle is pretty amazing for the price, and it's another big reason why I bought this model. It actually ships with at least three (by my count) full-fledged recording apps: CuBase LE, Ableton Live and Cakewalk LE. Don't let the "LE" designations scare you - they're totally feature-packed apps, just with fewer tracks and VST instruments than the full versions. Do you really need 96 recording tracks for a home recording? 24 should be enough. But the nice thing is these apps also give you an upgrade path to the full versions if you so desire, so you end up saving money vs. buying the full app by itself. This unit also comes with Amplitube LE, which is a plugin for Cubase that models a variety of guitar amps so you can really get that perfect sound that you're looking for - I've been having a ton of fun with this.

I give it four out of five stars only because of its questionable durability. This is not the interface you want if you plan to carry it around in a gig bag all over the place. Also, it does have an external power brick (a small one) - though that's what enables the phantom power for the mic inputs, so it's a good tradeoff. Still, if you want something really portable, look elsewhere (though you'll probably have to give up phantom power). But if you want a good all-around interface for not a lot of money, with a great software package and pro-level audio quality, and you plan to keep it on a desk most of the time, this unit is definitely worth a look.

Unlike lots of people I did not buy this for it's MIDI capabilities. I bought this expressly to supplant my onboard sound in my Win XP machine. Unless you're an audiophile of some sort, most people have little idea how bad onbaord sound is (non-dedicated sound card).

This is primarily a first rate sound card and then a MIDI controller. It also has an excellent headphone amp integrated into it. Build quality is excellent as are the controls. Just for clarification this is a USB card, it will install easily and take over for your onboard or dedicated sound card.

Do yourself a favor and pick this up, the sound improvement is dramatic and not some audiophile "voodoo".

I bought this product a few months ago from another retailer. I use it with a MacBook 2ghz, 2GB RAM, blah blah blah. When I ran MacOS 10.4 Panther it worked great. The audio quality is excellent *IF* your source inputs are clean. By that I mean, if you're using a high quality microphone with XLR inputs you will get a very clean sound. I've also used it with a Martin D16RT acoustic guitar with builtin mic and a Taylor 812ce with builtin pickup and - again - it recorded extremely clean audio. The product works as advertised.

But, as of February 12th 2008, if you're running MacOS X 10.5 Leopard it doesn't work. I can't start standard audio applications like Garageband, they just crash. You'll have to remove the EMU driver to get the system back to normal too. Took me several hours to figure dig through the issue and determine the cause.

I hope EMU provides a driver update for 10.5 in the near future. But CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY if you're running Leopard.

I was quite excited about getting this sound card. At first I was a little concerned about using a USB 2.0 interface (versus a firewire interface) and I must say that I'm still not convinced that USB 2.0 is stable enough to support a real time / ASIO audio device. The pre-amps on the 0404 are very nice, very clear and transparent. The gain isn't very smooth though, and tends to "jump" quite quickly. If I worked for excessive periods in ASIO mode it began to click and pop a lot and sometimes the LED meter would freeze for no reason. Occasionally it would stop working all together and I'd have to restart it and the program(s) I was using. Support is a little less than spectacular, with (at the time I had it) no real driver or firmware updates. It comes packaged with some handy audio tools, programs and plugins.

Overall, really liked it at first but quickly grew annoyed at it's inconsistent and erratic behaviour. Decent for a beginner or not so demanding user but if you intend to get serious there are much better options available for a similar price.

I use this in an Home Theater setup.

This external USB DAC is a steal at this price. It contains the same DSP as the $2000 "Transporter". On my high-end system, my PC-based media setup (PC running Foobar2000 -> ASIO Drivers -> EMU USB -> Home Theater) ... rivals the sound I get from my high-end ($1900) Toshiba DVD-Audio Player.

Its an awesome headphone amp ... my AKG K240 arrived today ... what a delight !

Also excellent for microphone recordings (which I seldom do)

Do use the ASIO drivers that comes with the EMU. And, boys and girls, always use lossless formats like WAV or FLAC for your recordings.

Highly recommended.

May 22, 2009
Preliminary review:
Just installed the drivers. The installer hangs at the very end, being an IT guy I figured that the drivers got installed properly. Rebooted the machine and started playing my wav files. I am using HD595 to judge the quality of the output. I'd recommend this to all who are looking for a low budget box with high quality converters.

The knobs on the box could be better. Wonder why EMU didn't bother to spend extra bit on that and I am sure customers wouldn't have minded paying bit more.

I am yet to do recording. I was in a hurry to write this preliminary review. Will post further updates after using the box for more time.
If the recording quality turns out to be v.good I might bump the rating to 5 stars.


June 09, 2009
Final review:
Tried recording as well with Shure SM58 mic. Overall performance of the EMU 0404 USB is as follows:
- Recording is crystal clear. Excellent frequency response. Use professional studio headphones to feel the quality. I am currently using Senn. HD595
- No latency could be felt. I guess it's close to zero.
- No issues with drivers. None! I am running this on WinXP. If you're using Vista, don't trust anything. Better switch to Mac OS if you don't have an option to switch back to XP.
- Installation of drivers is a breeze.
- Box seems to be made up of plastic/poly* materials but it's sturdy, not heavy metal though.
- Knobs could be of better quality as mentioned earlier.
- The range offered by the knobs is not great. It's not smooth/wide-range when it comes to setting levels. It's bit more sensitive than one would like. But overall, not an issue for a home/small studio.
- Like input (recording), output (playback) is also crystal clear. Fully supports 32-bit. I really think EMU has used very high quality ADC and DAC chips and very high quality of pre-amp circuitry.
- This product truly deserves 5 stars. In this price range, it's hard to find this kinda box with much quality. Thanks EMU!!

I purchased this when I found out that the Steinburg MIDEX-8 would not work with Intel Macs after I purchased a Mac Pro (Steinburg discontinued support for the MIDEX-8 in 2003). I was really looking for a MIDI interface but this unit also provides me with guitar and microphone inputs which is a bonus. In the past I have had to mess with a PCI card for audio input into my Mac. This can get messy. I like the front access.

After searching for this type of product I found that there are MANY to choose from so the issue was how to decide on which one to purchase.

One of the factors for me was the MAC/PC connection method. Available interfaces include USB 1.1, USB 2.0, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800. Firewire 800 would be great because the greater bandwidth should produce the lowest latency (in theory). Of course extra bandwidth costs extra money. Based on pricing I elected to go for USB 2.0. The firewire units go up by a quantum leap in price ($500 and up). I was trying to stay around $200.So far I have not found the USB 2.0 interface to be a problem. I would not bother with USB 1.1.

The other factor was power. Since USB has a limited current capacity I did not want a unit that relied on existing USB power because I did not want my audio levels to be low (e.g., headphone output). I therefore looked for a unit that requires external power. I understand that some people would prefer portability but this is not a factor for me. I use this device in my home studio only.

Checking Amazon's price and this and other product reviews I decided to puchase this device and so far I am very pleased with it. I do not notice any latency and it works just fine with Cubase 4.0 and Garage Band. I expect it will also work with BIAB. I also liked the feedback that mentioned the high quality of the DACS.

I think this will handle my needs for now. I miss the 8 MIDI in and 8 MIDI out of the MIDEX-8 but I can use MIDI thru on the e-mu product. I would prefer a smaller footprint (like the Focusrite Saffire - firewire) however I can also live with that for less than $200.

My setup:

i7 860/ Windows 7 64 bit/ Sonar 64 bit 8.5 Producer/ Axiom 49

1) I previously purchased the TC Konnekt 6 and Cakewalk (Edirol) UA - 25EX - These are all Sub $250 External sound cards, and the 0404 is the cheapest at $185.

In comparison to the UA-25 I found that although the UA-25 had updated WIndows 7 drivers, i still had numerous dropouts while recording. Possibly because it is only USB 1.1 compared to 0404 at USB 2.0. Also the 0404 has a handy On/Off switch which the 25-ex lacks. One of the issues with the Edirol unit is that the "Main Output" volume knob also controls the headphones so that could kind of be annoying. The only thing nice about the Edirol was that it had an onboard compressor, but honestly the sound coming out of it with the compressor on kind of sounded hollow, so I would bypass it and just use my software compressors. I rate the UA-25 ex a 3/5 because it is the most costly but the most outdated.

In comparison to the TC Konnekt 6 - I found that the Konnekt had numerous dropouts as well, especially if you clicked the mouse while playback. For instance, I would be playing back something I recorded then click on a VST synth and then I would have numerous dropouts while recording even while not using the mouse. The only remedy was to exit all my software and reboot the soundcard. While this is a specific problem, and you possibly wouldn't have it if you had TI firewire card, other users have experiences this as well. I rate the Konnekt 6 a 5/5 when it was working properly. The sound is crystal clear and if you have the right firewire card then I suggest taking a look at it before anything else.

2) Now onto the 0404 - most people complain about the drivers and stuff, but the Vista drivers work perfectly for windows 7 64 bit. I have not received any dropouts (knock on wood). It is the largest unit out of all of them. My only issue is with the direct monitor knob as it is kind of funny to play around with. Also as another user mentioned, there is extremely high sensitivity with the Volume input knob, so you have very little room to even move it around until it gets too loud. Although, there is a sweet spot and once you find it, just don't move it. I like that is is USB 2.0 and has so far worked seamlessly. I'm glad I decided to finally give this one a try after having no luck with all the other cards. For me, this ones a keeper.

After looking at a bunch of audio interfaces, I finally settled on the E-MU 0404 because of the reputation of their A/D converters, their claim of zero latency and I could get it for a good price. I found the converters to be marginally better than my old Audiophile 24/96, but latency is a definite problem. Even in the Direct Monitor mode, there is a noticeable latency. (E-Mu claims there is no latency in the Direct Monitor mode, but it sure sounds like there is.) Using it with Adobe Audition 3.0 and monitoring the DAW, the latency is so distracting that it would be very difficult to record a decent vocal with it. I've had several exchanges with E-MU support, but the answers they give me are straight out of the manual that came with the unit. Not much help.

Another annoyance is the low headphone level in the Direct Monitor mode. There is plenty of headphone level for playback, but not for recording. When monitoring the DAW, the headphone level is fine, but the latency drives me crazy! You should be able to plug a microphone into the unit and get a good strong signal to the headphones in the Direct Monitor mode. Not so!

I've been using it as a stand-alone A/D converter and sending the S/PDIF signal to the S/PDIF input on my Audiophile 24/96. That's been working OK, but is this progress? The slight improvement in the A/D converter is not enough to overcome this unit's other shortcomings.


I feel like I probably wasted my money.

The drivers work exceptionally well with my x64 system. That's what drew me to this product initially, because they boast compatibility with Windows Professional x64 so loudly. I was skeptical about the rest of the unit. But the 0404 is as quiet as they advertise, which is pretty darn quiet, and the lack of latency is incredible. All the controls you need the most--and use the most, like switching the live monitoring on and off so you can go from recording to mixing in a second--are right at the top of the unit (a really brilliant design idea, seeing as controls on the sides are that much harder to reach/see/use) The EMU0404 is as reliable as they come. My one qualm? The knobs on the unit feel a little cheap. I don't mean fragile, I mean cheap. The movement is so-so. And the input potentiometers create noise in the inputs when you adjust them.