25ghosts wrote: 2) I have been ON and OFF with Korg in Germany and I even called the US once,
telling them ABOUT this problem and exactly how to re-create it.
They CAN re-create it but their comment was:
'There is nothing we can do about it, sorry. Not at this time'
I would suggest you contact Korg Germany again, and ask them
(1) can they re-create the problem every time
(2) have they submitted this as a bug to Korg Japan (the actual developers)
(3) can Korg Japan re-create the problem.
The only thing you can do is make sure the problem has been submitted and received by the developers. In software development, problems/bugs are classified by their importance and projected cost. Some bugs will never get fixed since they are too expensive or too low on the priority scale.
If the problem is deemed important enough, it would get bundled into the next release of software fixes.
There were many PC-based software crashes when I was using the Korg drivers and EXB-FW card under 64-bit Windows Vista and 7. I reported them to Korg but there was never any solution or willingness by Korg to support the EXB-FW product. So I abandoned that EXB-FW "solution" as a complete waste of time, and I recommend anyone else trying to get it working to drop it and use an alternative.
For example, I now have a Yamaha N8 firewire digital mixer desk, there is an N12 also. The firewire interface and driver software works 100% reliably with 64-bit Windows Vista and W7 and with all MACOS releases and is fully supported by Yamaha and Steinberg. The latency is less than 3ms. It fully integrates into all versions of Cubase including v5.1 Studio. I have now recorded over 80 complete songs using that solution, instruments being M3, Pa2x, two guitars, vocals and drums.
Having severely criticized the EXB-FW, I must also balance things by saying that the rest of the M3-88 has been completely reliable and a delight to use.
I have to agree with Rob. I purchased the EXB-FW the month it came out. Since that time I have spent countless hours trying to resolve audio issues and have been able to use it on exactly 0 recordings. I have tried every tactic mentioned online, every suggestion by Korg reps and even the tips my majic 8Ball gave me. Out of all the people I personally know who have purchase the EXB-FW not a single one has every got it to work with out audio issues.
I am not saying that there may be some magical setup out there that the EXB-FW works flawlessly with. But I do think Rob's advice to abandon the EXB-FW as an audio solution is wise. It is just one of those thing you could drive yourself absolutely mad with if you don't stop and realize there is no answer.
Also like Rob, I must say that I love my M3, and all of the other Korg products I have owned over the years, which made accepting the EXB-FW as an Epic Fail that much harder. But, trust me, your mental health will be better for it.
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Live Suite 8 w/M4L / Logic Studio / iMac i7 Quad Core 8G RAM / MBP 2.4 4G RAM / Korg KRONOS-61 / APC40 / MPD18 / BCR2000 /nano Kontrol&Key / Roland Juno 106 / Moog Minitaur / TC Electronic StudioKonekt 48/ other random gear, guitars, drums and software
Reading all those problems out there, about the EXB-FW, made me realize that , it is cheaper for me to buy a Digital COnverter for my M-Audio Audiophile Firewire (that has SPDIF not Optical as M3).
So ,with only 50 euro I have now a good digital conection.
Yes it is only stereo, but it sounds excelent on recordings.
So maybe the costs are too expesive and now worthing to make a firmware update, and maybe it CAN'T be done.
Maybe the problems are even in the pcb system, and it can not be solved thru a firmware update..
I used to have many Roland stuff (it is silly but it seem to me that they are bad luck to me, so I gave up).
Some of the best gear I had was a digital mixer, that had a PCI sound card attached.
Well... Roland didn't want to mess up, and?
The PCI was almost the same as a MIDIMAN (M-audio now) card: 1010 delta.
The control panel, the connection system, was the same...
So maybe korg did that mistake...
They wanted to be "all korg" for taking the "big money" and they did it wrong....
I contacted support with some of the firewire issues I read about and this is their response. I hope it helps.
Hello,
Thank you for your inquiry regarding the M3 and EXB-FW. With regards to the speed of MIDI over EXB-FW, let me point you towards the following section of our EXB-FW Owner’s Manual:
“The baud rate of FW-MIDI (a MIDI connection via the
FireWire cable) is the same 31.25 kBps as when using a
conventional MIDI cable. Since the dump data used by
the M3 is large, performing a data dump via FW-MIDI
will take a long time if you execute an "all dump."
If you're using FW-MIDI, we recommend that you
minimize the settings in Total Recall & Data Sync
Settings. Refer to the M3 Editor/M3 Plug-In Editor
owner’s manual (PDF) section on Software Setup.
By using USB-MIDI in conjunction with this, you can
utilize the high-speed communication rate of USB 2.0.
Refer to the M3 Editor/M3 Plug-In Editor owner’s
manual (PDF) section on Software Setup/MIDI
Settings.”
As far as using the EXB-FW in a 64-bit system, while the driver and Editor software have not been officially cleared for 64-bit use by our engineers at Korg Inc., this does not mean that you would not find success in your own setup. With regards to latency, as with any audio system, you will need to tweak your settings according to what your system can handle while still maintaining the quality of audio necessary for your own uses. This will vary depending on what software you’re using (ie, host DAW, OS, background processes, etc.), what your CPU load is, hard drive speed, etc. While one user may find a low latency with excellent audio quality, someone on a different system of lower specifications or with a different DAW host that has different resource usage may have a very different experience.
I hope this helps to clarify and answer some of your concerns. If I can be of any additional assistance, please let me know. Thanks for supporting Korg!
Best regards,
Max
Product Support Supervisor
P:631.390.8737
F:631.390.8738
(Monday through Thursday, 10am to 5pm Eastern Time and Friday, 11 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time)
Max if you think it works then maybe Korg could publish a video showing M3 configured via FireWire and M3 editor VSTi, coupled with a Win 7 64 bit installation and Cubase 5 64 bit version? Then I'll eat my words.
In case there is any doubt about this from readers of this forum, IT DOES NOT WORK and Jerry Kovarsky and Rich Formidoni from Korg know full well it doesn't work Due to correspondence now over a year ago, and the reply from Max is a typical motherhood and apple pie response that means yet again that Korg have no plan to provide 64 bit support for what is evidently an obsolete product as far as Korg are concerned.
God only knows why anyone would buy a workstation from Korg today when there is no driver support for Windows 7 and the current PC VSTi will not work in 64 bit mode.
