Gina ECHO 20 bit with breakout box.

[sabianq]

I thought i would post this, I understand that this piece of gear is not a new piece of gear but it can be found on eBay for around $100.00.

I owned this card as my very first semi-pro card.
The sound quality is absolutely stunning, the 20 bit processor sounds a little old school (CD quality is only 16 bit) but the processor does a fantastic job of moving analogue SPL's to digital data.

The signal to noise ratio seems better than 20 bit and the frequency response curve is very flat.

the only issues with this card is there is no more updated driver support and the card is not compatible with AMD based chip-sets and processors, you need an Intel chip-set and processor to make use of this great little AD/DA.

If you are a first time PC recorder with an older model INTEL based PC on a serious budget, this is a great starter card.

http://www.digitalmusiccentre.com/Specials/gina.jpg

[oretez]

Testimonial:

When I bought the first of two Gina 20's a decade ago (spring of '96) most of my recording was still accomplished in analog domain. A principle reason for the card was output routing that allowed me to move six digitally edited tracks back to the analog master in a single pass

The price and digital I/O (not yet common on desk top audio cards) completed the sales pitch

My primary A/D at the time was a custom stand alone system (costing more then ten times the cost of the Gina) with not quite top of the line converters and better clock then any digidesign product. But it's editing features were rudimentary and promised GUI desktop migration failed to materialize. At time I purchased Gina 20 I was not particularly interested in recording with a desk top computer, for a lot of very good reasons.

The Gina did not vitiate those reasons but I was surprised, a bit chagrined, at the quality of it's A/D (compared with a dedicated and vastly more expensive product) . . . I was very pleased with quality of the converters

(without wanting to start a war I would be very surprised if anyone can 'hear' the difference between 20 and 24 bit conversion. theoretically 24 bit can supply 144 dB s/n dynamics but no manufacture even boasts those figures, 20 bit upper limit is 120 . . . the Gina supplies real world 96 dB s/n, my best current 24 bit card comes in around 108 s/n . . . an improvement worth having but I have never had a client that could tell the difference, even with things like harps, between 96 and 108 s/n . . . the room first, mics a long way second have more influence on what people hear then two (or four) lower steps in the noise floor)

Anyway I eventually had two Gina 20's. One went the way of all flesh, not that it failed I just do not remember where it drifted. In all probability it is sitting in some PII 500 MHz, dual 10 gig HD's, gathering dust in one of studio's I used regularly at the time. The other was used by a pre teen nephew for a number of years. A couple of years ago I upgraded his system to an EMU card, but the Gina remained with his family until maybe six weeks ago when I reappropriated it and installed it in a laptop docking station where it seems quite happy to be doing the job it did 10 years ago. I can do snapshot recording on the sun porch, route the signal to monitors both inside and outside. The front end is the original Mackie 1202 I bought 16 or 17 years ago.

I've used other Echo product and generally speaking have been satisfied. Currently I still use a Gina G3 while traveling (another docking station and it includes ADAT I/O which lets it expand routing significantly, plus phantom power). While the G3 is the traveling work horse neither its 'build' nor it's console impress me as much as the original Gina 20.

While I would not recommend anyone go out and buy one (with Emu 0404 going for under $100(US) a $100 for a Gina is not a bargain price) if you need the analog outs, i.e. if the card and break out box fill a specific need; it is a tough card to beat. At recent spontaneous group woodshed . . . the analog outs fed distinct monitor mixes to a headphone distribution amp . . . Input was handled via MOTU firewire but effective monitoring would have required me to unpack a far more complex front end desk, setting that up would have interfered with spontaneity of session

When I got the 20 back I experienced a nostalgic reaction I have for virtually no other digital gear (including my original synth and sampler . . . )

[hrasco]

the only issues with this card is there is no more updated driver support and the card is not compatible with AMD based chip-sets and processors, you need an Intel chip-set and processor to make use of this great little AD/DA.

http://www.digitalmusiccentre.com/Specials/gina.jpg

They say "what you don't know won't hurt you". I have been using my Echo Darla 20 card for a few years now with an AMD processor with no ill effects. I believe these cards both use the same echogals drivers but could be wrong about that.

My $.02

Hank

[sabianq]

yea, The Darla is compatable, but the Gina is not.
I only use AMD and when i got that card i had to trade computers with my wife (she had an old pentium 3) to make it work.

Gotta love that card, Amazing.

moved back to AMD and now i use the AARDVARK, not quite as quiet but real nice.

[hrasco]

I've been doing some contract work at Intel for the last couple of weeks. I've had to "sneak" my laptop into the building because of the AMD logo on it's tote bag.

Hank

[simplymatt]

I purchased a used Layla 20 not too long ago. Have been quite pleased with its performance, but haven't been able to really put it through a workout yet. I've got a full band (drum kit, multiple guitars, bass, keys, etc) session coming up in about a week and can't wait to give it a go.

I run an AMD and haven't had any issues yet either. Was/Is it only the Gina that has a real issue? I know that the instruction manual that came with the Layla said only Intel, but the person I purchased from said they used an AMD as well.

Glad to see others using the Echo stuff out there!

-Matt

[sirbergersworth]

I still have my Gina20 in storage. It was a great piece.
The last driver that was developed (sitll on the website) worked great. I think it was v 6.11 or 6.08 or something like that. I recorded 2 albums with that interface and it was so nice and stable.

[Bino_5150]

The "ECHO Gals" drivers are still being updated and can be had from the manufacturers website.

I use the Echo MIA MIDI 24/96, same drivers...

Love the sound, too, and very stable console/drivers... still sounds better than a lot of these new cards that are coming out. 106dB dynamic range.

Never had any issues with it, either.

The MIA only has 4 channels in and out (2 analog, 2 digital each), so it might not be good in a session with a full band, but I do mostly vocals, and sampling/dumping beats, so it works great post-mixer. also, the MIDI and S/PDIF ins and outs and 5.1 surround support help keep it from becoming too obsolete.

Echo makes great cards; I have yet to meet someone who says anything bad about them...

[edibennardo]

Hello, I still love my Gina 20 bit but with xp I'm having problems that maybe someone else doesn't have so I'd be pleased to have suggestions. I generally use asio drivers and the software I mostly work with are Finale, Sonar and Soundforge. Well if one of the three is opened I can not have any sound with the other two and very often I lose output 1 and 2 so I can only output from 3-4 or maybe 5-6. When i reboot it works for a while than it happens again. I'm using the latest 6.11 echogals drivers. In the past (with windows 95 and 98) everything was just smooth and i could close and open any software and keep on working. Does anyone know if I have to throw this beautiful soundcard to get something more recent or I'm just missing something basic that i'm not aware of?
Many thanks Enrico Dibennardo (Italy)

[hrasco]

Enrico

Not sure if this will be any help but after I read your post I realized I have been using outputs 3 and 4 for everything for quite some time and I can't for the life of me remember why. Maybe for as long as I've been using XP. Hmm...

I finally gave up trying to use Cakewalk PA9 with XP but I don't think XP is supported by Cakewalk prior to Sonar.

I'm pretty sure I can run Reaper and Soundforge at the same time and I'm certain I can run Vegas Video and Soundforge at the same time although I can recall a few times when I had no audio at all for no apparent reason.

As I said, though, I have outputs 3 and 4 set as my main outputs in Windows and in all my apps. Can't remember why I switched but it seems to work.

[edibennardo]

Yes, perhaps you didn't switch to outputs 3-4 but more simply those were the first outputs automatically available since 1 and 2 were taken already by the system. This is more or less what happens here with my PC. The fact you didn't notice that earlier means that you probably have all outputs conncted to a desk? I use only 1-2 for monitoring so I obviously realize when outputs autonatically shift to 3-4. In any case I think my system is even more instable since sometimes I find only 5-6 and 7-8 available. It is a pity there are no more driver updates so I'm afraid we are condamned to obsolescence, anyway I would try a different slot inside my pc who knows? This can give some different or better results? Thanks in any case for your post Hrasco. It did somehow confirm my concerns but provided also a few new thoughts, for instance I may try with different softwares (reaper you are mentioning) and probably have less problems.
Enrico

[hrasco]

I only use two outputs. I unplugged from 1 and 2 and plugged into 3 and 4. I just can't remember why I did in the first place.

Switching slots would be simple enough to try and sometimes can give good results.

[edibennardo]

Ok I misunderstood they were connected to output 3-4 and simply you didn't remember you had done this. There has been some progress today and I probably found a very good compromise. I had always used gina as predefinite soundcard in my system but, since I have a consumer card included in the pc motherboard i tried choosing it as predefinite. I discovered that the main issues were with finale and msn messanger. They did steal the outputs without releasing them free when closing the session. So I assigned msn to predefinite soundmax card (the one inside the pc motherboard) Sounforge, windows media player and sonar all to output 1-2 and finale to output 7-8. It seems that Finale doesn't leave the outputs free after pressing stop or even after closing the file or even the software so with output 7-8 it doesn't interfere with the other two softwares. Soundforge and sonar are much more polite, i shoul say professional so they let the output free when not in use. So i can use both of them but they can not play at the same time. it is enough that i hit stop or pause and i can ply the other software. The only issue but it is enough to know it so to be aware is that when i.e. soundforge is playing a file and I open sonar, in that case sonar doesn't find 1-2 available and goes to 3-4. So in the end if i don't pretend that sonar and soundforge do play at the same time (and there's no reason for that) everything goes smooth. I hope this was clear and maybe useful for someone. I'm amazed that after monthes of i could solve this today, and talking with hrasco was a good input to try to make the point better. Thank you very much. it seems I'm not going to buy a soundcard too soon now.
Enrico

[edibennardo]

..err when I said soundforge windows media player and sonar to output 1-2 and finale to output 7-8 I was talking of Gina of course while msn messanger to soundmax that is set as predefinite for windows in my system now.
Enrico