Has anyone worked with an ESI Juli@ PCI?

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

Im interested in this sound card alot, and would like to use it with OpenMPT and (if i ever get the money together) Reaper including doing some mastering on Audacity.

How good is this sound card when working with mastering software?
Does it do hardware mixing like the Gravis Ultrasound and AMD InterWave? If it does, how many channels (voices) at a time?
Can it work on PCE Express 3.0 ports?
Can i set the frequency (8kHz-192kHz) and bit depth (8bit-24bit) on the mixing software taht comes with this sound card?
How low can the latency be set for MIDI in/out and OpenMPT?

[Saga Musix]

How good is this sound card when working with mastering software?

It's pretty much the reference in this price range for audio interfaces, don't worry about the quality.

Can it work on PCE Express 3.0 ports?

It is mechanically impossible to fit a PCI card in a PCIe slot. However, the ESI Juli@ XTe is pretty much the same card for PCI Express slots. I wouldn't really buy PCI hardware anymore in 2014 since you will probably not be able to use it anymore in a modern computer in a few years, and trust me, this card will otherwise outlive your computer by a couple of years.

Can i set the frequency (8kHz-192kHz) and bit depth (8bit-24bit) on the mixing software taht comes with this sound card?

No professional audio interface will let you mix at 8 KHz, lol. I think the Juli@ started somewhere at 22 or 32 KHz and goes up to 192 KHz. The ASIO driver will always run at 32 bit quality. Whether any of this is a problem or not depends on the application you are using. WaveLab for instance will always initialize the soundcard at the same samplerate as the sample itself, which is no issue with MME drivers (as Windows will do the conversion for you - which is an issue on its own), but if you want to take advantage of ASIO, the sample rate has to be in the supported range (i.e. 32-192 KHz or whatever the lower limit is).

How low can the latency be set for MIDI in/out and OpenMPT?

I don't think MIDI has any noticeable latency, for OpenMPT it's just important that you run at a reasonably low audio latency (I personally would say that ~15ms is the maximum bearable latency for MIDI I/O), which the Juli@ is more than capable of.

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

It is mechanically impossible to fit a PCI card in a PCIe slot. However, the ESI Juli@ XTe is pretty much the same card for PCI Express slots. I wouldn't really buy PCI hardware anymore in 2014 since you will probably not be able to use it anymore in a modern computer in a few years, and trust me, this card will otherwise outlive your computer by a couple of years.

Outlive my PC? I actually am going for an custom build gaming/workstation PC that will last around 4-6 years, so the longer this sound card works, the better.

No professional audio interface will let you mix at 8 KHz, lol. I think the Juli@ started somewhere at 22 or 32 KHz and goes up to 192 KHz. The ASIO driver will always run at 32 bit quality. Whether any of this is a problem or not depends on the application you are using. WaveLab for instance will always initialize the soundcard at the same samplerate as the sample itself, which is no issue with MME drivers (as Windows will do the conversion for you - which is an issue on its own), but if you want to take advantage of ASIO, the sample rate has to be in the supported range (i.e. 32-192 KHz or whatever the lower limit is).

Heh, im not going for 8kHz mixing, but will go for 16kHz (to test MOD and S3M files how they can sound on old hardware). But if it has 32kHz, then it will suffice.
The Windows conversion part do got me curious. Can i, like in Windows XP, deactivate this in Windows 7?

I don't think MIDI has any noticeable latency, for OpenMPT it's just important that you run at a reasonably low audio latency (I personally would say that ~15ms is the maximum bearable latency for MIDI I/O), which the Juli@ is more than capable of.

Thanks for your advice. MIDI hardware is for the time being out of my price range (still have to get the money for this sound card), but its features will be helpful on the long run.

[Saga Musix]

Outlive my PC? I actually am going for an custom build gaming/workstation PC that will last around 4-6 years, so the longer this sound card works, the better.

6 years is short for a good audio interface. As long as it is still being supplied with drivers for the operating system you are using, nothing will keep you from using it in ten years or more from now. CPUs and GPUs get outdated very quickly these days, but this does luckily not apply to audio interfaces.

Heh, im not going for 8kHz mixing, but will go for 16kHz (to test MOD and S3M files how they can sound on old hardware). But if it has 32kHz, then it will suffice.

You will have to go with software resampling then (i.e. use WaveOut or WASAPI in OpenMPT), as ASIO and WaveRT (known as WDM-KS in OpenMPT) won't work at such low sampling rates.

The Windows conversion part do got me curious. Can i, like in Windows XP, deactivate this in Windows 7?

Yes, by using WaveRT, just like KernelStreaming in XP.

Thanks for your advice. MIDI hardware is for the time being out of my price range (still have to get the money for this sound card), but its features will be helpful on the long run.

A typical MIDI keyboard costs much less than a Juli@.

[LPChip]

Outlive my PC? I actually am going for an custom build gaming/workstation PC that will last around 4-6 years, so the longer this sound card works, the better.

6 years is short for a good audio interface. As long as it is still being supplied with drivers for the operating system you are using, nothing will keep you from using it in ten years or more from now. CPUs and GPUs get outdated very quickly these days, but this does luckily not apply to audio interfaces.

I can testify to that statement. I still use my Creative X-Fi Elite Pro which I bought over 10 years ago when it was new back then. I have transferred it between 2 different new pc's now and the card is working perfectly today too. The only problem I have is that it is harder to get it to work on windows 8.1 which has kept me from updating to windows 8.1. Although I was able to make it work, it just was not stable enough for my taste. (not with the drivers I want to use)

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

6 years is short for a good audio interface. As long as it is still being supplied with drivers for the operating system you are using, nothing will keep you from using it in ten years or more from now. CPUs and GPUs get outdated very quickly these days, but this does luckily not apply to audio interfaces.

And that is why i desire this sound card. If it lasts this long, then it will find alot of use in another PC build, if i need to update my hardware from scratch.
Also, im aware that the CPU and GPU get outdated quickly, but with the industry trend being releasing slight updates that cost more then there worth it, the PC build im planning to have will be of use for a long time, before updating is necessary or an true improvement of components comes. But the drivers do pose an problem, indeed.

A typical MIDI keyboard costs much less than a Juli@.

True, but i don't have any use of the MIDI keyboard as long i don't have this sound card, since my budget is very tight.

I can testify to that statement. I still use my Creative X-Fi Elite Pro which I bought over 10 years ago when it was new back then. I have transferred it between 2 different new pc's now and the card is working perfectly today too. The only problem I have is that it is harder to get it to work on windows 8.1 which has kept me from updating to windows 8.1. Although I was able to make it work, it just was not stable enough for my taste. (not with the drivers I want to use)

I haven't heard many good things about Creatives driver support.
Would it work for you in Windows 8.1 running the drivers in compatibility mode with the last Windows OS in which they worked on?
It might be possible, but please don't ask me how. I never found an compatibility mode for drivers in no Windows system, since i never truly bothered with it.

[LPChip]

I got it to work sort of okay, but ran into another problem that I couldn't fix. So I thought it was windows 8.1 that made it fail. Reinstalled windows 7 where that same problem happened. Solved it there, but didn't bother to move back to 8.1 because the soundcard drivers weren't 100% stable. Basically it could give me some error message while performing some actions, but for the rest everything kept working okay. But it just didn't feel solid enough. Also, I wasn't using Creative Drivers. In fact, now on win7 I still am not. I use modified drivers that DO work.

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

I got it to work sort of okay, but ran into another problem that I couldn't fix. So I thought it was windows 8.1 that made it fail. Reinstalled windows 7 where that same problem happened. Solved it there, but didn't bother to move back to 8.1 because the soundcard drivers weren't 100% stable. Basically it could give me some error message while performing some actions, but for the rest everything kept working okay. But it just didn't feel solid enough. Also, I wasn't using Creative Drivers. In fact, now on win7 I still am not. I use modified drivers that DO work.

Still, Creative could support there customers better, expecialy with drivers.

Anyway, thank you both Saga Musix and LPChip for your sugestions.
I never worked before with sound cards, and rather used the build in ones since i cannot find and buy them in my region. Im very glad to finaly go from buld in ones to more advanced PCI ones (maybe an USB one, but they have high latency, or so i read it somewhere). Again, thank you both .

[Saga Musix]

Uhm, I have no idea what you read but a proper USB audio interface doesn't have a higher latency than a built-in interface. What is technically true is that they have an unpredictable latency which can be bad when recording and playing MIDI, but even this never posed any noticeable real-world problems for me.

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

Oh, is that so?
Anyway, i will for the time being go with the ESI Juli@ for PCI. An USB sound card will come later once i again save up the necessary cash.

[Saga Musix]

As I have said before, I do not consider it to be very wise to buy PCI hardware in 2014 - well, almost 2015. Actually, it would be cheaper to get e.g. the ESI U24XL USB audio interface and then get a random 15€ USB-to-MIDI cable (e.g. this or this - I actually believe that the latter is just a rebranded version of the former, at least the company name "EGOSIS" I found on the packaging strongly suggests it), and you will actually still get quality that's lightyears ahead of any onboard sound  you previously used.

[LPChip]

Also, the ASUS Xonar U7 seems promising. I'm considering moving to that one if my creative one ever dies on me.

But I have no experience with this one, and only read a few reviews. But they offer what I look for in a soundcard. Interface with presets, EQ and 7.1 surround. And its not that expensive either, especially considering the audio quality it is producing (according to the reviews)