Lexicon Core 2

Like some other reviewers here, I bought this box at a massively-reduced price in a clearout sale. I later sold the MP-100 board I got with it for more than I'd paid for the whole package, so financially, I can't really complain!

Wish the breakout box was rackmountable, mine keeps falling out of the back of my rack!

Installing is a horrible pain, even if you have a "recommended" spec PC. It gives you a hint of how fragile this board's configuration is - it's not a robust process. I think it took me a couple of attempts to get it properly settled in with my Cubase VST setup.

Since then, it's been fine. Just don't fiddle with it!

By sheer dumb luck, my Compaq PII-400 happened to have the "recommended" Intel 440BX chipset so I've never experienced any clicks, pops or glitches.

I really can't fault it, especially for the price I paid. Lovely dbx limiting means I worry much less about clipping during recordings. The D-to-A's are excellent too - although balanced I/O would have been appreciated to make the most of them.

Well, by definition, you're gonna have to be running Win98 to use this card. For me, that means my audio PC is firewalled off from the internet, and basically kept as a snapshot of about 1999. If you're old-skool like me and don't use any plugins/softsynths and all that stuff, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Believe me, it IS ABSOLUTELY possible to run a reliable Win98 box. You've just got to keep it simple, and forget your 21st-century performance expectations.

Once you've got this card up and running on a suitable PC, you basically need to set your configuration in stone. For that reason, I can only give it a 5 - it's a thing of fragile beauty.

Everything that can be said about Lexicon's support for this product, HAS been said.

Basically, they messed this one up. People can jump up and down about it, but nothing's going to change it. I do feel for people who paid full retail, expecting a long support life for this though.

As I mentioned above, I'm an "old-skool" user - I basically use Cubase VST as a MIDI sequencer with a 16-track recorder attached. I don't use softsynths or even effects plugins so my Pentium II-400 doesn't get thrashed, and 256Mb of RAM is more than sufficient.

For my needs, this card has been great. I fully intend to keep it around for many years yet - using the ADAT I/O with a Yamaha digital mixer for example.

Would I buy it again, no, absolutely not. I'd probably get a nice rackmounted something-or-other from the Echo range, and use it with a much more modern PC. But it's worked for me, which is why I'll give it a 6.

I think I got this thing 2002 or so from Guitar Center for about 25 bucks since it was discontinued and they were blowing it out, so no harm done there.
Not exactly plug and play...be prepared for hours of serious messin'. Or Maybe you're lucky and it just works the first time. I have it on an old Celeron 566 MHz machine, 320M of RAM, (obviously running Win98SE), I've worked out all the kinks and the computer is used only as a recorder using CEP2 and Wavelab. Totally stable, and you can bet I'm not changing anything on it anymore... I recorded a couple of projects with this system ; definitely had to adapt to only 4x inputs, but happy with the results. Recently upgraded to a used Echo Layla 24 for 175.00 and a used 2GHz machine for 75.00. Not sure what I'm going to do with the Lexicon now, maybe give it to some kids to experiment with.. I'd definitely keep it if reliable XP driver were available.

Once/if you get it working properly, it sounds great IMO. A/D conversion (while no Rosetta), is totally acceptable. I've had no issues with noise. I leave the DBX tape saturation/compression on all 4 inputs. Don't have the reverb card, so no comment on that. I've bounced ADAT tracks via lightpipe to CEP2 for editing, worked great. Again, once you've achieved some degree of stability, it does what it should.

I think I can depend on it, I cut a record with it over a year without issues, but there is no way I would do any hardware or software upgrades at this point, too afraid it'd screw it up...

Never attempted to contact Lexicon, I already know their answer to the XP driver question...
Also, since I got the thing for next to nothing, I'm still ahead. I do have the drivers for MAC and an old dual 500MHz G4 laying around, maybe I'll try that sometime. But again, only supports OS9 not OSX, so kinda the same deal with Win98 vs XP

I play Americana/Country/Honkytonk (telecaster) coming up on 20 years, and for about 10 years made a living at it, also have a degree in audio recording from a major university. I usually tackle only one album project per year (kids and day job now), usually engineering/producing in a commercial facility. I have tons of mics, pres, vintage tube consoles, etc and plenty of experience with most of the gear you come across. This was the first card of this type I've owned. I'd have to give it a 10 for value, c'mon it was 25.00! If I had to pay full pop for it I'd be a different story, more like a 5. If "lost or stolen", the thieves are welcome to it....

Yes Lexicon let us down. Great card, great sound. I had 2 channels on tape simulation setting and loved the warm sound it would capture. Now it's in a box in a shelf somewhere. No drivers for windows XP, what a shame. I felt I was left behind from Lexicon with it's lack of consideration for old costumers like us. They decided not to develop drivers for anything above windows 98. I will never buy a Lexicon product again.

I loved this card worked great on win98

good

reliable till you change to XP, then it does not work!

I have called em and they said they will not be making XP drivers...
What a waste! I spent 500$ for this when it came out. I think I deserve some &@%#*@ XP drivers!

Great on win 98, Trash on XP. I HATE WIN98, MAKE SOME XP DRIVERS! PLZ!

Well..1st of all, I have it installed on a AMD system.
Specs: AMD 900 Mhz overclocked to 1.2 Ghz
Abit KT7A- RAID version 1.2 with latest BIOS with VIA chipsets
Via Chipset drivers
All Windows Versions OS's (win95-winme, yeah have a multi OS setup)
3dfx Voodoo 3 3500 TV
Yamaha SW1000XG Soundcard
Terratec EWSXL Soundcard
Advansys SCSI Card
Netgear FA310TX Network Interface Card
Well, the card is not hard to setup, what will happen is that it will ASSUME you have your programs installed on your C: partition as default. Other than that, you can go into the registry and just point the card to the partition that your OS is installed on for the software to work properly.
Once set up, it is pretty darn easy to use. And yes...it is sharing its IRQ.

Well..it sounds pretty clean to me, and the FX are very very good. Not like the Core32's PC90 reverbs of course, but still useful.

AHsnt giving me any problems. The only way yuor ever going to encounter problems is with Windows itself (dirty registry, corrupted files and so on)
Im a pretty good tech at this, and Ive always installed the minimun drivers needed for everything and always updated WINDOWS OS'S FIRST!!!
So, you may feel to back up and install everything from scratch and one piece at a time into your computer.
Too bad Lexicon hasnt any WIN2k/XP drivers for it. What a shame!
Anyone know how to program, or port or is it recompile the existing drivers to use in 2K and XP??

Who cares,...its a discontinued product and they were never 100% behind it. Same thing they did with the Lexicon Studio.
Never supported the newer versions of Windows.

Well...because I am a tech,...and I know most people are not and the fact that Ive had NO trouble in seting this up in my AMD system. I will probably say for a tech type guy I'd give it a 8 overall.
AS a non tech guy, and for all the confusion and troouble you may get,...a 6 sounds respectful considering the money you can buy this for. Very cheap, including the FX addin card.
Pity the lack of updated and newer drivers,..the damn fools.

Once the drivers and card are installed, the core 2's interface is quite intuitive. Changing peramiters like input and monitering levels is simple as can be. The user interface is probably one of the system's best qualities. However, one must first install the card and get the drivers to work. This is not a task for the faint of heart! One must be persistant, but admit defeat if it comes to that. The Core 2 is NOT COMPADABLE WITH AMD PROCESSERS, and Lexicon has offered no remedy since they discontinued the product several years ago.

Sound quality is excelent. The system offers 24-bit sound quality, but i am happy recording at 16-bit. in general, one would be hard pressed to tell a difference. Lexicon integrated a circut on the input chanels to emulate a "tube sound". These can be switched on or off with switches on the card itself. However, the use of an external preamp is advisable. I have recorded both with and without a tube preamp (with the tube emulation swiched on in both cases) and there is a major difference in the "warmth" of the sound. Lexicon was nice enough to let the user decide about the tube sound.

In general, my Core 2 has proved to be reliable. My computer is a piece of trash, so the system crashes quite often even after numerous hardrive reformats and replacements. I don't believe the Core 2 is at fault, because the computer was finiky before i installed the card. In my experience, if you (the user) takes the time to read reviews like these, and check the Lexicon Core 2 database, all the magor problems can be avoided. If you don't check and go ahead with an AMD processor or try and use with Windows XP the system will give no end of trouble. Use common sence.

Customer suport is minimal since the product was discontinued. This can be a royal pain, but there is enough information on the Lexicon web site to just scrape by. REMEMBER, LEXICON HAS OFFERED NO DRIVER UPDATES SINCE THE PRODUCT WAS DISCONTINUED SEVERAL YEARS AGO.

I record all my band's music, my own music and, more recently have begun recording for other people. The instruments i have recorded with the Core 2 range from strings and group vocals, to rock drumsets and high spl guitar cabinets. I record to Cakewalk where i also edit and mix.
If the unit were lost or stolen, i would probably buy it again, if only because of a lack of funds. In my experience, the unit has worked real well for me. The thing i really like about the system is that it is expandible. You can plug in an adat and a s/pdif unit to get an aditional 9 chanels for a total of 13. I have found this feature particularly useful for recording drums.
I wanted to tear the little thing's circuts off one by one for the first month or so while i was wading through all the driver and amd issues, but now that that is three years behind me, i am a happy camper. For the price, i haven't really found a better system. Don't loose heart, it's worth the extra grey hairs... in the long run.

I can't get it to work on a P4 with an Intel MB. Windows 98 SE. Jacked around forever trying to get a free IRQ. Now it's got one but I downloaded the 2.21 drivers and still can't get the LexPanel. No audio in Cool Edit. I even uninstalled CE 2000 and installed the one that came with the card. Been on this for 2 days.

I wouldn't know.

Not really.

hehehehe. Reading the other comments on this board has pretty much told me I'm on my own.

I wish I could get it to work.

I recorded 7 tracks simultaneously with a Behringer ADA-8000 hooked up to Core2's optical. I use a Windows 98, and a Pentium II @400mhz 512megs of ram on an old ATX SOYO SY-6B+ motherboard. My hard drive is under 7200rpm and 10megs or less. Noticed some sluggishness on my stereo mix downs but hope to see improvement by using dual hard drives at 7200rpm @40-120megs. A freind reccommmends Seagate Barraccuda because their supposed to be quiet. I'm recording @ 16 bit with Cool edit Pro's "teaser" version (it only let's you do 10 tracks and no effects, but I'm able to adjust volume and pan my stereo mix downs). I'm keeping it simple so as not to tax the CPU. I use a 16bit video card and the motherboard has no onboard video.

I haven't tried it at 24 bit yet. 16 bit is fine for what we need. I record with my friends live every Saturday night in my Living room-two electric guitars, bass, vocal, and drums. I burn CD's for everyone.

It's fine. I thought about rack mounting the computer and getting a flat screen monitor to pack it around, But for now I'll use a stereo mini-disc recorder for that.

Extremely wimpy and lame. So lame that if and when I upgrade I will not go with Lexicon again. I don't care how good Lexicon Core 32 is. I'll find another brand.

Most people don't have 1000 or 2000 dollars to spend in one chunk. So you have to buy in pieces, and buy cheap, and buy as smart as you can. The first machine which someone gave me was an old AMD tower @ 333mhz which didn't work. So I had to build a new machine. It was a pain but a good learning experience. I may get an MP-100 card to see how that works. I would like to add is, EQ, compression, and reverb but not sure the machine can handle it. My friend says I can go through the Behringer's 8 outs and do it conventionally. Lot's of things to try still. Generally, though I don't like to get to caught up in engineering. I just want to play the Blues.

very easy to get a good sound. put it in the motherboard, switch on, load the drivers and go. make sure you read the manual. dont use via chipsets, make sure it isnt sharing an irq and use 2 hard drives: one for the os and one to record on.

follow these rules and its great.

also why are so many people whining about win 98. if you set up a fast machine with it, (correctly) it can and does outshine the bloated, security flaw ridden, rush job that is known as XP.

pro quality

yep

there is none

but give them a break eh? it looks like most of the reviewers expect the earth. i know it should not be necessary to know the intricate working of a computer, but this card was one of the first of its type and i suspect it wasnt designed for mainstream users but people who built studios with a fair degree of knowledge.

the average joe and the above average joe shouldnt buy it at any price. for the few that remain it is a wonderful bargain.

get a mic preamp

For All: Have you tried installing the drivers in Windows 2000 under Windows 98 compatibility mode? It may work. I installed a program that was only supposed to work in windows 98 this way and works perfectly.....