Lexicon Core 2

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.....

Lexicon has failed as an audio company. I bought a Core2 card 2-3 years ago when I was using Windows 98. I had purchased a Gina20 in 1998. As of today, I can run my Gina20 on my XP system, but I cannot use my Core2 card. This sucks! Lexicon should be sued for their lack of support for such an important product. I give Lexicon a 0 rating for customer service, customer support and customer relations.

It has been some time since I have used my Core2. The reason I bought it was to transfer ADAT fiber optics data to my DAW. It worked ok on Win98, worse on Millenium and NOT on XP. Sad, Sad, SaIT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO CREATE A DRIVER FOR XP!d.

Reliability of Lexicon is "0"... IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO CREATE A DRIVER FOR XP!

Bad, bad, bad. How dare they continue to make any audio products. IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO CREATE A DRIVER FOR XP!

Zero. IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO CREATE A DRIVER FOR XP!

This card is nice; Clean user interface and useful, intuitive features. However, it is not easy to use now, sinec LEXI-"CON artists" DO NOT SUPPORT OPERATING SYSTEMS PAST WINDOWS 98!!!

Sound quality is, in the parlance of our times, "tight." Totally worth the money I paid for it, if I COULD FIND UPDATED DRIVERS!!!

This had never been an issue. Well, with the card that is; as far as Lexicon's reliability is concerned, I wouldn't count on them for ANYTHING, seeing as how they DON'T SUPPORT THEIR OWN HARDWARE.

Short of stooping to strings of expletives, I have no words foul enough to describe my customer "support" experience with Lexicon.

If you get this thing used, for a good price (less than $100) and you don't mind running it under Windows 98, then use it. It is a powerful music making tool, and has certainly helped me record a lot of music over the past few years. But please, PLEASE, don't buy anything new from the Lexi-CON ARTISTS; working musicians everywhere should help to put these scamming scheisters into the ground. END TRANSMISSION

This card was a pain to get working at first. I had problem getting it configured right. I orginally had it on a Shuttle motherboad and I had problems with noise. I think it was the VIA chips on that board. I am now using it with an ASUS P4P800 Deluxe mother board (Intel support chips)and P4 2.4 Ghz processor. Works great this way if you are willing to use only windows 98SE.

It sounds great to me.

Don't know about this. It's never broken.

I'd never buy anything from Lexicon again. I find it hard to believe they can survive as a company and screw the customer base. I am not a software designer and don't know how hard it would be to write new drivers for Windows XP or 2000, but it seems like the smart thing to do, would be to make the customers you already have, happy.

Great card, terrible company! I'll give Lexicon a zero.