Pulsar 2 & Reason

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JonJ
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Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by JonJ »

Hi. After many years of wanting I have finally got my hands on a Pulsar 2 and Scope 5.1.

I currently run a set up on a single PC consisting of Reason 7.1, Cantabile ( to host Imposcar2 and OP-X plugins - audio to reason via virtual audio cable, midi to plugins via Reason external instrument and Loopbemidi). External audio dealt with via FW1082 mixer. All tied together with Asio4all. System works a treat - low latency and no real problems with PC power.

I assumed (after reading manuals for Scope) that I should be able to integrate Pulsar 2 into system and use softsyths on Pulsar to supplement other synths on Reason/Cantabile.

Pulsar card and Scope installed with no problems however I noticed immediate issue with Reason in that it wouldn't open even after starting Scope. Eventually got it going by opening Cantabile first which grabbed the Scope Asia driver leaving Reason to use Wave driver. Very noisy output from system resulted. Try as I might I couldn't come up with a routing that allowed me to use Reason successfully.

Anyone have any ideas as to how I might be able to integrate Pulsar 2 and rest of system or will only choice be to fit Pulsar Card into another PC and link midi and audio via FW1082?
petal
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by petal »

Think of your pulsar card as the heart of your setup, where you mix all audio sources together, and think of Scope as you would a hardware Mixer/Synth/Effect/(Insert external gear here) environment:

Set Reason to use the SCOPE Asio driver.

Then, in the "SCOPE routing Window", route the output "Asio Source" from reason into a mixer and from the Mixer to your "Analog Dest" (Your speakers).

Use the midi output in Scope (from Reason, remember to set the midi-option correctly to Scope as well in Reason) to control the synths from Scope.

I hope it helps. Otherwise read up on using Scope with a sequencer/DAW in the Scope Manual.

Good luck, and welcome to PlanetZ
Thomas :)
JonJ
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by JonJ »

Thanks for the comments Thomas.

I will try what you suggest however I'm pretty sure I had set my project up as you describe. It seemed that Reason didn't like or wouldn't recognise the Scope Asia drivers resulting in the issues I described. I think I now know what the noise issue is from - I route the output from Reason through the on board SPDIF out. It would appear doing this with Scope using Soundcard Dest doesn't work to well.

Even if I can get Reason to behavetty itself with the Scope Asio driver I am still struggling as to how to deal with my plugins. Do I need to try and route the outputs via the Asio Dest I/O back into Reason?
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Bud Weiser
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by Bud Weiser »

petal wrote:Think of your pulsar card as the heart of your setup, where you mix all audio sources together, and think of Scope as you would a hardware Mixer/Synth/Effect/(Insert external gear here) environment:

Set Reason to use the SCOPE Asio driver.

Then, in the "SCOPE routing Window", route the output "Asio Source" from reason into a mixer and from the Mixer to your "Analog Dest" (Your speakers).

Use the midi output in Scope (from Reason, remember to set the midi-option correctly to Scope as well in Reason) to control the synths from Scope.

I hope it helps. Otherwise read up on using Scope with a sequencer/DAW in the Scope Manual.

Good luck, and welcome to PlanetZ
Thomas :)
Unfortunately you missed he´s using Top Ten Software "Cantabile" (which ? Lite or Performer or ... ?) to host VST instruments like OPX.
So, the setup doesn´t work because Cantabile doesn´t offer rewire.

He should ditch Cantabile and p.ex. use Reaper to host VST plugins, then rewire Reason into Reaper but give Reason a different output bus.
So there would be the Reason bus going into 2 channels of SCOPE ASIO-In and Reaper main outs into 2 separate ASIO In channels as well.
Reaper is using the SCOPE ASIO in that case.

I use Reason 6.5 because I´m still on WinXP and do it exactly that way I described above,- alternately also w/ Presonus Studio One Pro 2.62.
Both works excellent here.

I also use Cantabile lite b.t.w., but only w/ SCOPE, no Reason possible then.

I´d wish we had multiclient ASIO driver for SCOPE,- using the WAVE driver for the entertainment apps only (Mediaplayer Classic etc.).

Bud
S|C Scope/XITE-1 & S|C A16U, Scope PCI & CW A16U
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dante
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by dante »

Heres a setup with Reason working direct with Scope (no other DAW in chain).

I used both Scope PCI and Scope XITE simultaneously with Reason here.

http://www.hitfoundry.com/issue_22/rsn_mast.htm

Shows how to MIDI out to Scope synths from Reason sequencer, but you need latest Reason w/ MIDI out, worth the price of upgrade alone IMHO.

Also you can use Scope Remote to control the Reason transport.

Everything is 64 bit in this example ( Win8 /Reason 7/ Scope ).

Heres an older article about using Reason / Cubase and Scope all at once.

http://www.hitfoundry.com/issue_04/propmast.htm
petal
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by petal »

Bud Weiser wrote:
Unfortunately you missed he´s using Top Ten Software "Cantabile" (which ? Lite or Performer or ... ?) to host VST instruments like OPX.

Bud
That is true. I don't know of the Top Ten Software, so maybe you (Jon) should disregard my take on the situation.
JonJ
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by JonJ »

Many thanks for the suggestions. I got the Pulsar to work with Reason alone however at the expense of losing my other softsynths. Tried the Reaper route as suggested but system started to suffer from delays and sound dropouts. Having played around with set up I think the best option for me is to install the Pulsar in another PC I have and pipe its output into my main PC soundcard via ADAT, where I can mix with Reason/Cantabile output. I can send midi out from main PC to the Pulsar one to drive Scope softsynths. Putting Pulsar in another PC gives me some more PCI slots to hopefully fill with additional DSP cards in future :)
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Bud Weiser
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by Bud Weiser »

JonJ wrote:Many thanks for the suggestions. I got the Pulsar to work with Reason alone however at the expense of losing my other softsynths.
Well, running SCOPE and 1 ASIO application alone is the easiest anyway,- just only select the right driver ...
JonJ wrote: Tried the Reaper route as suggested but system started to suffer from delays and sound dropouts.
I doubt Reaper is the culprit,- there must be more issues w/ your machine´s hardware/software configuration and setup.

What´s your system ?

Reaper w/ Reason and SCOPE 5.1 together runs well here on 2 machines,- will say, I have 2 machines each running Reaper and SCOPE and 1 machine runs Reason 4, the other Reason 6.5.
I get lowest latencys while the oldest machine is a Intel P4 2.66GHz (socket 478) and a SCOPE Pro (or Power Pulsar) 15 DSP PCI card.
The faster machine, dual core/ socket 775, runs a XITE-1 and on demand also Presonus Studio One Pro 2.62.
Both machines are Win XP SP3.

The slow machine isn´t for sequencing.
It only hosts some older VSTis inside Reaper (Plogue Bidule or Cantabile would work too!) and w/ SCOPE PCI card there´s the option to run additional devices which don´t run so well on XITE-1.
Both machines are linked via ADAT (audio) and MIDI and the PCI card will be slave once it runs together w/ the XITE machine.

I´m using the SCOPE ASIO driver always, not ASIO4All.
ULLI is 7ms @44.1K which is save.
JonJ wrote: Having played around with set up I think the best option for me is to install the Pulsar in another PC I have and pipe its output into my main PC soundcard via ADAT, where I can mix with Reason/Cantabile output. I can send midi out from main PC to the Pulsar one to drive Scope softsynths. Putting Pulsar in another PC gives me some more PCI slots to hopefully fill with additional DSP cards in future :)
Yes, that´s an option,- but I think you gave up too early.

Bud
S|C Scope/XITE-1 & S|C A16U, Scope PCI & CW A16U
JonJ
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by JonJ »

Hi Bud.

You're probably right however my Reason/Cantabile combination runs so sweet I just don't have the incentive to try and change it just to incorporate the Pulsar card. I can run Reason and multiple instances of Imposcar2 and OP-X without having to worry about rewire and multiple Asio channels. I've yet to push the machine to a point were this system starts to degrade performance wise.

By adopting my proposed solution I should be able to use the Pulsar machine to do final polishing and adding additional synth lines if required. As the machines are connected by ADAT I shouldn't suffer too much signal degradation between the two machines. Should give me the best of both worlds - the one that I'm used to and the new one opened up by the Pulsar card.
jhulk
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Re: Pulsar 2 & Reason

Post by jhulk »

i run my both of my scope systems like that as external hardware machines and connected via adat to my daw

and dont have any problems as my daw is synced to my scope systems via adat for audio

and my daw system just runs vsti and my daws depending on what one im using reason prosonus bitwig or live

i then use reason as just a midi trigger for the scope machines or any of the daws and record them as audio channels or clips in bitwig or live
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