Scope NSA Offer 2: All Zarg synths (Solaris, Quantum Wave..)

[RP_001]

Just for your confirmation: I've used Prowave, Quantum Wave SE a lot on Xite-1 for last couple of years. They run perfectly when assigned to dsp's cleverly. I mostly use only 3/4 voices per device. Same goes for Solaris when 1 or 2 voices are used, for most patches. Prowave and QWave SE can run on a single DSP when you dont need lots of voices. For Solaris it's best to assign it to one of the higher dsp's (dsp 16/17) with 1 voice, and then "clear assignment" so it's unloaded from the dsp and loads across multiple dsp's again. Check on the dsp meter and play with the amount of voices to check how it responds. Even when used with only 1 or 2 voices , these are really powerfull synths, and definately have their own "Bowen" character. It think they sound much more 'sophisticated' then the emulations from SC.

On Prowave, check out the Poly-Mod section when you have aftertouch on your keyboard. You can make some really deep and freaky stuff when you practice a little. (I recently found out the "importance" of aftertouch when I switched to the Keystation 88 Pro controller, which doesnt have AT)

[Bud Weiser]

Just for your confirmation: I've used Prowave, Quantum Wave SE a lot on Xite-1 for last couple of years. They run perfectly when assigned to dsp's cleverly. I mostly use only 3/4 voices per device.

That´s not much.

Same goes for Solaris when 1 or 2 voices are used, for most patches.

Yeah, but when you´re a keyboard player (not only sequencer) and know there´s a poly synth under your fingers,- you grab at least 4 keys (4 voices) w/ your hand and don´t think about how many voices you´re allowed to use.
When the synth is monophonic,- you play it that way.

Prowave and QWave SE can run on a single DSP when you dont need lots of voices. For Solaris it's best to assign it to one of the higher dsp's (dsp 16/17) with 1 voice, and then "clear assignment" so it's unloaded from the dsp and loads across multiple dsp's again. Check on the dsp meter and play with the amount of voices to check how it responds. Even when used with only 1 or 2 voices , these are really powerfull synths, and definately have their own "Bowen" character.

See above ...
As a keyboard player I never use a poly synth w/ 2 voices only,- I also don´t do w/ Prodyssey,- prefer to use it monophonic.
If it is polyphonic, I expect to play at least 4 voices,- like the old Oberheim 4-voice.
You need at least 4 voices to define each chord in the diatonic system.

It think they sound much more 'sophisticated' then the emulations from SC.

That´s 2nd row !
You make better music w/ composition and arrangement than w/ sound alone.

On Prowave, check out the Poly-Mod section when you have aftertouch on your keyboard. You can make some really deep and freaky stuff when you practice a little. (I recently found out the "importance" of aftertouch when I switched to the Keystation 88 Pro controller, which doesnt have AT)

Can´t be anything other/better than was possible w/ my original Prophet 5 synths.
As much as I liked their basic sound,- the "poly mod" was some kind of (very) limited stuff ...

John himself knows what I mean,- I think.

Bud

P.S.:

Now I wonder what your post is worth,- do I have to expect I can only run 1, 2 or 3 voices w/ actual ZARG synths on XITE-1 ?
I don´t mean the small ones which I already own.

[YiannisK]

Anybody have errors upon checkout at the S/C store , or was it just me?

Gary I got your email and thanks for the quick reply.

I want ZARG NOW!!

Can't wait

[Immanuel]

I got those errors too. In the end, I payed through Paypal. I prefer the money to go to Sonic Core, though

[YiannisK]

Ya I ended up going through paypal but things kinda got all screwed up cause it went through as an echeck with an 8 day delay.

I sent SC an email to fix things and got a reply within minutes.
All will be good and I can't wait to get the ZARG synths running.
I've been wanting to get the Solaris and Wave for the longest time and now I will have 10 synths for the price of half of one.

I think this is the BEST deal SC has ever given us!

It's too good to be true.

[djmicron]

Just for your confirmation: I've used Prowave, Quantum Wave SE a lot on Xite-1 for last couple of years. They run perfectly when assigned to dsp's cleverly. I mostly use only 3/4 voices per device.

That´s not much.

Same goes for Solaris when 1 or 2 voices are used, for most patches.

Yeah, but when you´re a keyboard player (not only sequencer) and know there´s a poly synth under your fingers,- you grab at least 4 keys (4 voices) w/ your hand and don´t think about how many voices you´re allowed to use.
When the synth is monophonic,- you play it that way.

Prowave and QWave SE can run on a single DSP when you dont need lots of voices. For Solaris it's best to assign it to one of the higher dsp's (dsp 16/17) with 1 voice, and then "clear assignment" so it's unloaded from the dsp and loads across multiple dsp's again. Check on the dsp meter and play with the amount of voices to check how it responds. Even when used with only 1 or 2 voices , these are really powerfull synths, and definately have their own "Bowen" character.

See above ...
As a keyboard player I never use a poly synth w/ 2 voices only,- I also don´t do w/ Prodyssey,- prefer to use it monophonic.
If it is polyphonic, I expect to play at least 4 voices,- like the old Oberheim 4-voice.
You need at least 4 voices to define each chord in the diatonic system.

It think they sound much more 'sophisticated' then the emulations from SC.

That´s 2nd row !
You make better music w/ composition and arrangement than w/ sound alone.

On Prowave, check out the Poly-Mod section when you have aftertouch on your keyboard. You can make some really deep and freaky stuff when you practice a little. (I recently found out the "importance" of aftertouch when I switched to the Keystation 88 Pro controller, which doesnt have AT)

Can´t be anything other/better than was possible w/ my original Prophet 5 synths.
As much as I liked their basic sound,- the "poly mod" was some kind of (very) limited stuff ...

John himself knows what I mean,- I think.

Bud

P.S.:

Now I wonder what your post is worth,- do I have to expect I can only run 1, 2 or 3 voices w/ actual ZARG synths on XITE-1 ?
I don´t mean the small ones which I already own.

The number of voices depends on what you load on your patch.
The Solaris can load a different number of different oscillators, filters, can load modular patches, so it's not possible to have a certain polyphony with it.
If you use a static configuration, then you know the polyphony it can reach.
Other synths such as the WC Pro One, are lightweight and it's easy to have 10 or 12 voices of polyphony.
Emulation will never be the 1:1 compared with real analog synths, something is better on scope dsp, something is different.
I'm not interested in having the clone of prophet 5, i just saved thousand of euros and i can make my music.
I see that John Bowen's plugins and synths are aimed to keyboardists, but for people like me that comes from the dj side and do most on monophonic patches, it's awesome stuff.

[dawman]

Make sure to get the RDII Modules and RD Flexor Modules if they are still available.
These can ensure the most signature of sounds, while retaining higher polyphony.

[Eanna]

Dawman, others - would you know where to get 'em?
I can't find a link on zargmusic.com for them...

Thanks, Eanna

[jhulk]

you have to pm john for them

[jhulk]

the rd flexor modules were never released

but if you own flexor and tell john he will add them

[Eanna]

Thanks jhulk...

[jksuperstar]

Maybe instead of everyone pestering John, can you see if he'll just put them up in a public place (S|C's FTP, Zarg, etc)?

[ShogunSpy]

FYI
John Bowen informed me that it's not possible to use the Red Dwarf with out the RD modules. So they will be included in the deal and he will send them to Sonic Core!. A legend and seems like a real nice guy ..support him!

[neuromantik]

FYI
John Bowen informed me that it's not possible to use the Red Dwarf with out the RD modules. So they will be included in the deal and he will send them to Sonic Core!. A legend and seems like a real nice guy ..support him!

Great to know! I was wondering why RD was asking for so many devices all the time Guess the lucky ones are the people who bought in late and got RD Drum instead of the RD modules!

[dawman]

Maybe Prowave Modular 1.2 might be worth checking into.
Using BCModular and Prowave Modular allows me to
add a 3rd Oscillator to Prowaves' already FAT BASTARD sound.
I just started messing with this as I forgot how mighty and flexible
it was. Having BCModular, with Flexors' Butter LPF and a 3rd Osc is
truly a top shelf option, and the sound is fantastic.
I'll see if JBowen has expanded past the Modular 1.2 version.
Selecting Waldorf Wavetables with a high resultion BCF 2000 fader
is much more gratifying than that silly mouse stuff.

BCM PROWAVE MODULAR.jpg (185.51 KiB) Viewed 3608 times

[Eanna]

Looks great.

Here's a how to..
http://www.hitfoundry.com/issue_10/pro_modu.htm

[Bud Weiser]

The number of voices depends on what you load on your patch.
The Solaris can load a different number of different oscillators, filters, can load modular patches, so it's not possible to have a certain polyphony with it.
If you use a static configuration, then you know the polyphony it can reach.
Other synths such as the WC Pro One, are lightweight and it's easy to have 10 or 12 voices of polyphony.
Emulation will never be the 1:1 compared with real analog synths, something is better on scope dsp, something is different.
I'm not interested in having the clone of prophet 5, i just saved thousand of euros and i can make my music.
I see that John Bowen's plugins and synths are aimed to keyboardists, but for people like me that comes from the dj side and do most on monophonic patches, it's awesome stuff.

Yes, I hear ya and understand.
I play a lot of monophonic synth patches, also w/ other devices.
My experience is, I play monophonic and when I play polyphonic it will need 4 voices at least,- better more but I can live w/ four..
As a result, only getting 3 would be s##t !

So, some time ago I´ve read somewhere about Solaris´ limit is 3 voices on XITE-1.
If that´s true, it would be sad because hardware Solaris runs 10 voices on 6x 333MHz SHARCs which is less than XITE-1 offers.

All I wanted to know is if this is fixed/improved already or not.
It´s also not a dealbreaker for me, just only want to be informed.

I think John collects money,- buys XITE and SDK 6,- than will update his plugins anyway.

Bud

[neuromantik]

...
The number of voices depends on what you load on your patch.
The Solaris can load a different number of different oscillators, filters, can load modular patches, so it's not possible to have a certain polyphony with it.

...
So, some time ago I´ve read somewhere about Solaris´ limit is 3 voices on XITE-1.
If that´s true, it would be sad because hardware Solaris runs 10 voices on 6x 333MHz SHARCs which is less than XITE-1 offers.

All I wanted to know is if this is fixed/improved already or not.
It´s also not a dealbreaker for me, just only want to be informed.

I think John collects money,- buys XITE and SDK 6,- than will update his plugins anyway.

Bud

I talked to John very recently about this. The Xite-1 architecture's backwards compatibility with legacy devices is actually the weak link in the design, where the synchronous IO being "bottlenecked", preventing a 'simple' codefix to allow the advanced zarg devices to exploit more dsps. If he decides to update his plugins it might take a lot of work, including coorporation from S|C. If enough people want it perhaps I can get a kickstarter going so we can get serious about this. I'm pretty sure that without some help from the community, or unless Solaris appears on the cover of SoS and sells 10000 units next year nothing will change while we're still "young" unfortunately.
If any developers (I'm aiming to become a SCOPE one myself but only work with MAX/CSound/Pd atm) want the exact gist of the problem, and how it's not really Zarg's fault nor is it easily remediable, pm me and I can forward any info.

[jksuperstar]

I didn't know there was a modular version of Pro-Wave...I think that trumps any Prophet-Plus anyways, so my question from earlier seems to have an answer beyond what I even wanted. I should've known Mr Bowen would be one step ahead of today...10 years ago.

[djmicron]

So, some time ago I´ve read somewhere about Solaris´ limit is 3 voices on XITE-1.
If that´s true, it would be sad because hardware Solaris runs 10 voices on 6x 333MHz SHARCs which is less than XITE-1 offers.

i have made some solaris patch with 8 voices polyphony on xite-1.

I agree that on pci boards it is easier to increase polyphony for the solaris.