Back After 6 Years - Building New Scope System

[ronnie]

I'm grateful to be able to come back to this forum after so long and begin building a new (replacement for my old Dimension 8250 P4 2.8 XP box). After lurking around for the past few days I've settled on an HP XW4600 with a Quad Core Q9400 2.66 GHz (at a great price on eBay with a 60 day warranty). I've downloaded my upgrade and keys from 4.5 to SCOPE 5.1 Pro and will be installing 8GB RAM, Seagate 2 TB SSHD, EVGA GeForce GT 610, EVGA PCIe Power Booster, Windows 7 Pro and my venerable PowerPulsar, Pulsar2, Luna II w/ 24/96 I/O cards. Unless I am missing something, I just want to double check my plans as the hardware is arriving today

1. I've gone through the posts on the hardware configs and permissions settings and PCI board order including Gary's informative email with the license key. I also vaguely, yet fondly remember setting up the original system working with the guys in Vancouver, as I recall, to get everything rock-solid on the old box.

Are there any details that I may have missed that are important?

2. Will the Q9400 be enough to run 5.1 and probably Sonar Professional or should I look at a Q9650 @ 3.0 GHz?

3. I'd like to use the Win 7 Pro @ 64 bits. Should I use 32 bits instead?

4. Can I use any 4.5 synths and effect Plugins like Six-String or is everything from 4.5 updated and available on the FTP site?

5. Can I run my 4.5 projects in 5.1?

6. This may be a stupid question but I haven't had my hands on Scope for for a very long time. Out of my three cards I did the upgrade to the Luna II as that was the best deal. Are there any concerns I need to consider running plugs? Can I run the DSP consuming Masterverbs, etc., across all the cards?

I think that's it for now. I'm practically waiting at the door to get started !!!!! So, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[krizrox]

I'm in the process of a major upgrade myself (Win 8.1 and Xite)

Gary B is the best guy to answer most tech questions but I've been around Creamware for a while too. You shouldn't have a problem running old projects under 5.1 I migrated upwards too and I don't recall any issues loading older projects. But it might depend on 3rd-party plugs.

The issue of 32 vs 64 will earn you a lot of discussion. A lot of viewpoints. I went through all that too. Going ahead (really just now) with 64 bit and not looking back. Scope seems fine either way. The real issue will be with your recording/sequencer/DAW software. I use Samplitude so bridging from 32 bit VSTs to 64 doesn't seem a problem usually but there are issues getting to 64 bit even with devices that claim to be 64 bit compatible. I bought a number of 64 bit upgrades for things like Auto-tune and Drumagog. The newer versions, although 64 bit compatible, had other problems not even related to that. Just different GUI issues for example.

I think you'll find it a challenge to get from 32 to 64 (I did). In the end I wasn't sure it was worth it for the type of work I do, but the future is the future and many dev's are dropping support for older OS's and things. It's probably a good idea to get on board. 64 bit seems more stable to me personally.

[jhulk]

unless you want massive kontakt libraries

and dont mind losing the sts samplers and vdat and sts bc modular sample players

then 64bit is for you if you want the samplers then 32bit is for you there is no sound quality difference

and win732bit can allocated 4gb to programs so kontakt still works fine on the 32bit os

everythimg work ok on the 32bit os so if its not broken dont fix it

64bit is also problems for other 32bit vsti

[SilverScoper]

It all depends on what DAW's and samplers you are running and what you want to do. When I first got W8 64bit I was loading up Reason with 5 - 6 GB samples, now thats up to 8 GB. Running it at 96KHz and mastering out to Scope with still reasonable CPU and RAM headroom. Theres no way I could be doing this on a 32 bit system.

[ronnie]

Wow! Just like I remember. You guys are the best! Gary got back to me via email right away. You folks jumped right in, no waiting. Thank You all. I never really used XTC, I have collected a lot of huge RAM hungry soft samplers like NI Ultimate which I use a lot and never really used STS. I have 8GB worth of RAM and run Sonar Platinum on Win 8.1 64 bit. I'm going to go 64 bit with Windows 7. This will give me advantages to the way I work with the tools I have. I use the Scope routing, MIDI and audio routing, ASIO2, mixers and MV's, Vinco, Optimaster and B2003 and Six-String were my go to organ and guitar. I'Il continue in the way I have and try to get the best of both worlds out of the DAW and Scope! It has worked for me in the past. I can't wait to try running Six-String through Guitar Rig and about a thousand other things to try as well as load up some of my 4.5 projects. I'm super-excited and so glad I've got dependable, experienced, from-the-heart support here. Bless you all. I'm so glad to be back!

[ronnie]

The machine arrived yesterday! Well first things first. Installed a USB Wi-Fi for updates. Installed Kaspersky. Updated Windows 7 to SP1. Machine is noticeably or (un-noticeably) quiet. (That probably will change when I put in the 2GB video card with fan). I'm just about ready to install the other basic items, RAM, video and hybrid drive. My question is: PCI slots are 5, 6 & 7. I have a Scope Pro, Pulsar II and Luna II. If I recall properly I had them installed in that order on the ascending slots in my Dell. I just want to make sure that is correct. Also my 5.1 key is tagged to my Luna card so I hope I can still use my plugs on all three boards.

[ronnie]

Thanks to gary!!!!!


as to question 1:
yes, that's the best order, but if the cards don't fit well in that order, it's fine to have them in another order.

2. no. if all the cards are in the same computer, only one card needs keys. the keys belong to the specific card's serial number, NOT the owner of the cards. if you sell the card with keys, the keys go to the new owner.

-gary

[ronnie]

Here's the status update. HP XW4600 arrived (Win 7 Pro 64). Installed EVGA GeForce GT 610 2048MB GDDR3 w/latest drivers, EVGA Power Booster, Seagate Desktop 2 TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA, waiting for 8GB RAM. Machine is almost imperceptible even with EVGA fan which I hope will also keep the SCOPE cards a little cooler (four fans total). Cloned original HD sector by sector to SSHD. Booted. Old 250GB 7200 is now 2nd drive for backup (leaving boot and recovery partitions). SSHD is about 35% speed increase. Boot time is 10 seconds! Installed SCOPE Pro, Pulsar 2, Luna 2 in slots 5,6,7. Installed SCOPE 5.1. Performed Windows 7 64 and BIOS tweaks. Glitches: Luna i/O 24/96 Zlink caused Ässertion Failed error. Checked PlanetZ. Fixed by creating project with Luna Zlink, save and reopened; added to base startup project. Connected MOTU 828 Mk II; Zlink to Analogs - OK; ADAT - OK with clock as slave and master; All MIDI connections OK; All ADAT and Analog connections back and forth from SONAR and SCOPE via MOTU - OK. Saved all routing as baseline project. SCOPE is a the new/old guy on the block and a team player!

So no problems except for the somewhat scary Zlink error but PlanetZ came through, now I can't find the exact post but whoever you are, thanks!

Installed SONAR Platinum on the SCOPE machine but not all my VSTs. Now to play around and see if all the stuff from all the cards is keyed. (I upgraded to SCOPE 5.1 from the Luna 2 to save money). I want to have all my additional SCOPE plugs running under 5.1 and some of my old 4.5 projects. So far I've not seen any plugins not working. I'm wondering about Six-String though. I assume that the 5.0 version is what I need but will my key still work?

[garyb]

if you already have a v5 key for SixString, it should still work, as long as the key is for one of the cards in the computer.

[ronnie]

I only upgraded the card to 5.1. I have purchased Six-String but that was when I was running 4.5.

[dante]

It should still work - there's normally no cost for upgrading plug-ins when you upgrade Scope, only for transferring them across boards & users (eg a sale).

[ronnie]

That sounds good. Will I need to get the version of Six-String that is in the 5 folder on the site?

[garyb]

it's a good idea.

i think you sent an email to support about this, no?
if so, i'll handle it tomorrow(monday) morning(my time).
if not send the old keyfile to support and ask for v5 keys for the optional plugins...

[ronnie]

Yup! Looking forward. Thanks!