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"Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 3:27 pm
by unaHm
Dear all,

Work's been getting rid of a number of computers that I've found use out of a few (you know, combine the parts the work and throw away the rest...5 computers in, two out!), so I'm going to use a networking system in the system I have with the Pulsar and the two SRBs as a synth 'node'.

I'm intending to run a simple host, such as Minihost, to allow access to the Scope plugins. Then, I'm going to send the ASIO output to the network driver.

Do I need to do anything special using the cards in this way? I did fire up Minihost as a test, and chose the other driver as the output (not that I checked to see if the audio was working), and the XTC plugins still loaded. I don't have the pins to short out on the Pulsar to disable the IOs, so is this a necessary step?

Thanks for your help!

Dan

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 12:48 am
by dante

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 4:22 pm
by unaHm
Thanks Dante! After looking through that thread, it looks like my old Pulsar 1 doesn't have the applicable connectors on the board (from what I remember from enquiring last year, the connectors that are there are for another purpose.

I'm going to do my best to test this approach out tonight, so I'll post my findings! Thanks for taking the time to provide advice!

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 3:52 pm
by unaHm
Well, it's taken me longer than expected, due to some software problems, and waiting on solutions.

At the moment, it doesn't look like the audio is making it to the network ASIO driver. Is there anything I should be setting in my XTC.pro to tell the Scope cards to treat the network driver as the alternative soundcard? Or, am I out of luck with these cards?

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:21 pm
by garyb
a driver works between a piece of hardware and a software application.

a driver can never connect to another driver, some kind of software would need to be the bridge. XTC mode works inside an ASIO host, but you must use the card's i/o. there is an exception. this "jumper trick" allows the card to work as a dsp accellerator only, which would allow you to use a different hardware card for i/o.

it's complex routings that are the very reason to use Scope mode. i suspect you need to rethink what you are doing in light of how computers work. there can't really be a network audio driver. an ASIO driver(with one or two exceptions) can only connect one piece of hardware to one piece of software. that piece of software can distribute the audio to other apps, but that would involve another driver and more hardware and that's where things get messy...

...or maybe i misunderstand...

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 5:00 pm
by unaHm
Gary,

Thanks for your response, as always! I do understand the notion that there can only be one ASIO device, but I'll try to give you some information to make things less vague...

I'm using the Jack Audio Connection Kit to route audio between a number of different computer systems. They have their own ASIO driver (JackRouter) which then takes any audio from the ASIO 'driver', and then routes it through the rest of the Jack system to get it over the network to the master machines.

I think I misunderstood the concept of what disabling the outputs of the Scope cards was. I thought that by disabling the IOs they would then be routed (somehow) to another card. Considering that the JackRouter driver essentially makes the LAN an audio device, I thought I could apply that logic.

Re-thinking what you've said, it does sound possible...if I could make the Pulsar (1) and the SRBs accelerators only, then JackRouter would be my 'other card'...

I hope that makes sense! Maybe I could use Jack in conjunction with Scope (SFP) somehow too, especially as that would require minimal setup! I'm intending to use the computer just as a synth.

Would replacing one of the SRBs for my Luna3 give me the ability to change the IO configuration? I need the Pulsar unfortunately, as it has the Synths licenses attached to it.

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 7:40 pm
by garyb
yes, it would. you can just use the card's i/o if it's just a synth box. that would be easiest. put an RME ADAY card in the Linux box and then you could have 16 channels between the two computers via ADAT(just a thought).

of course, you know more about what you are trying to accomplish and why...

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 7:55 pm
by unaHm
You're correct - again I'm trying to over-complicate things for the sake of a couple of saved cables.

Besides, sending MIDI data over a network is easy, if I needed to do that! I think I remember doing such a thing last year, so I'll have to re-trace my steps. Running optical from the Pulsar is obvious(!) and easy too, and I suppose any latency issues to do with ASIO are negated, seeing that ASIO isn't going to be used at all.

Thanks Gary - I apologise again for my random threads! My mind's been all over the place recently (if you couldn't tell!), so I've been thinking about things from a backward standpoint.

Re: "Jumper trick" question

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 9:52 pm
by garyb
that's correct, the ASIO driver is the source of latency.

it's good to get out of the computer mind and think about audio gear traditionally sometimes. on first glance, the computer is more convienient and for automation and midi it is. but other than that, hardware and cables is still what you use if money is no object. the reason is simple, that's how you use the best stuff. computers are a wonderful accessory, but they cannot compare to the real word, at least not yet. Scope is a hybrid. it's a virtual reality environment, but the digital devices are the same processors that are used for hardware, making it realtime. when i say that a computer cannot compare to the real world, i mean in real time. for simple tasks like a synth or an eq, a computer can certainly compare to hardware, but not in realtime. it takes time to crunch numbers and the PC's number cruncher has many tasks to accomplish.

because of Scope's architecture, it bridges the gap between the computer and the real world. this means, you can route midi via lan and audio all around the room from many different sources as well as generate synths. when you have sounds recorded, the system can be used to mix and to fly hardware in and out of that mix. XTC mode ends this. an audio engineer should be able to route audio hardware. if he can't, he needs to study, it's part of running even the simplest studio(really ranting now, sorry). since i know you can do that, you can easily connect everything together. the Scope box, is just an external synth module/digital mixer/fx box. wow! you just gained a whole bunch of hardware! :lol:

seriously, have fun. talk about it.