Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

The Sonic Core XITE hardware platform for Scope

Moderators: valis, garyb

petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

I wouldn't expect this work to be free of charge and wouldn't mind paying an upgrade fee. I would like to run my ZARG devices on the XITE though.

What do you think or know, should we expect Zarg devices to be XITE optimized at some point?
User avatar
Bud Weiser
Posts: 2684
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:29 am
Location: nowhere land

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by Bud Weiser »

petal wrote:I wouldn't expect this work to be free of charge and wouldn't mind paying an upgrade fee. I would like to run my ZARG devices on the XITE though.

What do you think or know, should we expect Zarg devices to be XITE optimized at some point?
I run on XITE-1 SCOPE 5.1 WinXP Pro 32Bit:

Zarg_OrionCustom_sc
Zarg_DarkStar_sc
Zarg_Ambient_sc
Zarg CombPlusPro

They work, loading presets is slower than w/ S|C big synths.
I needed v5 keys and exactly the devices mentioned above,- download from S|C ftp server.
Formerly I ahd the versions for SCOPE 4.0, so these were transfered and you´d have to contact S|C for the transfer and ask for the transfer fee.

Bud
User avatar
dante
Posts: 5043
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by dante »

petal wrote:I wouldn't expect this work to be free of charge and wouldn't mind paying an upgrade fee. I would like to run my ZARG devices on the XITE though. What do you think or know, should we expect Zarg devices to be XITE optimized at some point?
That would be a lot of work. Since Zarg's heavily invested in h/w Solaris at the moment, there would have to be a lot of Zarg synth demand on Scope platform to justify an extra R&D resource.

The only chance of that happening I would imagine is that if Scope 6 stimulated new demand for the platform as a whole.

I'm running ProWave all the time from PCI. I have contemplated purchase of the s/w Solaris lite so will maybe see what that's like on DSP consumption (PCI).
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

Sorry, I wasn't being precise in my initial post.

I have the Solaris, QuantumWave and the RD stuff and it all does run on my XITE, but I can only run 1 or 2 voices which is the reason for my post.

But maybe I should just run these synths on my PCI-cards, although this would make my setup more complex, which isn't exactly what I need.
I'd prefer it all to run on the XITE - I'm trying to keep my setup "simple" and "error"/"optimize setup"-free, in the pursuit of being a musician more than an engineer :)
User avatar
garyb
Moderator
Posts: 23248
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: ghetto by the sea

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by garyb »

are you using 64bit windows?

did you get these files?

ftp://sonic-core.net/software/scope5/pl ... ions/Zarg/
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

Nope - I'm still running 32bit windows 7.
User avatar
garyb
Moderator
Posts: 23248
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: ghetto by the sea

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by garyb »

i get 4-8 voices on most Zarg synths, but it does depend on the patch.
User avatar
dante
Posts: 5043
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by dante »

petal wrote:Sorry, I wasn't being precise in my initial post.

I have the Solaris, QuantumWave and the RD stuff and it all does run on my XITE, but I can only run 1 or 2 voices which is the reason for my post.

But maybe I should just run these synths on my PCI-cards, although this would make my setup more complex, which isn't exactly what I need.
I'd prefer it all to run on the XITE - I'm trying to keep my setup "simple" and "error"/"optimize setup"-free, in the pursuit of being a musician more than an engineer :)
Understand the issue. Im not sure that using the cards as well as XITE changes you from being a musician to being an engineer though (any more than using MIDI Expander Modules does).

It's quite simple even on the same host via ADAT as documented here :
http://www.hitfoundry.com/issue_12/pcx_mast.htm

I see cards (creamware) and xite (sonic core) as being 2 different products from 2 different companies albeit sharing much of a common base. Zarg synths were written for PCI so if you want to run Zarg synths use cards.

In fact, IMHO Zarg synths are one of the best reasons to keep (or get hold of) PCI cards. What else (given XITE ownership) are you gonna use them for ?
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

Having to load two different SCOPE systems is possible, but it will make the process of "getting ready to make music" more time consuming and complex. I want it to be as simple possible.

One of the main reasons I got the XITE in the first place, was to get an "error"/"Optimize setup"-free system, and to run both the new reverbs and bigger zarg synths, without "problems". I assumed it would just work without the need for optimizations. Unfortunately I didn't exactly get what I expected or hoped for. Maybe my expectations were misguided and I do realize that in many ways I'm privileged, but I am growing tired of Scopes "quirks".
Hopefully Namm will bring interesting news in this area.
User avatar
dante
Posts: 5043
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by dante »

Well, I've been running parallel PCI and XITE since September 2011 and would say the approach is more or less transparent to the music making activity.

There is a bit of overhead with the dual install (less if the cards are already on same host as XITE) but after that its no drama whatsoever. In fact, since Ive only got 12DSP on PCI I can load up the project whilst Scope XITE is loading, and it completes well before XITE finishes.

So it doesn't even impact project load times.

In a typical session startup, I will load

1) Scope XITE
2) Scope PCI
3) Cubase
4) Kontakt
5) Reason

My balancing act is on steps 3/4) and 5) due to RAM restricting sample size sets. But step 2) above is by far the easiest and quickest.
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

dante wrote: It's quite simple even on the same host via ADAT as documented here :
http://www.hitfoundry.com/issue_12/pcx_mast.htm
OK, I have to admit that running both systems parallel using adat is quite simple!
The only problem I ran into was some weird static noise that I could only hear when I was running audio through the Adat pipes.
It turned out that I had to run one of my systems as slave. I chose to run the PCI system as slave, and everything worked without problems.

Maybe a detail worth adding to your article on the subject on ScopeRise?

Aynways, thanks for the link!
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

Interesting - what at first seemed "complicated", became easy-piecy, and then again "not problem-free". Exactly what I'm aiming to avoid and why I want everything to run on the XITE.

Now after having success with using adat to combine my pci-scope system with my XITE, I turned off my computer for the night.
The day after, and today, I'm having trouble making it work. Getting really nasty noise in the adat-channels. And it is not "easy-piecy" to solve. Uncomplicated quickly became complicated.

It worked, now it doesn't work, nothing changed.
Any ideas?
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

It seems to be a problem with making the Slave-Master connection work correctly.
I can solve it if I fiddle with the options in the slave-master settings and change samplerate back and forth.
No sure route to success though.
jksuperstar
Posts: 1638
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 12:57 pm

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by jksuperstar »

Does it appear on every other channel? Are you using 44.1 or 48kHz?

I had an issue (as did Dante) that made noise on every other channel over adat. Dante blew his optical connections out with compressed air and that fixed his problem. I haven't mated with the other piece of gear, so i haven't had a chance to recreate the issue.
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

I'm running 48Khz.

I'm only running Adat A at the moment, so we are talinkg about the same light-pipe.

When the problem is there it's not on channel 1, but on all the other channels.
User avatar
dante
Posts: 5043
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by dante »

Yes compressed air seemed to fix the problem, as I was running 48Khz.

But I tried it one time at 44Khz and some clicks came back (either only on the odd channels or only on the even ones).

It was almost as though if I fixed the problem for 44Khz it would then appear at 48Khz. If I then fixed the problem at 48Khz it would re-appear at 44Khz.

It's like one system runs at 44 and the other 48 - unless I run them for a while, both at the same rate then they 'settle down'.

I have been running both at 48 for several months now, not loading any projects that run at 44 on either system, and I don't have the issue since many months now.

Cleaning the ports helped as well though. And of course you have to run 2 ADAT cables (PCI IN to XITE OUT and XITE IN to PCI IN) to get the master/slave relationship established.

And yes, if we can establish a pattern here (across all our systems) then I certainly should update my article, and the troubleshooting guide one as well.
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

Well, I got it working again, by fiddling with the settings in the slave-master/samplerate options on both systems.

Forcing them to reset the master-slave connection seems to be what does the trick.
Immanuel
Posts: 3018
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: Aalborg, Denmark

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by Immanuel »

Turn on the master device first and turn it off last.
Information for new readers: A forum member named Braincell is known for spreading lies and malicious information without even knowing the basics of, what he is talking about. If noone responds to him, it is because he is ignored.
User avatar
dante
Posts: 5043
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2001 4:00 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by dante »

Immanuel wrote:Turn on the master device first and turn it off last.
Yes, makes sense. This is what be the power on sequence when power on my rack. The XITE-1D is powered first then turn on the PC (PCI cards). Then the reverse when turn off PC then rack.
petal
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2002 4:00 pm
Location: Copenhagen
Contact:

Re: Will Zarg devices be XITE optimized at some point?

Post by petal »

That is what I've been doing, but it doesn't seem to be fail safe though.
Post Reply