Pulsar 1 & Scope SRB communication error

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Fri Apr 13, 2001 7:18 pm

Hi,
I own a Pulsar 1 and recently added a Scope SRB. =19 DSP's in total. But when I load them up with 2 or more reverbs (the miniverb) or a heavy synth, like Saturn with 8 voices, I get "Communication error with Scope (board 0) has occurred..."

I looked for info about this at lots of places. Found out that this happens to lots of people with multiple pulsar/scope boards connected. But normally it happens only once in a while, and I have it every 15 sec. to 3 min. Seems to happen when a device cannot be loaded completely on 1 board, so it gets devided on several dsp's on both boards.. And 1 stdm cable is not enough to handle so much traffic. Reloading the DSP's give me another 15 sec. of pleasure... Pulsar 2 already has 2 stdm-connectors. But mine has only 1...

I bought lots of DSP-power but cannot use it... and I cannot use the Scope SRB alone, because then I have to buy an IO-card and new Pulsar software (€800,-)..

Does anybody have experience with this Pulsar1/ScopeSRB combination and this error? And maybe hopefully have some clue to solve it?

Regards,
Gregor

EarlyFirst · Post by **EarlyFirst** » Sat Apr 14, 2001 11:04 am

Well before you start flaming CreamWare
Give us your system spec's ...

As I created verbs on the same amount of DSP
And with that DSP you should get easily more then 2miniverbs ./...
if your not, the first place to look is your system as the DSP *CAN* handle much more but it also needs the system to be upto snuff.

Oh and you state that it happens every 15seconds to 3mins sounds to me like you have some kind of monitoring software running in the background.
start>run>msconfig>startup
this is where everything that starts when you boot is listed.

So please give us your system spec's *everything* and maybe I can help you more.

Regards
Paul
EarlyFirst
http://www.earlyfirst.com

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Sun Apr 15, 2001 4:06 am

Hi, this is my hardware config:

Motherboard: Abit EB6 with Intel 440BX chipset (82443BX and 82371EB) with U-DMA66
256 mb SDRAM (100 mHz)
CPU: Pentium3 500 mHz
Videocard: Matrox milennium g400 dual-vga AGP
Harddisk: Quantum Fireball CX 13,1 Gb U-DMA66
Cdrom: Asus 50x ide and HP 8100 cdwriter ide
+ Pulsar1
+ Scope SRB

I use a freshly installed win98 with Pulsar 2.04 installed from cd. I use all drivers & modules/devices from this version (except Saturn).
As far as I know (and I checked) there's no software running in the background.

The funny thing is that the error occurs not when I just "load" devices, but when I actually set my sequenser on "play". Then after it starts playing it takes a random period between 15 seconds and a few minutes when the pulsar "freezes" (the sound too, I hear a loud beep). I also tried other sequensers (Cubase VST 5.0 and Logic 4.6), but it happens there too.

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/homervs/temp/p ... ors.htm">I have put some pictures on the net:</a>
(the insert racks: only 2 of them are actually filled, just with "chorus A" and "flanger", bigmixer has no inserts, MKII has 8 voices, all akai-samples together are less then 50 mb)

The error itself: "communication error.jpg"

Then, if I choose "no" I get: "unexpecteddspoverload.jpg"

If I choose "yes" I get: "runpeperror.jpg"

I hope this is enough information. Does it ring a bell? Can you help me?

Regards,
Gregor.

[ This Message was edited by: gregor on 2001-04-15 05:19 ]

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Sun Apr 15, 2001 4:16 am

By the way, why is it that the DSP-meter only shows 18 DSP's in total? The 15th DSP of the Scopeboard has just vanished..?

Regards,
Gregor.

[ This Message was edited by: gregor on 2001-04-15 05:21 ]

Giovanni · Post by **Giovanni** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 12:04 pm

Try to use as many effects as possible
with the send and returns ,and forget the
verb. Instead of this send it to a logic
or VST effect using asio channels

[ This Message was edited by: Giovanni on 2001-04-16 13:04 ]

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 12:31 pm

Yeah, I read about that, using cubase reverb as plugin... I have Reason too, and even their reverb works a lot better than the miniverb. Still I think it's crazy that I can't use some reverb in such an expensive system as pulsar. On Creamware's forum there's a guy with the same cards, having no problems: It CAN work...

Post by **garyb** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 9:39 pm

reading this post reminded me of something i read in the pulsar manual,so i checked the manual out.i'm sure i'm stating the obvious and you're aware of the entries in troubleshooting and "scope + pulsar",but i thought i'd mention it to see if it helps.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Apr 17, 2001 8:31 am

I had lots of problems with that Abit BE6 motherboard. The onboard UMDA/66 controller IS the problem and it has nothing to do with Creamware.

There is no solution, the Highpoint controller is your problem, and it can not be disabled on that board.

Even without any creamware cards, my mom's machine (running my old BE6) locks up occasionally.

You can *HELP* the problem a tiny bit by using a standard 40-pin IDE cable, and NOT using the highpoint controller on the motherboard. But a CUSL2/P3 system will give your very expensive DSP cards the room to actually stretch out a bit.

I can get 4 (four) Timeworks 4080L verbs easily on a single Pulsar1, CUSL2, 1000mhz

MeloManiac · Post by **MeloManiac** » Tue Apr 17, 2001 11:18 am

Wauw I thought that reverb used maybe 3 DSP's a piece. Apparently not. How is that reverb? I am considering going into software reverb, but haven't been too impressed with the sound compared to that of my Lexicon MPX1. Does the 4080 sound like the DX counterpart or better?

Post by **garyb** » Tue Apr 17, 2001 3:45 pm

better is pretty relative,but the 4080 is pretty nice.

gregor · Post by **gregor** » Fri Apr 20, 2001 4:10 pm

YEah, it definitely was the Abit EB6 board... I just bought an Asus CUSL2 with a pentium 933 and Pulsar didn't crash/bug anymore since then!! (BTW, this highpoint ata66 controller also caused lots of stability problems and weird errors under NT/2000).

When I try to use more then 8 miniverbs, I still get the communication error, but I have to admit that 8 reverbs generate so much echo I'll never use anyway... Pulsar is working better than ever before!

Thanks for all reactions!
Gregor.

BTW: I have an Abit EB6 with p3-500 for sale.. anyone interested?