Is Sonic Core still alive

[jeezs]

Hello,

I am a very very happy user of the amazing Xite.

I 've just notice that Sonic Core Site hasn't been updated for month.
They were absent of last the Music Messe.
And there's no new info or sign of progression on Scope 6 for years.

Does anyone has better news or are they doomed.

Thanks

[garyb]

SonicCore is still alive.
it remains to be seen if it's doomed. i hope that i'm not doomed.
it's great that you're a happy XITE user!

the vehicle is still rolling.

[neuromantik]

SonicCore is still alive.
it remains to be seen if it's doomed. i hope that i'm not doomed.

Not very reassuring, why doesn't S|C email a bunch of NDAs and open everything up to some of the talented developers here so that perhaps the "vehicle" can switch into 2nd gear?

[hubird]

it's depressing indeed. no public signs, nothing.

[dante]

I 've just notice that Sonic Core Site hasn't been updated for month. They were absent of last the Music Messe. And there's no new info or sign of progression on Scope 6 for years.

I'm noticing Web Site changes two or three times a year. I notice Shay Dans profile added for example, since the Group of Light stuff. Depends what you mean by 'for month' - yeah, maybe it hasn't been updated for 'a' month, but it has been updated in recent month(s) plural.

I glad they don't sit round blogging and posting their time away - they have us to do that - meanwhile they are focused on product instead.

it's depressing indeed. no public signs, nothing.

If they spend another 2 years on it to make it total quality, I don't find that a depressing concept at all. If you want to spend money, theres plenty of native sample librarys and plugs out there.

There's always rumblings from the Dev Community re SDK6 - so we know stuff is happening from that alone. Meanwhile Make Music !

[dawman]

If you get depressed, just turn on your XITE-1 and go to town.
I am finally learning things as it took years, next I will get the SDK classes I want and rely on people here.
Soniccore already did me the favor of making Solaris and the XITE-1, I can't possibly see a reason to not create with such tools.

Endless upgrades and edits are cool I guess, it's probably that I am way behind with the bells and whistles.
Still working with the meat and potatoes.

[neuromantik]

If they spend another 2 years on it to make it total quality, I don't find that a depressing concept at all. If you want to spend money, theres plenty of native sample librarys and plugs out there.

After learning much in fra77x's SDK class, at this point I don't want to spend my money on upgrades or edits or native sample libraries. Nor do I want to spend money on more effects or bells and whistles. I just want my meat and potatoes to be cooked properly and the only things I feel are needed to focus on making music (and not scouring forums for resolutions and workarounds) are : x64 STS oscillators and proper external MIDI timing. If S|C is reading I'm willing to pay 150-250€ (kickstarter?) if they can address these issues before continuing on a long and perhaps interminable SCOPE 6 overhaul.
That's it. If these quirks were fixed SCOPE and its SDK would have nothing to envy over MAX, Kyma or Reaktor in terms of possibilities. Not wanting to ruffle any old feathers, but sometimes it's important to underline what really is important which is stability and timing.

On an unrelated note, wouldn't it be cool if S|C could write an interface using the Reason Rack API that would be able to use SCOPE natively in Reason? No need to Parseq then

[fra77x]

jhv

[YISH313z]

What is NM?

I know about KYMA.

[faxinadu]

NM = Nord Modular

[chris13]

after reflection, i shall not buy the xite. Why ? Nothing's happen (scope 6...), & I cannot spend as much money in a manufacturer which goes to collapse one day with other. Nothing seems to evolve, or live, and I don't want to try again a new creamware story and to remain with this expensive equipment without any follow-up. Sorry guys, too much fragile society, dubious conditions, I prefer to abstain...

[garyb]

in what way would you benefit more from Scope 6 than v5.1?

Scope cards are more than 18 years old and they are still being used for top-level work on some of the most demanding prohjects in the business, from block buster movies(Hans Zimmer is using) to Pop R&B Divas like Anita Baker and Justin Timberlake. something must work. the ENTIRE computer industry hasn't even made anything to compete with Scope v3, let alone v5.1. penny-wise and pound-foolish....

yes, SonicCore is underfunded, but it's hardly dead or fly-by-night and quite frankly, it's a superlative product even if nothing is ever improved on it. but then, i know once a person makes a decision, there's no reason that a person in my position could change it., i realize this. i just can't stop myself from protesting. in fact, i'd say much stronger things, but i don't want to alienate anyone. obviously, everyone is entitled to their opinions.

[jksuperstar]

Not sure where this mentality comes from.

There have been 22 new devices released this year alone, and that does NOT include the massive amount of modules available in BCModular.

This speaks to the level of development originally done, the freedom given to the community to continue development, and the resolve that Sonic|Core has to the platform. If the company didn't exist, the 3rd party developers wouldn't stick around for very long.

[hubird]

all true, but it's still a rational and honest consideration of Chris33, without accompagning ambigues bashing of S/C like others do

This kind of understandable considerations makes me saying that S/C itself should give some statements about the state of progress time by time, to keep trust going.
And yes, one could make also rational objections, like hardware doesn't stop working when futurist support might disappear at some unlucky time, an old Moog still works, etc.
Just my humble opinion

[chris13]

No bashing because i think sc is a great powerful system, a touch of genious, specially with the modular - the most creative tool ever made in electronic musical world. But but but... Too much risk of finding itself without any soft & material support and a dissolved company....

[JoPo]

after reflection, i shall not buy the xite. Why ? Nothing's happen (scope 6...), & I cannot spend as much money in a manufacturer which goes to collapse one day with other. Nothing seems to evolve, or live, and I don't want to try again a new creamware story and to remain with this expensive equipment without any follow-up. Sorry guys, too much fragile society, dubious conditions, I prefer to abstain...

I do have a Xite-1 and I have a Creamware card since the very begining.
You say SC is to fragile, it's going to colapse one day...etc

IMO, even SC disapears, no more new device, no Scope 6, nothing new, niente, nada, I'll still happy to have it, like it is right now. It's really an amazing home studio tool. I don't understand why people don't jump on it. I don't see anything on the market which could replace it for my use.

[Mr Arkadin]

Well unless the next gen of OS is 128-bit then it will always function on 32- and 64-bit systems, so as much risk as anything else in life. And that's if the company stopped support today, which they're not.

I ran my Scope cards for 12 years. The only reason I stopped is because I got an XITE-1. I can see getting at least 10+ years out of that, probably more seeing how long the cards lasted. I've been through three computers since then. I think that shows where the real longevity is.

Anyway, we're not here to convince you to get something you don't want, just saying your fears are somewhat unfounded.

[dante]

What risk ? Granted there's a small risk of XITE developing a fault - but if I look at my Rack - nearly all the gear in there is legacy - TC Triple C, Mesa Boogie 20/20, Digitech Valve FX, Ensoniq QSR, MIDEX 8....all out of warranty and bugger all support here in Australia anyway apart from what local electronics service shops can provide.

In fact in my rack, XITE is the ONLY piece still supported - where other manufacturers like Steinberg who aren't 'under funded' by any stretch of the imagination and who pump out gear and software at a rate you would probably be happy with, so much so that they drop them off the support list almost as regularly force me to wait for 3rd party 64 bit driver before upgrading OS !!!

So where does that leave SC ? Quite frankly, still supporting to a limited degree the PCI cards which are not even thiers, with products that last 15 years and multiple PC build and OS turnovers- a product which will likely last forever without the need for continuos upgrades and rationalizations, quite capable of community innovation for years to come. In my book it puts them at top of my list and even if they shut up shop tomorrow thier legacy and XITE outlasting everything else in my studio - even newer stuff.

Scope and XITE is a different mindset - one of quality outcomes that last rather than quick turnover, trend driven here today broken or out of fashion or boring tomorrow consumerism.

[jhulk]

well since 2000 i have owned my first card and its still going strong

there have been many free dev modules and synths

and many fx

lets talk about other dsp systems that came out around the same time

first tc now with several versions of dsp cards stopped support 3 years ago

only a couple of synths no free dev support at all

uad several cards and devices still going strong but no synths or modular just analog emualations that are not close to the real thing

korg oasis support gone since win98 no new drivers at all still works great and sounds great on a p4 win98 computer

chameleon dsp rack no support for ever still programable small resources only a few synths ever created for it dead company

kyma still going but several upgrades along the way costing lots of money latest system is more money but still supported

protools dsp farm many upgrade costing hell of a lot of money and now its gone native we are talking 10000 pound systems only worth now a max of £2000

and outdated

pci cards second hand market is cheap still supported via scope 5.1 and new drivers for 32bit and 64bit even though some 32 bit devices dont work

but a lot of native 32bit devices dont work on 64bit os

modular is massive and even if you just brought into the s/c just for that there is no other system on the planet that has the scope or the sound quality of it

and there is a big designer community trying to ever create new modules and devices for the scope system be it pci or xcite

i have owned very expensive protools rigs i have had kyma systems and i still own oasis pci and chameleon

but out of the most systems used the 2 scope rigs are used most and are part of a new studio in bristol because they work period in any 32bit environment

with no problems and even in a 64bit os 32bit audio is still used so there is no sound quality difference at all

[garyb]

it's this kind of thinking which is the reason that S|C doesn't have more money, i mean chris13's(no offense intended). it's understandable, but as these posts point out, irrelevant. it doesn't matter is there's never one iota of further developement in Scope. it's never going to sound worse. it's never going to be useless any more than an old neve mic pre or an old 1176 compressor or an old Prophet 5 or Fender rhodes are useless. it's buy-it-once and you're through.

the only worry about the companies helath, except that Scope is cool and it'd be better if it got even cooler, is warranty service. this is a minor concern, but the normal risk you take when you buy the state-of-the-art, which is what Scope still is, 18 years later. NOTHING has even approached it in function, even after all this time. it works well with almost all software and pretty much all hardware, connecting those two worlds. companies that make SPECIAL stuff are usually small companies that often aren't overly capitalized, they make what they make because of their commitment to the product, not just as a means of boosting corporate profit. of course the employees and owner need to be paid, but again, it's the product that is the reason Scope exists, not the profit. this means that it's likely that you will have warranty service.

i really do resent the idea that S|C is not trustworthy. S|C has no responsibility to anyone to make software for old cards, or to do any further work on Scope or the XITE. it works, right now. not everything works the way that everyone would like, just like EVERY other product in the world, but Scope most certainly works, WELL and it is STABLE. v5.1 is reason enough to buy Scope. however, S|C is and has been spending time and money to bring Scope closer to a universal, cross platform system that is open sourced for further long term bulletproof-ness. don't expect it any time soon, however. you don't NEED it, it's a bonus. until it's finished, S|C must still make money. there are problems with the work that's already done. this is normal for a big project. if there were hundreds of people writing code, it would certainly be done already. it will be ready when it's ready. for a small company, a slowdown takes extra time because time must be set aside to keep the company solvent. that doesn't mean nothing is happening, however. yes! it would be great to have a daily blog where S|C employees kept track of their every activity so that the public could decide if they were really spending their time wisely, but then again, it just won't happen. even putting a new page up for a sale is a major week long event that stops all other work. there isn't staff for that type of thing. v6 is NOT the reason Scope is cool, anyway. it's not needed for a working product.