http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopi ... 543#318543
Original post:-
anybody here using the scope platform. Im interested inthe pro version that includes card, efx, and synths. Opinions? Are these synths and efx really much better than the vst's like arturia or UAD?
My
expert reply:-I bought 2 x Scope Pro cards in April 2005 from Infinite Vortex and the cards have been great!! First things first....don't buy from a UK dealer, way too expensive!! They can be bought for about half the price from a reputable Creamware dealer in the US (try Infinite Vortex or JRRShop, for example). There are two modes:- XTC and Scope platform. I have never used the XTC mode, so can't really comment on that. I use the Scope platform which allows the user to connect various Scope plugins in it's own window environment. It took me about 2 months to get my cards up and running with Scope platform as I wanted - this is not a fault of the cards themselves but the very nature of them - it is a new working environment which needs to be configured by the user to suit their own needs but the learning process is very important to help understand how the system works.
I love using the Scope platform in conjunction with my old Cubase VST5 - it is so simple to connect the outs from the Cubase mixer buses into Scope plus connect the additional souncards' midi and audio in/outs to external midi/audio sources. This is usually the downfall for a lot of Scope users, but, once it is explained, you probably won't want to use the XTC mode. My main reason for using the Scope platform rather than XTC mode, is that I like using the Scope mixers and, from what I can gather, the latency is reduced, compared to XTC mode, because less data is transfered between the PCI bufferie thingies (all the Scope plugins are connected within the Scope environment so, if you want to connect a number of them together, you don't increase latency - unlike TC Powercore and UAD1 cards). The supplied plugins are great and are all at least equal too, with many far batter than, most native plugins. The Interpole filter - the smoothest, creamiest software filter I have heard. Minimax and Pro-12 are two top class synths that are so warm, analogue and deep sounding - you can really tell the difference between most native VSTis and these two (most native VSTi's would have to consume tons of your computer's processing power to get close to these two synths). There are loads of great, reasonable price plugins, produced by independent developers, available for the Scope platform (I love Celmo's Goofy bass synth - so deep, warm AND nasty AND FREE!! Orbitone Impressor - compressor/expander/multiband - great for dirty, analogue like compression plus loads more available). And with 14DSP to play with, you should have plenty of power to run a few synths, effects, mixers etc. But buy two if you can!!
As regards comapring to UAD or even TC Powercore cards - I think each is quite different in what they can do best. I use the UAD1 for their emulations of compressors and EQs (for analogue like compression, distortion, warmth etc). TC Powercore for the Virus synth (lovely deep synth), Dynamic EQ (my favourite EQ which is so quick and easy to use - you can increase/reduce frequencies but the overall level is kept the same plus you can have a mix of gain reduction/boost linked to a compressor for each band), Filtroid (great nasty digital sounding filter), ClassicVerb/MegaReverb (decent reverbs).
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P2.4 1gig 2xCreamware Scope Pro 1xUAD1 1xTCPowercoreMKI 1xTCPowercoreMKII MatroxP750 No internet connection
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hesnotthemessiah on 2006-02-18 18:46 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hesnotthemessiah on 2006-02-20 22:30 ]</font>
