Suggestion for next card / box

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:08 am

Oh quite simple ... there are lots of routing possibilities inside but not enough physical ins and outs so well I think we could have the equivalent of a small mixer + MIDI patchbay ( like Edirol UM-550 ) for less than the price of the 2 !

Now, one size doesn't fit all so maybe different " solutions " ? it may be quite a heavy ( weight speaking ) range of whips so maybe boxes could bypass that though at a higher cost.

Rout outside / rout inside could be an another selling strong argument, now it has to be dealt in depth to offer the best range of solutions like ( thinking out loud ) a pre-box of MIDI with like 8 ins / outs, pre-box of XLR ... etc that could connected to the mother ins / outs box.

Hmm ? feel free to throw in your suggestions for what you'd like to see / could rock for next cards / boxes.

djmicron · Post by **djmicron** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:45 pm

this is already possible using external converters(adat,aes ebu, luna box, etc).

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:41 pm

Okay but maybe it could be done at a higher / better integrated level and cheaper ?
I'am rather pissed on time spent researching / money spent and not quite satisfied so there may be a market ...

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:21 pm

Cheap is good

Especia;;y when the quality of hardware remains high, but the ROI calculations are based on cutting out the retailers

ali · Post by **ali** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:44 pm

3 x Scope Prof with Madi = 384 Ins/Outs and 42 DSP in one box.

Would this qualify as enough physical I/O?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ali on 2006-04-07 15:51 ]</font>

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:18 pm

Well, this should quite qualify as not cheap !

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:19 pm

it was a retailer who suggested that Pulsar might be just the right thing for me. According to reviews I considered my system way underpowered for Scope back then...

yes indeed, re-calculate ROI with fraudulent, non-paying, just-try-and-return-it customers, a shipping department and administration overhead - you wouldn't want Ralf to do that too, would you ?

cheers, tom

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:56 pm

ROI ? WTF ?
Return On Investment ( after some googling ) ? if it's so, translate ...
I felt like ballistic cryptic bots responded, it just doesn't make sense !

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:28 am

WTF, pre-box of XLR, yeah, language is having some hard times

firubbi · Post by **firubbi** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:07 am

On 2006-04-07 15:44, ali wrote:
3 x Scope Prof with Madi = 384 Ins/Outs and 42 DSP in one box.
Would this qualify as enough physical I/O?

Post by **garyb** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:07 am

On 2006-04-07 16:18, decimator wrote:
Well, this should quite qualify as not cheap !

nah, that's DIRT CHEAP.
it's amazing at how all this cheap crap has made legitimate audio tools so undervalued....

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:18 am

What's the current 'trade price' of a Scope Pro board? IE how much do Creamware currently get for them from retailers? Has that price gone down as the boards got sold cheaper & cheaper or is it the retail price only which has gone down over the years? It would be interesting to have a clear picture of that

decimator · Post by **decimator** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:37 am

OMG !! this is just too l33t !!

I rethought about this today so here's the refreshed picture : my Mackie 1202 VLZ Pro mixer costs slightly more than 300 euros and dimensions are roughly 30 cm X 30 cm " from above ".

Now I remove all the " controls " ( buttons ... etc ) + the non necessary fine electronics inside ( it's Mackie that say so ) the price should drop.

Now all the surface is dedicated to 1/4" jacks, XLR, MIDI ... and you can put a significant amount on them on this surface.

One trouble now is that one plug = one wire so the resulting whip will look like a supertanker rope ! :-/

Because the idea is to have separate channel for each plug ( no merging ) and to have for instance for MIDI in the routing window a MIDI source block with like 8 outputs and same with MIDI destinations, in between all the fine tools from CWA and third parties.

For audio you have the mixers, VDAT, FX .. etc

The current whips cost around 50 euros, I wonder how much the " hardwire " box could cost, less than 300 euros certainly since it's most basic and no fancy extras.

I would buy it without hesitation since it would bring more than my mixer and an Edirol UM - 880 combined in pure connections uses.

Since it's obviously extra cost, this box( if one model ) should be in accessories and not imposed.

Well ?

Throw in your ideas hoping CWA will take note, hey it's gonna be the " date of the decade " when they will launch new gear so it's the time for some external brainstirring or storming !

Post by **garyb** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:13 pm

On 2006-04-08 11:18, Shroomz wrote:
What's the current 'trade price' of a Scope Pro board? IE how much do Creamware currently get for them from retailers? Has that price gone down as the boards got sold cheaper & cheaper or is it the retail price only which has gone down over the years? It would be interesting to have a clear picture of that

wholesale prices have not really dropped in the industry except in very crappy chinese stuff for the most part. profits have bottomed however, because of very low retail prices. most people don't know the difference between quality audio and junk. see mp3s....

Post by **garyb** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:14 pm

decimator, the light pipe connectors and an ad/da box do that job just fine.....

HUROLURA · Post by **HUROLURA** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:29 am

My suggestion about a new box:
- Mechanical: Could be a 1U firewaire rack (like the TC Electronics Powercore Firewire) or a 2U in case of lack of space for connectors (like what you get on a NOAH, adding a couple of preamp inputs on the front panel could be cool
- Analog I/O: what you get from a LUNA 2496 but with jack replacing the RCA connexion and possbility to connect old LUNA 2496 or A16 to it for expansion.
- MIDI: integrading the MIDI I/O plus a more elaborate solution (patchbay 8x8) as long as it doesn't cost to much more...
- Software: full scope capability

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:07 am

It's funny to see this keep coming up. The issue has always been bandwidth. If you want EVERYTHING to run of an external 1-2U rig, then there has to be a nice big fatty chunk of memory sitting in the rig, and a LOT of creamware software will have to be re-written so it knows to go talk to a spare SHARC chip and use memory local to the SHARC chips instead of running to the system processor's memory bus.

I'm not saying that's a bad idea, or that CWA shuldn't try it, but that's a tremendous amount of work, for a company which is just starting to get some momentum back. Who knows, maybe it's in the works. It would certainly put an end (for now anyway) to the OSX conundrum, as they seem to have no problems getting their external gear to work under OSX.

And if they could nail down the simultaneous ASIO track duplexity that hampers the "Professional" usability of most USB / Firewire devices, then they may have something. Something that might be able to compete alongside these new ProTools boxes.

Anyway, dreams are always tasty.

Sam