does Magma chassis increase the Scope latency?

ChristianB · Post by **ChristianB** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:56 am

Hi
A question about the new coming soon magma chassis express card to pci... Will the express card connextion increase the data in-out ?
Or the problem is realy the sfp card ?

Cb)-

ChristianB · Post by **ChristianB** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:00 am

Oh forgot
What if i put a TCelect or Uaudio in a magma?
Will it work witout loss?

Cb)-

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 7:26 am

On 2006-04-02 15:33, lagoausente wrote:

[...] Perhaps I finally will have to Buy a Magma only to can test it. [...]

Well, I finally have done it. Have buyed a Magma CB2, and tested it with a IBM Thinkpad T21 laptop.
The test of STS with Magma gives less then 1 ms of difference than on the desktop pc, what definitively is nothing to have in consideration.
So replying to my own question, and for any other users who may be curious...
Does Magma increase the latency?
Conclusion: No

Post by **garyb** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:57 am

On 2006-04-05 06:56, ChristianB wrote:
Hi
A question about the new coming soon magma chassis express card to pci... Will the express card connextion increase the data in-out ?
Or the problem is realy the sfp card ?

Cb)-

the pci limitation will remain. there is not a real bottleneck with pci on a good motherboard anyway... 10-17 reverbs is pretty good. this is not an indication of a special problem with scope cards, other than heavy traffic on the limited bandwidth bus will eventually reach a limit. any other card will be the same. pci-e THEORETICALLY has a bandwidth available, but it's also intended to handle heavy graphics card use, which will of course limit everything else's use.

the idea that computers are becoming more powerful is slightly misleading because the software(like the os and sequencer for example) doesn't evolve at the same rate as hardware, which sometimes makes new setups less efficient and less functional than old ones, at least for the initial offerings...

i would expect the magma to work almost as well as a card in the motherboard's pci slot, but not quite, as there's another level of hard/software between the card and system....

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 11:05 am

It's worth noting that Magma solutions reportedly run with maximum efficiency in the 1 slot format. A single scope Pro in a single slot magma solution *should*, in theory, provide the best performance of all magma solutions.

[ This Message was edited by: Shroomz on 2006-06-11 12:06 ]

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 12:38 pm

On 2006-06-11 12:05, Shroomz wrote:
It's worth noting that Magma solutions reportedly run with maximum efficiency in the 1 slot format. A single scope Pro in a single slot magma solution *should*, in theory, provide the best performance of all magma solutions.

[ This Message was edited by: Shroomz on 2006-06-11 12:06 ]

well, would be the same using the 1 slot Magma that using the CB2 using only one of the slots it has?

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:04 pm

*In theory*, yes!!

I cannot confirm that though!!

As mentioned, it's 'theoretical'.

Using more than one Scope card with a Magma solution, doesn't seem to present the desired results, which a 1 slot or single card solution seems to provide (based on cumulative forum results).

Like I say, this is theoretical & not technical.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:35 pm

the only concern with Magmas is the PCI performance, as GaryB explained above - anything else may be interesting, but of little practical use.
It's a solid product and a sophisticated one, not just a simple ttl-buffered cable extender

There was (obviously) a lot of developement required, but it's target market is limited, hence the price.

cheers, tom

skwawks · Post by **skwawks** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 5:16 pm

I noticed latency playing drums through the sts on a reasonably quick desktop using electronic pads . I didn't hear it immediately but I did become aware of it over a month or so and when I checked the onboard sounds against the sts there was a definite, if only slight ,flam effect ,so I dont know if you'll be able to comfortably do what you want with the sampler . What about those roland sampling pads ?
Cheers
Paul

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:20 am

The test measure 7 ms of total latency, that means 2 meters from ears. If you play with speakers, will add 3 ms for each meter you are from them, if you use headphones, those 7 ms, that are similar to 2 meters, a near the same distance from a real crash or tom from your ears...
Many people use a speaker as monitor for electronic drum machines. For example, putting the speaker 3 meters from ears, gives 9 ms of latency, plus around 2 ms of the own sound module, are 11ms, what is double than STS using headphones.
Playing drums specially, I have found that using sofware sampler through Asio, can get similar latency, with a quite high difference, the Sofware sampler has quite higher midi jitter latency, something that is unavoidable on a computer, since OS have to do interrupts to can do lot of things, and have to make someones waiting for..
On STS, jitter doesn´t exist, or if exist is unmesurable, at least I couldn´t test it, since on sofware I could, as many people out there, and can be over 6 ms of variation if you use a Midi USB interface,
On STS, the result is a feel of "flat time", to my like. if adds that can load good samples of drums, and if you have patiente and use tools like ADD, can convert good libraries from other formats. This makes to STS the best solution I have found.
And now, on a laptop, even better.

[ This Message was edited by: lagoausente on 2006-06-12 12:52 ]

[ This Message was edited by: lagoausente on 2006-06-12 12:56 ]