Dusting off my Pulsar: still usable?

[Havoc]

Wanting to make a stand-alone effect box I was looking through my boxes for a soundcard and found back my old Pulsar. As It has all I need for the job, and more, it would be nice to use it again. But...it appears Creamware went away during the years I didn't use it. I cannot find any original cdrom. I registered this card and could download the soft but this is soo long ago I wouldn't know any of the registration info anymore, let alone find it back. Tonight I tought of this forum and googled for it. I could even log in! Lucky I found the password as the emailaccount has long been gone (at least 6 years).

So, can I get some life out of this card? If so, where do I get software? I do have an old pc with W2K that might work with it. Anyone can get me one the way again?

[garyb]

i have a client here who is a member of the motion picture academy and does TV and movie scores(some famous ones too) and is a composer who gives concerts and seminars all over the world. he is still using a Pulsar 1 and i just built him a new dual Xeon(1366) system with a Supermicro motherboard that is 64bit. this is the LATEST possible system and it works great for him.

[Havoc]

Okay, so I can give it a new life. Good to know. I'm not needing that much, just a bit of reverb, some routing/mixing and delay. Should be an easy job for it.

I did find a few backup cd's. One has Pulsar 2.04a on it, the other Pulsar V3.0 . Dated 2001 and still readable (I'm getting old ). Now those activation files or whatever they were called. Might be on some other cd. (I only hope they aren't on a floppy)

[siriusbliss]

Still using my Pulsar I here. Works great for effects and routing for submixes.

Greg

[garyb]

for sure, you'll want to use the later software, at least v4.

[krass]

Still using my Pulsar I, have it for 10 years now!

It's not my main card anymore, my I/O is now an Alpha-Link MADI AX coupled with
an SSL MadiXtreme 128 card.
The Pulsar I feeds 16 channels into the Alpha-Link MADI AX. That way, I mainly use
it for its external effects. The SC (TimeWorks) Plate is more than excellent (it beats
most, if not all of my hardware reverbs' plate algorithms), and on its own already
warranted the small upgrade cost to go to Scope 5.1 for me!
The round-trip latency between my DAW and the Pulsar is only 0.29ms that way, so
that's very acceptable.

I always liked the Vectron synth, and the B2003 sounds quite allright in a mix too.

So yes, even the humble Pulsar I with its 4 DSPs still provides a lot of value in my studio!

Last but not least, with the 64bit drivers available now, I was able to migrate my whole
setup to Win 7 64 bit, which is very sweet. I did not have that option with some of my other
gear and had to buy replacements, so thumbs up to SC for keeping even the oldest of CW
products relevant.

Regards,

KrasS

[Havoc]

Well, if the people at SonicCore ever return my request to register the card I can use it. So far no reply. The service hasn't much changed all those years. I browesed through the docs of the soft and it looks as if the early reflector is all I'll require.

[siriusbliss]

Well, if the people at SonicCore ever return my request to register the card I can use it. So far no reply. The service hasn't much changed all those years. I browesed through the docs of the soft and it looks as if the early reflector is all I'll require.

Strange because they normally respond to my emails right away. I've even received responses at 3:am!

Which email address did you use?

Greg

[Fluxpod]

I guess they are in full stress mode for namm.Not really excusing this but you did write to the correct mail addy?Included all the info they want?Adress-name-hardware serial from the cards sticker?

[garyb]

yeah, there's propably only one guy there this week. it;s also the weekend now. if it's been more than a couple of days, i'd try writing from a different email address. it's possible you goy intercepted by the spam filter.

you don't need to "register". you just need to request keys, if you're using v4.x. you probably need to pay in order to get v5.x keys... you emailed support, right?

[Havoc]

Well I used the "support" email as it wasn't indicated which to use and I wasn't registering but a re-registration. And yes, I copied everything on the stickers included name address and the rest asked for. Almost a week now.

I don't really think I'll upgrade as I don't need much functionality, I just want to use the card. Probably could do what I want with the Pulsar 3 soft if I could find back the files.

[garyb]

you need to write again, something has gone wrong. did you get a "we have your email" message?

they speak english there, but not like a native. keep the email simple to avoid confusion. ("hello, i need the latest key that this card is eligble for. my name is, address is, card serial number is, thank you!")

[Havoc]

I did receive the automatic confirmation email. Kept it simple, saying I was registering the card again nad it had been registered previously under the same name, listing the numbers and my details. I'll give them another week.

Lucky I'm not using this card professionally. Wouldn't be much fun if you depended on it for your "job". That"s what I always find so scary about software you need to register. If it depends on the cd, fine. If the company goes bust you sit there with an expensive boat anchor. I cannot remember the last time I needed RME to have my card work, don't think I ever needed to contact them: plug card in, install driver, run. An with linux you don't even need to install a driver.

[garyb]

well, this is not just a sound card.
if you keep your keyfile backed up then....

[Havoc]

It's 10 years since I last used it. Been in the bin so long. I'm 3 pc's further and running linux since the last 6-7 years. So I didn't really kept backups from that time. They micht be on a cd somewhere or worse: on a floppy.

[garyb]

well, S|C has those records.
the NAMM show is next week and half of the company will be there, so this may be a slow week. at any rate, more than 3 days or so is excessive for them, normally. i'd write again, asking for the latest available keyfile first thing. if you're going to be using win7 or 64bit, you should pay for v5. isn't it nice that a 10year old card is still up to date?

[dante]

isn't it nice that a 10year old card is still up to date?

Its even nicer when 3 x 10 year old cards hooked together are still all up to date.

[Havoc]

Still no news. Suppose you had a paying gig where you depend on them.

[garyb]

that's why you should write again.
of course a professional with a paying gig, would have the backup available. they wouldn't have had the gear on the shelf. most likely, you got caught in the spam filter. you wouldn't believe the amount of nonsense email that comes into an address like S|C's. most of S|C(it's only a handful of people) have left for NAMM today.

[summer]

Don't wanna hijack the thread here, but I've been wondering the same question. I have a Pulsar1 (from '98 or '99 i think) and Pulsar2 giving me 10 DSPs.

I would like to use them for instruments/fx in XTC mode, but i reckon that these SHARC DSPs get old really fast like normal CPUs.
Would they be able to run a few instruments with the new v5 software?

I'm also thinking of buying the bigger version of xite-1. Could I use it together with the two cards? And would they be more than a drop in the ocean compared to the new xite?

thx

//Summer