Becomeing a Scoper or not?

[Dati]

Hi,
I think i want to buy a used Pulsar 2 but i need some advises...
I only have a Macbook Pro with Logic and several Softsynths, so I would have to buy a PC and new DAW also.
Are the Synths worth the setup change ? (Protone,Minimax,Modular and AdernFlexor sound interesting to me)
What is your DAW of choise and why?
I heard that the modulation FX of Scope are not that great so what DAW has great Chorus,Flanger,Pitchshifter, Timestretcher...
FX are very important to me as I want to produce Psymbient and sort of Goa.

I hope you guys can help me!
Cheers

[Sounddesigner]

For me and others it is well worth going the PC route for SCOPE. SCOPE is the heart of my studio not a daw or O/S wich are expendable and interchangeable depending on situation. The synths, effects, mixing and routing, SDK, zero-latency, etc all are great and make SCOPE great to use. One of SCOPE's strongest points is synths (wich are unrivaled imo) especially Modular 4 but there are some great effects aswell (including modulation type, wich in my opinion is its strongest area of effects type). SCOPE is a large platform compared to other dsp platforms and have alot to offer, i'm sure you'll find something you like about it. Definitely worth exploring!

[t_tangent]

I believe Astral Projection use or certainly used to use Scope. So yes, I think that says a lot in itself. In other words, yes Scope is a great platform for psy / goa, and many other genres.

If you can think of Scope more as a kind of entire studio running on a DSP board then that is as good an analogy as I can think of right now. Check out some of the threads here, especially those by a member called XITE4LIVE as he posts many pics of the routing window, and you will see how logical and flexible it looks, and you can then begin to see the power behind its concept.

For the price of a used pulsar 2 I think there is no better time to jump on the Scope band wagon, and I feel confident that you will quickly realise what a superb platform it is. Personally I think that every studio should have at least 1 Scope system But then again, as the old saying goes, dont tell everyone or they will all want one too, hehe

I think the following thread will help more

http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php ... it=psy+goa

[Dati]

Thank you guys for answering so quick!
So the modulation FX are good too?

I could buy a used Pulsar 2 with version 5.0, Mix and Master Pack and the older Zarg Synths for 250 euros. Good price?
When I buy the update to version 5.1 then I have the Synth n Sampler Pack also, or not?
I am mostly interested in the Synths and Routing.
I record thinks with my Firewire Audio Interface( Edirol FA-66). Will I be able to run them both at the same time with my PC

[siriusbliss]

The Scope synths and effects are great, and you gain advantage of the DSP horsepower taking the load off your system.

But the MAIN advantage of Scope IMO is the mixing and routing capabilities that let you route in/out in many different configurations, including out/in to your DAW and/or other schemes. It's very flexible in that way.

I'm still running my 12-year old Pulsar I in my main DAW (using Samplitude), and it hasn't failed me yet. Quite a good investment I would say.

I think getting the Zarg synths at that price is a very good deal!

Scope 5.1 gets you 64-bit environment.

I wouldn't bother running firewire along with Scope. You won't need it.

Greg

[ChrisWerner]

You should also keep in mind, when you need some more far out modulation effects or synths or something completely new, you can build it with the modular.

Yes, you get the mix and master pack with 5.1.

[Dati]

I would like to keep my old soundcard to connect Microphones and Synths to it, is this possible? I dont know much about using multiple Soundcards and asio handling.
Thanks for your replies, now I will very likely go and buy it tomorrow!

[Sounddesigner]

Most of the SCOPE stock effects are good/usable, some are great. Overall i've found no other app i've tried has neither more nor better stock plugins then SCOPE, period! When you upgrade to 5.0 you'll get the LX Reverb bundle wich has a great chorus-delay plugin created by Warp69. That SC chorus-delay plugin is free/stock but the downside is it uses alot of dsp power. When you get your SCOPE card also check out the 3rd-Party developers such as Celmo for great special-effects plugins, i particularly love the Tape-Echo-Sim and the Spring Reverberator but there's quite a few gems on his website both commercial and free here - http://www.celmo.com/page_accueil_plugins2.htm


EDITED

[Dati]

So is it possible to run my other soundcard alongside pulsar, for phantom power, microphone and Synth connection?

[garyb]

yes, but why?

you could drive a ferrari but you want to keep driving the yugo...

[Dati]

Because Pulsar 2 doesnt have phantom power, and I cant effort a "ferrari" Preamp with this feature because I have to buy a PC and new DAW.
Unfortunately

[t_tangent]

http://www.roland.com/products/en/_supp ... 2279&dsp=1

The FA-66 can be used on its own without being connected to a computer.
You can use the FA-66 alone if you connect an AC adaptor. In this case, the FA-66 will function as a mic preamp and a simple mixer.

The input from INPUT 1 - 4 and OPTICAL IN 5 / 6 (digital input) will be mixed and sent from OUTPUT 1 / 2.

So if you really want to use the FA-66 together with the Pulsar 2, you could connect its analog out 1 and 2 to the analog ins on the Pulsar 2.

Or you could connect the FA-66 optical SP/DIF I/O to the Pulsar2 ADAT I/O, as within Scope you have an option to run the ADAT connections as optical SP/DIF instead, but obviously you lose 6 channels for each connection, and it looks like you need to have the FA-66 connected to a PC in order to use the digital I/O with direct monitoring. In theory you should be able to get both cards running on the same PC, but it's probably better to have them on seperate PCs if you can. There are quite a few different ways of skinning the proverbial cat, i.e. doing the same thing in different ways, for those non native english speakers

I hope that helps more than confuses, and hope I am not entirely incorrect

[Dati]

Your replies where very informative, thanks dude!
English is not my mother tonge, your right.

[t_tangent]

Cool, glad that it made sense
Cheers for now

[djstudio]

I had many sound cards, but the quality and power of "scope" sound cards do not have the same equality. They are difficult to use, but the sacrifice is worth

[irrelevance]

It certainly is possible to run two different cards within the same pc. Years ago when I got my first pulsar I was running it alongside an m-audio 1010 which at the time handled all physical connections from external synths etc and could be passed to scope via digital i/o and the scope module known as The Soundcard Source Module.

As your sequencer will only be able to utiluise one card at a time (ASIO) you would choose scope as your card in the DAW and then route audio with these modules and midi would be handled through scope as well.You will have latency but it's an acceptable workaround until you can find another way of getting your i/o to scope which for me was an behringer ultra gain which gives phantom power and 8 channels with adat i/lo which expanded nicely when I was able to afford the Scope A16 ultra. There is always a way with scope.

The other workarounds would be to start your recording sessions with your old soundcard in your DAW and when everything is to your liking switch over to the pulsar or output from scopes other software i/o (wav drivers) again latency would be an issue.

All FX sounds great to me, bear in mind tempo sync isn't automatic but isn't difficult to acheive either. Everything but the timestreching could be easily handled in scope either with stock fx or modular patching. Timestreching is acheivable though the STS samplers however the processing is non-realtime unlike the rest of scope.

[Dati]

Thanks for your replies, i will get my pulsar soon
But i have one question left.
What PC should i buy? Some suggestions?
Would these work?
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/hm24+in ... +5570+hdmi
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/hm24+bu ... +500gb+dvi
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/fujitsu ... 7500+73763
I heard something about Motherboard issues, what is save to buy?
Many thanks for replies!

[garyb]

good things to look for:
1. intel chipset.
2. at least 2 pci slots.