LunaMan wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 12:39 pm
Holger ... The guy is a genius but Scope never recovered from 64bit transition.
Interesting point of view.
In fact, SCOPE works great in 32Bit and there were no reason for 64Bit other than adressing more memory,- WHEN using SCOPE "standalone".
Unfortunately, SCOPE 7 32Bit suffers from a few issues not being present in SCOPE 4, 4.5 or 5.0/5.1,- and when you want to use all stock SCOPE devices included in v7 (32Bit), you suddenly have to deal w/ these issues.
I bought used PCI cards w/ SCOPE 5.1 keys and the very last from S|C available Luna ADAT expansion card, just only to use my old DAW Win XP machine for mainly VDAT and STS.
It might be crazy,- but I really like the SCOPE sound coming from it´s analog outputs,- PCI (w/ pro plate bal. XLR) and XITE.
Both have character which I don´t find in all-native solutions w/ so called "neutral sounding" audio cards/converters.
XITE is still a step up from PCI.
The "old" A16U converters sound great too,- and digital audio signals as well as MIDI data will never need 64 Bit depth.
LunaMan wrote: Thu Jul 25, 2024 12:39 pm
... but there is also an Apollo 'D' option now covering network routing over Dante and while that's a great indicator of the longevity of Sharc DSP - it also represents another market niche spoken for.
Well, I investigated a lot in DANTE, which is very good technology for sure.
But for the home studio, to me it seemed to be like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
IMO it´s great for studios w/ several control- and recording- rooms in need of bi-directional interconnection for lots of audio channels over IP, saving kilometers of analog audio cables,- and it´s great for the big events,- large halls, stadiums and open air.
But hey,- when you work in only a (smaller) single room or two, it´s simply not worth the investment and trouble.
I bought 2 ADAT extender units
https://appsys.ch/en/products/adat-tool ... dx-64b-pro in good condition and for cheap from a PA company changing their system and that´s it.
Between these 2 units, 2x 100m (approx. 30 feet) Cat5 cables are possible at max. and it´s 2x 8 ADAT ports per unit, each port freely configurable as ADAT-In or Out via DIP switches,- and when sacrificing 1 ADAT channel, BNC wordclock will be transmitted too.
Each unit offers a BNC connector for that purpose.
For these units and 2x 15m CAT5 cable I payed less than EUR 200,- and that system connects 2x 32Bit SCOPE (5.1 and 7) PCI on different computers as well as XITE-1 (Scope7 x64) and the main DAW (Win 7 x64) w/ RME Raydat across 2 rooms.
Relatively short ADAT cables run to these 2 ADAT extender units, each one in a different room.
Unfortunately, I didn´t find these ADAT extenders offering 2 MIDI DIN ports in addition,- these were sold already before I pulled the trigger.
Means,- now I need iConnectivity and rtpMIDI for MIDI over IP in addition,- but all-in-all still much cheaper than any quality DANTE unit.
Bud