Scope in Future Music DSP systems report

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Fri May 28, 2004 9:50 am

They're all quite different beasts, but Scope comes out as "pricey" and "relatively underpowered".

It's a bit funny. For my personal experience, there is nothing as much underpowered as UAD-1. Mono and stereo instances are using equal ammount of DSP. I don't think there is any technical reason=limitation for this, but to sell more cards.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Fri May 28, 2004 12:19 pm

The June issue of Future Music has a roundup of six DSP systems

Hey, at least they included Scope at all! The latest issue of SoS reviewed the Emu EmulatorX (which is rather like PowerSampler), and at the end of the article they listed other "alternatives." Of course, Scope wasn't on the list...

Shayne

firubbi · Post by **firubbi** » Fri May 28, 2004 2:19 pm

Never mind with the June issue of Future Music... people can write what they like.
doodyrh you're using cw for some time right.. so are you not happy with the sound? or with the price youre thinking is too high? i belive cw is the best and will be the doing great near future.. man this sound is awesome.. don't you think so?

@shayne i'd download some of your tracks.... its cool man. you're a harp player. we don't have any harp player in our country

[ This Message was edited by: firubbi on 2004-05-28 15:24 ]

doodyrh · Post by **doodyrh** » Fri May 28, 2004 4:34 pm

On 2004-05-28 15:19, firubbi wrote:
doodyrh you're using cw for some time right..

About three years.

so are you not happy with the sound?

Not sure how you reached that conclusion.

The point is that with such potential why hasn't CW taken over the world?

In three years, while PCs have trebled in power with no increase in price, there's been no corresponding increase in CW gear.

Imagine Apple only produced new applications without upgrading their hardware or OS for two years. Buyers wouldn't buy and developers wouldn't develop.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri May 28, 2004 5:05 pm

Hi DoodyRH.

The point is that with such potential why hasn't CW taken over the world?

In three years, while PCs have trebled in power with no increase in price, there's been no corresponding increase in CW gear.

Maybe the problem is that CW *did* release a new product last year - Noah.

I'll probably tick a lot of people off by saying this

, but I think CW focuses their marketing way too much on the synth / dance community.

I think their development should be focused at that community, since that is (if I'm not mistaken) CW's biggest buying market.

But there is a huge market of small project studios out there who don't care about synths, who just want recording / mixing gear but not cheap crap. There are lots of us who can afford more than cheap crap, but who can't afford the de facto standards (Pro Tools &c.).

From a development standpoint, CW already has everything we small studios need. The plugins are fantastic and you don't have to pay $extra$ for the basics - mixers, compressors, reverbs are all in your basic package.

The A16 Ultra is also incredibly cheap for a semi-serious project studio.

So CW has already developed everything a small recording / mixing / mastering studio needs. But the marketing (what little there is

) seems to be directed only at the synth user market.

When CW is back on its feet again I really hope they start marketing to the recording / mixing / mastering buyers. There is a huge gap between low-level gear and high level gear, and the CW price tags fit nicely in the middle.

Incidentally, my preferences would be:

- Slow product development (most companies that pump out products each year pump out garbage);

- Focus on support and improvements to the software (bug fixes etc) and hardware;

- More community-building.

There have been steps in the community-building direction recently. The SFP SDK should get a few more developers onboard.

The OS/X & Linux port should corner a huge market of Linux buyers who have been left out in the cold by all serious audio companies except RME.

I'd also like to eventually see the "Tips'n'Tricks" type newsletters CW used to send out. In fact if any of the local gurus are game, the PlanetZ community could even put together a mailing list. Have a few editors who choose cool threads from PlanetZ each month, edit them into "articles", and distribute 'em to the mailing list. Sort of a PlanetZ digest for those of us who can't always keep up on the cool threads here... Maybe I'm dreaming, but I would certainly find it extremely useful.

Anyway that's enough blathering from me.

Ciao DoodyRH,

Johann

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri May 28, 2004 5:46 pm

On 2004-05-28 17:34, doodyrh wrote:
...Imagine Apple only produced new applications without upgrading their hardware or OS for two years. Buyers wouldn't buy and developers wouldn't develop.

sorry OT, but I just couldn't let that one pass

though there is a loose relation to CWA's product policy...

actually Apple customers didn't buy much from them 5 years ago, but the stuff required to adapt to regular business increase/change - in other words: pretty few.

Apple had to 'invent' a new OS and introduce a firmware patch on new machines to prevent them boot the old OS version to FORCE customers into stuff noone actually desired, just to increase their sales figures.

The intro of OSX was > 4 years ago - yet I haven't been able to find ONE SINGLE customer in the (local) publishing industry (Apple's premium market) who could name ONE SINGLE advantage of OSX for his business.
All say it was easier and faster before, but 'hell, what can I do if they don't offer it anymore - I have jobs to do...'
btw we have some pretty big players in the area.

that said about 'progress'

hopefully CWA never learns THAT lesson...

They have a versatile and solid product out which doesn't (and cannot) change it's look or mode of operation over night.
I agree that marketing could certainly be improved, but well, which marketing couldn't... ?

cheers, Tom

Post by **hubird** » Fri May 28, 2004 10:31 pm

@ Blazesboylan, on the new CWA site there are three examples of working with a Creamware studio which are explaining exactly what you want

_________________
Let There Be Music!

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-05-28 23:33 ]

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat May 29, 2004 12:01 am

Also its been mentioned before that a Creamware dsp card != PC commodity.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Sun May 30, 2004 5:19 pm

On 2004-05-28 23:31, hubird wrote:
@ Blazesboylan, on the new CWA site there are three examples of working with a Creamware studio which are explaining exactly what you want

Great, thanks Hubird! Yes, the "Community -> User tips" section is exactly the kind of stuff CW used to publish in their newsletters. I do hope they'll keep cycling information there! And an archive would be nice, too...

Ah I'm a very demanding customer.

Johann

Ricardo · Post by **Ricardo** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 9:15 am

On 2004-05-27 23:40, valis wrote:
I would tend to agree about FM. Those in doubt take a look at its 'sister' magazine Computer Music which tells you every issue how to 'get started with your own software studio.'

It was CM that convinced me to buy my first CW card when they gave it great reviews about 4/5 years ago.
Never looked back!

firubbi · Post by **firubbi** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:10 pm

On 2004-05-28 17:34, doodyrh wrote:
On 2004-05-28 15:19, firubbi wrote:
doodyrh you're using cw for some time right..
About three years.
so are you not happy with the sound?
Not sure how you reached that conclusion.
The point is that with such potential why hasn't CW taken over the world?

plz never mind what i said. i didn't ment it. who knows maybe someday cw will take over the world

doodyrh · Post by **doodyrh** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 4:09 pm

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 6:33 pm

It's a lot better than keyboard magazine and I enjoy reading it.

On 2004-05-28 08:18, Counterparts wrote:
Mr Arkadin wrote:

C'mon, this is Future Music we're talking about - what do you expect? This rag is barely above kiddie level.
Don't be so sure about that - last issue's join-the-dots and colour-by-numbers sections were rather advanced!

(aside: I know quite a few people who work @ Future, my pervious housemate is a freelance graphics designer who works for them as they're based in Bath, with their other divisions being in London)

Royston

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 6:45 pm

In truth, they don't talk too much about tape equipment, except when artists use it, or as a gauge to where the recording world is. I think it's just a moniker to set a tone for the magazine. It's definately a McGyver's handbook for recording/engineering. But they do reviews and discuss all manner of digital work and equipment. I'm a HUGE fan of the rag!

Oh, and did I mention that it's free and delivered to your door?

Sam

On 2004-05-28 00:00, Shayne White wrote:
Tape Op is kind of the "underground" SOS. Fantastic mag! Though again very little software - related stuff.
Anything with the word "tape" in it I try to avoid...

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 3:08 am

In truth, they don't talk too much about tape equipment ... I'm a HUGE fan of the rag!

Oh, and did I mention that it's free and delivered to your door?

*Sigh* It's free and delivered to your door only if you live in the United States of Amnesia.

Y'all keep forgetting about the rest of us.

In some ways I think the Tape Op audience is exactly the one CW should market to. Its readers are not wowed by glossy B.S. ads and photos of some rich guy's hardwood-floored studio. OK, I admit it, I *am* wowed by these things. But I wonder how many CW users have hardwood floors?

In the same way CW is middle-of-the-pack in the digital audio world (between the low end crap and Pro Tools), I think Tape Op is middle-of-the-pack in the magazine world. If you want to find out what MOTU's latest crappy device is, there are plenty of rags for you. If you want to hobnob with rich dudes and look at pictures of 80 input SSL consoles, there are mags like MIX. And in between there's... Tape Op!

Johann
Glad there are other Tape Op lovers out there

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 3:34 am

ok ok, I signed up to see what all the hullaballoo was about.

ernest@303.nu · Post by **ernest@303.nu** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:24 am

[off topic]

But I wonder how many CW users have hardwood floors?

Here's one!

But have to admit it was already there when I got this house (my studio is in the former living room).
Thinking of it, I better have it polished in the near future, al this spilled beer (liters!) and cigarettes didn't do any good to the floor.....
[/off topic]

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:13 am

We can discuss here if FM is good or not. One thing is for sure: they are opinion creators since the mag is here for 10 years or so. Do you remember The Mix by the same publisher? What happened to it? It's just closed and some parts of it were included in the FM (I remember the process).

All I want to say it's a pity they took such a shallow path of comparison and it's not good for CWA

valis · Post by **valis** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:39 am

Or from another perspective it means that they haven't listed it as a TOP TEN MUST HAVE BUY IT NOW YES YES YES! and so as a result Creamware won't be inundated with support calls from Reason users wondering why XTC isn't working, tons of hate email from cracked cubase users complaining about awful stability on their mom's p2-300 etc.

j/k

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:21 am

samplaire wrote:

All I want to say it's a pity they took such a shallow path of comparison

That's my exact point and my main problem with FM - all FM reviews lack depth; they might as well just print a picture of the device under review and a platinum award sticker and cut out the boring words bit and save the rain forest in the bargain. The only time their reviews were any good was when someone was nicking them from SOS (or was that CM - oh, what's the difference?).

Pity SOS doesn't do a more computer based spin-off mag.

Mr A

[ This Message was edited by: Mr Arkadin on 2004-06-07 05:23 ]