PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

For people scratching their heads about what a rotor can do ...


It's one rotor fed with 4 different wavetables not modulated a lot ( pitch + wave position ) on the other hand, rotor is modulated fully, 2 voices ( some portamento-glissendo used at time ) realtime hand tweaks on LFO rates, amount ...etc + use of the vibrato LFO above legal vibrato values !

sounds like your nick

great sounds tho

No kidding !
Oh by the way, it's the same wavetables all along so that you can imagine all the possibilities

Yep I saw that. From his wording it seems that there is a chance that an x/y touchpad might still be possible, though this is all conjecture on my part as I haven't actually discussed that stuff with him in ages (so don't flame me if I'm totally wrong )

He also asked for clarification on OSC. Certainly John knows better than I what he can and can't afford to do (cost & time wise) better than I, I would still be surprised to find this appear in his synth. It would require a Nic & I have no idea if Sharcs are capable of having OSC ported to them (in the sense that something has to run the OSC os on the synth). So I would expect an extra microprocessor just to support it etc. Could be wrong though?

Obviously, the way to go would be to buy a Minimoog Voyager as an X/Y/Z controller for your Scope/Solaris system.

(Say, maybe I'll try that out on the wife...)

an Alesis Air FX and a nice holiday with the wife might be more rewarding...

Talked to a friend tonight who's also a Scope owner. He loves the sound but says it's unstable, especially in VST mode. I understand that Scope4Live uses it live, so he must know something my friend doesn't.

Also, what are the RAM requirements? I assumed that most of the processing was done on the DSP card, but he said I'd need a serious computer to run it. I was thinking about dedicating an unused PC, AMD Athlon XP 2500+, ASUS A7V600, 512MB RAM (and only two slots on the board!?) and a bunch of IDE drives I have left over from my last upgrade.

Personally I love running my scope cards in a 2nd system, but that's because I use it primarily for 2-3 signal paths at at given time (Solaris and/or a nice Modular patch and then a few effects chains).

The PCI bus is the MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT of the system, and second to that is the graphics card (high end 3d cards, especially ATI can swamp the system bus with their drivers which want the system entirely to themselves for high framerates in games). Just to give you an idea, I run Scope on a p3-700. That's an old Intel bx chipset (100mhz fsb even, slotket adaptor to get a 700mhz cpu into that box), 512 Mb ram and an old Matrox g400. Scope runs just fine although it does load new projects a tad slower than someone with a modern system.

Also, if you intend to use Scope in a standalone system you might want to consider wiring it to your main rig with ADAT as well as midi & analog i/o.

Looking at your motherboard ( http://www.amdboard.com/asus_a7v600.html ) the biggest issue you might face is the fact that it's a VIA based motherboard. In general you'll want to steer clear of VIA & Sis chipsets unless you don't mind doing a lot of hand tuning of your system. They have extremely poor PCI bus performance and you're likely to see a lot of PCI overflows. For AMD the positively ancient AMD760/761 and the nforce3 based motherboards tend to be the best. But since you already have that motherboard you should ask other users here how to optimize it as best as possible. Visit the tech section here on PlanetZ for more info. Just keep in mind if you experience headaches with that motherboard that it's not Scope's fault Any other dsp system (UAD, Powercore etc) faces the same limitations of the PCI bus.

As for your friend's headaches, I can only say that it's really not intended to be run in 'VST mode' (XTC mode in Scope terms). There are users who use it that way but the functionality was sort of 'tacked on' to meet the demands of users who were insistent that they had to have it once UAD & Powercore started shipping similar systems. So the code works but it will require workarounds on your part to get a lot of things working under XTC. There are people here who are perfectly happy running XTC/VST mode with their cards but the general consensus among most users is that the standalone OS mode (scope.exe) is far preferable for its flexibility.

As for other instabilities, most problems are related to inexpensive motherboards (crappy chipsets) or using a sytem with an Intel p4 & HT (hyperthreading). Some dual core users are reporting issues but it isn't clear currently what the problem is as others with nearly identical systems have no problems. All in all it basically takes a bit of tuning if you find you have issues then everything is smooth sailing. Give yourself a month or two to learn the ins & outs (so to speak) of the Scope routing and you'll find the system is really fairly easy.

ditto.
scope is very stable if the computer isn't screwed up. i can literally leave a project open for a week work as i please, never save until the end and feel safe(i shouldn't do this though, it's stupid ..)...

there are tons of 'outdated' office P3 and Celerons on eBay for a few bucks -don't waste your time
for Scope itself it's pointless if you have the latter or a Tualatin CPU, if the Ram is 100 or 133 and the 512MB memory limit doesn't matter either.

I also run Scope (as an external sound box) on a P3, and the Tualatin is just for vanity - I have 3 Pulsar cards (the old ones) but that is 48 Adat channels IO

cheers, Tom

I looked at the motherboard a bit closer last night, and I don't think it's the ASUS I originally suspected. The A7V600 has three RAM slots, and this one has two. I poked around the BIOS but couldn't figure out what the mobo was. I didn't start it up all the way because it's my wife's Linux box and I'm completely lost in that OS. I was going to wait for her to archive her stuff then wipe the drives and put a fresh XP install on there. Older motherboards are cheap, so I don't mind splurging $45 for a new one if someone has a recommendation for an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ or Pentium 4 2.8GHz. (I can post this question in Tech if there's not an FAQ.)

Right now it has 512MB of RAM – two 256MB sticks. I have an extra 512 stick in the drawer, but will 1GB be enough to run synths like Solaris? Running the system standalone shouldn't be a problem, though I was hoping to get a few more channels of GVI playback out of the box as well as Scope synths. It will go ADAT out to my digital mixer then into the Mac through its FireWire card.

I found out that someone at work might have a card I can borrow for a test drive. I think it has super-old software, but I saw a link to download the new version somewhere. Or do I have to register to run it?

512 is plenty to run scope for synths. scope runs on dsps.

Hi All,

As it seems this thread has more or less become a Tech Talk item, I'd like to take this opportunity to invite all interested parties over to my new Community Forums:
http://forums.johnbowen.com/

I hope to establish the same kind of passion and enthusiasm there as I have seen here, although that is a very tall order! I will continue to frequent Planet Z as well, but I felt it was more appropriate to move the specific discussions regarding the Solaris over to my own forum, especially since there will be many new potential users who are not familiar with Planet Z or my Creamware history.

Also to that end, I'd like to invite current Zarg Music customers to come and post any feedback on your experiences with my synths, as well as what you'd like to see released in the future as hardware, etc.

Thanks again to all the fantastic customers I've had the priviledge to serve!

Sincerely,
John Bowen

Dear JB,
Your site won't except my email address, therfore no reg. is possible.
What do you suggest, or am I banned for the blame I put on developers for my affliction?

Your Friend And Mine,

Jimmy,

Very strange! Send me a private email showing which address you were trying to use, and we'll sort it out.

john b.

I've procured a Pulsar II card (someone in the office had it in his closet), Scope 4.5 key code and a demo version of Solaris, so we are go for launch! Of course I'm on the road starting Sunday, and I'll be lucky if I even get through the Windows install by then...

On the plus side, I might get to visit scope4live's massive system on Monday. I'll be sure to bring earplugs and diapers.

Actual conversation with my wife last night, after she looked at the Pulsar II box I was carrying:

Wife: Creamware? Seriously?
(looks closer)
Wife: Pulsar!? Pulsar by Creamware?
Me: I suppose so.
Wife: Is there anything else phallic on that box? I must have the mind of a 12-year old.
Me: Apparently.

the name Creamware should slowly get forgotten, reading Ralfi's post in the Announcements forum/Soniccore thread.
Will be difficult for us oldies, it's in our genes already I'm afraid

hubird wrote:the name Creamware should slowly get forgotten, reading Ralfi's post in the Announcements forum/Soniccore thread.

i hope it will be forgotten very fast! i had some really hard times to find my beloved platform under all those cups and plates on ebay

why ?
on the left side it lists the categories, just pick the 'musical instrument' (or whatever looks prospective) subset .
Occasionally you may take advantage from a misplaced item ... I once got a Pulsar one as 'soundcard various', no driver, no software for 50 Euro...

cheers, Tom