PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Alright, I had this Scope Project card for about two weeks and I love the synthesizers! 6 DSPs is definitely not enough to work the way I'd like with it. What are my options to expand DSPs? Can I buy any older Pulsar card? Do I need adapters? Is there any "gotchas"?

If there's already a topic for this please refer me to it. I couldn't find one that reflect my new Scope Project card.

Thank you

You have two options. You can buy another Scope card that comes with I/Os and probably the same plugins you've already got, or you can get a Scope expansion board -- DSPs only. It's called Scope SRB. See if you can find that anywhere.

6 DSPs is definitely not enough when it comes to synthesizers. 15 DSPs and up is where you get serious.

Have fun,

Shayne

What about older card cards, are they not compatible? Do I have to stick with the current hardware line of products? I see sometimes older cards on Ebay and I was thinking if they could work...

I'd like to add that you can buy the 'XTC' version of the card (do Creamware still do this?) which has 6DPSs, but no I/O.

That's the route I took to upgrade my PulsarII, but if I'd had the money, I'd have gone for the SRB (one day, maybe...)

Royston

older cards certainly work. the pulsar1 does have significantly poorer performance, bit it will definitely work. i use a p1 with a powerpulsar(scope pro) and a p1 srb, and i have NO significant problems. still, i would suggest staying with second generation cards(pulsar2, powerpulsar, scope project and professional and the srbs). if you add a card, you will need a s/tdm cable to connect the cards which is available from your dealer and included with srbs.

Combining 1rst and 2nd generation cards still gives the fast ULLI settings. You may have to adjust the order of the boards though - dunno.

Just to clarify, Pulsar1/Pulsar 1 SRB boards(4 DSPs)are the only older card. All other cards are second generation (fast ULLI), but have undergone name changes over time, so available cards are:

Luna/LunaII/PowerSampler/PowerSamplerII now called SCOPE Home (3 DSPs)

Pulsar2 now called SCOPE Project (6 DSPs)

Pulsar XTC (essentially SCOPE 6 DSP Booster) (6 DSPs)

Pulsar SRB now called SCOPE 6-DSP Booster Board (6 DSPs)

PowerPulsar/SCOPE SP now called SCOPE Professional (14 DSPs)

SCOPE SRB now called SCOPE 14-DSP Booster Board (14 DSPs)

...er, is that right? Now i'm confused.

Mr A

Pulsar SRB is a Pulsar 1 without i/o = 4DSP
There was a first generation Scope card too. I think all Scope DP cards where first generation. I don't know, if any Scope non DP cards are first generation, but I think there are some.

Buy a scope (scope professional) with 15DSPs!

I have 14DSPs with a P1, SRB1, P2 an this is still not enough.

I plan to replace the older P1 with a scope this year when I buy a new computer.
25DSPs and a 3GHz CPU shall do what I want...

Thanks guys for all the input! Now, so that I can plan ahead with my setup, does it matter which PCI slot I install it to? I have my Pulsar on PCI 5. I read somewhere that you should have them on 1 and 5 (I assume the link cable is long enough). The problem is that PCI 1 is blocked by my AGP video card cooler...

The 1 & 5 thing is only true with some motherboards. Some say it is good not to have it too close to the graphic card. If you are handling IRQs manually in your BIOS, then make the CWA cards share IRQ with eachother but with nothing else.

PCI slots 1 and 5 (which where my Pulsar is) share the same IRQ. My XP is Standard PC and Pulsar takes IRQ 5. All the other ones are taken already, I think I should try to make it work with slot 1 so that way the cards share the same IRQ. I'm still trying to get my built in lan card to work but it always want to take IRQ 5. If I buy a lan card would it always want to take IRQ 5 in Standard Mode or I have control over that? Fof that matter, if I have to share the lan card with something else's IRQ, what would be a good choice?

Thanks

I am now suffering from the not enough DSP blues also. What happens when you add another card? A Project card for instance. do you then have 2 mini ins and midi outs or is it all default to the primary card?

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