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I have two pulsar 1s and have been reading about some of the pci bandwidth issues that have been experienced here. I am good for loading 6 masterverbs before I get the error. I am using the beginning and the end of the cable and the middle is free. I did the requisite turn off graphic acceleration tweaks and made sure the the pci bus wasn't overclocked and this was the best I could achieve. (The graphic tweaks did nothing to improve the situation so I went back to normal graphic mode).

If I add a Pulasr XTC , it has two STDM cable connections. What is the proper way to connect the pulsar STDM cables to the two pulsar 1s for maximum bandwidth or is this nothing at all to do with PCI bandwidth and I am all wet?

I gather that motherboard configurations can factor into this "black art" . It all reminds of the early days of scsi where you did a little dance , terminated this end and threw salt over your shoulder in hopes that all devices would be recognized.

I put this in general discussion as I don't yet have the problem as I haven't yet secured the pulsar XTC card and the problem is theoretical but pending. Insert evil laugh here

When I used a mix of v1 and v2 hardware I only used 1 STDM cable. The motherboard quality and other devices on the same IRQs are much bigger factors in PCI performance IMO

I didn't try to isoloate the IRQ sharing issues, I'll take a look today to see if I can loac another instance or two of master verb. Thanks.

Dark is right, the PCI bandwidth isn't related to the s/tdm cable - it's only between the system's 'main' card and the chipset.

I can have 5 MVs processing, but never was able to even load the sixth on an i815 board with 2 Pulsar Ones.
One or more second generation cards (with enough DSPs) should give about 16-18, but on a mixed setup there's some performance loss, so it would probably end with 10-12, to give you some idea.

cheers, Tom

Thanks for the response.

Does the performance loss when mixing pulsar 1 and 2s pertain to loading specific devices such as intensive reverbs or is it felt when loading say minimax and /or complex modulars? Will I realize fewer voices with this mixed setup even with dsp to spare?

TO date (with two pulsar 1s only) I have been able to load up the dsp with simple mixers and some complex routing using the synths and one verb and some delay without getting the pci errors. Typically I wouldn't be using the mixing funtions or have the need for several verbs ( I use my oasys cards and UADs and outboard gear for the verbs etc. )

Thanks for the responses. All hardware seem to have their quirks. Thanks for sharing. Please keep the thoughts coming. I am learning. - Scott

the performance loss is only in relation to PCI bandwidth, read:
reverb, delays, sample loading, many asio channels
normally it's only a concern for the STW reverbs by Warp69, the A100 in the first place - but it's just too good...
you can get the idea from the masterverb test thread - whenever a Pulsar One is included the figures seem 20% (or so) less than with generation 2 cards.

cheers, Tom
(3 Pulsar Ones, no problem)

Good I am glad to hear that . I was concerned that perhaps I would be limited in polyphony. I have so many verb / delay sources patched into my system that I don't need to run too many of those.

I am curious about the st5000 sampler but expect that I won't be using it very much as I have Kontakt and an emu1212 with the sampler on board.

I am hoping to pick up another pulsar I or II shortly. I am very pleased with the cards I have and the synth and sampler package is very impressive. Those modulars are fantantic.

Thanks for the input. Much appreciated.

I managed to tweak my IRQs so that everthing had a unique IRQ and it made no difference to the master verb test. I checked my last test and like the previous poster I maxed at 5 (not 6 as I previously stated) before getting the errors. It was warned at 6 and couldn't adjust past it. I guess if I get another pulsar I , I'll be stuck at the 5 test but if it truly on affects delays, verbs and samplers , I can live with it. I have another computer which I may try the cards in to see if I can do better.

The present mother board is an ecs k7S5A pro (sis) and the spare computer is an asus a7n8x-x . If anyone has experience with these boards , I like to hear about it.