SPOTS wrote:...So if I run Cubase on a PC, I could use audio or instrument plug-ins that take ressources from the SCOPE boards straight within Cubase? Would that work with any card or exclusively with XTC cards? Would that also work within ProTools and other DAWs?
as Hubird already wrote you can use the Asio system to feed anything from Scope to Cubase (or any other Asio based host) or read it into Scope from Cubase.
In other words it's pretty easy to setup an FX-bus between the two.
Send via channel (say) 7 return via 8 and 9 (or whatever you choose)
it's identical to how you'd do it with external gear, send via analog out - return via analog in, or some Adat or Z-Link channels.
You just draw a virtual cable and that's about it - the datapath...
But of course you have to be absolutely aware about what happens on your timeline then...
Scope is strictly realtime, so you may have to compensate for latency of external processing and for Asio buffer latency.
Imho it's not a big deal and it's good to be aware anyway... instead of having a piece of software 'do everything' for you
The XTC card product (which is just a 6 DSP SRB card) was offered as a budget solutions to 'Sequencer-only' producers.
A similiar approach were the original 3 DSP cards (Luna, Powersampler, Elektra) - reduced software for a reduced price.
And in those days the software
really was reduced...
What would you expect ?
of course almost all such budget buyers later bitterly complained of not having access to the full set of tools
btw there was no hidden catch - the reason for the reduced price was fully adressed in ads, but sometimes people only read what they want to read...
anyway, you can use the so-called XTC mode with every Scope card, but you loose (part of) the flexibility of the routing window.
Different approaches are possible, but many users prefer to let Scope do the mix and monitor stuff completely - the sequencer is simply a mutitrack tape connected via a few dozen Asio channels.
The stock channel fx of Scope are unquestionably better than stock sequencer plugins.
Scope stock processing
starts in the league of Waves and such stuff
If you use the physical connections, let's assume 16 Adat channels, then this Scope system can of course be an 8 stereo-bus FX and Synth processing unit communicating with ProTools, or whatever you want.
It's the typical way to use Scope in Logic under MacOSX
cheers, Tom