XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

The Sonic Core XITE hardware platform for Scope

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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

Bud Weiser wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:05 pm Looks great !
Was it essential not using iGPU graphics ?
I understand "GeForce" means Nvidia drivers,- no ?

In WinXP times, these were the best,- but nowadays, I read everywhere Nvidia drivers make problems in audio DAWs.
Was that "fake news" ?

:)

Bud
I had no problems with the Nvidia drivers so far, touch wood 😬
It did not end up using the integrated intel graphics because „only“ 3 displays are supported 😉
Last edited by katano on Sat Nov 14, 2020 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

valis wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:24 pm Gaming GPU's *can* do this, different driver versions and card combos will give you different results. Typically what happens is they set an extremely high priority to their driver/process to get a few more FPS for your games, and other tasks can suffer. Also each company has an awful lot of background tasks in this era, but that applies to Intel as well so there's no escape there.

You can do more minimalist drivers, but the best option is to opt for the Quadro/FireGL. The branding has changed for both of these lines from Nvidia/AMD both but it's the same basic concept which is: Workstation & "Clean" office installed computers with drivers that are vetted for work and not just play.

Since we have no need for the latest & greatest, finding a still supported Quadro that runs cool & low power (used or new) can give you similar gains with low cost and low thermals. The only real gotcha is that I'm finding more and more audio apps are using a lot of GPU calls for scalable interfaces, vector interfaces & the like. So getting something from a more recent generation may have more longterm advantages than in years past (going back 1-2 generations at most). It only saves you a lot of money if you go used now anyway, so no biggie if you get a last-gen card that runs under $300 and you're only doing audio stuff.
I also had a look at the quadro cards, but those supporting 4 displays were at least twice as expensive as the Geforce 1650, which I got for only 160$ 😉
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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

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dante wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 11:07 am @Katano, great setup. Does Console 1 include any Sharc DSP inside it ? I cant find tech specs on that anywhere. Do you use discrete or tube mode ?
Nope, console1 does not come with Sharcs. It‘s basically „just“ a hardware controller for the plugin. So you have the console1 plugin on every channel in your daw and then you can control it like hardware, the mixing workflow is really nice! and the console1 fader is motorized, cool stuff. Inside Console1, you then have different emulations which work like a big hardware console. you can choose from many emulations, by default it‘s an SSL4000K, but you also can have a British Class A based on a classic 60ies/70ies console or the American Class A for a more modern sound. Every channel has high/low pass, eq, dynamics and also drive and character.
you can find plenty of stuff on youtube...

Cheers
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dante
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by dante »

That would work good w/- Harrison, but Id want double the faders of course in one unit 8)
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valis
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by valis »

katano wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:49 pm
valis wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:24 pm Gaming GPU's *can* do this, different driver versions and card combos will give you different results. Typically what happens is they set an extremely high priority to their driver/process to get a few more FPS for your games, and other tasks can suffer. Also each company has an awful lot of background tasks in this era, but that applies to Intel as well so there's no escape there.

You can do more minimalist drivers, but the best option is to opt for the Quadro/FireGL. The branding has changed for both of these lines from Nvidia/AMD both but it's the same basic concept which is: Workstation & "Clean" office installed computers with drivers that are vetted for work and not just play.

Since we have no need for the latest & greatest, finding a still supported Quadro that runs cool & low power (used or new) can give you similar gains with low cost and low thermals. The only real gotcha is that I'm finding more and more audio apps are using a lot of GPU calls for scalable interfaces, vector interfaces & the like. So getting something from a more recent generation may have more longterm advantages than in years past (going back 1-2 generations at most). It only saves you a lot of money if you go used now anyway, so no biggie if you get a last-gen card that runs under $300 and you're only doing audio stuff.
I also had a look at the quadro cards, but those supporting 4 displays were at least twice as expensive as the Geforce 1650, which I got for only 160$ 😉
This is only a guarantee, as quadros come with full support. With Geforce cards, what you'll find is that it can vary from driver to driver (and as your card ages, the driver branches tend to get a bit more...fiddly.) That doesn't mean you will encounter issues, and note out of the numerous cards I have here only about 25% are quadro or firegl.
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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

Yeah, I‘ll see how it works out in the long term. But hopes are high, at least mainboard and graphics are both from asus, maybe this will help...
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

dante wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 9:33 pm That would work good w/- Harrison, but Id want double the faders of course in one unit 8)
yeah, more faders would be nice, but having 10 is not bad. not sure about the harrison comparibility, but according to gearsluts forum, there‘s some integration possible:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/harriso ... ixbus.html

Cheers
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dante
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by dante »

It says there’s a mapping overlay for Mixbux

https://max1mus.xyz/audio/control-harri ... console-1/

and an option in MixBus ‘enable feedback’ which fixes an issue

So it’s an option for the future for sure. With 10 faders I’d map the first 8 to each of the 8 sub mix busses in MixBus, one to the master bus and one left over for control room maybe.
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by dante »

Late breaking news - Harrison Mixbus32C now supports VST3 and -

'VST3 support includes extensions for Softube Console1 plugins and control surfaces'.

Console 1 Fader might be my next acquisition.
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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

Just the fader? I think you need both 😬
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by dante »

Hmm damn that get expensive I think 🤔
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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

yes, it does 😌
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yayajohn
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by yayajohn »

Here are the specs on my new computer. (very similar to Katano's build) Still testing but appears to be working just fine with Xite-1.
The only snag was when I put the Xite-1 PCIe card in 1X slot #1, the BNC would not sync to the master clock. When I moved it to 1X slot #3 it synced up just nicely. (I think the fist slot has different specs than the rest)
Also a very strange noise seems to be coming from the computer thru the Xite-1 PCIe/HDMI cable to Xite-1 XLR outputs. (Confimed it was not going internal by checking via the Xite-1 headphones out and no noise.)
It is barely audible but noticeable when I crank up the volume on my mixer all the way. Sort of scratching noise when the hard drive is accessed and even when I move the mouse although to a much less degree. When i play an instrument at a normal volume I do not even hear it and as long as it is not recorded I suppose it really isn't worth troubleshooting but thought I'd post it here for folks.

ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-E
Intel Core i9-10900K 10-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1200 125W BX8070110900K
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel XMP 2.0
ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 ROG-STRIX-RX570-O8G-GAMING 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5
Sabrent 2TB Rocket 4 PLUS NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2 Internal SSD Extreme Performance Solid State Drive R/W 7100/6600MB/s
be quiet! DARK BASE 900 ATX Full Tower
Corsair RM750X PSU
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
WD Easy Store 10TB external USB and a couple of SATA hard drives from my last computer.

Oh yeah, one last thing if you are looking at these ASUS Z-490 ROG Strix motherboards. Be careful of the heat sink you buy because the CPU slot is very close to the RAM slots. I had a new heat sink sitting on my shelf that I installed and the mounting brackets extended out over the first 2 DIMM slots. I was able to bend the wing clip off to use the second DIMM slot but I have a water cooler heat sink on the way in case i want to utilize all 4 DIMM slots.
-Also If you are installing one of the new NVMe SSD's on this motherboard, there is a preinstalled heatsink and on the underside is a thermal layer with a plastic strip on it for protection during shipping. Make sure you peel that plastic strip off. I did not since there was no instructions that told me to to so but for some odd reason I decided to double check and luckily averted a possible thermal condition episode.
Whew!
Prefabricated back panel of the motherboard is a nice feature and seals it up perfectly w/o having to fiddle with those old metal cutouts.
Newcomputer.jpg
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katano
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by katano »

nice! 👍🏼💪🏼
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Bud Weiser
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by Bud Weiser »

yayajohn wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:53 am
... when I put the Xite-1 PCIe card in 1X slot #1, the BNC would not sync to the master clock. When I moved it to 1X slot #3 it synced up just nicely. (I think the fist slot has different specs than the rest)
Ooops,- I thought BNC Sync is broken in SCOPE v7.0 (x64) ...
Which SCOPE version do you use ?
yayajohn wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:53 am Also a very strange noise seems to be coming from the computer thru the Xite-1 PCIe/HDMI cable to Xite-1 XLR outputs.

That´s not normal IMO,- at least I don´t have that w/ the older PCIe card using DVI to HDMI connectors.

Did you try a different HDMI cable already ?
yayajohn wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:53 am ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-E
Intel Core i9-10900K 10-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1200 125W BX8070110900K
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel XMP 2.0
ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 570 DirectX 12 ROG-STRIX-RX570-O8G-GAMING 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5
Sabrent 2TB Rocket 4 PLUS NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2 Internal SSD Extreme Performance Solid State Drive R/W 7100/6600MB/s
be quiet! DARK BASE 900 ATX Full Tower
Corsair RM750X PSU
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
WD Easy Store 10TB external USB and a couple of SATA hard drives from my last computer.
Great specs and looks great too.

:)

Bud
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yayajohn
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by yayajohn »

Hey Bud. Not sure about the BNC. I think it is broken if you want to use the Xite as a master clock. Mine seems to work in slave and yes it is Scope 7.
Thought about the HDMI cable as the source of noise, I may try that before I shove it into it's final resting place for a decade hopefully. I ordered a bunch of USB 3 cable extenders. I'm going to build a break out cable so I won't have to try and crawl under all my shit and bang my head in the future :lol:
Now comes reinstalling all the crap.......uhhhgg!
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dawman
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by dawman »

Have fun.
Looks like a gem.
10 Cores. Anxious to see how ASIO plugs work.
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yayajohn
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by yayajohn »

Hey Jimmy HNY!
Not sure if the plugs I have would really test the CPU cores. (AAS,Arturia, MusicLab, Pianoteq, PA subscription bundle,AIR)
On one of Faxi's VSTi I made it hit 100% pretty easily. I think it was the Pathfinder WT but his later VSTi instruments basically made that one obsolete.
Probably will eventually invest in some more now that I can.
Mostly bought this system for future proofing because I sure don't enjoy the migration aspect of it.
PM me if there's something specific you want me to try.

Dan
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Bud Weiser
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Re: XITE-1 PC CONFIGURATION REFERENCE

Post by Bud Weiser »

yayajohn wrote: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:53 pm Hey Bud. Not sure about the BNC. I think it is broken if you want to use the Xite as a master clock. Mine seems to work in slave and yes it is Scope 7.
Excellent news !!!
I didn´t try because I might have misunderstood somewhere here @PlanetZ some time ago.

Now I will, because I want all the digital gear be slaves, except the masterclock I bought.

Thx for the pic and ...

Happy New Year !!!

:)

Bud
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