Is the Scope platform dying

[Ambient Source]

I've been using a couple of scope cards for a year, (somebody gave me a couple of old pulsar 1 cards)
and I brought scope 5, I love the modular synth and some of the synths, but my systems not powerful enough
for any serious work, I am tempted to buy an xite , but I'm wondering if the platform will last much longer?

when was the last new scope plugin released?

[garyb]

is it about new stuff, or is it about good stuff?

SonicCore is alive and well. new stuff was last year from dNa, i believe, but there was a DAS eq update last month. the elusive v6 is still in development.

no, there's not a lot of obvious progress right now, but the platform is far from dead. just like the cards that you have been playing with are 18 years old and still cool, an XITE-1 should still be cool 18 years into the future, even just as it is.

will Scope still be around? it's much more likely if you buy something.

[dante]

BC Modular, dNa (Optimus Prime) and DAS have all released plugin updates this year. Ferrofish with new hardware upcoming.

Being a Modular user, if you haven't checked out BC Modular and plan on getting an XITE - there will be enough to keep you busy for years. Trust me, you wont want any more flashy newby plug distraction for a long time.

Scope is like a house - built on solid foundations so it will last. And you can renovate it with a few slaps of native sampling paint wheneva u want !

[Ambient Source]

I'm sorry if my last comment came across as a veiled criticism, I just think that the scope platform has so many possibilities
for great sounding devices, it just seemed to me that development is pretty much at a standstill.
looking back through the old posts, there was lots more going on with 3rd party Dev's in 2005-2009
then there is now.

I really have no experience of the platform's full potential as a complete production environment,
as I only have 2 old cards, but my aim is to integrate an Xite into my existing ITB setup with reaper x64
as my DAW, my favorite Acustica audio EQ's and a few algo plugs.

my one question is how do you demo stuff before buying,
I'd love to try out some of the Zarg synths, to see which ones would be best suited to my music.

[garyb]

to get a demo version, you need the Scope hardware.
install the plugin from the files on the SC ftp(get there from the download page of the SC site).
to install the plugin, with Scope closed, put the file from the zip into the corresponding folders in Scope, in other words, from Device\synth in the zip folder, to the synth folder in Scope, from the presets folder in the zip file to the preset folder in Scope. start Scope and put the device into the routing window. a registration window will open. copy the request string to the clipboard and paste it into an email to support requesting a demo key. i'll send a demo key back to you via email.

[tlaskows]

If you're gonna have one of the Zargs to choose from only, Pro Wave is an obvious choice for me. Except it has some issues on x64. The wavetables don't work. I like simple, so don't really care much for Solaris 5.0.

-Tom

[Ambient Source]

Thanks for the advice, I tried out the prowave, and I managed to get some nice sounds out of it without to much effort,
I'd say it gets pretty close to the sound of a real Prophet, but lacks the harshness that I used to get from the (hardware) Prophet 5
it's a shame about the problems Zarg synths have with x64, (will they be fixed?)

next i'm going to try out Solaris 5.0 if I can load it on my old pulsar cards

[tlaskows]

If you have at least 12 DSPs or so, it should load fine with a few voices of polyphony. I have 45 DSP system and it doesn't work very well on it (maybe 5 voices max per instance).

-Tom

[Sounddesigner]

Thanks for the advice, I tried out the prowave, and I managed to get some nice sounds out of it without to much effort,
I'd say it gets pretty close to the sound of a real Prophet, but lacks the harshness that I used to get from the (hardware) Prophet 5
it's a shame about the problems Zarg synths have with x64, (will they be fixed?)

next i'm going to try out Solaris 5.0 if I can load it on my old pulsar cards

Have you tried the dNa plugins? I think many people sleep on them and don't realize just how great they are. Optimus Prime is steller. IMV dNa brought some extraordinary plugins to this platform in recent times, the plugins truly made SCOPE stronger on some fronts IMO.

Devices from dNa, Celmo (Spring reverb, tape echo sim, etc), Sonic Core (Modular 4, etc ), Adern (Flexor and Mojo), some of the SDK developers free devices, etc are what will always keep SCOPE alive for me. I'm sure Sonic Core are trying to finish SCOPE 6 and will release it at some point but even if SCOPE 6 never got released and Sonic Core perished I'd still be happy with my XITE-1 and at some point I'd still buy another XITE-1. SCOPE is a special platform that is bigger than the company that owns it and capable of out-living the company that owns it (It out-lived Creamware and can out-live whoever else). SCOPE's specialness does not depend heavily on the company that owns it, or constant new plugins releases, or Microsoft, etc . SCOPE should actually take people out that latest-and-greatest endless chase for new virtual gear since it has been complete and mature for a very long time while other platforms were and are trying to mature and SCOPE's sound-quality always remains great no matter what era we're in. SCOPE does not abide by the industries laws of physics and is truly outside that universe, an insane universe that often makes no sense and it keeps at its heart glitz, glamour, sensationalism, etc wich keeps the naïve and addicts spending money. XITE-1 was great 6 years ago at its birth and is great today and will be great tomorrow despite whatever is going on in other platforms or with Sonic Core. Holgar convinced me he cares about SCOPE and is doing what he can to develop this extremely complex and complicated platform that demands endless man-hours of work due to its complexity. Apart from bug-fixes whatever new things Holgar brings to SCOPE is only bonus simply cause SCOPE already is and always has been a beast starting with the old pci cards to the newer XITE-1 wich has more power, etc.

I'm no blind-fanboy I know SCOPE is not perfect and has many flaws but everytime someone points out its flaws they never come with a adequate replacement to SCOPE. 'Find me something truly better than SCOPE if SCOPE is so deficient' is what I say. Nothing is like SCOPE or does all it does.

You might want to thoroughly explore the platform and try many of the best devices to fairly assess the platform, you do that and you'll see just how mighty SCOPE truly is and how self-sufficient it is. It is a bonifide heart-of-Studio and Master environment. JMPOV.


EDITED

[Ambient Source]

My reasoning for getting Scope & Xite, was the obvious creative possibilities it could offer me,
As a middle aged Synthesist, I've had loads of nice hardware over the years, but due to family,space etc
I'm now totally in the box, so getting Scope is sort of a no brainer for me.

sure the graphics and UI need updating but the core engine still sounds great.

I would love to create some new and interesting devices, how easy is it?
do you have to code everything or is there an easy Reaktor like interface?
dragging and dropping module libraries

With the dsp power an Xite offers, would a emulation of synclavier FM engine be possible?

I'm looking to buy an Xite quite soon, so I'd like to learn as much as possible

thanks

Rob

[tlaskows]

Yes, the SDK is kind of like dragging and dropping DSP modules and connecting them together. I will have to play with it a bit more. The SDK costs 98 Euros.

-Tom

[jksuperstar]

You also have the massive Modular devices as well. No extra license or specific cards needed for that. And any work you do there, will help understanding the SDK world.

[sunmachine]

Here's a screenshot of the SDK I found on the web: http://www.nienkemper.net/SDK_500.jpg
Yes, you build your device circuits graphically in a modular way.

[tlaskows]

I can take a better screenshot if you really want to see what it looks like...

-Tom

[Ambient Source]

that would be great

[tlaskows]

Well, I don't know what I'm doing cause I need to read the manual. But there are hundreds of modules and basic DSP blocks.

[Bud Weiser]

With the dsp power an Xite offers, would a emulation of synclavier FM engine be possible?

The NED Synclavier FM engine alone isn´t worth being modeled.
It´s far behind any Yammi DX/TX hardware synth.

In fact, Synclavier was somewhat 2 OP FM where OP2 is the modulator and there are no switchable algorithms at all.

BUT,- the CARRIER is the beast because it´s kind of 24 additive partials waveform OSC,- so OP2, as the fix wired modulator, modulates the 24 freely tunable carrier frequencies while each partial (root and overtones) is individually scalable by ENV generators.
But from that point, it´s the end of digital in a Synclavier´s synth engine.
Everything coming after the additive OSC/2OP FM engine is ... ANALOGUE !

Then all the sample OSCs related stuff and DSP processing comes in addition.

Will say, the NED Synclavier is still a unique toy and lots of hardware component modelling would be necessary to come up w/ a sound close to a Synclavier.

For FM (or PD) alone, any 4OP Yamaha and Casio CZ,- or good remakes/emulations are much better already.

Bud

[Ambient Source]

A Synclavier emulator native vst https://soundcloud.com/cyclotron2010/au ... synclavier

it's the work of Mathias Gurk , a work in progress, but this is why I asked about the feasibility of something like this in Scope.

[dawman]

Bassists often ask my partner if they should go with a 6 string.....
He replies if you cant get the job done on 4 the extra 2 or 4 strings wont matter.

[dante]

Then again why use two hands to generate one note when you can generate twice as many with the same hands ?

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