PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

hey dudes,
i was asking about the pulsar on the musiczone 2001 forum and i was directed here....

ok,that time of year is coming around again:new gear time.
I currently own a Supernova 2,A4000,er-1,Lex MPX 500,spirit mixer,compressor and a 650mhz Athlon PC with 384mb RAM and cubase 5. I'm in need of new sounds,a bigger mixer and decent mastering processors, i was originally thinking of a Waldorf XT and a penta compressor but then i saw this lovely Pulsar 2...now i have a difficult decision,which to get?what do you think would be better in the long run? (i may get the XT at a later date if i buy the pulsar now).
i'll have a better idea myself if you guys could answer a few questions i have about the pulsar system:
1. if i buy now do i get the pro-pack free?

2. how many in's and out's do i get with the card? i would love to be able to hook all my fx and synths/sampler into the card and even have some going into the desk and then the card.it has something on the site about 20 i/o's...will i actually get 20 analogue i/0's???

3.is the wavetable soft-synth on the pulsar anywhere near the quality of a waldorf microwave XT?

4.are there many extra quality synths available for the card? is there good 3rd party support...i.e once i buy the card can i be sure it won't be quickly redundant?

5.how many midi channels are available on the card? someone told me that the max was 16 but then another said it was infinite depending on my processor power...sort of like in cubase.

6.will the card easily integrate with cubase? will the DSP chips take the strain off my CPU for things like VSTi's and cubase audio or does it only handle it's own software? and will my PC be able to handle the card without too much strain?

7.will i be able to run the pulsar alongside my SBLive? or should i just take the SBLive out altogether since it won't actually be used?

8. will it make my Spirit SX redundant? how best would i integrate it into my existing studio?

i know there's a lot to get through there but i'd really appreciate if you could answer some on those,
Cheers

Yow, there's a lot to answer here.. There's a few I won't be able to answer to I'll skip 'em.

1. As far as I know, new users get the propack for free. Has the campaign ended already? It' better if you check at creamware's site.

2. The IO business is a bit complex. You get analogue LR in and out. The rest you have to do with ADAT. (througha digital mixer) And I believe you also get a couple of spdif. Using ADAT for para IO seems the most logical way, but requires external gear.

3. Don't got Microwave so I can't compare.

4. 3rd party support really kicks ass. There LOTS of commercial synths, including some built by the dude who made the Prophet. Then you get a whole bunch of free synths and effects that take quite a while to explore. (I've been using this for some time now but I still haven't gone through the list) Plus, the community here is really nice. You'll get comfortable in no time. :>

5. I believe it's 16, due to MIDI specifications.

6. Cubase integration is cool I think. Tho I'm on Nuendo at the moment. It won't accelerate VSTi's. If you run Pulsar as it is, you use another Pulsar OS application to control loading synths and hooking up mixers and such. If you run Pulsar in XTC mode, you do all that within Cubase. The Pulsar OS software is known to be graphic intensive and a little tight on the resources. I run P4 2gig with 512 ram and it's no problem at all for me, but when I had PIII 600 with 256 ram, things were pretty tight. Even with my current setup, I can't get the VU meters to display at real time.

7. You'll instantly throw your SBLive away unless you're really into gaming. Or.. well, you could use it to listen to CDs.. But these 2 can coexist. I'm using SBLive's MIDI port to control my Nord Modular. (me too!)

8. Spirit what? Call me ignorant but I dunno what it is.

So that was the list...
But just to let you in on a little secret, as much as Pulsar may seem like the ultimate DSP card (and it is), it's got a plethora of its own problems that you'll have to learn to deal with. But once you learn your way around, you can make it rock. (It's sort of like getting a new girlfriend.. they're built under very similar codes, but ya still have learn your way around. But once you know all the buttons... he hehe..)


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2001-12-11 03:06 ]</font>

Hi,

I can answer one or two of these:

1. I'd check but I believe so - you need this the PulsarMixer is essential in my eyes. You also get the modular and the STS3000. So its a must buy even if its not free.

2. Again check out the different options. I have the standard one and I use: analog in - goes to my sub mixer (a little behringer 10/2 thing) which brings in some of my synths, analog out - goes to my amp, S/PDIF in/out goes to my Lexicon mpx1 (which I set up as an external effect in the pulsar environment meaning I can just route it like everything else) and ADAT in/out goes to my FD8 hard disk recorder. I've still got an adat spare. Midi goes to and from my Waldorf XTk which I use as a control surface (as well as a synth )

3. The wavetable oscilators are as good as the XT (Waldrof wrote them and they are very good at DSP - check out the PPG plugin). What you are missing are the truly evil filters on the XT - if waldorf could make these for the Pulsar we would be laughing.

4. Yep - loads. For a start get yourself the Saturn (see elsewhere on these boards). Wavelength stuff looks good (if their freebies are anything to go by). I have my eye on their FM synth. I also fancy a Vectron when funds permit.

5. not sure

6. It integrates well with cubase - but I am not a power user. It only handles its own stuff (VST's are not written for the SHARC chips). You can run in it in "XTC" mode and use a lot of it as VST plugins but to be honest that just seems fiddly to me - its easier to have the whole thing running separately.

7. I run my SBlive as well - its a bit sad now though - all it gets used for is a midi connection to my Nord modular. It did used to get used for CD's until I discovered the background project stuff. I guess I will still use it for games if I ever get round to playing any.

8. Most likely - yes. I am selling my big mixer (a Behringer 3282) - the PulsarMixer is WAY better - if I need more analog inputs I'll get a luna and the A16 (or whatever its called breakout box).

My recomendation - go for it. The XT is great but in terms of Bang per buck the pulsar will open many many more doors. It comes with some fairly nice compressors as well. I must admit after I mix down through the pulsar (one of the great things about the pulsar is that you can rewire your studio in seconds - I have different setups for different things including a setup fully geared towards mastering) I run my mixes through T-Racks which seems to give them a bit of space and warmth (still getting the hang of it though - pretty much using the presets right now).

hope that helps a bit

mark

thanks a million guys,that really does clear up a lot of things,the only thing is the Midi channels....but i suppose if i use it in XTC mode i'm going to get unlimited channels in cubase aren't i?

now i've just got to get a good price....

The metering is pretty darn good, if you consider it shows the VUs in realtime. Programs like Cubase/Nuendo have the entire waveform at their disposal so they can peak into the future, something the CW cards cannot do. I think the metering is good, especially in WinXP, if you take this into account.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2001-12-11 08:44 ]</font>