PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hi All!

I want to buy Luna II soon, but still don't know answers on some questions. Will be very thankful to everybody who can help me. If you are a Luna II owner and have experience working with it, please give me an advise, is Luna II worthy to purchase or you can recommend another sound card(for the same money) to work with computer only(without any external hardware sound equipment)? I need to work with 3-4 applications simultaneously !!! My first choice was Echo Mia, but i didn't know about Luna II. Now, i know Luna II with it's 3 DSP/Plug-ins and it's very alluring card to purchase.

So my questions are:

1) Does the Luna II represent in the operation system as SEVERAL independent audio ports(i.e., i can to assign one application to each port so as it possible to run a few ones simultaneously) or as a SINGLE port ? If more than single, how much ?

2) If Luna II represents as several ports, can it work with different(GSIF, ASIO, DirectSound, MME...) applications SIMULTANEOUSLY ? For example, i want to run Gigastudio, Cakewalk, Samplitude(with DX Plug-ins) and Reaktor(or another soft synth) or VST Plug-ins at one time ? Or less than 4 applications, so how much ?

3) Does system "Sharc DSP/Plug-ins" make MUCH MORE higher quality processing than DX/VST Plug-ins ? Or it's not a big difference in quality in order to buy more expensive Luna II instead, for example, Echo Mia(has 4 stereo<8 mono> virtual ports) ?

4) Does Luna II simultaneously work with 2-3 applications which use different sample rate ? For example, Gigastudio 16bit 44.1KHz, Samplitude 16bit 48/22.5KHz and like this ?

5) Are there any problems with running DX/VST Plug-ins on Luna II ?

Thank YOU very much!!!

Welcome to the Z! You have some excellent questions:

1. Yes; 16 Wave devices (That's 32 channels) in Win98/ME, 8 Wave devices (16 channels) in Win2K/XP. Maybe more in 2K/XP if you use the interleaved devices, but I use ASIO, so I am not sure the limit in 2k/XP.

2. Sure, you can load as many VST instruments (which output via ASIO) as your CPU can handle, up to 64-ASIO channels. The ASIO driver is not multiclient from what I can tell, but you can load the VST instruments in your sequencer, so only one ASIO host program is required; You can easily run Logic (w/ ASIO driver, 64 channels) and SoundForge and Winamp (wave drivers), all at the same time, for example.

3. In general, the DSP synths on Luna (free downloads such as Saturn, Star, TransPlanet, LOfi, orange303, UKNOW007, BlueSynth, etc) sound much better than most VST instruments, at least to me... But the nice thing, you can keep using whatever VST instruments and effects you want, because the DSP synths on Luna don't take any of your CPU power!

4. No, you must run at one sample rate, some software might be able to do realtime sample rate conversions, but this is definitely not suggested if you seek high quality finished audio - on ANY audio card. But you can work with different bit depths between programs easily.

5. No problems that I know of!

Subhuman, thank you very much!

Ok, it's cool. Well...

1) For example, examine 8 Wave devices (16 channels) in Win2K/XP.

2) 64-ASIO channels - are great, but please explain me, what does '1 WAVE DEVICE' mean, talking about Luna II ???

If ONLY '1 running_application, which outputs via MME-DRIVER' can be assigned to '1 WAVE DEVICE'?

Or, for example, to one 'WAVE DEVICE' i can assign 'MME-DRIVER_running_application', to second 'WAVE DEVICE' - 'DirectSound-DRIVER_running_application', to third 'WAVE DEVICE' assign 'ASIO_running_application' and to fourth - 'GSIF_running_application', etc.? And all of that is running at the SAME TIME!
It's important! Because, i'm interesting in simultaneous working with a)Luna DSP/Sampler/Plug-ins/Synth/Mixer..., b)Gigastudio(GSIF), c)ASIO(VST Plug-ins/Cubase or Logic...), d)Samplitude(DirectSound)! Or set of apps like that. Can i do it all together ? Is it possible ?

3) Well.
And how much 'synths(like which you've enumerated)' + 'Reverb_Equalizer_Compressor to each mixer channel' can produce Luna 3 DSP without any problems ?

4) How does in practice 'Elektra Modular Synthesiser' work? Is it enough - power of Luna 3 DSP ?

For working with application you said, is no problem at all, Luna as a real GSIF driver, which you can route in your mixer. This is not affecting in any way the directsound driver or wav driver for example. Driver are loaded dynamicaly using the Luna interface (Luna OS), so you load the needed driver for your need. I work with Logic(asio2), Wavlabs (wav driver), and recycle (wav driver also) at the same time without any problems, in fact this the best way you can optimise the use of all those app togheter, as you'll soon find out!

For example, you would load asio2 driver and decide yourself how many channels you need for INs or OUTs, when using Cubase, or Logic, or any other sequencer using Asio.

Then after, if you want samplitude or SOundForge, or wavlab, you would also load a wav driver, or 2, if you need 2 program to use them. If you use DX plugins, well just so you understand, you don't really need to load DirectSound driver, they will work even if you load only asio or wav driver. Myself i use 'some' (not many) DX plugins and don't have no directSond driver loaded.

The best part is that you can route whatever source (hardware input, or software input) to whatever destination (hardware output, or software output) freely from the Luna OS...

about Modular2, well Luna as enough DSP to drive most of the patches(all?), but you'll not be able to have that much polyphony...You can expect at least 2/3 voices each, maybe more depending on the complexity of the patch.

and i totaly agree with subhuman, even the free synth sound MUCH better to my ears than any of the VST or DXi synth i ever heard, maybe the only one that can sustain a comparaison is reaktor... And this stop right there.

Modular2 is MUCH MORe than a simple synth, it's a effects creator, step sequencer, sample player, filter banks all midi controlable with 8 individuals inputs and outputs. You can do whatever you imagine with this. You can download a synth per day for almost a year with what's already available. This is the best thing you can get on Luna or other DSP card.

If you're into sampling, well once you've tryed any of the STS, you won't go back, ever... I had GigaStudio, eventhough it as more polyphony, it si SO easy to manipulate the STS that i found myself always using STS anyway. Except maybe for mega giga piano things, and even then...

Ok, i realized this must sound alot biased, but it give you an idea of how much i love my cards!!! I consider my Luna the first real audio card that i ever buyed...and i had alot before, since i've also buyed an old pulsar1+ to complete this, i also have the Luna IOBox.

Anyway, i have a friend that own a Delta 1010, and he drools in front of my setup...


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: marcuspocus on 2002-01-12 22:34 ]</font>

VERY grateful to marcuspocus!
I've got qualitative information.
I think, my choice will be the Luna II.

Can i keep in touch with you by ICQ or E-mail ? I don't insist, but if you have nothing against it, i would like to talk to you later.
It is also concern of subhuman!
Just don't know with who i can to talk about Luna.
Thank You!

Well hello,

I've been a luna user for 'bout 2-3 months now an all I can say is : IT ROXX, it does take some time getting to know all the features(I don't know all of em yet) but once you get started you won't know how to stop, .... it's quite addictive...

GO for it an have a good time,

greetz!

If you also plan to use your Luna as a virtual synth, or would like to create your own effects, take a good look at the Modular 2. Just do a search on this forum on this subject and you'll see what others have to say about it.

You'll probably want to buy the Elektra(Luna + Modular2 bundle) instead of buying the Modular separately.

I know, it's what I should have done but...

Anyway, now that I have my Modular, I have a good reason to stop wasting 8hrs/day just to sleep.

You might want to look at <a href="www.infinitevortex.com">www.infinitevortex.com</a>. They might still have the Elektra + STS3000 sampler bundle for a very good price.



RedSun .:.

LunaII+LunaII=Pulsar ?

Am i right, talking about DSP power?

I mean, if i'll buy the LunaII one time and will add the second LunaII later, will i get a power of 2x3DSP(if 2xLunaII combined into one system), equal to power of Pulsar(6 DSP)?

I simply can't spend so much money to buy a Pulsar immediately. And i'm deep in thought... may be, it's not the best way to combine two LunaII cards... what do you think???

Yes, plus the advantages of having more IO :

2 x midi IN
2 x midi OUT
2 x SPDIF IO
2 x Analog 1/4" stereo IN
2 x Analog 1/4" stereo OUT
2 x ZLINK (to add a A16 Ultra later maybe?)

But you won't have the soft...

And the software is nothing to laugh at, PulsarPro Mixer is simply awesome (can't imagine what I did without it!), Prisma, Lightwave, Vectron Player... some of the effects Pulsar comes with are really nice like the BBE Sonicmaximizer wanna be, Tube emulations, etc...

I'm not in need of multiple external connections. I just need(now at least) to connect MIDI-keys, one line-in, one line-out and one digital-in.
So if i don't need so much an additional ext.connections, has the "Pulsar" any advantages(soft- or hardware) over the "2xLunaII"? And what is the soft you are talking about?