What devices used PC memory?

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:16 am

I´m using now a 3 dsp card with a Magma CB2 and a laptop IBM T40.
I have in mind the posibility of get a 6 or 15 dsp card, knowing that the cardbus have a limited bandwith.
I have asked this before, but I would like to be more specific.
I only use one device at time, and use SX as a audio tape recorder, so don´t record midi tracks.
The reason I would like to get more dsp, is to can have all devices needed loaded on the proyect, to can change quickly the instrument to play, without have to load a proyect each time, as I have to do with the 3 dsp card.
I know STS sampler uses PC memory, and so need bandwith what can solution it setting the number of voices to 0 when not use it.
Also the reverb requires bandwith, but I don´t use at all.
What about other devices, like B-2003? Dynatube? Synths?
B-2003 have fixed the number of voices, but, does it require bandwith?
What about Dynatube?

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:24 am

Go with 15 DSP's. You eventually will become more addicted, take it from a DSP junkie.

Post by **garyb** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 5:53 pm

afaik, it's mainly sts, delays and reverbs that use system memory.

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:30 pm

On 2006-09-10 11:38, stardust wrote:
...when going beyond the sample memory available onboard. In SDK the modules onboard memory ends around 3000 samples

Does it mean that depending on the device loaded, it will require or not system memory?
What do you think about B2003, and dynatube? have they enough onboard memory?

Eric Dahlberg · Post by **Eric Dahlberg** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:42 pm

On 2006-09-09 18:53, garyb wrote:
afaik, it's mainly sts, delays and reverbs that use system memory.

The STS's & delays don't really create much of a bandwidth issue, it's only the reverbs that hit the bus hard.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:41 pm

On 2006-09-10 15:30, lagoausente wrote:
...What do you think about B2003, and dynatube? have they enough onboard memory?

yes, the on-chip memory is more than enough for a couple of wave cycles - this is the advantage of real-time processing
... it's disadvantage is that you cannot do a simple off-line rendering of an audio file, but one cannot have all

cheers, Tom

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:49 pm

On 2006-09-10 16:42, Eric Dahlberg wrote:
...The STS's & delays don't really create much of a bandwidth issue, it's only the reverbs that hit the bus hard.

true, but with 'big' reverbs loaded, even those simple dealys don't get their slice of time and the device load may fail - at least on older cards than the Pulsar 2.

cheers, Tom

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:48 am

Thanks, that sounds good since I don´t use reverb on Scope at all, instead use it on SX.
Seems that I could go ok with my setup. Just one question. If I get a 15 dsp card, I asume I will can use all pluings I have on the 3 dsp one. But, probably I would like to remove the 3 dsp one from the Magma, because probably with the 2 cards could have less bandwith performance. In this case, would allow the all.key file work with the plugins I got for the 3 dsp, on the 15 one, but without the 3 dsp placed in the system?

[ This Message was edited by: lagoausente on 2006-09-11 12:49 ]

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:57 am

regardless how many cards are installed, only ONE uses PCI bandwidth for IO, so there is no need to change anything.
You will declare the ScopePro master and that's it.

cheers, Tom

Eric Dahlberg · Post by **Eric Dahlberg** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 3:28 pm

Tom is correct. FYI, if you do decide to remove the 3 chip card, you'll need to have your plug-ins transferred by Creamware. There is a plug-in transfer fee, though it is not so bad when you're doing them all at once (one-by-one is pretty pricey, unfortunately).

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:24 am

I supply my Magma with 12V. When empty, it consumes a few mA, when put the 3 dsp card, it consumes 0.5 amp.
I´m guessing how much would consume one 15 dsp? also 0.5 amp? o maybe the consumtion have relation with the number of dsp?
If the 15 dsp consume also 0.5 amp, maybe I would like to remove the 3 dsp one, just for more autonomy.
I thought that having the two cards registered, would have keyfilles for both.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:20 am

well, 2 watt per DSP isn't mindblowing, a pentium uses 10-20 times as much (afaik).
I have a 12V 4A PSU (size of a cigarette box) for my mini itx that feeds an additional regulation board for 12, 5 and 3.3 V and the complete set was less than 50 Euro if I remember right.
Those modern regulators are magnitudes more effective than the 'classical' PSU design, that means they produce almost no additional heat.

cheers, tom

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2006-09-13 12:21 ]

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:16 pm

On 2006-09-13 12:20, astroman wrote:
well, 2 watt per DSP isn't mindblowing, a pentium uses 10-20 times as much (afaik).
I have a 12V 4A PSU (size of a cigarette box) for my mini itx that feeds an additional regulation board for 12, 5 and 3.3 V and the complete set was less than 50 Euro if I remember right.
Those modern regulators are magnitudes more effective than the 'classical' PSU design, that means they produce almost no additional heat.

cheers, tom

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2006-09-13 12:21 ]

Probably is the same I´m using. Mine is Pico PSU, I would say it´s even smaller than a cigarrette box. I forget to say it. I have replaced the original power supply from the Magma CB2, and put the Pico PSU instead, that have been working perfectly.
I´m not saying that is much consum for each dsp, only have the doubt if the consum depends on the number of dsp, or not. The pci needs a amperage, my doubt is how much of this 0.5 amp are consumed by the dsp. If you have a 15 dsp card, could do a sigle measure, with and whitout the card.
It can be 5x 0.5 amp, so 2.5 amp
or maybe near the same as the 3 dsp one, let´s say for example, 0.8 amp, depending if the overall amperage is used by the dsp themselves or not.