Hey guys! Got a question about the Luna

[manybro]

Hello forumites.

I have a question for you guys.

I got a mate who has an old LunaII card and I'm thinking of buying it but on the website "extensions" page it has the adat expansion plate for 230 euros and I'm not sure if it comes with it already.

Anyone shed some light here would be useful.

Thanks

[astroman]

it was a very unusual item with the old Luna. Most people bought the Luna Converter box instead.
Imho the best Adat expansion for that card is a 2nd hand Pulsar One, as you'll need the extra DSPs for anything beyond plain mixing.

cheers and welcome, Tom

[manybro]

Hey tom glad to join!

I get awful confused about the products. I know theres a past here with creamware/soniccore and I've never seen a picture of a luna box.

I also dont know the difference between a luna 1 or a luna 2.

If you got any information about any of these products it would be very helpful indeed.

one thing I did find out was with the software (V5) you don't get any of the additional software packages aka synth 'n' sampler or mix 'n' master but that's fine as I don't intend to go beyond "basic mixing" at this point.

What I don't get is and I'm making an assumption here, does LunaI mean no additional i/o plate and LunaII the opposite?

Any more help would be much appreciated.

Thanks again for the willkommen

[garyb]

the later versions of the Scope Home came with the adat expansion. it was optional with the earlier 3dsp cards like the Luna. there's no Luna 1 that i know of.

actually, if you like what Scope can do, 3dsps is too frustratingly few...especially for mixing. you'll be able to run a few effects though, or one of the heavier synths and that's about it. the nice thing is that you'll still have a great sounding i/o card and handy routing possibilities.

[manybro]

Hi GaryB!

So because there is a new version that's the reason why people call it LunaII and there's no such thing!

So it's only scope home (soniccore) that has the extra i/o card and you must purchase it (adat expansion) separately if you have old creamware stock.

I can't believe it is not on the website!!

Anyhoo I think you are right about only having 3DSPs, this would hinder a big mix or song production but I was only thinking about it instead of something else which leaves me to the next question...

...what are the drivers like?

Do soniccore maintain solid and stable drivers under windows?

I was thinking about getting a powercore but hear bad reports such as nearly impossible to get going on windows 7.

So any W7 users here?

Thanks for the info

Greetz

[siriusbliss]

Hi GaryB!

Do soniccore maintain solid and stable drivers under windows?

yes.

Drivers have been rock-solid here for 10 years now

Even switching between drivers (from WDM, to ASIO and back) on some project configurations (at different sample rates as well) has been good and reliable - including on my old Pulsar I.

Greg

[manybro]

Hey Greg, thank you for writing back.

Sounds promising about program switching and so on.

So how come you would need to switch from WDM to ASIO? Isn't WDM high latency or are you talking about playback? I know Cakewalk or sonar now uses something to bypass the windows mixer but I have not a clue how it works.

I've only been looking at this platform a short time since a friend brought it up as I was considering another interface and they told me to look at soniccore platform instead as it had mixers, synths and so on as well as standard IO.

Now how does it work say with something like sonar? Are they compatible?

I mainly do recordings so would a luna (home) allow me to do that? I think it has the adat i/o so guess I could use a presonus lightpipe or something or am I on the wrong trail here.

As for z-link I don't have a clue and would need some guidance there.

Oh and I looked up PulsarI, that is a 4DSP card but there may also be a 6DSP that I can purchase as well.

Thanks for the replies everyone

[siriusbliss]

I occasionally use WDM for mastering - although even that's rare nowadays.

G

[astroman]

Now how does it work say with something like sonar? Are they compatible?

I mainly do recordings so would a luna (home) allow me to do that? I think it has the adat i/o so guess I could use a presonus lightpipe or something or am I on the wrong trail here.

As for z-link I don't have a clue and would need some guidance there.

Oh and I looked up PulsarI, that is a 4DSP card but there may also be a 6DSP that I can purchase as well. ...

yes, no problem with Sonar - the software 'sees' only the drivers, not the card itself
any converter with adat-io will do, you might prefer one with mic-pres if you don't have any of those (depends on what you record)
z-link is a custom protocol for Creamware/Sonic Core Converter boxes, ie. the A16 ultra today (the 8-channel box I mentioned above is discontinued)
the 6 DSP version is better, not just for more processing power, but for it's faster IO-system
plugins are licensed to the individual card, picking up a 2nd hand one may include an attractive software bonus, check it in descriptions
on a Luna alone you won't be able to run the new reverb plugins included in software version 5
(maybe the plugin itself, but not in a reasonable context - these are very good reverbs, I bought them for 250 Euro before they werde bundled)

cheers, Tom

[manybro]

Thanks Tom

What I'm not getting I suppose is how can you "embed" an application in scope "environment".

I'm used to using standalone apps like cantible and so on. These programs sometimes use WDM (i think) and sometimes ASIO, now if the luna has its own ASIO driver then how would something like Cubase work?

As I am also considering moving over to cubase from sonar I'd need to get this right as well.

At the moment I'm just using cheap converters on a USB interface.

Thanks again guys for the pleasant replies.

[garyb]

i'd take a luna over a crappy usb interface anyday. Scope cards sound especialy great.

Cubase requires a driver either asio or wdm to connect t hardware. the asio driverin Scope connects Cubase to the real world.

Scope is an unusual product. it is virtual reality. the aso driver shows up in the Scope environment as the i/o jacks for the virtual multitrack tape deck that th sequencer is. there are mixers and effects tatcan be usd in that environment, the virtual room that is the Scope routing window. the real world's hardware i/o also show up in that virtual room and can be connected in REAL TIME to anything else in that environment, so it's possible to connect various software programs and hardware devices in real time when monitored in the Scope environment. naturally, there's latency between Scope and a sequencer, but not between Scope and the real world. when monitoring in Scope, any latency from software becomes irrelevant, at least as far as mixing goes, because it's not going to be worked with before it's heard. this means that Scope can also be used for live work and that real hardware can easilybe integrated into a mix, so ALL of one's options are always open. anything that can be done with real hardware can be done with Scope and at the highest quality(many pieces of hardware are actually dsp devices), but at a fraction of the cost. every device DOES require at least part of a dsp and the highest quality devices can be quite dsp hungry, but still, the price of Scope is a 1/10 or even 1/1000 of the cost of real gear. the great thing is that good gear never really becomes obsolete. Scope cards can make even an old computer a valuable piece of music-making machinery. they are a real long term investment, unlike the latest trendy devices that are meant to be discarded in 6 months.