PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Greetings all.
Since selling my Nord G2 I'm considering taking the Creamware plunge, but I have a few basic questions that some of you may be able to help me with.
Please excuse the newbishness of some of my questions

1) I'm primarily interested in working in the Modular III / Flexor environment-- generally, what kind of polyphony can I expect for a moderately complex polysynth patch (with fx) on a 6-dsp card? a 14-dsp?

2) Can I process external audio in realtime using the Modular III environment?

3) In general what is the quality of the effects on the scope platform. How much of this depends on whether you get the "mix and master" package? On par with say, midrange Lexicon?

4) How do you perceive the quality the A/D and D/A converters in the scope line of cards? COmparable to the low-end pro audio cards like M-Audio or Echo?

Thanks in advance...

1) dunno, varies.....quality over quantity is the rule here....

2)yes!

3)hardware quality. if you're interested in synths, get the synth and sampler pack. the effects available in the stock packs include all the basic stuff. for reverb the masterverb is quite good, but the aftermarket reverbs made by warp69 and sold by sonic timeworks are EXCELLENT. of course the best stuff takes up the most dsp... you can still use this stuff with your native and real-world effects and synths. it's not all or nothing.

4)the ad/da is first rate, better than the other stuff you mentioned.

1) I'm primarily interested in working in the Modular III / Flexor environment-- generally, what kind of polyphony can I expect for a moderately complex polysynth patch (with fx) on a 6-dsp card? a 14-dsp?


The heaviest patch I made, should allow 2-3 voices on a 6dsp card, but it's a real monster, I've seen also patches doing 10-12 voices on such a card....and also more if they use wavetables....A 14dsp card gives you a lot of power you can have much more stuff than a patch....


2) Can I process external audio in realtime using the Modular III environment?

Absolutely! and no latency at all. You could have a stupid dx7 outboard and transform it in something huge...You can compress, treat, emulate amplifiers (FleXor package of modules for the Modular is absolutely stunning in all these tasks and has the better sounding filters of all the VA history). I use a Modular patch to connect an outboard vintage Davoli Krundaall spring reverb as aux effect to the stm2448 mixer, that allows me to eq. it and with some envelope followers I can shape the response and transform it in Hall, Room, Ambience, Reverse...hehe a delirium!

3) In general what is the quality of the effects on the scope platform. How much of this depends on whether you get the "mix and master" package? On par with say, midrange Lexicon?

I find the quality overall excellent. I recommend the M&M package. If you go a bit around on PlZ you can read opinions. An highlite are P-100 and A-100+I-100 Reverb stuff designed by Warp69 and distributed by Sonic Timeworks, they are similar to hi-end lexicons rather than midrange ones.
I stopped using CPU native stuff at all!

4) How do you perceive the quality the A/D and D/A converters in the scope line of cards? COmparable to the low-end pro audio cards like M-Audio or Echo?
It seems to me very good, the external CWA converters boxes are said to be excellent.
Personally I use an Apogee Mini-Me that's very very good, I didn't try other cards directly.

I hope it helped

I appreciate the replies, you've helped me decide.

Based on advice, I'm leaning towards choosing the synth+sampler pack over the mix+master and then getting better 3rd party effects. Seems like the Project card should be powerful enough for my purposes.

One more question: Exactly how many analog Inputs and Outputs do the project cards have? It's kind of ambiguous: specs say balanced I/Os-- Is that 2 pairs or just a single pair? I would prefer at least stereo in and stereo out to and from my hardware mixer. I've been straining my eyes too long trying to figure it out with the picture of the hardware

Thanks.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: doof on 2004-12-13 16:41 ]</font>

That's stereo in, stereo out

[edit: found good pic:]


There's the balanced connections... The EBU replaces coax S/P-DIF on this card. EBU needs only 1 cable per stereo pair, so you see 3 input and 3 output audio connections. Also 3 MIDI connections, I/O/T.
On both sides of the snake cable connection at the IO daughterboard, you can see 4 caps covering the optical IO. These can be switched in the OS, to S/P-DIF or ADAT.

Anyone happen to know what the blue connector on the card itself is for? Syncplate?

_________________
<FONT SIZE="-1">Imagine a whole planet without ads...</FONT>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: at0m|c on 2004-12-13 18:46 ]</font>

... meaning both ... or in other words 4rca/xlr depending on the card.

Sync plate.
this comes also in black for those who wonder how comes they dont see blue.

I'm placing my order this evening


Thanks for the help guys, I look forward to posting to this forum in the future.

I hope you're not doof, which in Dutch means you can't hear anything at all

You're welcome

Welcome! you've come to the right place. The Z is full of useful info and helpful and creative people.