PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hi there,

Up until recently I’ve been using a 2x Pulsar v1 connected with STDM. Then I’ve been getting fed up with the ‘PCI overflow message’ so I bought a Scope 14dsp card (without any audio I/Os). Problem is that I want to use it in conjunction with my original Pulsar v1 card with all my plugins, and for audio IOs.

I’ve set the cset.ini to use the Scope card as the main board, and it works ok in the Scope software. I occasionally get the PCI overflow message still, but then I just ‘retry’ and it re-arranges all the DSP usage onto the Scope card (until it’s full of course ). This works fine, but the problem is in XTC mode which I prefer to use. About 50% of the time I run Cubase, it opens up with the ‘PCI overflow’ message appearing instantly, and when I ‘retry’ it seems to rearrange the DSP load without any problems.

However, when I go to play I can’t hear anything…everything seems to work ie I can see volume meters going up & down, and all the Inputs appear activated - ASIO Scope is selected, INTPUS are activated, but there’s no audio signal coming through the Pulsar v1. Even when I try to ‘reload IOs’, it doesn’t help. The only way around it is to restart Cubase and hope I don’t get the error message.

Is there anyway of disabling the DSP functionality of the Pulsar v1 so I can just use the audio IOs on it?

...or anything else I can do apart from chucking the pulsar v1 card in the bin, and buying a newer card - which versions are the best now?

I also tried reducing the latency, but it should work at 4ms if the scope is set as the main board which it is....

My system is:
sfp v4
1xpulsarv1
1x scope booster board
Intel DP965 + core2duo
USB disabled
IRQ 21 pulsar - no sharing
IRQ22 scope - no sharing
winxp

Thanks for the response, my main board is:

INTEL DP965LT
1x stdm cable to connect pulsar I

it could be that cubase loose ASIO when rearanging dsps and switches automaticaly to the wave driver;
have a look in the cubasesettings when it happens to see if they r active;

good luck

...after further investigation I've found that strangely I also lose sound in the SFP software. What happens is:

- I load SFP and it works fine
- I start loading up the DSP with a minimax so I can hear the synth - fine
- then I add a few reverbs without any problems and increase no. of voices on minimax until...
- at some point I get the 'PCI overflow' message, i click retry, and it appears to re-arranged everything succesfully
- but there's no sound at all!! all the connections are still visible throughout, and the volume meters are moving up and down when i activate the minimax through midi, but there's no sound coming out! (the pulsar analong dest is still wired up )
- the only way to stop it is to re-start SFP, then it works again. (I tried removing the pulsar analog dest, and reinserting it but it didn't make any difference)

Could it be the license keys, as everything is registered to the v1 board? or is it just an old board...the board has version 1.01 stamped on it, it's from 2000.

It's a bit weird really....thanks for your comments

when the dsps are reloaded, the asio driver still needs to be reset in the sequencer. you can do that in the vst setup in cubase(reset all).

the newer cards are less likely to suffer from dsp overload, but there's always a limit. best to be aware of that point.

btw-xtc mode is with scope closed, no?

yep, scope is closed when I run cubase..

The strange thing is cubase is that if I change sample frequency to 96 and then back to 44.1, it manages to re-activate the sound!

As I mentioned in my last post, the loss of sound also occurs in the scope software, even though it appears to be working ok. Is there any 'Reset' function in the scope software, apart from a restart?

Thanks,
Chris

if you mean when scope is open(in scope mode), then yes. the reset is to change samplerate and then back, or change master/slave and then back.

yes, change the sample rate (or the sync master)
just as you experienced - but it's not an intentional reset procedure, the reset is a side effect as all the DSPs get reloaded that way.
But it would not help if the Asio driver itself gets messed, which obviously wasn't the case - you'd have to restart Windows for that to 'recover'.

The age of the board is not a concern, I habe 3 of them from 1998.

The PCI overload due to reverbs is a very specific error due to the operation of the card. In some situations (reverbs, delays) it simply needs scratch memory on the motherboard and does a 2 way transfer via the PCI bus.
Depending on the motherboard chipset this is handled more or less smooth.

to estimate the number of reverbs open an empty (or simple) project in SFP mode and add one Masterverb after the other until the error shows up.
Don't put the reverbs into insert slots, as some mixers deactivate them if the channel is not connected in the routing.
You will then know how much reverbs you can add to a project - the limit is usually not a restriction.

cheers, Tom

thanks for all the advice, i think my expectations are a bit high! It works satisfactorily for now - I'll try to get hold of a pulsar II card and hopefully that will solve all my problems

Chris