I've been following a couple of the threads here at kvr, and all this Creamware talk has got my attention. I'd love to hear some opinions from Creamware users, I'm particularly interested in hearing about the Pulsar II. I'm currently running Sonar 3 and use Sampletank, DR008, Tassman and a few free softsynths as sound sources. I really want a good analog emulation (doesn't everyone?) and was thinking of purchasing Moog Modular or Reaktor 4, but it seems that for a bit more cash I could get a Pulsar II instead.

So let's hear it Creamware owners, are you happy with your purchases?

Oh god yes. Freedom to route my audio from everywhere to everywhere. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat if I ever needed to. Totally worth it for the interface alone. The synths? Oh ya baby! Then check out Flexor www.adern.com for Modular II and III. Incredible. Honeslty though, you should look into the PowerPulsar for $1150 instead and get 15 DSP's than just the meager 6. That DSP power goes quick. Really, it's a great, low latency (1.5ms) card that performs well, has great flexibility, great synths, and great effects. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Devon

I have had a Pulsar II for a couple of years now. I centainly have not regretted the purchase. I tend to use it mainly for synths now. Its effects are quite good but I find I use my UAD more (and of course as the UAD does not do synths, I can split my DSP power nicely).

Pros: Some excellent synths. Minimax is DSP hungry but sounds incredible. For versitility John Bowen's Solaris is pretty hard to beat. Then you have the Modular (with optional Flexor modules) for the experimental stuff.

Cons: The best synths cost extra. Management of plugins in XTC mode does require more effort than a native VSTi. If you use the Pulsar for I/O you cant do non-realtime export when using effects. These are minor quibbles really

If you do decide on one, check out your Motherboard etc. Its less frequent these days, but a while back a whole load of people had problems with PCI bus problems on some (mainly athlon based) cheap mobos. As the Pulsar has no general purpose RAM on board, it needs a stable PCI bus to use the PC's main memory.

Hope this may have been of some help...

Cheers for the insight guys. I'm also pretty interested now the Xmas deal is up. Being a Cubase user, how does running the synths in VST/XTC mode differ from native VSTis? Can you only run particular synths in VST mode. I'd probably just get as big a card as possible without i/o, as I don't really need the extra i/o options, and would just use the Cw stuff as VSTis, so it'd be useful to get a little more info about this particular mode.

flametop wrote:

If you do decide on one, check out your Motherboard etc. Its less frequent these days, but a while back a whole load of people had problems with PCI bus problems on some (mainly athlon based) cheap mobos. As the Pulsar has no general purpose RAM on board, it needs a stable PCI bus to use the PC's main memory.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the PCI problems were Pulsar I, not Pulsar II related. Was there something else with the Puslar II? Good to know if that's the case.

Devon

Chris Ochre wrote:

Cheers for the insight guys. I'm also pretty interested now the Xmas deal is up. Being a Cubase user, how does running the synths in VST/XTC mode differ from native VSTis? Can you only run particular synths in VST mode. I'd probably just get as big a card as possible without i/o, as I don't really need the extra i/o options, and would just use the Cw stuff as VSTis, so it'd be useful to get a little more info about this particular mode.

My friend said that the XTC mode in Cubase SX 2 works like a dream now, but isn't so hot in Cubase SX 1. I've never been all that interested in XTC mode myself, personally. XTC mode works just like you have a normal VST, and you just insert it wherever you like.

Devon

Thanks Devon. I wonder if being able to automate Creamware synths in SX 2 would be pushing my luck? I've just upgraded to 2 so it's nice to hear XTC mode is a little better.

Chris Ochre wrote:

Thanks Devon. I wonder if being able to automate Creamware synths in SX 2 would be pushing my luck? I've just upgraded to 2 so it's nice to hear XTC mode is a little better.

I'm not sure. www.planetz.com is the best Creamware resource out there. I believe the synths do take MIDI input, so automation I BELIEVE is possible.

Devon

hmm...

i would stay away from creamware. i have a pulsar
system and...the synths are good. but creamware
is terrible to there customers. overcharging for there
synths and plugins.

ide stick with a native system. pulsars dsp chips are
mad old. and there code is way underdeveloped.
so unoptimized its not funny.

i wanted to like the company. ive been usen there products since 98 tripledat.

they have a bad attitude.

So let's hear it Creamware owners, are you happy with your purchases?

I have a Pulsar II Plus card and I am very impressed with very warm and excellent analog synthesizers. I think that Creamware offers the best analog sound with their fantastic modular synth's.

All platform is modular so you can configure and to link cables as you wish for your individual purposes.

If you're going to buy Pulsar II with 6 DSP's you should think about more DPS's because it is really worth to have and invest in this platform.

Pulsar is not only excellent and incredible clean analog sounds but hardware mixing, professional mastering effects and inserts, hardware sampler's STS which is the same as AKAI S-3000. THIS IS A 1:1 COPY !!!. It's fantastic. By bying Pulsar you buy hardware and professional sampler like AKAI S-3000. Moreover you can upgrade it to STS-5000 which is more powerfull yet.

Also creamware's converters has unique sound and Creamware's MIDI ports has very high speed comparatively to others audio cards.

Regards,
Extreme Sample Converter's author.
http://www.extranslator.com
SampleTank, Giga, EMU, AKAI conversion programming.

How does Creamware compare to TC'c Powercore, i have a feeling TC's cards wuld be better, and better plugs too.

What do u guys think?

tansu wrote:

How does Creamware compare to TC'c Powercore, i have a feeling TC's cards wuld be better, and better plugs too. What do u guys think?

Compare TC powercore to a UAD-1, not a Pulsar. Pulsar does a LOT LOT more than the Powercore and UAD-1. Yes, the effects on the two are great, but the Pulsar is just soooo much more.

Devon

Quote:

but the Pulsar is just soooo much more.

How do u say this?, can u explain a bit more?, mesa looking to learn more on this area.

Thanks.

DevonB wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the PCI problems were Pulsar I, not Pulsar II related. Was there something else with the Puslar II? Good to know if that's the case. Devon

When I was looking into buying my Pulsar II there were reports of poeple with cheap athlon mobo's getting clicks and pops even with a Pulsar II. I belive this was tracked down to a certain model of VIA support chipset. It basically could not handle the PCI bus properly. As I say, its probably all history now. I only mentioned it as Joxer might have such an old system.

For analog synths, Pulsar can absolutely not be beat. Their Minimax synth (which comes free now with the Xmas offer) does as good a job (if not better) of emulating a Mini as the Studio Electronics SE-1, it's the closest I've ever heard a digital synth get. Hell, the only thing I've heard that's better is a Voyager (maybe an original Prodigy or Source, too, but they lack features & can't do all the sounds).

XTC mode works well. It's the only way I use the card now & I never have problems with automation. You even need to use automation as a workaround to get delays to bpm sync (values can't be typed in with XTC mode yet so the trick is to assign automation to the bpm value). The only reason why XTC works better in SX2 than SX1 is because of the automatic delay compensation, basically the same reason why SX2 is better with the UAD-1 & Powercore. I used XTC with SX1 for over a year & absolutely loved it.

Powercore has the killer reverbs, delays, choruses, & mastering compressor (if you're into the Finalizer, I'm not). Their other plugs - the synth, compressors, & eq's - aren't very good. The simple rule is to use each card for what it's best at: UAD-1 for inserts (EQ's, compressors), Powercore for aux's (reverbs, delays), & Pulsar for synths.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware.

DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750.

Those dsp chips are mad old : oh yes !
Code matters, I think it evolved a bit more since their stone age ( like native ) ...
CW support : big companies vs small ones as always ... got to contact the right person on the right moment or else ...

And the crashes ? I have with XP + SP1 some occasional heavy BSOD " random " crashes, I won't throw a stone at CW because I'am on windoze so it could just be my setup and my installed shit, maybe ... but ...

It's not Disneyworld very far from here but ... the sounds are utterly deeply addictive so I keep spending more ...

The talented third parties are kicking CW's very talented but very fat ass !!

I won't tell how much how much I could spend more for Stephen Hummel's synths, John Bowen's Solaris and Adern's Flexor ...

VA's : CW based firstly ! but not such synths as Rhino or Absynth 2 there ...

For Flexor, I really won't tell how much I would pay or just privately to CW to piss them off big time !!

In short : I'am way, way beyond happy, now, in 2003 ...

For other many other viewpoints : connect yourself to

http://www.planetz.com/forums/

Read and read, feel free also to DL some tracks, maybe not fullfilling your " requirements " but some more sounds beyond CW's mp3's ...

Joxer the Mighty wrote:

Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware. DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750.

Oops. Sorry, I keep thinking what I want for myself, the Scope SRB, which has no outputs. Don't need them since I already have the Pulsar II. It's $1199 from jrrshop.com. Having 21 DSP chips would be nice though.

Devon

i didn't know much about CreamWare when i bought my Pulsar2 and PowerSampler, i was thinking of getting a Yamaha DSP Factory or RME card. i asked the guy what he used and he said a Pulsar. As i did more research i started thinking, wow this looks great for routing flexibility. Since then i have bought an additional SCOPE SRB expansion card (15 DSPs) and am about to sell my JD-800 cos the SFP synths sound better. MiniMax is the dog's, as is Pro One, Prophet, B-2003, lots of others, some free ones too. Vinco is a very good 1176 emulator. All of these are extra to the basic package though (although there are some deals on at the moment). i hope they don't bring out too many more devices just yet as i end up buying everything they make !

As a Mac user i can't tell you anything about XTC mode as we haven't got it, but i don't miss it as the SFP environment is far more flexible than VST; check some of the screenshots of SFP Projects - they can look complex but basically you can route anything to anything, it's like hardware. Oh and i think i would have to have upgraded my card by now if i'd got the DSP Factory. For what you're getting (even in the basic package) it is a very fairly priced system. If native could do what SFP could do i wouldn't need my cards - but it just isn't there for me yet, so i'm happy to keep investing in my CreamWare cards.

I'll give you an example of how lame Pulsar is these days, I have a Pulsar I card.

Minimax - Pulsar full 1 poly
Vectron - Pulsar full 2 poly
Freesynths - Usually about 4 or 5 poly

Asio crashes and I have to reload the app when trying to change sample rates in many apps and standalone synths, then crashes again until I can get the programs to agree.

Hit or miss compatibility with your system, whether you get the "PCI bus Overflow" ????

Old... very old technology for the price. Imagine the size of that mutha 15 DSP card in your system !

System was good for its time, but its been surpassed, they should have had a replacment long ago.

Regardless, the synths they sell are unsurpassed in VSTi land, fantastic. Asio when it works gives good 1ms latency.

Short of it, Pulsar is just a big dongle that limits your poly.

But saying that if you do not have a card or want a new card, then the christmas deal with the synths is pretty good.

I bought mine when the P300 was the top cpu !!!! So then it was good (though problematic at the time). Now I expect PowerPulsar at Pulsar prices. Apparently Moores law does not exist in Creamware land.

Downside of it is that if you actually bought all those synths and fx, then your on a limited time usage. What happens when your card blows ? Can you still buy a card in 5 years ? I'm sure you'll still be using most VSTis in 5 years still on the then PCs of the day.

I may sound negative, but its also a brilliant card for integrating the high tech studio and legacy studio devices, and its also great with just the Modular III system running on it alone. So I suppose i'm one of two minds here.

B.

bluey, you do sound very negative. You have a Pulsar I card (OK 1999, but how many times have you upgraded you computer since then?) - only 4 DSPs, of course you're not going to get much out of MiniMax. Then again SFP and MiniMax were not even a dream when the Pulsar I card came out. Sorry, but even if you added a Luna II you would at least be able to take advantage of low latency using the Luna II's drivers - which i think is amazing that an old card can be brought up to date as it were. In my original post i stated that i was originally going to get a Yamaha DSP Factory. Do you think i wouldn't have had to update that to a new card by now? Of course i would. Yet with my Pulsar cards all i've had to do is add more cards, not replace them them.

bluey wrote:

Quote:

System was good for its time, but its been surpassed,

Surpassed by what exactly - i don't see any other manufacturer doing what CreamWare are doing - please give me their link i would be very interested in this bang up to date cheap system.

bluey wrote:

Asio crashes and I have to reload the app when trying to change sample rates in many apps and standalone synths, then crashes again until I can get the programs to agree.

I've changed the sample rate no issues on my Pulsar II many times with the 3.1c drivers.

Quote:

Hit or miss compatibility with your system, whether you get the "PCI bus Overflow" ????

Pulsar I issue that I'm aware of that was cured on the newer cards.

Quote:

System was good for its time, but its been surpassed, they should have had a replacment long ago. Regardless, the synths they sell are unsurpassed in VSTi land, fantastic. Asio when it works gives good 1ms latency.

Don't you kinda contradict yourself there? It has the best synths, yet it should have been replaced long ago?

Quote:

I bought mine when the P300 was the top cpu !!!! So then it was good (though problematic at the time). Now I expect PowerPulsar at Pulsar prices. Apparently Moores law does not exist in Creamware land.

It's not QUITe the same, but let's see. Power Pulsar can be had for $1700 now. I bought my Pulsar II for $1200. I can buy a 15 dsp SRB card for $1199, so if I dont' count the outputs, the price of the power Pulsars ARE at the level of the Puslar II's where they used to be at.

Quote:

Downside of it is that if you actually bought all those synths and fx, then your on a limited time usage. What happens when your card blows ? Can you still buy a card in 5 years ? I'm sure you'll still be using most VSTis in 5 years still on the then PCs of the day.

What if my old synth blows? Some you can't get parts, and some are just plain cost prohibitive to replace, even if the parts ARE available. I doubt I'll be using the same VSTi's 5 years from now too, because something will have probably replaced it. Can't say the same for my samples though, but the synths, yes. Just like my old hardware synths, I got tired of them, and replaced them with VSTi's that did more, easier to use and sounded better, in some respects.

Quote:

I may sound negative, but its also a brilliant card for integrating the high tech studio and legacy studio devices, and its also great with just the Modular III system running on it alone. So I suppose i'm one of two minds here.

Well, to me, you're not sound THAT negative. You have some points, and you contradict yourself some, but hey, if you had a Pulsar II instead of the I, I think you'd be a much happier person. I remember how much my friend bitched with his Luna until he got the XTC card bringing him from 3 to 9 DSP's. The card is almost unusable with that few DSP chips, and can understand your frustration.

Devon

Personally, I'd just love something like the UAD-1 for VSTis, as I wouldn't use the Creamware synths in any other environment. I don't want or need any more physical i/o, so to have a nice, compact DSP card for VSTis would be superb. I probably wouldn't be doing the Cw cards justice if I bought one.

Where can I buy a SRB card for $1199 ??

Link please !

B.

Yeah thats good, but now creamware have the powerpulsar + mixer + synth pack for 1700, so that even cheaper if you dont have their software.

B.

creamware are top quality in the synth, mixing, routing and stability departments. there are just so many great synths on the platform that it is like a spoiled child wandering down the candy aisle - and many released in he past few months.

for example, the sequential circuits man jogn bowen recently put out solaris which is a super machine. also recently there is the ::flexor:: add-on to the modular synth system. and with all the excellent synths on the platform it still managed to blow away the ears of many old-time creanware users - great stuff.

my only problem is that you don;t have the same conveneince always that you do with vstis - it is more like real hardware.

a brilliant stable card and software environment

I have never been into hardware synths, so I only use software synths. The nice thing about that I think is that I am able to pick up my complete project and drop on a different computer without the need of special hardware components. A Cream Ware card would break the portability.

Quote:

Quote: Downside of it is that if you actually bought all those synths and fx, then your on a limited time usage. What happens when your card blows ? Can you still buy a card in 5 years ? I'm sure you'll still be using most VSTis in 5 years still on the then PCs of the day. What if my old synth blows? Some you can't get parts, and some are just plain cost prohibitive to replace, even if the parts ARE available. I doubt I'll be using the same VSTi's 5 years from now too, because something will have probably replaced it. Can't say the same for my samples though, but the synths, yes. Just like my old hardware synths, I got tired of them, and replaced them with VSTi's that did more, easier to use and sounded better, in some respects.

I think bluey has a point there. But if you are still using hardware synths in your productions, then a CreamWare card isn't different from that. So have to agree with DevonB too...
The chance that you are still able to run your VST plug-ins you have now on a new computer 5 years later is pretty high. Actually, the chance we're then still using PCI is smaller...

45 DSP = about the same price as a Triton.

People carry Tritons all over the place.

Pulsar I? Are you still using 8 bit samplers?

I don't get many Pulsar or Scope related crashes and I don't think that I have any of the above mentioned problems.

7XL

Just want to bump this up and share the outcome with everyone. I couldn't resist the combination of Creamware's Xmas offer and Uncle E's discount over at jrrshop. I went with a Pulsar 2, and let's just say that I am one damned happy camper. I've been spending my evenings going through presets, I can't believe how good the synths sound! None of the vst's I use sound as good. Tassman 3's analog synths took a particularly bad beating in a side by side comparison. I've yet to explore more than a handful of the plugins, but the ones I tried impressed me as well. I can think of only one negative:

I haven't had much luck running XTC mode in Sonar 3. The synths load up just fine, but when I try to bounce to track or export audio, the output is extremely distorted. I've followed some recommendations found at Planet Z, but still no luck. Could be that XTC mode just doesn't work with a wrapper.

Glad you made the leap and even happier that you're so happy. See you over at the 'Z'.

Joxer the Mighty wrote:

I can think of only one negative: I haven't had much luck running XTC mode in Sonar 3. The synths load up just fine, but when I try to bounce to track or export audio, the output is extremely distorted. I've followed some recommendations found at Planet Z, but still no luck. Could be that XTC mode just doesn't work with a wrapper.

This doens't help you specifically, but I wanted to mention what I heard from my friend is that Cubase SX 2 and XTC mode works beautifully now! I might actually go back and check it out now once I upgrade.

Devon

JTM, I just use the synths like hardware and route he output into the mixer (or direct if you don't wat to use the mixer) and record the audio output. You can also record the midi if you need to do any midi editing later on and just route it back into the Pulsar if need be.

I've found that to be a better way of working (at least for me). And I've also found that the sound is better when not run in XTC mode (it may just be a psychological thing).

You can also do the same with the effects and never have to use XTC mode.

7XL

BTW, the store that I work out of also sells Creamware so if Uncle E. can't get any of you what you need give us a ring.

Mr. A: I'll definitely see you over at Planet Z. As a matter of fact, I've already read a few of your posts.

Devon: I've read that XTC mode works really well in SX2, I really can't part with Sonar 3 though. Not only did I just pay to upgrade, but I love the new interface and lots of other great things about it, especially the Lexicon reverb and Sonitus FX. They are quite good!

7XL: Thanks for the tip, that's how I've set up the routing since I didn't have success with XTC. I didn't realize I could do away with the mixer though, I may give that a try since it would free up some DSP power. Then again, that means I can't use the Creamware effects, doesn't it?

Joxer the Mighty wrote:

Devon: I've read that XTC mode works really well in SX2, I really can't part with Sonar 3 though. Not only did I just pay to upgrade, but I love the new interface and lots of other great things about it, especially the Lexicon reverb and Sonitus FX. They are quite good! 7XL: Thanks for the tip, that's how I've set up the routing since I didn't have success with XTC. I didn't realize I could do away with the mixer though, I may give that a try since it would free up some DSP power. Then again, that means I can't use the Creamware effects, doesn't it?

Ya, I figured you weren't going to give up Sonar. Just thought I'd mention it for others at least. Gotta spread the word.

One tip on saving DSP power, kill off inputs and outputs that you are NOT using. Not using ADAT B? Kill it. Only using 4 inputs instead of 8? Change it down to 4. This will save you some DSP power alone. Also, get familiar with all the mixers and figure out which ones work best for you. Since you can save the environment, figure out smaller mixers for the synths if you really want to skimp. I use the STM1632 myself only, but I haven't been using the synths much. I've used them, mind you, but I've got so many other toys to play with right now.

And routing is so easy, it makes me want to cry with its simplicity and power.

Devon

That Joxer bloke wrote:

Quote:

As a matter of fact, I've already read a few of your posts.

Not sure if that is good or bad news

Quote:

Then again, that means I can't use the Creamware effects, doesn't it?

Well CW effects can work as inserts in the mixer and as standalone effects, just drag the effect you want into the SFP environment and plug whatever you want into it (synth/audio source etc) and plug it to wherever you want to go (back into Sonar, whatever...)

A new world of sound manipulation is dawning for you (ooh, that sounded a tad pompous).

Mr A

JTM you can route straight through the effects without using the mixer. It will save some DSP power and considering that almost all the effects have wet/dry level controls you don't "need" the mixer.

7XL

SO, does anyone know if there is a macosx version yet???

Thanks all! Those are some great tips. I'll try going sans mixer and see how it works out, I'd really like to free up some of that DSP power.

Oh yeah...this is going to be a fun weekend.

Joxer the Mighty wrote:

Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware. DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750.

i have that mobo, totally fine with pulsar2
and V3.1c is finally stable and safe from last year's update.
ps. can't record under 7ms without pop and clicks.

just make sure that if your looking for DSP hardware effects, this one is not the best go
if you want good DSP hardware synths and routing ability, it's rock and solid now.
the biggest problem for cw now is still it's price/performance Value isn't that catchy.

PS. the sampling plug-ins om CW platfom aren't that great. stay with native for sample playback!

i used to hated this investment alot due to price/performan/stability, but now i'm ok with it as long as it work stably and add a little power and distinct sounds then i'm fine with it!
oh yeah i started to like the routing system!

hope i'm helpfull!

dxl wrote:

Joxer the Mighty wrote: Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware. DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750. i have that mobo, totally fine with pulsar2 and V3.1c is finally stable and safe from last year's update. ps. can't record under 7ms without pop and clicks.

Kinda sounds like you're having problems with your board. I have an Asus P4T533 board, and it runs fine even at 1.5ms latency without pops. Sounds like you're doing IRQ sharing somewhere along the line, or have a NIC card that eats lots of PCI bandwidth or something. In the slot it is in, what is the 'device' that's sharing that slot as well? I made sure to put my card in a slot that the device was disabled in the BIOS.

Devon

I guess that is why the title of this thread is "Creamware Opinions".

Because you don't have to agree with everybody's.

DevonB wrote:

dxl wrote: Joxer the Mighty wrote: Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware. DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750. i have that mobo, totally fine with pulsar2 and V3.1c is finally stable and safe from last year's update. ps. can't record under 7ms without pop and clicks. Kinda sounds like you're having problems with your board. I have an Asus P4T533 board, and it runs fine even at 1.5ms latency without pops. Sounds like you're doing IRQ sharing somewhere along the line, or have a NIC card that eats lots of PCI bandwidth or something. In the slot it is in, what is the 'device' that's sharing that slot as well? I made sure to put my card in a slot that the device was disabled in the BIOS. Devon

device was disabled in the BIOS.
what do you mean by that?
it's at irq 16 (system show no share with others)at pci slot 5
and i can't hard assign IRQ in my bios

but oh well, 1.5 is still useless since i'm not a pro pianoist and anything lower that 7ms uses 2 times more CPU

I would first like to say hello to the group as this is my first post. This place really rocks!!

Joxer the Mighty wrote:

I haven't had much luck running XTC mode in Sonar 3. The synths load up just fine, but when I try to bounce to track or export audio, the output is extremely distorted. I've followed some recommendations found at Planet Z, but still no luck. Could be that XTC mode just doesn't work with a wrapper.

Joxer, I just recently got my Sonar 3 upgrade and found this cool feature when exporting and bouncing to tracks, it's called "Fast Bounce--When checked, SONAR bounces to tracks as fast as your computer will allow. If unchecked, bouncing to tracks happens in realtime. Uncheck this option if you are using a synth that only works in realtime. This option is checked by default."

I think it might help.

FunkDoc

dxl: Thanks for the input. I'm running 1.5 ms latency without any pops. But really, the difference between 1.5 and 7 ms is hardly noticeable. Actually, I'm not even sure that I can detect a difference when playing a keyboard. Might be different if you're recording guitar though.

funkdoc: Welcome to KVR! It does indeed rock. I disabled Fast Bounce, but still no luck. No biggie though, after reading some of the tips on this posting, I'm not missing XTC mode much, and am sure I'll do just fine without it.

dxl wrote:

DevonB wrote: dxl wrote: Joxer the Mighty wrote: Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware. DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750. i have that mobo, totally fine with pulsar2 and V3.1c is finally stable and safe from last year's update. ps. can't record under 7ms without pop and clicks. Kinda sounds like you're having problems with your board. I have an Asus P4T533 board, and it runs fine even at 1.5ms latency without pops. Sounds like you're doing IRQ sharing somewhere along the line, or have a NIC card that eats lots of PCI bandwidth or something. In the slot it is in, what is the 'device' that's sharing that slot as well? I made sure to put my card in a slot that the device was disabled in the BIOS. Devon device was disabled in the BIOS. what do you mean by that? it's at irq 16 (system show no share with others)at pci slot 5 and i can't hard assign IRQ in my bios but oh well, 1.5 is still useless since i'm not a pro pianoist and anything lower that 7ms uses 2 times more CPU

IRQ 16? That's a soft IRQ, not a real IRQ. There is on IRQ 0-15 as hardware IRQ's so this might be your problem right there. You have ACPI on in the OS?

I just checked your manual for your motherboard. Page 1-9 shows PCI slot 5 shares the same IRQ as whatever is in slot 1. What do you have in slot 1? Also, try moving it to slot 2, 3 or 4 and try again. Is your Com ports disabled? That'll free up some IRQ's. Onboard audio disabled? That takes IRQ 5 on your board.

And yes you can assign IRQ's to your cards. In your BIOS under PnP/PCI config, you can manually set an IRQ. Page 2-13 says such, and this is typical for most motherboards I've messed with.

Devon

Thanks Joxer.

Damn, I was hoping that would do it. I wonder if a different wrapper might help, but like you say, XTC probably isn't such a big deal.


FunkDoc

DevonB wrote:

dxl wrote: DevonB wrote: dxl wrote: Joxer the Mighty wrote: Hey everyone, thanks for all the input! Just the kind of info I was looking for. I do have an Athlon mobo: Asus A7NX8. Guess I better make sure it won't give me any trouble if I do decide to go with Creamware. DevonB, where'd you pick up your PowerPulsar that low? Musician's Friend wants about $1750. i have that mobo, totally fine with pulsar2 and V3.1c is finally stable and safe from last year's update. ps. can't record under 7ms without pop and clicks. Kinda sounds like you're having problems with your board. I have an Asus P4T533 board, and it runs fine even at 1.5ms latency without pops. Sounds like you're doing IRQ sharing somewhere along the line, or have a NIC card that eats lots of PCI bandwidth or something. In the slot it is in, what is the 'device' that's sharing that slot as well? I made sure to put my card in a slot that the device was disabled in the BIOS. Devon device was disabled in the BIOS. what do you mean by that? it's at irq 16 (system show no share with others)at pci slot 5 and i can't hard assign IRQ in my bios but oh well, 1.5 is still useless since i'm not a pro pianoist and anything lower that 7ms uses 2 times more CPU IRQ 16? That's a soft IRQ, not a real IRQ. There is on IRQ 0-15 as hardware IRQ's so this might be your problem right there. You have ACPI on in the OS? I just checked your manual for your motherboard. Page 1-9 shows PCI slot 5 shares the same IRQ as whatever is in slot 1. What do you have in slot 1? Also, try moving it to slot 2, 3 or 4 and try again. Is your Com ports disabled? That'll free up some IRQ's. Onboard audio disabled? That takes IRQ 5 on your board. And yes you can assign IRQ's to your cards. In your BIOS under PnP/PCI config, you can manually set an IRQ. Page 2-13 says such, and this is typical for most motherboards I've messed with. Devon

Com ports ?? do they take the much badwith??
slot 5 is the only that share less! so it's the only best choice for me!
oh well, just like what i said.... 1.5ms latency is usesless
thankz for the concern anyway!

ps, if anyone hate what i said here, post your objections here


oh and i'm thinking about getting a Audigy2 for games
donno if it's ok?!
my DAW OS is not going to enable the audigy2 so it should be ok right??

There are a lot of posts in the Creamware user forum: http://www.creamware.de/en/Service/foren/foren/default.asp

Is the last version of the Pulsar software Mac OSX compatible? I could not find any info on the site

TIA

Project

Project wrote:

Quote:

Is the last version of the Pulsar software Mac OSX compatible? I could not find any info on the site

Try here and click on SCOPE Fusion Platform and scroll down a bit.

The short answer is no, but it's on the way. i'm happy on OS9 for a bit longer yet though

Mr A

as said, i have a creamware elektra for sale.
redicilous cheap!

Lance Vance,

Exactly what is an Elektra?

And what it rediculously cheap?

Some people might want to know.

Creamware Elektra (Luna II + Modular V2)

It's the luna 2 and modular 2 together in a bundle.

Luna II:
http://www.creamware.de/en/products/sfp/luna/default.asp

Modular V2:
http://www.creamware.de/en/products/software/creamware/Modular2/def
ault.asp

I bought it almost a year ago for 690$ and selling it for 340$ now.. (i havent made the exact calculatings in how much SEK is in $..but the price is almost right i think).

Try here and click on SCOPE Fusion Platform and scroll down a bit.

The short answer is no, but it's on the way. i'm happy on OS9 for a bit longer yet though


Thanks for your reply Mr Arkadin, I'm too still working on OS9, but I'm migrating to OSX; by now nearly all manufacturers have ported their stuff to OSX, so it seems that Creamware is lagging. Also, it's not clear yet if they will support VST or not; I need VST 'cause I'm a Cubase SX user. Hmmm just wondering of parting or not with my cash for this Christmas deal

Project[/quote][/i]

im sure i read that the creamware cards are not g5 compatable yet either - so do you wanna invest in an expensive card that you cant use when you upgrade your computer ?

I do - but im on the PC

Project,
My main reason for not going to OSX is that i don't want to use SX! Seriously, when i do have to move over to OSX i'm going to upgrade my G4 with Powerlogix (cos of the G5 PCI-X thing) and i'll be seriously reconsidering whether to move over to Logic or some other host - i think Steinberg have seriously missed the target with SX (especially on Mac) and i'm not sure i want to keep investing in it anymore

Project wrote:

Quote:

Also, it's not clear yet if they will support VST or not; I need VST 'cause I'm a Cubase SX user

Well, XTC isn't supported in the Mac version (XTC is CW's VST mode), but even if it was you'd be better off using SFP mode as it has more flexible (and visual) routing (you can route anything to anything - just plug in the virtual cables), you have access to more devices (like Mod2/ModIII) and you have a much lower latency (typically 4ms - 7ms, max 13ms for me) whereas XTC mode has to go from the host, to the card, back to the host, doubling the latency (so in my scenario 8ms would be the lowest and 26ms the highest).

Believe me you don't need VST mode - you just run SFP in the background and flick to it when you need it. Hope that clears things up a bit.

Mr A