*newbie*...did it work?! Antex SC-22 Studiocard and Frostwave/Metasonix

[levlhed]

Let me preface this by the fact that I know just enough to get myself in too deep and not know what I'm doing.

In an effort to get the most out of my little noise machines I wanted to figure out how to control my Frostwave Resonator and Metasonix TM-1SE via CV or whatever I can. I've never used CV before and barely understand what it even does...but the open jacks on these devices tell me I need it...so...Stumbled upon Volta (I'm on PC and don't have a MOTU interface) then stumbled upon the fine Silent Way applications. Read around some more (while I was supposed to be working)...what interfaces work? hmmm....

maybe my Antex SC-22 Studiocard happens to be DC coupled by some chance?

I DL the test files and pull out the multimeter...wait...is this thing actually working?? It sure seems like it. But I really don't know what I'm doing...

Multimeter reads 4.20-ish v and holds steady...
Try the other cord...same thing..try going from the XLR to TS 1/4"...readings almost the same (about 4.18 and steady-ish)

So I DL the demo's and plop it into Reaper.

Plug 1/4" into LP Res and LP Freq of Frostwave...open one of the plugs (don't even know which one)...draw in some up/down bars...the damn thing works! It's doing *something*!!


Someone care to tell me what I should do next to test this sound card?

It's a 20 bit balanced stereo PCI card (XLR on breakout) that was rather expensive back in the day and has video-sync features that set it apart. High specs for it's time. And as far as I can tell DC Coupled Output!

[bsmith23]

The TM-1 can be controlled with silent way - I couldn't for the life of me calibrate it for more than an octave - doesn't exactly give you a tidy little triangle wave or a tidy little anything to work with, but you can try a calibration file generated by another hz/V instrument - worked for me and got close to 5 octaves going. And try a calibration - who knows, may just up and work for ya.

As far as your soundcard - stealing this from another thread http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=274303

You can test this with the LFO plug-in though. Set it up so you can hear the LFO sweeping the pitch, filter or whatever. Then turn all the mix controls (sine, triangle, square etc.) down to zero, and adjust the 'offset' control. By wiggling that you should be able to manually sweep the LFO. The key is that if you set that to a large non-zero value and leave it there, the pitch (or filter etc.) should hold constant. On most audio interfaces, you'll hear the sound slowly droop back to its 0V value. If it holds steady, you have a DC-coupled interface and you're in business.

It will be obvious to you if this works. If it doesn't work - check out the ac encoder with hacked cable route :
http://www.expert-sleepers.co.uk/siwaacencoder.html
http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13698
http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14328

[levlhed]

OK, I tried with the LFO like you said. When it says "slowly droop to 0v" I assume that's a matter of seconds, right? It's been playing the same pitch for a couple minutes:) I'm just using the Resonator at the moment because it plays nicer.
Woohoo! Guess I lucked out by keeping this relic after all. The only problem is I can't use both the Antex and my RME at the same time in Reaper (if I can I haven't figured out how yet). I might have to pull together another PC from scraps and make it a little dedicated Silent Way CV Freakout Machine or something...


I'll have to research about the calibrating procedure and figure out how one would use the calibration file from a different HZ/V instrument.

[os]

Sounds like you have a DC coupled interface there! I'll add it to the list.

If the TM-1 is problematic for calibration, you could try putting a low-pass filter on its output, to clean it up a bit. You could do that in Reaper - just insert an EQ plug-in before Silent Way.

[levlhed]

I went digging into the manual/settings/etc and realized I had it set on "consumer" level -10 dBV nom.+10 dBV max. I changed it to the "+24dB" setting which is the proper + 24 dBu max. +4 dBu nom. and now see almost +10 volts via my little multimeter!

[levlhed]

In the spirit of testing I decided to go for an Antex SC2000 card, which is the "big brother" to the SC-22, providing 4 i/o (2 stereo). I'm guessing the output stage is the same as the SC-22. I'm hoping it works so I can get 6 total CV outs which is what I need for now.
I've installed my SC-22 in another PC but must be having IRQ conflicts because I get BSOD crashes. When I get the second card I'll figure out what is going on there and try different slots/etc.

Anyone have experience with using Silent Way via Reaper on two machines connected by either ReaMote or ReaStream? I was messing around with it this weekend. ReaMote doesn't do what I want (but still a very cool concept) and I couldn't quite wrap my head around ReaStream. I realize the Reaper forum is a better place for this info!

[os]

You're way outside of my sphere of knowledge now!

Good luck with the tests though.