Will luna2+pulsarXTC make a good setup?

rev · Post by **rev** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 2:18 am

Hello
I have a PIII with a Gina24&Logic4.8 and bought a pulsar XTC for dsp processing not long ago.

Despite cracks&pops in some plugins, that card was somewhat useable 'till I started to insert fx's in the busses. Awful noises, weird preformance and the CPU-meter hitting the top -and instant overload messages, of course. This just with a reverb and a compressor in a seven audio track song + 2 audio instruments.

From forum to forum, it seems that I must wait for Logic 5 or purchase a LunaII in order to get any benefit from this XTreme Crap. Sadly, pitifully, speaking in $$ and job disturbance terms, I'm forced to go for the Luna. But, of course, this time I won't believe a single word of those motherfuckers at Creamwarez, and, please, I ask to you about any advice on adding a Luna2 to my xtc

-Will it distort my playback and bang my CPU when inserted in the busses? (the 15-20 VST & DX fx's I use per song are almost always inserted and routed through the busses)

-Will I be able to insert fxs in the audio instrument tracks without having pulsar&luna screwing up my EXS24 preformance?

-And what about latency of VST instruments?

-Does luna2 have any plugin not included in pulsar XTC 3.02?

-And, is it my damped ears or does it sound like Logic reverb and compressors are better than xtc's ones? (at least they offer more parameters!)

Any help will be greatly welcome. Thanks for listening.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rev on 2002-01-03 02:22 ]</font>

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 6:05 am

Hi, even thou i love Creamware, i got to agree with you on this, XTC is, as a standalone card, a real crap. In fact right from the start, this is not a so good idea. We fight for lower latency, and add a card that ADDs to latency (doubling whatever you have). But it is also true that adding a Luna will remove any latency, add IO and will allow you to route everything to everything. Maybe not in the same way though... Luna has is own OS and MIXER. You'll be able to use all XTC synth and FX, plus a couple more from Luna without any latency (except those from the ULLI setting ~4-7ms). Luna is very very good, fast and pretty stable! More, with a Luna + XTC, you'll get 9DSPs, wich is also pretty good, you can expect a couple Masterverb, couple of synth with couple notes of polyphony each.

In fact i'm planning to buy an XTC very soon, but not for use as an XTC, but to add to my Luna2 and Pulsar1, 6 more DSPs.

Rest assure, i really don't think this is wasted money, as you'll soon found out that Gina is good, but not as good... IMHO

The most flexible system existing is probably this Luna+XTC combo for the price.

Go for it!

LHong · Post by **LHong** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 2:22 pm

How about to upgrade pulsar XTC to Pulsar2. I would do that.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 9:44 pm

Yeah your right LHong, i always forget that you can buy only the IO plate to get a full Pulsar2...

Yes, i would probably do that also...

rev · Post by **rev** » Fri Jan 04, 2002 3:29 am

Much to my discontent, I've already ordered a Luna 2. May the sky fall over cw staff's heads if this thing goes wrong too!!

Thanx a lot for your advice. I'll go for a Luna rather that a IO plate as a precaution; I don't trust anymore in my XTC. And boy, I hope to take some advantage of that 9 DSPs...

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Jan 04, 2002 3:37 pm

You'll like it 9DSPs is good. I would never sell anyone an XTC card without an I/O plate, if that was the only CW they have. It simply doesn't work well to rely on another card's drivers IMHO which is why some other VST Accelerators haven't pulled me in yet.