Pulsar 2 + 2 Pulsar STDM Problems

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richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

Pulsar 2 + 2 Pulsar STDM Problems

Post by richseebs »

Hi all,
I have finally upgraded myself and bought 2x Pulsar to add to my existing Pulsar 2. I am having some problems with the STDM connection though. Please can you offer any advice?

On installing the cards, they are recognised and the drivers installed. f I go into the DSP section of SCOPE (v4), i see all DSPs listed (i.e. 1/1, 1/2,1/3,1/4,1/5,1/6, 2/1,2/2,2/3,2/4,3/1,3/2,3/3,3/4,4/4)

When I go into sample rate though, the figure dissapears and then reappears with sometime an error saying the Pulsar (ID1) may be missing STDM connection.

How do I know which card is ID1 so I can at least see if two cards work. Also, which way round does the STDM cable go, I see there is a red stripe. I also cannot find my original manual which is in English. I only have the german manual with my new pulsar.

Is this problem related to the fact that I have not loaded the allkeys file for the new cards because I also cannot find where I am supposed to do this.

Also as I am using a pulsar 2 (with 2 stdm) and pulsar 1, the cable seems to have to be at a funny angle. could this be why it is not working? How do I get round this?

As you can see i am a bit stuck and could do with some advice! How will i know when it is working anyway? Is it that the sample rate will not flash anymore?

Thanks,
Richard
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

also

Post by richseebs »

I am not sure how I am supposed to configure the ini file or is this still necessery with scope v4?
hubird

Post by hubird »

you know a first-generation card cannot have samplerate settings below 13 ms?
the board numbering can changed in the ini file by renaming the extension in .text, and then open it.
Never did that by myself tho :-)
Cable should be right, make sure you use only the 'outer' connectors (plugs), for determination sake :-)
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

sample rate

Post by richseebs »

hi there,
if i select 96 khz with the lowest ulli setting then the latency is shown as 12ms. No matter which rate I set it it the box where the sample rate is still keeps blinking on and off and the cursor becomes an egg timer at these points. The system is slow and unresponsive but this may be because i haev reduced the hardware acceleration as suggested in other posts...

i am starting to think i may have big problems....

any more advice welcome!

richard
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

cpu

Post by richseebs »

should sfp.exe be using 40-80% of the cpu when the computer is just idling apart from that with just 4 masterverbs loaded?
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

masterverbs

Post by richseebs »

also, i have just managed to load 1 more masterverb before reaching a pci overflow...surely 5 masterverbs is pathetic for a p4 system with 14 DSP's. Please help!

richard
synthetic
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Post by synthetic »

First set Pulsar-2 to be "master" in cset.ini
I think you have to search this forum after how to config this cset.ini -file

Also think about which PCI-slots you're using. Check motherboard-manual, some PCI-slots are shared with USB-port, graphics, etc...I think PCI-slot1 is not good to use because this IRQ shares with AGP-slot...
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

no information in motherboad

Post by richseebs »

yes - i have the cards as far away from agp as possible - but there is nothing in my motherboard manual about whcih slots share...
musurgio
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problem

Post by musurgio »

Hi,
You have to connect them the right way first of all.
If you have 2 pulsar II cards and one pulsar I card then you will need three cables.
One cable with three plugz connecting Pulsar II first stdm ,Pulsar II (2) first stdm and Pulsar I one and only stdm.
Another cable will connect Pulsar II second stdm to pusar II (2) second stdm.

Then to have your pulsar II as main you can make this happen from your cset.ini.
It is shown in your manual with two cards you just add another boardid for the third card.
Regards,
Dimitrios
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

cables

Post by richseebs »

hi - thanks for the advice but what i have is 1 x pulsar II and 2 x pulsar I so i think i only need 1 cable right?

It is still not working though!

richard
musurgio
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pulsars

Post by musurgio »

OK then,
You need only one cable with three adapters.
If you cannot change the cards on your motherboard as so Scope to see the pulsar II as main then copy this to the very beginning of cset.ini

[board0]
boardidi=0
[board1]
boardid=1
[board2]
boardid=2

Then change then numbers to whatever 0,2,1 1,2,0 etc until pulsar II shows as first card.
this will be identified under the dsp load where there will be 1/1,1/2,1/3,1/4,1/5,1/6 if the Pulsar II will be your main card.
Hope thee help.
Regards,
Dimitrios
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

no

Post by richseebs »

hello...yes unfortunatly it already says pulsar II is the main card
any idea why the sample rate is blinking on and off?
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

very stuck now

Post by richseebs »

hi all,
i have taken 1xpulsar I out now and trying just with 1xpulsar II and 1xpulsar I
If i select 96khz and the highest ulli setting (a latency of 12ms) the sample rate stays constant and i can load cubase asio driver

if i select 48 or 44.1 or 32 then the sample rate starts flashing. If I change the ulli setting I see the red lights underneath the connected label flash briefly and the sample rate carries on blinking

so as the sample rate only stays constant at 96khz. i try to use this (even though somebosy said i cannto go below 13ms latency) so i load cubase and the asio driver (if i try to activate asio with 48khz or 44.1khz or 32 khz then it says 'asio cannot be started')

i then load a few synths,effects then get a message saying that the capacity of the dsp cards has been reached. now i remember having this many things open on just the pulsar II so i really dont think this is working properly. I am going to turn off and put in the other card too and see if it will let me load anything else. here is a screen shot..

Image

thanks
richard
Last edited by richseebs on Fri May 11, 2007 12:59 am, edited 3 times in total.
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

yes definitly not working

Post by richseebs »

hi again,
i turned off and put the third card into the pc and loaded the project i had just loadad and yes it still gave the error message, so i am sure now that this is not working properly as the extra card did not add any extra dsp.

i will put a screen shot here so you can see this: (The DSP box is not shown but it does now show 14DSP)

Image

Please had anybody got any advice for me as I am stuck

Richard
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

one message says "you are done. you can add no more.".
the other says, "would you like me to try and shuffle the way things are loaded and see if i can fit all these devices?".

it's working properly. devices often don't use a whole chip. other devices might use several. there are limitations how far apart, physically one chip can be from another, and often it's impossible for a device to straddle two cards because of timing issues. obviously, it matters what order you load in, how the dsps will be used. luckily, the system is somewhat flexible and the system will try to shuffle for you. be gald. if you were using pro tools, you wouldn't be able to load partial chips. you'd be running out of dsp even sooner. :)

try changing the order devices are added and you might see the message later or not at all. otherwise, try the global optimization(the system will try shuffling the loading order of the dsps). try it a couple of times if needed, it'll likely work, unless you're out of space. also, remember, the first generation cards don't load as efficiently as the second generation.

btw- 96khz takes more than twice the resources of 44.1k and probably makes no difference in the final product(it does sound better in the short term). also, your computer would run much better if you turn off the b#lls&%t windows eyecandy. go to start/control panel/system/advanced/press the "settings" button in "performance", and choose "adjust for best performance". this should make your computer look like windows 98 is installed, and make your computer feel like you just did a cpu upgrade......
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

sorry

Post by richseebs »

hello!
I would use 44.1 but as explained in the previous post, if i select anything other than 96, the sample rate blinks and i cannot load an asio driver in cubase.

also i an appreciate that older generation cards are not as efficient but how can you explain that an extra card does not increase the dsp capability at all? (btw the second screenshot does end up with the same message as the first screenshot if you try to optimise a couple of times. the optimise won't actually succeed and the dsp meter is only 2/3 of the way up)

also i am already on 'adjust for best performance' though lately when i boot up sometimes the status bar looks like xp and sometimes like 98...

thanks for all your help too, people who have commented so far!

rich
musurgio
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cards

Post by musurgio »

Have you tried the cset.ini settings I posted ?
Try all possible combinations first and then we will see...
Check your cable too.
Regards,
Dimitrios
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

if you can't choose 44.1, something's truly wrong. is it possible you've touched the gold contacts with your hands? 99% alchohol will clean it. otherwise, you may have a bad card in the mix.
richseebs
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:48 am

error code 0001

Post by richseebs »

hi there, I cleaned the contacts today and nothing changed, now i have tried each card individually and when i start scope with either of the pulsar 1, I get an error code 0001...

Might this be because the first generation cards are not compatible with sfp4 or is it really looking now like i have bought broken cards?

Am going to try again my original pulsar 2 just to check if something hasnt gone corrupt with the installation...

richard
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garyb
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Post by garyb »

1st gen cards definitely work.....
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