Scope with 3, 6 and 14 DSP's question

emunity · Post by **emunity** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:50 pm

I am about to purchase scope. I am looking at all 3 versions.

I mainly want to use the scope for the Synth Plugins for Mac OSX Leopard's Logic.

I have a brand new Mac Pro Tower 2 Zeon 8 core Processor with 10 gigs of Ram.

Almost 1 terrabyte of Hard drive.

I am mostly intersted in the Minimax, Pro 12 and Modlular II plugins. Not sure what Modular II is suppose to Minick?

How close is the sound of the scope PC Synth Plugin version versus the Synth ASB Versions?

Will Scope plugins be able to minic any of the sounds of the New Solaris Synth? Specifically the SEM and CEM Filter and Amplifier Chips which the solaris can mimic well.

Now for the DSP number question. If I get the 3 DSP Home version 4.5 and later update to 5.0 when available will 3 DSP chips be enough to run the Minimax and Modular III Plugins?

Will the 3 DSP with Minimax Plugin be almost the same as the Minmax ASB Hardware Synth version if not which DSP version will be close enough to it? the 6 or 14?

Thanks

Post by **garyb** » Mon May 26, 2008 9:44 pm

some quick answers:

the scope versions and asb versions are, for the most part, 100% identical. Solaris began on Scope.
the only Scope product that will run directly on an OSX mac is the XITE coming next month. when V5 comes out(next month) you will need a pci to pci-e adaptor(such as a magma box) if you wish to use the cards in your mac since the cards are 5vlt and are pci.

i hope that helps.

if you want Scope for hardcore synth use like Solaris with many voices, you'll want as much DSP as possible, consider the XITE-1. if you go for the cards, get the big one. if you mainly just want to use a couple of voices on the minimax or pro12, the 6 dsp card will suffice.

emunity · Post by **emunity** » Mon May 26, 2008 9:59 pm

Thanks that helps a lot.

How many voices polyphony will I get if I go with the 14 DSP version. How many voices with the XLITE-1?

There is no scope version that is PCIe and will work in MAC? Only XLITE-1?

XLITE-1 is so expensive? Over $3500US. At that price you might as well buy Solaris right?

Btw how many voices of polyphony is SOLARIS?

I have both a New MAC pro tower and 3 HOME MAde PC's. Two of them have the Asus X38 Chipset Motherboard Maximux Formula Special Edition. The 3rd I just built is a GIGAbyte P35 chipset MB the GA-EP35-SR4.

4 gigs ram in the GIGABYTE system, and 8 gig ram in each Maximux formula workstation.

SO I guess I could by a Scope for one of them? I will be running GIgastudio 4 on one of the PC's. SO maybe I iwll get the 14 DSP version for the PC and run Gigastudio on that workstation?

Do you think the XLITE-1 will have a Solaris Plugin eventually?

Where can I get that PCI to PCIe for the mac? Won't that bottleneck? I don't understand why they don't make a Firewire 800 DSP box?

Sounddesigner · Post by **Sounddesigner** » Mon May 26, 2008 10:15 pm

The 14dsp is good starting point, but if your looking to get deep with SCOPE then XITE-1 as stated above . Also several cards can be chained together for added power. I would try to start with nothing less then 6dsp and seriously consider 14 or XITE.. All plugins that run on the cards i believe will run on XITE-1. I think also when Platform 5 is released there will be a Solaris 5 plugin release.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Mon May 26, 2008 10:24 pm

There's kind of no point in buying any of the old cards. They won't work in modern systems and the DSPs are slow. Polyphony aside, there's often DSP management issues because bigger, better synths and effects have a hard time fitting on the slow DSPs without phasing/placement issues -- and it's even worse at 96KHz (that's why MiniMax, Pro-12, etc. won't work at 96K). The Xite will probably solve many of those issues and also avoid PCI bandwidth problems. It'll work on the Mac and with new notebook computers, too. It's a far better value in spite of the higher price. If you want to invest in Scope, you should really consider Xite which will be available soon (so SC tells us).

Shayne

johnbowen · Post by **johnbowen** » Mon May 26, 2008 10:31 pm

emunity wrote: Btw how many voices of polyphony is SOLARIS?

and....

Do you think the XITE-1 will have a Solaris Plugin eventually?

Hi,

If you are referring to the keyboard Solaris, here's some answers:

1) We expect polyphony will be somewhere between 16 and 20 voices.
2) There is a version 5.0 of the Solaris plug-in waiting to go when Scope v5 is released, and this plug-in should run on the XITE box, although I haven't tested it.
However, there are differences between the algorithms of the plug-in and the keyboard, with the keyboard version having new higher quality algorithms that won't be converted to the Scope platform.

Hope this helps,
john bowen

emunity · Post by **emunity** » Mon May 26, 2008 10:42 pm

Thanks for all the posts.

Looks like I will wait now for both the XITE-1, sorry if I misspelled it earlier and the Solaris Synth Hardware to come out before I make a decision.

I have the Korg Oasys 88 keyboard workstation and with the new EXs, its going to be hard to beat I guess.

The new MOD-7, korg legacy and Brass and woodwinds along with all the Internal sounds all combined with Karma is just one hard baby to beat.

I am still always looking for new hardware.

Time for me to sell my Old vintage stuff, OBX, got dennis Deyoungs unit. Keeping my OBX-a. , Prophet 5, rev 1 and rev 2. Matrix 12 and jupiter 8. They just sit there no need to keep them around any longer. All these new Virtual synth sounds have come a long long way.

My Access Virus TI, Norg G2X and Yamaha AN1X give me all I need as far as Near old Vintage synth sounds.

I thought the creamware sound was a bit warmer than some of my Virtual gear thats why I am interested in it.