Scope - the unsung hero

[yayajohn]

wow dante that's awesome! You may be on to something there, a definite thumbs up.

[siriusbliss]

I like it a lot Dante!

Greg

[dante]

ok thanks for the positive feedback garyb, siriusbliss, astroman and yayajohn. It inspires me to keep going....

Could you try with this font until I figure out a way to embed the damn thing ( doncha hate frontpage ? ). I had to zip it coz this site doesnt like certain extensions.

Just unzip and chuck it in your c:\windows\fonts or whatever folder.....this font looks a bit more 'digital' or something..in a rounded sorta way ......dunno but I like it - what you think?

[astroman]

well, you even get a couple of thumbs up from a somewhat sceptic like myself, too
nice layout and a great idea of 'monolithic' appearance

cheers, Tom

[dante]

Thanks to the following contributors things are progressing well so far :

. Wolf and SpaceF have ok'ed reviews of thier devices ( content to be compiled/approved ).
. GaryB for helping to facilitate Holger's approval to use Soniccore content.
. JAV and I working though drafting of some content re B2003.
. Mr Arkadin has voluntered to scrutinise / critique content, syntactically and technically.
. Others, astroman, siruisbliss, yayajohn etc for +ve feedback...

I've got 4 of the content pages fleshed out, and these have been uploaded.. ( introduction to scope, editors testimonial )

Again thanks everyone for input / encouragement..has inspired me to keep going....

There is a new URL :

http://www.hitfoundry.com/

[garyb]

it's all about the love...

[dante]

If any XITE-1 Live users can give me one or two quick (short) sentences about why XITE-1 is thier choice for LIVE work that would be good. I already have a couple of punchlines but making it consensus driven would no doubt improve it...

[dante]

BUMP !

[siriusbliss]

If any XITE-1 Live users can give me one or two quick (short) sentences about why XITE-1 is thier choice for LIVE work that would be good. I already have a couple of punchlines but making it consensus driven would no doubt improve it...

I'm getting around to it.
Been busy lately.

Not sure how many of us are using it for live use. Probably not many


Greg

[dawman]

I use it live because its the closet thing to hardware I ever found.

Instead of using some unpredictable DAW for audio playback I prefer VDAT. It sounds better since it was made for high fidelity using 32bit Integer and it never has dropouts in audio.

The presets when Modular synths are being used are instaneous, similar to hardware.
I can't use synths that need load times.

Due to the XITE-1s' size I can employ local handicapped people as roadies and avoid paying Union Stagehands.

The Sound.

[dante]

Not sure how many of us are using it for live use. Probably not many

Greg

If there's not many using it live then all the more reason for me to find out why they should be and pitch it that way Glass half full there.....

But Jav just gave me some good ones I hadn't though of ( thanks ) :

1) Synth/Preset Load Times.
2) VDAT quality ( VDAT would be a good feature for the second edition so glad u mentioned it. )
3) "Closest thing to hardware I've ever found" - thats a good punchline I'll quote this

I've also gotta check out something that Jav said about 'no zippers' - I 'm thinking thats the 'zzzz' sound you hear when adjusting a knob real time on some virtual synths / effects... I've noticed that on TubeTaper but if all Modular components are free of that then thats another notch in Scope's favour ( live or not ).

Thanks for the input.....

[dawman]

Actually it's Modular IV's Tape Delay and GOST plugs that are zipper free.
Time based delays and reverbs are very difficult to get artifact free realtime control with.
VSTi synths are cool but the zippers are most annoying and load times are unusable, virtual effects are really bad in the VST world, but most of those cats dont ever gig so its never a big deal.
Motion is what makes music exciting, motion with zippers makes me cringe......

[dante]

Actually it's Modular IV's Tape Delay and GOST plugs that are zipper free.
Time based delays and reverbs are very difficult to get artifact free realtime control with.
VSTi synths are cool but the zippers are most annoying and load times are unusable, virtual effects are really bad in the VST world, but most of those cats dont ever gig so its never a big deal.
Motion is what makes music exciting, motion with zippers makes me cringe......

Ok then at least I can claim something like *** there are inherently less zippers in Scope because ( unlike general purpose host CPU's) it's based on an Audio processor designed for real time timbre changes *** . It's then just up to device developers to be mindful of this in thier development.

[siriusbliss]

Consolidated hardware horsepower.
Ability to run multiple modular, FM, etc. synths in one project for live performance while also being able to do live tracking.
Ability to load multiple large devices such as reverbs, compressors.
Saves having to drag multiple synths onstage or to a session.
Onboard DSP horsepower saves bloated CPU overhead, which leaves more system overhead available for DAW host and/or VST, VSTi, or sampler requirements.
Scope effects can perform like 'external' hardware as inserts in DAW host.

'Better' sound quality.
Very low latency.
Analog 'feel' in the Scope environment.
Flexible routing.
Fast preset switching.
Expandability in one Scope project environment to accommodate live performance, tracking, mixing including synths, effect inserts, configurations, etc.

Equivalent systems using VST/VSTi's are restricted by system configuration, memory overhead, throughput over the bus, number of tracks, varying buffers and latency.

Greg

[dante]

Excellant - thanks for that - up it goes !! ( tonight )....

Not only that, but ( in the unlikely event ) you dont have enough power to run a DSP synth, you'll know about it at load time, rather than mid-performance which is where a VST would fold.

This just gets better all the time....thanks guys...

[dante]

Does anyone know how to get the white background on the project window ? I've seen this before on some promo screenshots / vids.

I read here something about skins, not sure if they work but I don't need to skin devices, just the project window background. Making Scope project tutorials with black devices on a dark grey background isn't really helpful clarity wise and I cant do a global graphics pick and replace coz it wipes out half the devices as well (due to the colours being so close).

Therefore I'm left with manually cutting out the background between the cables and bits......arrrgh...

[siriusbliss]

Does anyone know how to get the white background on the project window ? I've seen this before on some promo screenshots / vids.

I read here something about skins, not sure if they work but I don't need to skin devices, just the project window background. Making Scope project tutorials with black devices on a dark grey background isn't really helpful clarity wise and I cant do a global graphics pick and replace coz it wipes out half the devices as well (due to the colours being so close).

Therefore I'm left with manually cutting out the background between the cables and bits......arrrgh...

You may just have to crank up the contrast or something.
I don't know of any skin features or white backgrounds. (was it every white?)

Greg

[dante]

Apparantly it was at the musikmesse..

music messe

xitepres.JPG (29.85 KiB) Viewed 1235 times

Anyway I can try the contrast idea..thanks

[kensuguro]

hey, didn't realize what this thread was about.. I can throw in some content if you need me to write. I've been a long time scope user though my desktop died and it's taken a back seat for the time being.. (with os 3.5 lol!) Not really sure what my contribution would be tho.

I'm in the web business (ya ya, the web 2.0 startup thing) and though I can't throw my company's resources at this, the first thing that pops into mind is DESIGN. We can throw everything we've got at it, and if it's not designed properly, it won't move the needle. Do we have any designers on Z? Not to take a jab at Dante's mockup, I think at this point it's important to move forward and not lose momentum, but we should be on the lookout for design resources.

There are a couple of ways to go about this I think, (those of you in the industry please add/correct).
1. small webzine to email, aim for clickthrough to site: Most people don't read anything beyond 3 sentences. Most effective way is to send email with a bunch of pictures, and get them to click through to the website, that has all the content. Clickthrough rates are usually in the single digit percentages.. like 2%, depending on how close we are to the userbase.

2. A good read through email: So maybe the users do want to read. We're not in the web business, but our mission is to inform, and disperse information. Then why not just have them read interesting content in the email being received? There would be an article, and a link back to the site for more. But if they don't go to the site, fine. We care if they've read the content.

3. the web 2.0 approach: Entangle people in their own social web through social network services like Ning, etc, and get them, and their friends involved. We provide news and info through the portal, and people (hopefully) keep coming back because their friends are active on it, and they need to check back to read messages, check feeds, etc.. (the facebook deal) We'll call it SonicCr. (like flickr, Tumblr, etc..)

4. the facebook game approach: We build a farm game where you reap and sow fruits. We'll have a facebook app, a standalone website, an iphone app, and an ipad app. We'll throw in an android app too, but will ditch the blackberry users. For every "neighbor" you invite, you unlock various seeds that take different time to grow. But wait! When the seed bears fruit, you have to come back within a set time or your fruit will go bad! You can also pay money so your fruits grow instantly, or buy a tractor so it'll automatically pick the fruits when they're ready. We'll call it Sonicville.

5. Location, location, location: Sign in with this iphone app. Everywhere you go, you can sign in to whatever restaurant / club / venue you are at, and see who else is there. Better yet, let the iphone do it for you. The app uses iphone's GPS capability to automatically sign you in when you get to your destination, and automatically notify you if anyone in your network is also there. Let the world know where you are, all the time, every where you go, so you can feel important, with our service, FourCore. (or Quadsquare.. or wait, that's 4^2 so it's 16.. err.. quad points is already a square so I guess we also say SquareSquare. Ok, so it's Quadsquare aka 16 aka SquareSquare.. aka to the 4th power)

okay, that was dumb... in case I lost you guys, 4 and 5 I was making fun of Farmville and Foursquare, the latest hot stuff on the web 2.0 market.

Jokes aside, email marketing can be difficult, but it's worth a try. I mean, I guess the position of the webzine is not so much getting clicks and unique users, but just to get the information out there, so the measure of success is a little different from a typical web service.

[dante]

hey, didn't realize what this thread was about.. I can throw in some content if you need me to write. I've been a long time scope user though my desktop died and it's taken a back seat for the time being.. (with os 3.5 lol!) Not really sure what my contribution would be tho.

Well most of the 8 slots for edition one are fairly well fleshed out, I'm still tweaking the 'LIVE - THE ONLY WAY' section and I probably need to research SpaceF modular mixer a bit more so I can actually say something about it rather than just linking to his site. EG I need to actually play with the demo I spose, or get someone to give me content on it.

So apart from that, we're looking at the next edition which could be an open book, and if you can come up with something that would be great. The only things I had slated for Edition 2 were :

1) Dynatube feature.
2) More Free Device reviews ( eg Neutron Paradox ).
3) Hopefully an extension to using Scope live section ( if thats not exhausted ).
4) Mastering by mausmuso
5) More tutorials. You notice I did one for Cubase. But if anyone using Logic, Reaper or other sequencers want to come to the party with a tute about how to use Scope with thier sequencer that would be good as well.

Also, if you've got 8 bars of top quality music produced on Scope ( pref using Scope synths etc ) I can loop in the background on some pages that would be good as well.

Modular is another one I would rely on other contributors coz Ive really done bugger all on modular yet...

Spose we could do a feature on 2OP FM as well....