Advice on purchasing

[sethius]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to purchase a second hand Sonic Core (creamware) card or two, but i'm a little confused and have a few questions. Thanks in advance..!!

1) What kind of serial numbers, registration files etc do the cards/software/plugs require?
2) What is the standard procedure for obtaining/transferring them from the sellers?
3) I'm primarily looking to run synths ie Juno/Minimax/Profit (the good stuff!) and modular 3/4. Will the Luna II or Pulsar II be sufficient to run these and how many voices/instances am I likely to get out of these cards.
4) I want to get some Zarg plugins. How well will these run on the above mentioned cards and will they run on Scope v5.1?
5) Will I run into any problems trying to upgrade from Scope v3.1 ie licence/purchase issues?
6) Does anyone know if these cards work with Ableton Live 8 in XTC mode?
7) Do I need some kind of key file for each card? And I can't get it from the seller, is there another way to obtain it?
If I purchase multiple cards and plugin licenses can I use them all together in the same machine?
9) Are there any other issues, things to look out for that I should be aware of?

Thanks again guys..!!

Seth.

[garyb]

1. the cards have serial numbers on them, you'll need the keys that go with the program version you want to run.
2. they can send the keyfile to you via email, or on a usb stick or cd. if you don't get it from the seller, S|C support can give the keyfile to you if you ask them.
3. luna, hell no. pulsar2/scope project, yes, maybe, depending on how you work. there's no set number of devices or voices for plugins. the best sounding synths usually gobble dsps like grains of rice. it all depends on how complicated the algo is. that's a dsp advantage. a developer uses whatever processing that he needs to get the sound he wants. he doesn't have to worry if the computyer will run or not after.
4. Zarg synths are heavy. you'd best start with a 14 or 15 dsp card. yes, they'll run in v5.
5. no.
6. probably, although for a real engineer/creative musician, it's really best to use Scope mode. other will disagree, but my multimillion dollar clients don't use xtc mode...
7. part a: see above. part b: yes, you can use all together.
8. welll....
9. just be sure that you get a second generation card(pulsar2/scope project, power pulsar, scope professional, luna2/scope home). the first gen cards work fine, but not nearly as well.

[sethius]

Thanks for the reply, very informative..!!

I have been in contact with a couple of people regarding purchasing their cards and i'm leaning towards getting a 14/15 DSP card. I have a couple more questions if you don't mind..?!

1) Do you know the rough value of 14/15 DSP cards?
2) I'm only interested in 2nd gen/low latency cards and i'm not suer how to identify them. Do you have any tips?
3) Quite often people sell multiple cards with different versions of Scope and different plugins 'attached' to them. If, for example, i purchase 2 cards 1 with scope 4.0 and Zarg solaris, and the other with 5.0 and Minimax, will both cards (in the same machine of course) be able to run Scope 5.0, Solaris and Minimax?
4) If i buy 1 2nd gen/low latency card to use as an audio interface and buy some 1st gen/non low latency cards to attach to it as extra processing power, will plugins that run on the 1st gen/non low latency cards run at low latency, providing the audio is coming out of the 2nd gen/low latency card that they attached to?

Thanks in advance for helping this Scope noob..!!

Seth.

[garyb]

sure!

1. $700-1100 depending on what is attached to them. normally, i don't like to pay more than about $900, but paying $1100 isn't a crime if the card has several high end 3rd party plugs.

2. most 15dsp and ALL 14dsp cards are 2nd gen. the 1st gen cards are a little bit longer and usually have 24adat i/o. really, it'd be hard to tell for sure for a newbie. if it's called Power Pulsar or Scope Professional, it's second gen. all 6 dsp cards are 2nd generation.

3. yes. with multiple cards, the system sees just one big card, so as long as at least one card has keys for a device, it wil work on the whole system.

4. yes, all cards and i/o will run low latency as long as at least one of them is second gen. first generation cards don't use resources as efficiently, though, so performance(especially of the PCI bus) will be slightly worse than if all cards are 2nd generation. i have 2 2nd gen(2 15dsps) and one 1st generation(a pulsar1) in my main computer.

[Mixtremist]

EXCELLENT stuff Gary! Someone should make this a sticky.....................