I could use some help. Lightwave and else..

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:24 am

I have noticed some problems with pulsar II lately. Perhaps somebody could give some advice. Here's some:

1. Lightwave synth is clipping internally. A good example is 'Atmoclick' preset. When playing with several voices I can hear nasty clipping sound, but mixer level doesn't show overload (it's below -3dB). Can you verify this is happening for you too? Or do I have a problem here?

2. XTC mode. I haven't been using it much, but recently tried open one song that I made in XTC mode. I got an error message 'EXCEPTION: Array index -1 out of bounds'. No further info, no reference to source. I made the song with Cubase SX 1.05. Now I tried to open it with version 1.06. Few times I managed to open the song without crash and noticed that all XTC plugins had corrupted graphics and some plugs had lost their settings.
I made a new test song with SX 1.06 and it seems to be working without error messages or corruption. But effects in master bus or in groups doesn't load correctly.
Do you have any thoughts, whats going on with this? Tried to search here, but didn't find if this is happening somebody else as well.

Thank you for your help!

[ This Message was edited by: Stige on 2003-12-11 07:32 ]

Zer · Post by **Zer** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:39 am

sorry, never heard about one of these. Perhaps some details to the rest of your system may be helpful.

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 8:37 am

ok, i reinstalled SFP software and reverted back to cubase SX 1.05. No help, still same problems. I have 2 windows XP partitions, one with acpi and second is standard PC mode. Both of them are having same problems. I can't think anymore this is a software problem.

AMD 2400XP
Asus A7N8X Del 1.04 bios 1004
Antec 550W PSU
Radeon 9600Pro
UAD-1 (PCI slot 3)
Pulsar II z-link (PCI slot 5)
Windows XP + SP1
No IRQ shares

Could anyone confirm/test the problem with lightwave please. Does it distort (atmoclick preset)?

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:04 am

I tried it, and I couldn't hear any distortion.
Are you sure that the signal isn't gained og doubled somewhere?

Thomas

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 10:07 am

I'm afraid the synth is distorting itself here. I just route it into dynamixer and leave levels default (0dB).

Petal, did you try with several voices simultaneously?

I found out that the signal is too loud before chorus module of the synth. when i bypassed the chorus, the signal got louder and i saw clipping in mixer too (it doesn't show clipping as long as chorus is on). It seems to me that it's the chorus module causing that distorted sound. If i set volume in amp module to 60, then it doesn't distort anymore.
I just can't understand why is it happening only for me

Anyone else, have you tested this please?

What comes to XTC song corruption, it seems to me that EQ had 'randomized' it's settings very badly in group channel. That caused illegal operation when loading the song
Can't understand either why this happens

[ This Message was edited by: Stige on 2003-12-11 10:10 ]

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:32 pm

Yes I tried this with 6 voices - no distortion.

Perhaps itøs time for a complete reinstall.....!?

Thomas

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 8:33 am

On 2003-12-11 16:32, petal wrote:
Yes I tried this with 6 voices - no distortion.

Perhaps itøs time for a complete reinstall.....!?

Thomas

I'm afraid that can't help. I have 2 different windows installations. Both has the same problem.
I would be glad to hear more opinions..

Another thing that is strange to me: in XTC mode if i put for example a compressor into a track that peaks over zero, the compressor can't pass the singnal over zero (even if setting it 1:1 bypass). In other words, the plugin is clipping at 0dB. In practice that means it is NOT floating point processing, like i've seen generally said here. Any thoughts?
Additon: UAD-1 plugins can pass over zero without problems, so thats what i would call floating point processing.

[ This Message was edited by: Stige on 2003-12-13 08:39 ]

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 10:03 am

imho Stige is right - the Lightwave distorts.
It's in the amp stage. If you reduce sustain level a little bit all is OK again, no matter what fx.
I'm running Pulsar One under Win98 and once brought to attention, the problem seems fairly widespread in that synth.
I never did notice because I'd punch on a Wavelenght device, but never on such a smooth 'carpet maker'

cheers, Tom

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:00 am

On 2003-12-13 10:03, astroman wrote:
imho Stige is right - the Lightwave distorts.
It's in the amp stage. If you reduce sustain level a little bit all is OK again, no matter what fx.
I'm running Pulsar One under Win98 and once brought to attention, the problem seems fairly widespread in that synth.
I never did notice because I'd punch on a Wavelenght device, but never on such a smooth 'carpet maker'

cheers, Tom

Thanks Tom, thats what I wanted to hear

I've been troubleshooting my pc last few days because of unexpected temperature rise. All I want, is that my pulsar is ok, as it's the most expensive part in my pc.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:57 pm

your welcome

the health of the card is indeed the most crucial aspect - but my explanation missed the point.
The amp section of Lightwave seems rather independent from the rest.
At least the presets don't affect output volume settings, which results in clipping for some signals.

cheers, Tom