Looking for guitarist's impressions on using CW hardware / d

rezzer · Post by **rezzer** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:00 am

I'm planning on getting some CW hardware solely based on what I have read I will be able to do with it for routing, mixing but a large part of it is the synths/samplers. I've had a lot of fun with Reason but I'm starting to recognize the "tinniness" that I seem to be unable to avoid with that app and based on the numerous reviews I probably will be happy with the Scope hardware for synth sounds (if I will ever be happy at all

That said, one of the other important reasons I have picked CW is because I am under the impression that I can use my DBX 386 preamp and feed in an AES/EBU signal into the Pulsar II+. I'm hoping this will be an important part of eliminating noise I've had for years as I try to record electric guitar, bass and occasional mics. Anyone else use this hardware combo I'd be very interested in any input about that. I've been using a M-Audio 2448 with it's SPDIF input for a while which has eliminated the noise and gives me about 6ms latency, but I've had a lot of stability problems related to this card which motivated me to replace it with a CW card. I have also had the occasional data error on the SPDIF so I'm hoping that AES/EBU may correct that in case it's a simple noise problem. It's the same cost for me to go that way, so it seems like I might as well.

I've also had Cubase SX 2 for a while, and I'm pretty much stuck with it for good or bad (I couldn't afford to replace it if I wanted to). So my question to folks who play guitars is this: Are the effects that the CW system can apply to the guitar signal up to snuff? I mean, do they compare favorably to what I might get out of a POD XT Pro? I had a V-Amp pro, briefly, before returning it because basically I didn't like the sound quality. I was considering a POD because it seemed pretty good but at the price they are asking, I decided to just get a Pulsar 2+ and stick with my long term plan of having hardware just be input devices for a digital system. I'm very curious about any comments about latency, effects quality as compared to more traditional guitar sound effects, and anything non-obvious that has to do with using CW with Cubase SX that might be useful to know with respect to guitars.

Thanks for any feedback or discussion. I'm really interested to hear what anyone has to say about these things.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rezzer on 2004-04-22 02:05 ]</font>

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 4:15 am

I´m using this setup...

...But you will need:
http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm

Check out the JCM 900 emulation

It rocks !

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AndreD on 2004-04-22 05:16 ]</font>

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:13 am

I usually try to get the tone of the guitar how I want it with outboard gear (Tech21 stuff) before the signal enters the computer, after which I use SFP effects for dynamics, modulation, reverb etc. I'll sometimes use VST effects in Cubase too.

As well as the guitar suite which Andre mentioned, there's also an SFP-based amp modeller (demo available):

http://www.celmo.com/Guitar_Amp_page.htm

Royston

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:16 am

and it's a very good one too!

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:18 am

SpaceF's Echo2M could be an argument on it's own

afaik Mehdi is a guitar player, too

cheers, Tom

enb141 · Post by **enb141** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:01 am

Well I use a Luna II as main ASIO sound card, then I use ampliTube with Cubase SX 2, you can also use some Creamware plugins in XTC mode (XTC = VST but must be recorded in real time not in a mixdown).

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:20 am

SCOPE4 + Celmo GAM + SpaceF Echo2m = realtime, latency free killer guitar sound.

To record all this killer sound, you route this direct to cubase via asio.

Don't use soft monitoring, but hardware monitoring thru scope, asio is used to record (not monitor) + playback for sample accurate stuff.

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:28 am

I am a guitarist, and I must say that I found the very best stuff for my guitar in scope:

1)Zero latency hw monitoring with any amount of Scope plugs.

2)FleXor package for the Modular allows ultra fast monophonic pitch to cv for guitar (or voice or flute or whatever monophonic) synthesizer.

3)Celmo's plugs for guitar and other existing(don't remember the name) are excellent. Celmo's freeware (reduced version) is better than vst-e soundwise.

4)FleXor packege has fantastic filters and saturation effects, never heard more beautiful sound for guitar on a computer.

5)Scope pitch shifter is one of the best I've heard.

6)Stock reverb is excellent.

7)The quantity and quality of the freeware devices and the number of freely downloadable modular patches useful for a guitarist is amazing.

You can build on your card a very flexible and good sounding Live set for you guitar, no drivers involved, just on board dsp, super stable and latency free, with several things together, like synths for midi guitar, guitar processing, vocoder, Modular synthesis.....for stage!

And the sound kills!

Post by **garyb** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:11 pm

great w/ guitar....

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:47 am

like Royston I use TECH 21 output. Incredible what you can do with it inside a Scope environement. Play a lick and use it as input for a synthesiser like Rotor. In this case you can mix up to 8 copies with each other. Cruel sound or wonderful sphere - all possible. Or fatten the recorded mix with Psy Q. There is not much left you cannot do with a Scope system, really. Clean sounds, distorted, fat, thin. Your idea is important, the rest can be done. Usually. And you can ask this forum to help you, if you don't know what device to use. Any idea HOWTO is a very common question here.