HELP! I am new to everything! Don't know anything!!!!

___crisis___1 · Post by **___crisis___1** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:48 pm

Hey everybody... I'm joe. Nice to be here. So, here is my story... I am extremelt new to all of this. I have been using Reason 2.5 and Cubase SX 2.0 for a couple of months to learn, and i have got the basic "feel" for both progs. I was told by a freind that the reamware was the way to go... so I purchased a Pulsar II/ Scope Project pak (plus). And now i don't know what i am doing....... it's so frustrating!

Okay, I will start by explaining what it is that I want to do. I want to, for now, use my pulsar 2 card as an xtc module, and use the ins and outs of my on board sound (built into mobo). I know! I know! The creamware is better for i/o, but i am broke! this card sucked up all my money! and i have nothing to plug the xlr's into. So, how can i

a. Use the i/o of my onboard sound to hear what i am doing with the xtc plugs

or

b. Listen to the output of my pulsar 2 without buying more hardware?

I also have a dj setup... 2 technics and a pmc 07 pro mixer. Now, what i want to do, is be able to record the output of my mixer in to my soundcard to make demos. That is the first thing. Secondly, I want to play the out put of my soundcard to a stereo reciever, or even to my headphones... I just want to be able to hear something!!! I don't know what to do with these XLR's!?

I read in the manual that you can "use the i'o's of another soundcard and employ the dsp card in xtc mode only as a pure DSP processing board". Anyone know how to do this? it doesn't really go into detail...

Ok, another thing, is, when i do have a little more money... what do i need to play the output of the pulsar 2? do i need an outboard mixer? or what? i am so lost... i am mainly going to be producing in my headphones due to living quarters... can't get real loud. should i just buy some monitors with xlr inputs?

And a few other things... I went to the creamware website, and activated the scope 4.0... now what? how do i actually get the scope 4.0? it sent me a key through e-mail, then i typed the key in and it said it's activated... but i can't find anywhere to download it? I went to my download page and it doesn't show it on there?

Thank you for any help.......

___crisis___1 · Post by **___crisis___1** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:04 pm

oh... another problem i had! when i installed sfp 3.1, then opened cubase sx 2, it gives me a "xtc modules improperly installed" error, or something along those lines. anyone know why i would be getting this error?

Post by **garyb** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:49 pm

wow, a LOT of issues.
well, you have more than you bargained for so take a deep breath and know that it'll take a minute to get things sorted out.... i like to see newbies get some help and info BEFORE they get the card, but no big deal really.

to use xtc mode you MUST use the i/o on the card and believe me you want to. a small mixer would indeed be a useful device as it has mic pres and a volume control on it. then you could connect to either a power amp or powered monitors. without a mixer you can connect directly to the analog ours of your card. you can use adaptors to make the connections work, and you really won't hurt anything by mixing things up unless you connect the speaker output from an amp directly to the scope card's ins or outs.

i would suggest that for putting music together you should use the sfp mode. the routing window allows you to control the flow of signal(sound) from/to wherever you want. it is virtual reality. it is your patch bay. you can only connect audio ins to outs and midi ins to outs and vice versa. audio won't connect to midi, just like the jacks on your real equipment. cubase will connect via asio i/o, there are wav i/o for other applications as well as mixers and hardware(the physical connectors on the card) i/o of every kind. this is also where effects and synths can be connected. play with it a bit and you'll get the idea. there are sample projects with your card as well as on this site, but you'll want to be able to modify things for what YOU want to do for any given song.

if you use xtc mode, then you must set up your basic xtc project called xtcproject.pro located in sfp/app/xtcapp. xtc hints here: http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=3&17

the 4.0 download is located here: http://www.cwaudio.de/index.php?submenu ... rt&lang=en

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 5:06 pm

On 2004-09-01 13:48, ___crisis___1 wrote:
... this card sucked up all my money! and i have nothing to plug the xlr's into...

is there a chance that you can exchange the IO/plate of the card to a 'standard' one ?

The Plus version makes it only more difficult because you need adapters (for a headphone) or more expensive cables.

GaryB probably overlooked this when he mentioned '...you can't harm anything' - but the version you have might be damaged if not connected properly.
It actually depends on the circuit design of the board (which I don't know), but better safe than sorry.

The regular 'Classic 20' IO with cinch for audio and s/pdif IS totally safe in that context - and you can get a headphone adapter from the hifi store (cinch to mini-stereo).

If you don't wanna blow your head it works fine with low impedance phones (between 8 and 60 Ohm). Imho loud enough and a truely brilliant sound !

Same applies to the connection of your hifi amp.

cheers, Tom

Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 6:25 pm

download Scope 4.0 Zip from here
http://www.cwaudio.de/page.php?seite=sc ... nu=support

provided you already activated Scope 4.0 Key code and the 4.0 key is part of the new all key file that also needed to be downloaded to install 4.0

You need to scroll down to the middle of the page to see the Scope 4.0 Zip.

___crisis___1 · Post by **___crisis___1** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 6:45 pm

ok, thank you for your replies. a little help so far. i should have specified some things... when i use the live bar... and i am in the routing window, what do i connect what to for cubase to feed midi into sfp? how do i specify what the connections are going to?

i.e. I have midi in, and connect it to the mixer in sfp... how does it know what is feeding the midi? does it have somewhere in the optoins where i can select cubase? or is cubase auto selected?

oh yea... i guess it would help to inform that i have never produced before... don't have any hardware experience, nothing... just the few months on reason and cubase i mentioned earlier.

Post by **garyb** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 7:31 pm

you must have at least one "sequencer midi source" and one "sequencer midi destination" in your project before opening cubase, then you can select cw midi i/o in your cubase track inspector. if your sequencer was hardware it would have to have midi connectors. the seq midi i/o are those jacks.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:51 am

also you need a ASIO module in the SFP project for cubase to be able to send audio to/from SFP.

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:06 am

Also, as boring as it might be, you need to sit down and have a good go at RTFM.

But don't worry, initially the complexity might throw you but once you get your head around the basic concepts it will become very, very easy to work with and you'll appreciate the flexability and be glad it is as complex as it is!

___crisis___1 · Post by **___crisis___1** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:46 am

well, can anyone suggest a decent mixer to get that won't cost another grand?

oh, and thank you bassdude... believe me... i already have gone through the manual... and half of it might as well be in chinese... they don't exactly make it easy, or try to explain what all the words are you don't understand...

[ This Message was edited by: ___crisis___1 on 2004-09-02 12:50 ]

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:50 am

Yeah, I have to second RTFM, I had to figure all this out before there was a PlanetZ, and it was all there in the manual.It is not reasonable to expect a beginner's tutorial from PlanetZ.

However, that said, I think everyone here enjoys solving a specific issue, so exact questions are always welcome.

R

___crisis___1 · Post by **___crisis___1** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:51 am

and is the a16 ultra worth getting? what would i use it for? just to plug in outside harware and instruments?

Post by **garyb** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:55 am

how about a used studiomaster sessionmix gold? you should be able to get 12-16 channels for about $200... inserts on every channel so you can use each channel directly and the 12 is rack mountable....either way, i'd look at used. you should be able to get a wr series ramsa(VERY good sruff) for about $600. if you find a used board and want info on it, email or pm me. i buy and sell used gear 3 days a week...

you could just buy microphone preamps like some of the ones suggested and plug directly into your monitors/monitor amp-even better, do that and get something like this: http://www.mackie.com/products/bigknob/index.html

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:02 pm

No one said it would be easy, welcome to the world computer recording! You must now be prepared to spend a portion of your valulable time on the technology instead of the music...sometimes I think it's worth it and sometimes I wish I was using a reel to reel tape deck.

I have always been amazed that the average musician is required to learn such a large amount about computers and software, just to be able to record their music.

I understand why Yamaha, Roland, Fostex, etc. are selliing those all in one studio units. It's all there, it all works...at least the ones I've tried did. You still have to plow through a manual though. and don't talk about editing...

Unfamiliar terminology can make the uphill climb even steeper.

If you don't know what something means then that is a very ligitimate question for the forum.

Does anyone know if there has ever been an attemprt ot write a beginner's set- up guide?

There are some set-ups here at Z. Maybe you can find one that will start you off.

R

[ This Message was edited by: nprime on 2004-09-02 13:03 ]

[ This Message was edited by: nprime on 2004-09-02 15:30 ]

Post by **garyb** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:11 pm

well, i think i can safely say that if you have a studio, there's a lot to learn. those all-in-ones can be diffcult at first as well, and the tape deck portion of your computer is as easy as the real thing (push the record button

). what is difficult is knowing how the studio works as a whole. the more elements, the more to learn. since most of the elements in a computer are virtual, it's tempting to think of the computer as one item, and so the computer seems overly complicated.

really, the computer itself is one item to learn, but all the virtual things you are useing(effects, synths, the sequencer which is really a virtual tape deck, etc) each count as a thing so when you start using a computer, your studio rapidly becomes very complex, as complex as many commercial environments, so it's best to be a little patient as the benefits are more than worth it....

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:57 pm

Personally I found the Pulsar environment to be fairly intuitive, but there were little things you had to know that are important (I had to work through them by trial and error. Creamware support was first rate in my experience(but then I live in the city where they have their North American headquarters, so I could literally drive to their office for help! So that's not fair)).

PlanetZ is so great for this! there is almost always someone who knows the answer...

Oh, and I have been so rude, WELCOME TO PLANETZ!

R

___crisis___1 · Post by **___crisis___1** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 2:17 pm

well, i know the computer inside and out... no problem there... i biuld them for fun... it's just the software and lingo that is a challenge. but thank you for all the help.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:49 pm

On 2004-09-02 12:51, ___crisis___1 wrote:
and is the a16 ultra worth getting? what would i use it for?...

if budget allows, it's a highly recommended item. It's very intuitive to use and and doesn't only connect the outboard world in BOTH directions, but also acts as a latency free patchbay where you can make the connections on screen (instead of plugging physical cables - no wear-out with the A16).

I've replaced a digital Korg mixer by it's predecessor (A16 non-ultra) and must say it makes life much easier

As an example I have a mono instrument on channel 6 in, the respective Adat source from the A16 goes into the Transient Designer, the TD's out directly into the record channel to capture the dry instrument.
I draw a 2nd 'cable' to Adat destination 1 which represents the A16's analog out #1 which goes to an external Yamaha SPX90 for reverb.
The SPX90's output is connected to the A16's analog ins 7/8, represented by Adat source 7/8 on screen. This return is connected to record channels 7/8 for the FX part of the instrument.

If I need the SPX for a (say) SFP synth, to add some trash

, I just disconnect Adat destination #1 and reconnect it to the SFP synth's out.
It can't be easier than that - no physical connector had to be touched, just in a couple of seconds

Such a setup has another advantage.
With 'only' 8 DSPs I cannot load a demanding synth like the Solaris together with the latest and geatest reverbs by STW.
In that context the SPX plate acts as a scratch reverb which is later replaced by the STW P100 for the final mix

The sound quality of the A16 ultra is very high - even the non-ultra version I have with it's 18 bit converters DOES SOUND GREAT, despite what people may think about the bit depth. I've opened mine and checked which parts they used

I paid 316 Euro 2nd hand, so this may be an option too.
But budget is of course a concern as these units NEED preamps for guitars and mics.

cheers, Tom
ps: there is a learning curve, but you'll probably get along quickly with it. The system has a pretty clear layout - no unusual efforts to expect.

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2004-09-02 17:00 ]

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:21 pm

I too highly recommend the A16 or A16 Ultra.

It makes things so easy. However with a mixing board you get mic pre-amps, so it depends if that is important. As already said you can buy a couple of mic pre's if that's all you need, and still get the A16.

R