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I wonder if this is a feature of Pulsar I (4dsp) card as to not have spdif in (and maybe out didn't check that) under Scope 4...
Is there any other Scope that would work ?
To rephrase what Scope environement is better suited to Pulsar I ?
Regards,
Dimitrios

it should work fine(4.0). i have a p1 and a power pulsar(scope pro), all ios work.

Dear Garyb,
The spdif out doesn't work.
I tried another cable extender too.
Where can I find an older version of scope like 2.5 to try this out ?
Regards,
Dimitrios

the SFP master clock has to be slaved to the external unit that you want to record via S/PDIF.
It's a feature of the implementation (which itself could be called one big bug, imho).

The consequence is that you'd have the external unit constantly on (and connected) unless you want to switch master clock settings each time you use it.

If the clock of that box is worse than your Pulsar's internal one ALL your other Scope processing will suffer from increased jitter.
Unless you connect something like an Apogee Minimee chances are that you trade off some analog noise for a signal distortion.

cheers, Tom
ps version 2.5 HAD real trouble with S/PDIF on Pulsar One - some extra patches were required (have a P1 myself) and you cannot do S/PDIF roundtrips on Pulsar One (simultaneous IO)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2004-12-10 05:04 ]</font>

Thanks both,
You know Pulsar II in the same position has no trouble play its spdif out, so it must be oriented with PULSAR 1.
I am aware of all these clocking and syncing issues.
I just thought maybe it is a 4.0 scope incompatibility with Pulsar 1
Regards,
Dimitrios

since the Pulsar One has a different IO system from the Pulsar Two, the installer may have 'overlooked' the proper parts.
Imho you're on the right track with your suspect but it's more an occasional incompatibility, not a general one.
Question is how to convince the system without reinstalling the whole thing...

cheers, tom

Dear Astroman,
what would you suggest?
The Pulsar 1 drivers are included in Scope 4 or should they obtained from elsewhere?
On their site there was no indication of drivers download.
Also I detect a different (minor) sound from Pulsar 1 as opposed with PulsarII, more trebly (a bit)
Can you confirm that or is it some kind of Placebo ?
I have installed scope 4 several times deleting the Scope4 directory but same thing...
Are there any things I should erase too ?
Thanks ,
Regards,
Dimitrios

Hmm, I remember some troubles getting SPDIF-thru-ADAT to work with Pulsar 1. I can't remember if it was ever fixed tho, I sold my P1 a while ago so I can't check.

Hi,
I am talking about the spdif in (on rca cable) that is not working. Maybe also the SPDIF out but didn't care to check for that...
I just need this f... spdif in
Regards,
Dimitrios

Dimitrios, I don't have a Pulsar Two to compare, but if the cards use different converters (and analog parts) I would expect them to sound slightly different.
As both cards have 24 bit output converters the difference for synthesized sounds is probably marginal, yet it may be noticable.

The installation difference is not related to the driver, but to certain files in the dsp folder. It's a pretty complex setup and in no way intended to be manually fiddled around with (as one can guess from the sheer number of files).
Nevertheless you could try to rename the dsp.idx file, and restart SFP. The system then rebuilds this file (kind of roadmap to DSP resources).
If you're lucky it will recognize the proper items, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that. At least you cannot spoil anything this way, it's a safe process.

To explain the situation it may help to imagine the card as an empty switchboard.
It has IO connectors and it has DSP processors.
But it hasn't got any fixed connection between those parts. The final routing is entirely achieved by software - that makes it extremely flexible, but in some cases also vulnerable.
The S/PDIF handling of the Pulsar One seems to be specially sensible - I can remember similiar troubles as Symbiote.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. I didn't dig deeper into this as an A16 made the whole system much smoother. I never used S/PDIF input again, but the S/PDIF output worked flawlessly with a pair of Roland DS30 monitors - I have a pair of AKG headphones directly on the analog out.

I'll try to find the info what files were affected - it was quite some time back.
Maybe this helps where to look.

If possible you should install the Pulsar one alone in a 'scratch' system, just to verify the port isn't physically damaged.

Btw I've been writing only about the coax S/PDIF port. I never used the optical, which only works on ADAT port 1 on the old Pulsar (afaik).

cheers and good luck, Tom

works fine here, just make pulsar the slave. it is not a 4.0 thing. did you try removing and replacing the sp/dif module in your project?

the only pulsar 1 sp/dif limitation i know of is that it will not do an sp/dif loop.(i wonder if it would work if all devices are synced to word clock? hmmmm...) anyway, if it doesn't work with pulsar slaved to sp/dif and a new sp/dif module in your project i'd try installing scope back over the top of your old install(it'll only take a minute, don't uninstall) to try and overwrite potential corrupt files. sp/dif should work.

all that said, don't be 100% sure that the sp/dif output of a device is the best sounding........(it probably is...)

This has been a big problem for me. I have a Pulsar 1, SRB 1, Luna II.

The S/PDIF IN of the Pulsar I worked in the first platform, then stopped working. The Luna II S/PDIF IN also did not work! Then the S/PDIF INs mysteriously worked again under the most recent version of the SFP.


When I wrote to and called support about it a long time ago (both in Canada and in Germany), they pretended that they never heard of anyone having this problem and they had no help for me. This is frustrating. If they can't fix a problem, then they pretend the problem does not exist!

I am also having trouble with sp/dif optical input. I am trying it with the triton extreme which only sends at 48k. when i connect them up and slave the pulsar, it finds no master...
I am still using 3.1 SFP - the 4.0 installer won't setup for some reason. I have all the ASPI installed correctly too... this has been troubling...

Spdif on my Pulsar1 worked great all the way up until I upgraded to using optical ADAT instead... (I assume its still working but no longer use it).

For me:

Luna II (Powersampler) Card - SPDIF in works perfectly at 48K (Data and Clock), much less reliable at 44.1K - e.g. works with SPDIF transfers from DAT machine (Data and Clock), doesn't work from my other audio computer (Data or Clock) which has a Card Deluxe soundcard. Very frustrating!

Jonathan T