I would like to buy a Xite from SC

The Sonic Core XITE hardware platform for Scope

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bassundgitarre
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I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by bassundgitarre »

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the community, but I read along a lot. My english is very bad, sorry for that. But I have Babelfish :)

I have been using Scope for many years. I have a 23 DSP system, 1x 15 Scope and 2X4 Pulsar I. These are in an expansion box from ExSys. This also works perfectly with a Lenovo W700 Win 10 laptop. I also have a Lenovo Celsius 720 desktop with a Zeon 1620 quad core processor. I am a musician myself, not a technician, but as a musician, there is always a lack of money times in studios go yourself. That's why I plan not to bury my head in the sand during the difficult Corona times and to improve my recording skills. I'm thinking of a SC Xite-1.

Now I have a few questions for you. I still have a BCR 2000 with which I have been able to control Sonar Platinum remotely for about 2 weeks and today I got a second BCR 2000 for the Scope System on ebay. A Xite is not cheap, if I get one, then it should bring me a long way forward so that I am not disappointed or want to get something else after a year or two. I myself like to work with Scope and like routing. Musically, I tend to make music with instruments, including East West or something else, but not so much synthesizers. I like jazz, classical, and basically all music where instruments are played. Indian, Japanese, South American. Just everything, if it's good :). The problem was always that my DSP was full at some point and I could no longer load the DSP. Also the usual dropouts like those with the PC happen more often. I am also interested in newer plug-ins. z: B dNa effect rack or channel rack. So far I have always mixed via the STM 2448 or also in Cakewalk Sonar and sent it back to the scope. Can you give me a brief outline of what the added value is? As I said, the ScopeSystem is really great. But, at some point I will reach my limits.

Thanks for reading
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dante
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by dante »

The main benefit is that the XITE Sharc chips are a faster, later model than the ones on PCI boards so you get more bang for your buck when paying for DSP power. The newer chips are in the order of at least 5 times more powerful than the old chips. And you still get 6 of the old chips for compatibility :
XITE-chips
XITE-chips
xite-chips.jpg (148.5 KiB) Viewed 5389 times
And you get the bandwidth benefit of PCIe on the XITE compared to legacy PCI with the cards.
bassundgitarre
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by bassundgitarre »

Hello Dante,

thank you for the information. I hope to get myself a Xite-1 by the end of the year. That's why I'm doing a little research. This forum has already helped me a lot when browsing. But I've never written because my English is really "uunter aller Kanone", as we say in Germany :). But as I said, I can basically make music, but mix, I have a lot of respect for that. I like working with Scope. But, there is a lot on the market now. You are torn here and there. It's not necessarily about better or worse for me, because that's always a question of who uses it and how good is their craft. I hope for opportunities to achieve really good results for my circumstances with good equipment. I've been making music since the Atari era, I also had an Atari Falcon with an Adat interface. It was really fun. After that I had withdrawn a bit, the PC that wasn't really stable at first. So I'm not really ignorant of software, how it works and how it is configured. It's about finally getting the best out of modest opportunities. Since Scope is a very open system for me, I would like to continue working with it, but don't know Xite. And that's why I come here because there are members here who work with it and it seems to me that they are very happy with their system. I don't know what other systems can do. Each has advantages and disadvantages. For me, I think the one Xite-1 isn't too expensive for what it can do. But that's just speculation. What are your experiences? Because I'm really torn between making this investment.
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dante
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by dante »

Well, if you are familiar with Scope PCI then XITE isnt really that different. The software is much the same including the routing and drag/drop devices etc.

To speak to someone in German, Bud Weiser here is from Germany and very knowledgable.
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Spindrift
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Spindrift »

Just went from PCI to Xite for a couple of reasons.

First of all I had one of my cards died on me last year. This meant I had a little less DSP than I would like, but also made me think about the fact that it is 20 year old cards that might not last forever. Since Scope is central in my setup I figured it is worth getting new hardware to run it on. And I was very impressed that I could get support on such ancient hardware when getting my keys transferred to a working card, and really like to give something back to SC for all those years of pleasure I got out of my PCI cards.

I got a new machine recently with an ASUS Prime B460, and it was working very good with my PCI system. But Xite runs even better. With the PCI cards I could get occasional glitch on minimum latency, but not with the Xite. It also feels like things loads even faster.
nebelfuerst
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by nebelfuerst »

I have some 15 DSP cards and Xite in parallel. Migrating project is quite simple: Just reconnect the IO to the Xite-ports and for the SC-devices always point to the ... X-Version of the device.
PCIcards are not replaceable if very much Adat-ports are needed, as you can add more IO by adding cards.
For all other purposes, Xite has more power and the more modern interfacing.

I''m not really a musician, just a nerd the enjoys turning all those knobs in scope. As my username suggests: "Ich spreche auch Deutsch." :)
\\\ *** l 0 v e | X I T E *** ///
bassundgitarre
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by bassundgitarre »

Thank you for your answers. I'm a little late with the answer, sorry, still had to teach. Nice to hear that a Xite doesn't throw my entire workflow upside down. Do you say that in English too? This is important information for me. A question for Nebelfuerst. What do you need so many entrances for? Schön, dass Du Deutsch verstehst:)

Ask everyone in general. Can you connect the whole system together? So that you run different programs? I was thinking of using a second PC with the PCI cards? What can you do creatively with it? I still connected my Atari and the Atari via midi and thus played Scope with it, but what do I do with it?
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Bud Weiser
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Bud Weiser »

Spindrift wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:03 am Since Scope is central in my setup I figured it is worth getting new hardware to run it on. And I was very impressed that I could get support on such ancient hardware when getting my keys transferred to a working card, and really like to give something back to SC for all those years of pleasure I got out of my PCI cards.
^^^^^
THIS !
Spindrift wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:03 am I got a new machine recently with an ASUS Prime B460, and it was working very good with my PCI system. But Xite runs even better. With the PCI cards I could get occasional glitch on minimum latency, but not with the Xite. It also feels like things loads even faster.
I´d say,- for the time being,- it´s clever keeping ONE (if possible 14/15 DSP) PCI card for the ancient BIG ZARG synths and STS samplers,- while STS sampler might be satisfied w/ even a LUNA II.

BUT,- for the present and near future, XITE is what you want for SCOPE.
It can be "just only" a XITE-1D,- depending on what you plan to use it for.

And when we talk about presence and future, you also should think about WHICH formerly so much praised 3rd party devices you want to use on XITE,- just because there are some which won´t work as expected,- and again,- just because,- these were never designed for XITE and 64bit OSses,- Windows or MAC.
Means,- some of these old devices run better on SCOPE PCI than on XITE and EVEN they don´t run well on SCOPE PCI too.
P.ex,- the BIG ZArG devices are overkill on every system, PCI or XITE-1.
I really hoped they will run better on XITE-1 but it was the opposite.
It might be because I always expect to run MORE than only one device on a powerfull DSP system and I´ll be never be satisfuied w/ just only 1-, 2- or 3 voices of polyphony TODAY !

It´s all relative,- because DSP resources are limited,- on DSP PCI cards as well as XITE DSP farm !

Means,- WHEN ancient SCOPE devices don´t use XITE (-1 or 1D) advantages because these were developed way earlier, you won´t get better performance w/ these just only because of you bought a XITE box.

I prefer using S|C stock devices w/ SCOPE v7 and XITE-1 and leave everything not working perfect on XITE, to the PCI system.
For the PCI system, it seems to be not much difference when using SCOPE versions, 4.5, 5.1 or 7.0,- except drivers for higher OS and some additional devices.
Anyway,- it´s good to have these !
According to the "for the time being" comment above,- it´s great to have support for PCI cards and using these w/ Win7 up to Win10.
So, I once bought SCOPE v7 for PCI and XITE and it will serve me well until SCOPE v7.1 will be released,- just because I´m actually able to use a EUR 40,- and ancient used, but good condition, HP xw4600 server for SCOPE 5.1 and/or 7.0 PCI 32bit in addition to SCOPE v7.0 x64 on XITE-1.

In fact,- Sonic Core´s decision supporting PCI cards, XITE and Windows versions XP - 10 is GOLD !
Where do you get THIS ?
One day, that might change,- but actualy it´s great WHEN you own both!

:)

Bud
dawman
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by dawman »

I use East/West Composer Cloud and own Hollywood Strings.
XITE-1 using Sample streaming is really nice.

Stock plug ins are of a high quality, especially mastering, EQ and dynamics.

The best sound effects I get are inside Scope.
To get equally satisfying quality you’ll need mid to high end hardware, which I also use.

You’re going to love having an XITE-1.
I came from 45 DSPd using 3 x Pro cards.

The sound quality is noticable immediately.
The headphone out is the best a I’ve ever used. I’ve got 2 other interfaces and their AD/DA is really good too, but the headphones are normal. XITE-1 Headphone out is good enough for mastering if you have quality IEMs.

They’re good enough to use as an additional stereo out too.
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Spindrift
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Spindrift »

If I had Solaris or used STS perhaps I would consider keeping my PCI, but for my purposes it is not worth the mental overhead...have enough routing to do between Scope, Eurorack and Bitwig/Grid :)

Also I seem to have quite low DSP demands compared to most users. I mostly use Scope for monophonic modular patches and don't do that much processing and fx in Scope. And tend to bounce when I'm happy to free up hardware involved. So even if I have the 1-D I'm not worried about running out of DSP. But I guess for polyphonic synth freaks that want everything running live it might be a different story.
bassundgitarre
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by bassundgitarre »

Hello Bud

Thank you for the very detailed answer. I think it's good that you advise me to keep the old Scope and Pulsar cards. I didn't even want to sell them and I know about some incompatibilities. The system is still running on Win 7 64 Bit here, on the laptop I have Win 10 64 Bit. You wrote that you have a 32 bit system and a 64 bit system. I need 2 computers for that, right? Yes, I would like to work with the STS, which I have never done before. How does the system actually work when I run PCI and Xite on one computer? I always thought that everything was somehow limited to 3 PCI. Thanks again.
Hello Dawman,
Thank you for your answer. Exactly this information is worth gold to me. All of your information encourages me to afford a Xite. Sure, Corona is currently bothering us, especially in the event industry and musicians and artists.
I myself would like to make a small contribution so that Soniccore can survive. I am very satisfied with what is offered to me. You also work with EW, I think that's good. Do you let the audio outputs run individually through Scope? And what do you do with the exits? I hope to have a few secrets of how experienced Scope users work.

I'm happy to be welcomed here so nicely. Thank you all.
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Spindrift
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Spindrift »

Scope PCI really runs well on old XP 32 bit systems, and STS doesn't work on 64 bit.

If you want to use STS a separate computer is the way to go, otherwise you can run both in the same system if you make sure to get a mobo that handles the PCI cards well. I can recommend the ASUS Prime B460, working great for me with both PCI and Xite.

Architecture of PC's have changed a lot, and PCI is not anymore a core buss in the system, but rather bolted on for legacy. And I never seen a Windows 7+ system with as low DPC latency that I would get on my old XP systems.
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Bud Weiser
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Bud Weiser »

bassundgitarre wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:02 am You wrote that you have a 32 bit system and a 64 bit system. I need 2 computers for that, right?
Yes !
bassundgitarre wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:02 am How does the system actually work when I run PCI and Xite on one computer?
This is a question for Dante.
IIRC, he was the 1st running both, SCOPE PCI and SCOPE XITE on the same machine and there´s also a "Scoperise" article about that.

:)

Bud
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dante
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by dante »

bassundgitarre wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:02 am How does the system actually work when I run PCI and Xite on one computer?
Like a dream :

https://www.scopeusers.com/ScopeRise/is ... x_mast.htm

Joined together by ADAT for a while then SP/DIF.

I ran both for years, but when upgraded my DAW (with no PCI slots) I could only run XITE-1D so the old cards are still in old computer for backup/redundancy.
bassundgitarre
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by bassundgitarre »

I wasn't ready to do anything for a few weeks. Corona simply stops the musician's work. You encouraged me to take this step. Thank you everyone for that. Now I finally bought my Xite-1 from Holger and I've had it since yesterday. I also wanted to give something back to Soniccore, although I can't afford it. The Xite was worth it. I am very excited about the performance. Sure, some things don't work that way. But therefor others :). And with strength. I had 23 Dsps before but what can I do with it now, wow. And of course there is also the DAW. I use Bandlabs Cakewalk Sonar. I'm really excited now to check out this forum and see how the crazy :) Scoper communicate with each other. I bought two BCR 2000s to do a little more with the remote control. Well, at least the Scope community has not shrunk for this day :) I look forward to a lively exchange here.
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dante
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by dante »

Cool - glad you got it and its working for you 8)
Xite Knight v2.0
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Xite Knight v2.0 »

bassundgitarre wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:32 pm I wasn't ready to do anything for a few weeks. Corona simply stops the musician's work. You encouraged me to take this step. Thank you everyone for that. Now I finally bought my Xite-1 from Holger and I've had it since yesterday. I also wanted to give something back to Soniccore, although I can't afford it. The Xite was worth it. I am very excited about the performance. Sure, some things don't work that way. But therefor others :). And with strength. I had 23 Dsps before but what can I do with it now, wow. And of course there is also the DAW. I use Bandlabs Cakewalk Sonar. I'm really excited now to check out this forum and see how the crazy :) Scoper communicate with each other. I bought two BCR 2000s to do a little more with the remote control. Well, at least the Scope community has not shrunk for this day :) I look forward to a lively exchange here.
Congrats...and for those 2 BCRs, you could do like me and buy some nice oak panels from a guy in Germany :)
8C725079-7DD7-4F8E-8FF7-E3535409A54F.jpeg
8C725079-7DD7-4F8E-8FF7-E3535409A54F.jpeg (3.73 MiB) Viewed 4229 times
bassundgitarre
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by bassundgitarre »

Thx you dante. Yes, it works:)

Hi Xite Knight v2.0

Na das sieht ja richtig gut aus:). Bist du gelernter Holzwurm?

What do you regulate everything with the BCR? I haven't had it all that long and have to get used to it a little bit ...
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by Xite Knight v2.0 »

bassundgitarre wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 2:09 pm Thx you dante. Yes, it works:)

Hi Xite Knight v2.0

Na das sieht ja richtig gut aus:). Bist du gelernter Holzwurm?

What do you regulate everything with the BCR? I haven't had it all that long and have to get used to it a little bit ...
Alles klar :)
I’m not that guy. This is where I bought the panels: https://www.ebay.de/itm/Behringer-B-Con ... %7Ciid%3A1

I use the BCRs to control KrOn3 Max
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Re: I would like to buy a Xite from SC

Post by dawman »

Xite Knight v2.0 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:39 am
bassundgitarre wrote: Wed Feb 10, 2021 7:32 pm I wasn't ready to do anything for a few weeks. Corona simply stops the musician's work. You encouraged me to take this step. Thank you everyone for that. Now I finally bought my Xite-1 from Holger and I've had it since yesterday. I also wanted to give something back to Soniccore, although I can't afford it. The Xite was worth it. I am very excited about the performance. Sure, some things don't work that way. But therefor others :). And with strength. I had 23 Dsps before but what can I do with it now, wow. And of course there is also the DAW. I use Bandlabs Cakewalk Sonar. I'm really excited now to check out this forum and see how the crazy :) Scoper communicate with each other. I bought two BCR 2000s to do a little more with the remote control. Well, at least the Scope community has not shrunk for this day :) I look forward to a lively exchange here.
Congrats...and for those 2 BCRs, you could do like me and buy some nice oak panels from a guy in Germany :)

8C725079-7DD7-4F8E-8FF7-E3535409A54F.jpeg

Dual BCRs is awesome.
You have to be using Project Preset Lists/SR Pro with that.
If not you should look into it.

Everyone should be using those devices.

Great rig you got there.
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