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Hi all,

Just found this forum yesterday and WOW. I already have had so many questions answered just by reading through some old posts. Anyway, I am planning on purchasing a Pulsar II and maybe the Pulsar SRB (6 additional DSPs ?). It looks as though my machine is up to snuff as I have the following:

Asus Cusl2-c mobo
1000 Mhz PIII
256MB PC-100 Ram
Adaptec 2940 SCSI card
Plextor 12x External SCSI Burner
Plextor 40x External CD
10 and 15 gig IDE HDs (Soon to be 75 gig Ibm deskstar ATA-100 7200RPM)
Win98ME (I'll probably make 2 partitions. 1 for the net and gaming and 1 for audio)

I also have some outboard that I would like to use in conjunction with the CW Pulsar:

Waldor Pulse PLus
Waldorf XT
Yamaha An1x
Yamaha A4000
EMU-Audity 2000
a few FX units
Mackie 1642 VLZ Pro mixer
Motu Midi Express 8x8

My question with outboard gear is what is the best way to route it into the Pulsar?
My guess is use the mackie to mix all the outboard and then have the mackies sub-outs go to an ADAT interface (Recommendations on a ADAT interface??) and then from the adat to the Pulsar. And then from Pulsar to Cubase. Would that work? Is any gear or eq that I listed problematic with the Pulsar?

Also, would you recommend getting the SRB? If I just get the Pulsar II will I be hungry for more DSP power right away? Are there any good dealers you can recommend in New Jersey or on the Web?

Thanks All. You will be seeing me on these forums quite a bit!

Later!

Hi fitz and welcome !

The Pulsar II SRB has 6 DSP's as the normal Pulsar II. They are the same card except for an add-on card with the in/outs for the normal card. This means that you can add the add-on card later for any reason.

Whether you may want to add a Pulsar SRB depends on what you plan to use/play; mixing and some effects + 10-20 I/O via ADAT can easily be done on one board, and some of the heaviest synths will (only) give you maybe max. 10 voices polyphony on two cards(!).

Your config looks great, especially you will get improved stabillity with two systems to boot as you suggest.
Make an extra partition that both partitions can "see", so that you can save files from the internet (devices, presets etc.) via the misc. partition and install+use them via the music partition.

Just keep track of your IRQ's, they tend to mess things up for some users, but if you have been around on this forum, you probably already know this

If you want to use samples a lot, you may want to upgrade with an additional 256 MB later, and/or swap to PC133 if your CPU permits.

I can't offer you much advice on the ADAT choice other than if you buy an ADAT converter, you may consider to connect all your outboard gear to this, and mix directly on Pulsar, it's a matter of preference and temperament what to choose.
Maybe you can buy a SRB-card for what you can sell the Mackie for ?


Hope this helps
Stubbe

fitz:

Idon't know how much money you can spend, but i'd sugest you check the Yamaha 01v digital mixer. You get the ADC, plus you get a midi controller, two FX units and dynamics and 4 band EQ on every channel. You can also hook everything up throug optic fiber and move 8 trcks at once. At least that's what I do. Don't know if it makes a diference, but if you use cubase, you can also control it with the 01v.
bye.

and if cost is an issue - check out the fostex vm200 - lightpipe in/out spdif in/out, midi controller, 2 fx processors, and 8 convertors. all for $500. . .
I ate one up and never looked back!