PULSAR II / Plus or Novation Supernova

Liet

Liet

Crazy Clubber
Now here's the deal.
I can get a Creamware Pulsar II for about 1.800 US$ and I can get a Creamware Pulsar II Plus for 2.000 US$.

The difference should be something called:
AES/EBU
and also balanced I/O.
HELP!?

Also:
I can get a Novation Supernova for 1.000 US$, that's kinda cheap isn't it? What should I do?

For info:
I can make a paydown over 12 months without interessts.
This makes almost any choice afordable, but with the Pulsar II cards I'd have to get an Intell PIII processor and some more RAM.
 
It is rare that you need the Pulsar II plus really... so go with the normal one IF you choose the Pulsar II way... I warn you: Pulsar II is not a bad card, but it is a "way of life" kind of, becuase of the way it works. It is an environment.

Also, I know you are a trance guy right? The SUPERNOVA is killer to compose trance. Go listen to some tracks by Guardians of the Earth, by my friend Pokey, he is kicking butts with a Novation Supernova I. I think you'll need to use some TR909 kits on Gigasampler or your soundcard for the drums because the unit is not great for this (but it is not meant to do this anyway).

1000 USD is very good... I have the feeling you should go with the Supernova for some reason... It is VERY stable and would be great as a first synth. It has a lot of knobs to play with ;)

Also, you might wanna check what's new on the Supernova II versus the Supernova I. I know the II can be upgraded with an ADAT output, which makes possible the 100% digital connection with a future Pulsar or other ADAT card you'd get. ADAT is the only thing thath's missing on my beloved Access Virus B.

URL of guardians to listen to the Supernova I in real world: http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/85/guardians_of_the_earth.html
 
How about recording on the supernova. How does can I do that?
Does it have digital output?

The great thing about the Pulsar II is that it is an environment, but I just don't believe the sound could be just as rich. ?

- I know very well of Guardians. I've downloaded all their music. The sound is very "German" with a little belgium/french twist.

[Edited by Dj Chriss on 11-19-2000 at 02:56 PM]
 
Allrigth! I have decided.
I have totally fallen in love with the SUPERNOVA.
I'm gonna buy one now! My christmas present from me to me! :D
Thank you mano and all you other guys, you have been very helpfull all this time.

"I'm off to buy a sy-ynth the wonderful sy-ynth of OZ!"
 
;) Guardians is a friend of mine in LA actually, heh but yeah I see what you mean.. great sound yes.

The Supernova can't "record". It doesn't have a zillion gadgets really, it is a straight synthesizer. You should use Gigastudio as your studio sampler in your setup.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you to get the version II, with the 1.5 OS (operating system). If you don't have a master keyboard yet, get the keyboard version. If you already have a MIDI controller, get the Rack version.

But II definitly. and if it doesn't have 1.5 installed on it, you can download it fromt he site and send it to the machine from cubase (i think the OS comes in a MIDI file sending sysex to the machine)

Have fun man, the ARPEGIATOR system is KILLER, way better than the arp. of the virus I admit. Fully programmable with hundreds of patterns already.

Also... i know you are a buzz fanatic, but since all this work with MIDI (Gigastudio for the samples, Supernova for the synthesis...) you should hop on Cubase VST32 5 because it is worth it. You will control all of this with MIDI, and no need of any other software synth than Gigastudio.

Again, have fun. you'll have THE sound.
Take care man, post as soon as you have it.
 
I already have a cool sequencer with neat ways of using the MIDI CC's.

- The II costs 1.800 US$ MORE (ARRRRGHHH) than the Supernova I in my country. That's a little out of my league.

You say gigasampler is good for audio recording?
Couldn't I just use Cooledit 2000 with studio plugin or a minidisk-recorder?
I know that Supernova is a straigth synth, but an optical out would have been so cool.

Can you get a converter or something? Audio->digital?
 
nono... Gigasampler is not good for "audio recording"
I meant that it would eb your sampler in your setup

The Supernova II Rack maybe a bit cheaper than what you are describing, and for sure it is worth it.

As for recording, I always think the best is to get a DAT recorder, if you don't need to get each little track separated.

If so, you need something like PRO TOOLS, if you work a lot with Audio..

but seriously.. you don't need to record your stuff like in a studio, in general you use MIDI a lot, and record everything in the DAT for yourself (to convert in MP3 later, make CDs for yourself etc..)

The high end multitrack ASIO recording stuff may come in later, or never, since if you are signed with a label you can record all this in their studio in general.

Anyway.. :)
 
Thanks alot.

I'll have to wait on the samplers and just use reality for that kind of thing until I get enough money.

But the DAT idea is not bad. It is just as good quality as MD, rigth?
 
The quality is much better than a MD, no compression and it can record at 44Khz or 48. If your PC got a digital in/out, mano is right, it can be a good solution.

I've a DAT since many years, used it a lot to record my stuff from the mixer directly to the DAT. I still have it because I got a lot of tracks on DAT tapes. But if you got a good audio card, go for cubase or another, record your audio in it, add midi tracks, control your midi softs and hards with it, add FX to your tracks, make a good master and then burn your tracks on CD.

My 2 cents. :)
 
Supernova II

I've spent many hours researching the world of virtual analog synthesis. All seem to point to the Supernova II. The Supernova I is already somewhat of a classic. True, the new version is a little pricey, but it definitely is a hefty instrument... not some toy that the industry likes to release for wannabe-instant techno stars. I'm tired of all that junk with the pre-programmed loops. Anyways...off the soapbox now.
Do you think that the 48-voice rack version will be that much better than the 24-voice rack? Is it worth the extra cash? Anybody using a Pro-X that can give some advice.. and how much did you pay for yours? Thanks .... analogdog
 
yeah SUPERNOVE II RACK is GREAT!

so there are 2 versions of it available? i mean a 24 and a 48 voices? (to analogdog)

I have a VIRUS B abd it is very good. I know the SII rack is great too.

By teh way, the starter of this thread, DJ Chriss, got a SUPERNOVA. Not sure which one though, but as he is a trance guy, he'll sure love it!
 
SUPERNOVA I.
I love it. And what a Cheap little devil it was too. 1000 $

If you want to use your SUPERNOVAAAAA II for some drumsounds I'd go for the 48 voice. If you already got a drummachine or a sampler, then you should do fine with 24 voices.
I mean, it's 8 synths each doing threenote chords. When will you ever need that?
But if you want percussion and drums on it, it takes up quite a few voices.
CHH-OHH1-OHH2-CP-BD-RS-LT. A simple drum-setup. 7 voices.
 
wait... voices is the number of notes playing TOGETHER... so a drum beat can be 1 voice is no sound overlaps...

By the way... do you know if the SUPERNOVA II RACK 48 voices has good drum sounds? My Virus B is good, but not for drums... only th eBass drums can be created very effectively. Wondered if a SII Rack 48V would have replaced a drum module?
 
What I mean is that if you want a closed high-hat and an open highhat, and the rest. Then 7 voices for a drumpattern is very realistic.
 
PULSAR II

Hmmmm....

I read most of the mails to your post, and most seem
to like the SN I or II.

The question that no one as talked about is do you want
to use a computer ALL the time or would like the synth
to be portable?

The pulsar is only a computer product, you have to sit
at your computer and use it. The SN I or II, maybe not the
rack mount versions, you can use it in living room, on
the road, or whatever. Yes you can drag a computer along, but thats lots of stuff. One is just more portable than the
other.

One other point that I noticed was between getting SN I or
getting the new SN II. Both are really excellent. If
it where me I would get SN II, for the simple reason its
alot better.

Now my point. The PulsarII is my choise. As one post
said, "Its a way of life!" Yes and now. Its not a simple
product to learn, it takes time. So does the SN I or II.
Both of the SN synth have a million and one options and
menu's of sub menu's. Again take time to learn. Now, I
work mainly at my computer station, so the pulsar works
great for me. And you can expand the device up to 14 DSP
chips. I only have 6 and its amazing. This brings me back
to the debate between SN I & II. If it where a Pular there
would be no questions, this would simply be a software
upgrade and not new hardware. Also, there are tons of free
patches and software for the device online from other
users. Thats a great feature. This card and three other
software packages (rebirth, reason, cubaseVST), and thats
really all I need.

Again, people get turned off of the Pular because its
complicated. But that's why it will have lasting power.


SWAIN:>>
 
SWAIN: make sure you have an INTEL CPU + Intel chipset on your motherboard though.

I have a review unit of the Pulsar II in this machine, and it doesnt work well at all (in fact, it doesnt even record anything), and this is due to many problems of non-intel CPUs (this is an AMD Athlon 900).

Just so you know.
 
INTEL ALL THE TIME!

Yep,

I have that problem all the time with NON-INTEL
stuff. I have 4 systems right now, 2 3D graphics
stations, and audio station. Then I have one
for internet stuff.

The only thing these days that I trust the other
chips to do right, and do them fast is games.

All applications that use ODD hardware don't
work most of the time. I know, its hard
for companies to hit all the spec on all the
chips and hardware in the world, thus they stick
to the INTEL guidelines, and thus intel works
in most cases.

*** CASE IN POINT:

Digi001 for the PC. This is a good product on
the mac, but I don't think they could they have done
a more crap job on the PC software port. They
have a list about a mile long on the web site
on what systems works and what fails. Let's just say that
most products fail when used with the Digi001.
Now before you flame back on how wonderful this
product is, I have seen a couple of people get
it to work. But ya know if you buy a product
that is about $900 bucks, you should plug it in,
install software, do some setup stuff, and it
should just work. If you don't believe me, check
out http://www.digidesign.com, and look under support for the
system spec's for the digi001 on the PC. I got
so mad after building a computer from scratch, to
their specs, still did not work, I sold it to a
friend that had a mac. Worked in two seconds
on the mac. Errrrr....end of Digi001 rants.

NOW...............

The PulsarII in my system however works GREAT.
This card produces some of the best sounding
stuff, from killer leads to deeeeep sinewave
bassssss. And if I don't like one of the 30
v-synth the unit has, then you can always build
a killer personal synth in the modular synth kit.

Its nice. I have several external boxes, SP808,
MC505, AlesisQS8, and other stuff, and I read an
article in FM that said something like "you might
want to ditch all your external gear
if you get the PulsarII". I must say its been a
couple of months now.....I'm think about it.

Although I really like all the buttons and stuff.

The only thing you really have to get if your going
to do any V-synth work is the Phat-Boy midi controller.
Wow, did that make life simpler. Its something like
$169 or $189 smackers, but worth every cent to have
those dials to turn. Check it out................


SWAIN:>>>>>
 
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