Pulsar 2 ??

R

revowp

Guest
I'm thinking of buying a Pulsar 2.
Just wondering if it will fulfil my expectations.
I'm running a SBLive at the mo, and the latency is awful, so I'm thinking of upgrading my PC and buying, at last, a decent soundcard.

I have compromised in the past and bought cheaper alternatives which, as you've probably guessed, didn't satisfy my overall needs. Here some questions I hope you could answer.

Can I record from both my Yamaha SY35 and Roland JP8080 and some Pulsar synths (or VST) at the same time or will I need a separate Breakout box / Mixer?

Is 3ms latency possible? I believe that it would be unnoticable at 3ms.

Would this card live with my SBLive card installed in the same machine, or should I buy a bigger house!!!!

Thanks in advance.
 
I don't know if 3ms is possible without clicks or pops. My P2 is running at 6ms (48khz) without glitches. Well it is real-time enough. Not even all hardware synths can go much below 10ms.

BTW. 6ms latency does not mean that VST synths work with that latency - Pulsar synths do. Unfortunately, other stuff is still mostly up to the CPU speed of your host computer.

P2 only has 2 analog inputs so you can only hook up one hardware synth without an external break-out box (like the Creamware A16 Ultra - I'd recommend that over any external mixer! ).

P2 will live in the same machine with SBlive (you can hook it wih P2 via an S/PDIF digital cable) but I don't believe SB is 24-bit compatible? or goes higher than 44khz? If you're getting a professional quality soundcard there's no sense to work in 16-bit / 44khz anymore or you'll be wasting a lot of potential. It would be like towing a Ferrari behind an 81 ford taurus. ;)

Toni L.
www.mp3.com/NativeAlien
 
Cheers.
I think 6 to 10 ms is better than the 40ms on the SB!!! But then so it should be for the extra outlay!!
The reason I want to keep the SB is cos I play games as well.
Trying to talk a friend into building me a dual boot system (using Win98) one for music (w/SBlive disabled) and one for games and other stuff (w/Pulsar disabled), but I'm not sure he knows how to do it.
I don't really want to run the Pulsar and SB together (especially not for music), I wondered what problems i'd get having both on the same system. I've currently only got one hard drive you see.
I've heard (and experienced some) problems putting games on PC's and then running music programs. Really, I think, they should be totally separated, preferably on different machines (not an option).
Thanks for the info Funk I'll look into the Creamware A16.
 
the Pulsar 2 is great (i LOVE the v3 with PROPACK), I work at 44.1Khz on my Pulsar (i know i know... 48 or 96 is better, but 44 is fine too) with 9ms....ah by the way... Pulsar 2 works with games too... Under windows2000 PRO i run both games, 3D stuff, pulsar OS, cubase.. alltogether even (!) and it all works like a charm.

.......

but if you are fine with the sounds you already have (i mean the synths etc..) and if you just need a lot of I/Os and a short latency, why not getting an M-AUDIO soundcard? or even an ECHO one?

they have built in analog I/Os and very good ASIO support onboard.
 
Funktastico said:

BTW. 6ms latency does not mean that VST synths work with that latency - Pulsar synths do. Unfortunately, other stuff is still mostly up to the CPU speed of your host computer.


mmhh I dont think that's true... If you set cubase to use the SCOPE ASIO driver, then the latency itself will follow the ULLI setting on the pulsar

YES the processing power to generate the sounds on the VST synths is handled by your host CPU, BUT the latency is through the Pulsar's ASIO interface.

Correct me if I am wrong though. But I'm pretty sure.
 
I don't know how ASIO works, I never really use it. But I'd reckon it has a different latency before it goes to Pulsar, because the processing is done by your host CPU. Either way running soft synths on 6ms would take a hell of a lot of power from your CPU.

Toni L.
www.mp3.com/NativeAlien
 
Back
Top