DSP cards

Bell Green · Post by **Bell Green** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 3:23 am

My CPU maxed out in my last song. There wasn't anything running in the background either. I was using sends rather than inserts, which is what you do for effects. There were a few inserts i.e. compressors, but only on 3 or 4 tracks. I think it's that convolution reverb that's a bit processor hungry. Also I have been full 24/96, which I haven't done before, which may taxing it a bit more, but you can hear that the HDD is having to work harder.

I thought about getting some cheap outboard such as Alesis midiverb second hand and kind of use it as a hardware plug-in via spdif, but perhaps dsp cards are the way to go.

I have never used them before, so any ideas on compatitbily, integration, ease of use etc. Any thoughts and comments much appreciated.

thehipcola · Post by **thehipcola** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:50 am

I have seen the UAD products at work and they are fine fine fine. Pricey, but very hgh quality effects. I would be looking at UAD for DSP without question...if I had the money.

I believe there is another pricey offering in DSP by Powercore... I've not seen it in action but I here it is quite good.

24//96 is a processing hog...I tried to work in that but had the same CPU type problems. I also found that many effects and vsti's didn't work at that sample and bitrate, and might have been the source of my crashing. I now work at 24/48 and find that's a good compromise.

Bell Green · Post by **Bell Green** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:58 am

Cheers geez. Yeah, I suppose that is the other option. Before 24/96 I was using 24/44.1 pretty much all the time. It saved having to do a sample rate conversion when going down to CD res or mp3. The file sizes were smaller as well. I can hear the difference in sound quality, but it's not as dramatic as going from 16 to 24 bit. I suppose also that I can manage my hard drive space by trimming down my audio files once I've got all my regions and delete all those unused takes.

Getting actual outboard is out really, due to expense and space. So those are the three choices I guess, get a faster computer, go back to a lower res, or get a dsp card.

Well, I'll do a bit of research on these Powercore and UAD units. Let's see how I manage on the next song. If I max out again, then lower res will be the easiest option.

ken · Post by **ken** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 9:02 am

I got a used version of the UAD-1 card for $400 and love it. It really makes a difference in both CPU usage and sound quality. Also, plug-ins need memory, so if you can add more, do it!

Ken

Bell Green · Post by **Bell Green** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 10:11 am

I've read a few reviews now and they seem to rate the UAD studio pak but say that the project pak is a bit of a rip off because it would cost a lot more to get all those other plug ins at a later date. I'm not going to shell out that much for the studio pack though.

I've recently upgraded my ram up to 1.5Gb. I'll have a look in the activity viewer to see how much ram is being used when I run the mix. Well onwards to the next song.

ken · Post by **ken** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:04 am

I bought the older Mackie version, which has more than the project pak, and less than the studio pack. It has the LA2A and 1176, which is the good stuff. However, a friend came over and used the Cambridge EQ demo, so I may need to buy that one now.

Ken

tonetripper · Post by **tonetripper** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:29 am

I also concur with the UAD pack. It's great and takes a lot of pressure off of your CPU. Expensive, but awesome sounding.

Me$$iah · Post by **Me$$iah** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:55 pm

DSP cards rock

http://www.creamware.de

Buy a pulsar2 now called scope project and youll never look back
the scope home cards have 3 DSPs and are amazing excellent sound quality
upto 96khz etc. And its expandable and usable with other creamware cards.
Out of the box it comes with one of the best reverbs Ive heard the Masterverb. also many more fx and synths can be added to th card
and all the effects and synths can be used as VSTs or mixed on a oncard mixing desk and then sent into whatever recording program you use.
Also Creamware makes some of the best sounding analoge synth repro softsynths Ive heard...A truly awsome product

I've got a scope home(3DSP) and pulsar2XTC(6DSP) and their connected together and the sound I can create here is truly amazing.
I highly recomend CW cards, in fact all the sounds from this weeks SFO come from my creamware card

-Me$$iah

Bell Green · Post by **Bell Green** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:42 am

Oh no, that makes three to choose from, the UAD, the Powercore and the Creamware. They all sound as though they score highly on compatibility, good quality plug-ins, and ease of use. Hmmm.