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danshi
New member
There are quite a few topics about Creamware DSP soundcards in this BBS . I am so puzzled . What's wrong about these soundcards ?
AlChuck
Well-known member
Did you mean very few? I don't recall people asking about them very much at all.
If this was your real question, I think it's probably because they are very high-end and few people buy them. Also, unless I'm wrong they are not soundcards per se but DSP cards that you can run effects and softsynths on without taxing the host computer.
If this was your real question, I think it's probably because they are very high-end and few people buy them. Also, unless I'm wrong they are not soundcards per se but DSP cards that you can run effects and softsynths on without taxing the host computer.
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danshi
New member
Oh , I see ....
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Havoc
New member
They can be a lot of things, but nothing special. Now I know some people have other ideas about them, but they are not worth the price. I have a pulsar, but regret the day I bought it.
As AlChuck said, it are sound cards with dsp's on them. So while you might think "great, then my cpu will have less to do", this is not exactly true. They do have dsp's that take some work for them, but for that they need a complete environment running on your pc (besides all your music applications). So they tax your cpu with this graphical load. Making all responses slow, both on the pc side and the card side.
Also they are prone to overload the pci bus because they have almost NO ram onboard! So when you run a large reverb on them, they have all the samples in your main ram, not onboard.
They are more synth oriented than recording/effect use. If you find someone talking about it like it was the best thing since sliced bread, he/she is most likely talking about the synth sounds they can produce. If you meet someone like that, then ask how many voices they get out of it. Most likely they will clam up very fast. Creamware has a moog synth that is praised to heaven, but on a pulsar it manages 4 voices (count how much that is pro voice).
About the effects: while they have a XTC mode, promising to run vst, it means that you can access the creamware effects as vst effects in other applications. Forget about running vst on them. You can only run creamware effects on the cards. And that of a few others, but none of them has a name of any meaning (I mean by this it are no TC's, Waves or Lexicons). Oh, and when in that xtc mode, you loose all the I/O! So you need another soundcard then....
There are quite a lot hardware compatibility issues.
Service by creamware is non-exsistant. I'm still waiting for reply to mails send more than a year ago. Driver updates are as frequent as Haley.
For some good news: their AD/DA is very good for internal cards and the routing you can do with them is very flexible. But if that is what you are after, then there are standalone solutions that are far cheaper.
As AlChuck said, it are sound cards with dsp's on them. So while you might think "great, then my cpu will have less to do", this is not exactly true. They do have dsp's that take some work for them, but for that they need a complete environment running on your pc (besides all your music applications). So they tax your cpu with this graphical load. Making all responses slow, both on the pc side and the card side.
Also they are prone to overload the pci bus because they have almost NO ram onboard! So when you run a large reverb on them, they have all the samples in your main ram, not onboard.
They are more synth oriented than recording/effect use. If you find someone talking about it like it was the best thing since sliced bread, he/she is most likely talking about the synth sounds they can produce. If you meet someone like that, then ask how many voices they get out of it. Most likely they will clam up very fast. Creamware has a moog synth that is praised to heaven, but on a pulsar it manages 4 voices (count how much that is pro voice).
About the effects: while they have a XTC mode, promising to run vst, it means that you can access the creamware effects as vst effects in other applications. Forget about running vst on them. You can only run creamware effects on the cards. And that of a few others, but none of them has a name of any meaning (I mean by this it are no TC's, Waves or Lexicons). Oh, and when in that xtc mode, you loose all the I/O! So you need another soundcard then....
There are quite a lot hardware compatibility issues.
Service by creamware is non-exsistant. I'm still waiting for reply to mails send more than a year ago. Driver updates are as frequent as Haley.
For some good news: their AD/DA is very good for internal cards and the routing you can do with them is very flexible. But if that is what you are after, then there are standalone solutions that are far cheaper.