Question about DSP Cards

[flossyboy]

What up Fellas and Ladies

I wanted to know some information about how the computer processes Plug-In task.

If i buy a DSP card, will this card handle all the Plug-In and Effect processes, or will my computer's cpu still handle the majority of the workload.

Cause right now I have a echo mia sound card, running on a 1.6 athlon joint. When I mix down the music I would like to get a DSP to handle the majority of the Plug-In algorithms instead of my computers cpu.

thanks in advance

 

[subtractor]

Dsp does the work.

 

[Havoc]

This depends very heavily on the type of plug-ins. The way it is pictured, your pc has nothing anymore to do, the card does everything. This can be correct, but only if all and every plug-in you use can run on the card! Most of these cards use a propriety (is this english?) format of plug-in. So those plug-ins you buy specific for the card will run on the card, as long as there is enough processing power available on the card (if not, it will not run on your cpu). So, if you have such a card that uses vst plug-ins, it means that the plug-ins specific for the card can be used as any other vst plug-in, and will then run on the card. All the other vst plug-ins will still run on the cpu. So they are a mixed blessing. For plug-ins requiring lots of power and that are used a lot each time, it can be a good thing. But to buy one for 1 effect that you use once each year, you are throwing away money.