Digital designs?

Soundwave [Chad Gould] cgould at gate.net
Sun Jan 4 22:56:17 CET 1998


> Y-ellow Ya'll.
> At 04:50 PM 1/2/98 BST, Martin Fay wrote:
> >> I wouldn't trust Win95 for anything more than a simple
> >> monosynth (real-time at least) at this point. 
> >Think again...I have software on sale that can run 4 voices at 44kHz, 
> >5 on a good day...latency with the cpu (a K6/200) maxed out like this 
> >is 40ms, but it will go lower if things aren't being pushed as hard.

Ya know, I have to test out VAZ before I ask, but what's the max speed
of the envelopes? Could a Waldorf Pulse (3 VCO, 2 1.9ms envelopes) be done
under the ball and chain of Windows 95? Instantly, without latency?
That's just one voice, no latency. When you are doing very fast bass for
industrial and techno, latency is going to kill you. Also, slow envelopes.
It's not critical for evolving pads, but for other things (bass, leads),
speedy envelopes are critical. 

> Look I just can't resist this. On a P166, TripleDAT, under win95 can; Play
> back 16 stereo tracks whilst processing them indavidually or together in the
> mix, with, compresson (Soft knee), Gating (Soft knee) equalization and
> reverb and still have time to sync the sequencer running concurrently on the
> same platform driving 4 sound cards. And if need be, process and mix
> something from the real world. All in Real time. All with quality that would
> make a DP/4 owner spit shit. Oh and I should point out that it can do this
> under win3.11 as well. 

Sure. But this is all buffered, processed I/O. With HD recording,
latency isn't as much of a problem so much as the latency is only at the
start when you hit record and play. 
I'd question the FX portion as well, although I have no experience with
TripleDAT. The FX on SAW are horrible (but SAW is forced into Win95
sound drivers), nowhere near a DP/4, let alone a Lexicon system. Pan
and volume processing can be noticeably stepped, as well. 

I'd pose the same question to the 12 voice Reality: latency and envelopes.
Again, I have no experience with Reality as they rope you into the SB
soundcard. Hence one reason they have 12 voices: they are able to bypass
the normal Windows sound driver system. But is it QUICK enough in the
timing interrupts, not just in number crunching? 

-- 
Chad Gould aka Soundwave                 |studio: 9 real synths
internet: cgould at gate.net                |and a cheap Casio
Make Happy the Harmonica Happy!
http://tilt.largo.fl.us/ - MST3K / Samples / Synth FAQ / More...



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