 |
| Six-String, Modular III, and Minimax are three of the included instruments. The Live Bar up top is a control center where, among other things, you set up system I/O. |
By Craig Anderton
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME TO 1998. STEINBERG’S VIRTUAL STUDIO TECHNOLOGY
was a few years old. The Mac was still running OS8, and PCs were running Windows
98. And I was invited to see a preview of Creamware’s SCOPE system, based around
a massive PCI card with its own software mixer, virtual instruments, effects, and 15
powerful DSP chips dedicated to running them. What made SCOPE unique was, well,
its scope. It didn’t merely virtualize instruments and signal processors, or just combine
an audio interface with some plug-ins, although that was part of the picture. As the
first serious attempt to virtualize the entire studio and put it “inside the box,” it was as
if someone inventoried all my outboard gear (including synths), put their processing
muscle on a PCI card, then wrapped a software interface around them.
DAWs became just another component in SCOPE
whose ins and outs appeared on the patch bay,
with SCOPE serving more like a sort of metahost—
although of course, the DAWs could still
host their own plug-ins and soft synths. SCOPE’s
instruments and processors weren’t plug-ins as
we normally think of them, but were like traditional
outboard gear whose outputs plugged
into SCOPE’s virtual mixer, then fed your DAW.
SCOPE got some traction, but the expense—and
frankly, being ahead of its time—worked against
it, and eventually Creamware dissolved. So why
the history lesson? First, SCOPE remained the
centerpiece of my studio until I went 64-bit a few
years ago—not just because of its capabilities,
but also because of its sound quality. Second, the
system still virtualizes an entire studio, but now
that it’s back, it benefits from the technological
advances of the past 14 years.
Overview
The package contents are minimal: Xite-1 single
rack space audio interface, PCIe interface card,
HDMI-type cable to connect the two, 12V “line
lump” external power supply with line cord, two
CD-ROMs, and installation instructions. System
requirements are basically what you need to wake
up Windows—1.2GHz processor and 2GB of
RAM—as the card’s DSP does the heavy lifting.
The new system is far more compact and
ergonomic than previous incarnations. The tiny
PCIe card exists only to shuttle traffic between
the interface and your computer, which bypasses
operating system layers and beats USB or FireWire
for speed. Gone is the huge DSP card; 18 Analog
Devices SHARC chips—12 for the heavy number
crunching plus six for routing and mixing—reside
in the Xite-1 rack. Have a PC laptop? If it has an
ExpressCard slot, you can hook up Xite-1 via an
optional ExpressCard that lists for $149.
Installation
The PCIe card doesn’t need drivers; Windows
recognizes it automatically. However, the Xite-1
DSP requires drivers and of course, the SCOPE
soft ware. Installing these is straightforward for
anyone who has installed hardware on Windows
systems—a good thing, because the installation
guide is cryptic (for example, all the screen
shots are in German, and the FAQs on the site on
registration are in German as well). I think the
assumption is that if you can afford the system,
you’ve probably been around the block a few
times with audio PCs.
The system didn’t crash during my testing,
which speaks well of the engineering but also underscores
that the SCOPE system doesn’t interact
much with your computer (other than the VSTIM
option described later)—often it’s interaction between
programs that causes problems. Incidentally,
if you have an old Creamware PCI board, Sonic
Core offers a version of SCOPE soft ware that can
bring it back to life in your 32-bit or 64-bit Vista
or Windows 7 system. It works like a champ, although
finding computers with standard PCI slots
is becoming increasingly difficult.
The Studio’s Heart
The hardware lets SCOPE talk to the rest of the
world. But in SCOPE’s own virtualized studio world,
you start with the routing window—a cross between
a schematic diagram of your studio and a patch bay.
A typical setup starts with one (or several) of the
nine included mixers, from a simple micro-mixer
to a 48-channel model with six aux sends, four
inserts per channel, and surround (up to 8.1). All
mixer parameters, like seemingly everything else
in SCOPE, can be MIDI-controlled with a painless
learn mode (noteworthy when introduced; commonplace
now). Other modules represent soft ware
and hardware I/O that you connect with virtual
patch cords, and everything can be saved as a setup.
So, you could create a setup for tracking in Cubase,
another for mixing in Sonar, another for live synth
performance, and so on. There’s a total of 64 virtual
channels within SCOPE.
The mixer can blend the synths and samplers,
add processors, then patch the outs back into your
DAW’s input. This works just like plugging an outboard
synth into a mixer—and because all this is in
hardware external to the computer, when playing
“live” there’s no discernible latency unless of course
you’re using this with a DAW and monitoring
through it. You can trigger the SCOPE synths and
samplers from your DAW’s internal MIDI sequencer
(via the multiple soft MIDI ports) or an external
controller plugged into the Xite-1’s MIDI in.
 |
Like the synths and effects it hosts, SCOPE’s
mixer is totally DSP-powered and doesn’t hit your
computer’s CPU. You can freely patch between it
and your DAW, and even patch in outboard hardware
with no latency. |
The bottom line for all this—and it’s an
important one—is that you can load up a greatsounding
SCOPE synth that eats processing
power, set it for mondo voices, feed it through
the system’s lush-sounding reverb and perhaps
some other effects, layer it with more synths, play
the whole thing with less latency than many (if
not most) hardware synths, then record it as a
track in your DAW—
all without stressing your
computer’s CPU. The only exception involves
the samplers, which use the computer’s CPU to
avoid loading the DSP excessively when you want
lots of voices. Non-SCOPE instruments can insert
as plug-ins within your DAW, but note that
as SCOPE takes a significant load off the CPU,
you’ll even be able to run these with lower latency
than usual. When mixing in the SCOPE environment,
you can also patch in hardware effects,
compressors, and so on, with no latency.
Instruments and Effects
About 60 effects ship with Xite-1, however many
of these are broken out individually, not counted
as a single effect (e.g., instead of a “dynamics” effect
with compressor, expander, and gate, these are considered
three separate effects). The roster includes
eight dynamics processors, seven EQs, four reverbs,
15 modulation effects like phaser, flanger, etc., five
distortions, seven delays, and miscellaneous effects
like ring modulator and tremolo. There are also four
mastering-specific effects (dither, stereo widener,
meter bridge, and soft clipping module) although effects
like the multiband dynamic, Vinco (“vintage
compressor”) and EQ are well suited for mastering.
The SL9000 channel strip is particularly
useful, and trumps some of the older plug-ins
regarding sound quality; an effects chain module
is also available that holds up to six effects.
 |
| You get XLR jacks for balanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio. The optical ports handle 16 channels of lightpipe I/O or optical S/PDIF. The FireWire lookalike jacks use Sonic Core’s Z-Link protocol for their A16 interfaces, each of which can add 16 channels at up to 96kHz. The XTDM connector (no relation to Pro Tools TDM) is planned to let you cascade multiple Xite-1 units together. |
There are plenty of virtual instruments—23
total (although two of these include version 5
updates of older ones, which are also included)—
with two modular synth systems, Poison FM synthesizer,
three Minimoog emulations, Prodyssey
(ARP Odyssey) emulation, Juno-106 emulation,
“Profit-5” virtual analog synth, Vectron wavetable
synth with Prophet-VS-like vector abilities, the
B-2003 clonewheel organ, two drum machines, a
couple of cool arpeggiators, and more. The SB404
is your basic step sequenced acid bass, and two
simple synths—EZ Synth and Inferno—recall
Steinberg’s ancient Neon synths for being simple,
yet with cutting sounds that work well for the
dance floor. Optional-at-extra cost instruments,
like the Modular IV (successor to the Modular II
and III) and instruments from third parties, are
also available.
You’d think that by today’s standards the instruments
might sound dated, but the engineers got
them right the first time. (Industry trivia: Some
of the designers of their best synths ended up at
Native Instruments when Creamware went out
of business.) The Minimax remains a blockbuster
Minimoog emulation with a big, warm “bite” that
can be more aggressive than some other virtual
Minimoogs I’ve heard; the Modulars are a synth
hacker’s dream come true—no soldering required!—
and Six-String is a gem. It does beautiful
physical modeling of guitar timbres, from distorted
leads to acoustics, but can also create abstract,
synth-like tones. It’s both traditional and original.
The Wavetable-based LightWave has a thin sound
by itself—but remember, you can stack multiple
instances to beef if up.
On the minus side, the STS samplers are
indeed dated—you’ll never mistake them for
Kontakt or MachFive. Then again, you’ll have a
nice home for those Akai S1000 and S3000 libraries,
which along with SoundFonts are the only
sampler formats STS recognizes. It’s too bad other
formats aren’t supported, as the STS samplers are
reasonably powerful (not unlike the original Emulator
X) and can actually sample.
As to the formerly problematic XTC mode,
which was supposed to allow the SCOPE processors
and synths to run as standard VST and VSTi
plug-ins, that’s no longer an issue as there’s no
separate XTC mode. Instead, the plug-ins simply
show up in VST hosts (as long as the Xite hardware
is present) using what SonicCore calls VSTIM
(VST Integration Mode). XTC is still available for
older Creamware boards with the newer soft ware,
but using these plug-ins increases latency, and
getting everything to work correctly can result in
some head-scratching moments.
Conclusions
The Xite-1 looks like an audio interface, but calling
it an “audio interface” is sort of like calling
the Taj Mahal a “house”—technically correct, but
conceptually wrong. There’s no equivalent product
that offers such a wide range of soft ware to “accessorize”
a virtualized hardware studio and interface,
yet also doesn’t force you to use a particular
DAW—SCOPE plays nice with others, as long as
you’re on Windows.
There’s no printed manual, but electronic documentation
(mostly unmodified from the original
Creamware version) is available from within the
program. However, there’s a considerable learning
curve, and the documentation’s lack of organization
works against it. There are also helpful online
communities, where you’ll find tidbits such as
needing to open the soft ware in Admin mode
with Windows 7 to use the samplers, as they’re old
enough that they write some code to sections of
the system that Windows now normally blocks for
safety reasons.
We’ve discussed how the DSP lightens the
computer’s load, but remember that hardware
DSP power is nonetheless finite, and it’s possible
to run up against Xite-1’s limits. A little
care in how you use it (don’t allocate more
voices than you need, don’t have active inputs
with nothing feeding them) helps maximize
resources. The main difference compared to
running native is that native processing power
is a moving target that depends on what other
processes are running. With DSP, if you can
load it, you can run it.
If you’re familiar with Universal Audio’s UAD-2
system, you already know how DSP can add aft erburners
to your computer. Where SCOPE differs is in
its ambition—whereas the UAD-2 provides plug-ins
for a DAW that’s part of your studio, SCOPE wants
to be your studio. Not dealing with synth latency
is a huge attraction, the sound quality is warm and
musical (as was the original, so they haven’t lost the
recipe), the soft ware is visually striking and remains
as relevant as when it was part of the original SCOPE,
and the whole concept is both original and utilitarian.
Although it’s not too terribly hard to figure out, it’s
deep enough to keep the surprises coming.
Granted, the Sonic Core system is expensive—
whether it’s worth it to you or not depends greatly
on whether you need the extra power, flexibility,
and low latency it brings to the table. However,
when you start assigning value to the bundled plugins,
and the convenience factor of minimal latency
and a happier computer, the scales start tipping
more to the value side. One thing’s for sure: Once
you experience what SCOPE can do, it’s a whole
other take on how to use a computer for making
and recording music. I’m glad it’s back.
Snap Judgment
PROS Virtualizes an entire
studio, not just particular effects
or instruments. Plentiful
collection of processors
and virtual instruments.
Awesome sound quality.
Zero latency live when using
SCOPE’s DSP instruments;
low latency with DAWs.
CONS Loud pop on startup.
No Mac version. Expensive.
Doesn’t do 88.2kHz. Learning
curve.
Bottom Line
When it was introduced, the
SCOPE system was ahead of its
time. With this incarnation, its
time has come—for those who
can afford it.
€3,890 | approx. $5,200
sonic-core.net
Key Info
AUDIO RESOLUTION 24 bits at
44.1, 48, or 96kHz.
SYNTHESIS TYPES Virtual analog,
FM, wavetable, vector synthesis,
sampling.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Intel or AMD processor 1.2GHz
or faster, 2GB RAM, Windows XP
or 7 32- or 64-bit. Free PCIe slot
(desktop/tower) or ExpressCard
slot (laptop).
Meet the Modulars
One of the coolest SCOPE features from day one has been the Modular
Synth. As it progressed from version II to III (both are included with Xite-1),
the number of modules kept growing. Modular III has about 200 modules;
compared to Modular II, the main differences are more effects, LFOs, and
modifiers. The optional Modular IV (shown) adds another 97 modules. It
includes Casio CZ-type oscillators, pitch trackers, more effects, new gates,
random LFOs, and more—view a complete list at sonic-core.net.