John Bowen Synth Design

The latest OS has a new arrangement for the FX pages, and adds new inputs/outputs assignment pages. I was hoping to get some video showing these before I took off to Germany on Sunday (Feb. 7th), but it may have to wait.

Basically, one of the coolest things about the re-design is that now there are 4 Effects busses (channels), and you can have any output receive any of the FX buss outs. This means you could use the 4 stereo analog output pairs ( (or the S/PDIF) to send out a separate effect (there are currently only 4 effects). Or, you can put any combination of effects in series, however once you use an effect, it is removed from the available 'FX Pool'. You can even put the FX busses in series themselves, so that one set of outputs has just chorus, but another output set has chorus routed into delay (as shown in the pictures below). All in all, an extremely flexible setup!

On the Output page, each Output set is listed with a selected signal source. This source list is as follows:
OFF, Synth, Ext 1/2, Ext 3/4, S/P-DIF, FX Chan 1, FX Chan 2, FX Chan 3, FX Chan 4.

Selecting Synth, for example, will route the dry, direct synth output to the associated Output assignment.

I'll see if I can get a visual of some kind posted before I leave. Busy packing and getting things together today (and I have a gig tonight!)
-john b.

-edit- here we go:

Very cool! A minor point: is the S/PDIF considered its own output, separate from the analog outs? It looks like it is on these pages.

cornutt wrote:Very cool! A minor point: is the S/PDIF considered its own output, separate from the analog outs? It looks like it is on these pages.

yes, that's correct.
-jb

Great news.
I remember we were discussing this a while back.
I want to send Analog Direct outs to FOH and send SP/DIF to the XITE-1 so this is just awesome.
I can wait to hear Reverb on the Pizz type of sounds, while a Waldorf Wavetable is gurgling with a nice Delay.........
Ankyu.

John Bowen wrote:

cornutt wrote:Very cool! A minor point: is the S/PDIF considered its own output, separate from the analog outs? It looks like it is on these pages.

yes, that's correct.
-jb

!!! I had no idea.

That kind of flexibility is great. I'll be able to go directly into my DAW with no signal degradation while still using the analog outs/ins as send/return loops. Thanks!

Umm...do I understand that correctly?

Carbon111,
Yes, that's correct. You didn't know this because this is a new feature as of just 2 weeks ago.
-jb

Spdif output locked @ 96khz?

It's nice to see the routing flexibility of Solaris & Scope together appearing here as well; I've got this mental image that Jimmy's going to wind up running half of his gear through this and laugh himself silly with all the fun he'll be having.

I was hoping to get some video showing these before I took off to Germany on Sunday (Feb. 7th), but it may have to wait.

Hi !
Is there a vidéo now ?

John Bowen wrote:Carbon111,
Yes, that's correct. You didn't know this because this is a new feature as of just 2 weeks ago.
-jb

!

...It just keeps getting better, John!

valis wrote:Spdif output locked @ 96khz?

It's nice to see the routing flexibility of Solaris & Scope together appearing here as well; I've got this mental image that Jimmy's going to wind up running half of his gear through this and laugh himself silly with all the fun he'll be having.

We just got S/PDIF working yesterday, and they tell me it's at the standard rate of 48 kHz.
-john b.

I was planning on using the S/PDIF output of the Solaris to go directly into an Apogee Ensemble, and was hoping to run everything at 96k. Is this a possibility in the future? It would also be interesting to find out if I can hear any differences between Solaris into analog inputs vs S/PDIF 48k.

marzz,
I'll ask them tomorrow in the office.
jb

Hi marzz,
I've been told that there's some lack of clarity to the S/PDIF specification when it comes to defining the higher sample rate of 96kHz. The engineer will look into it more this week.

john

Hey Marzzz Wassup...
I have been thrashing around w/ 96k audio in 8.1 Surround and for just synths for live and recording and the only thing I notice is a lack of power as it requires much more DSP.
The ADSP21369 chips have 2.4GFlops and run at 400MHz. I figured since I have 12 of these I could swing things at 96k, but it is nothing but trouble, and I hear no sound difference at all.
I do have a freind who runs audio/video DAW's and uses Merging Technologies Pyramix, it's using a DSP card for routing but it is a Native application that uses a 4 core CPU. But it works its way around the OS and steals an entire core of a quad and assigns it all of the power.
At any rate it's an amazing app and he uses 16.1/8.1 Surround @ 192k/DXD......Now I can hear the difference of that and the headroom is visibly noticable on a console too.
But 96k............................It sounds fine and dandy but I have never seen a positive result yet, although there are forums full of guys who have major motion picture scores, and they recommend it............QUACK..
One thing is certain though, I have run my ADSP21369 chips at 16bit/44.1 and the sound at that fidelity sounds great. 24bit/44.1, no noticable difference.
32k, I notice the vibrato on my B3 model sounds weird and other artifacts pop up, but these ADSP21369 DSP chips are great for audio.
If we are using those in Solaris, I am a happy camper.
Maybe with ASIO sends and sample content like string libraries and other dynamic audio we might hear a minute difference in the high end, but with synths I doubt I would be able to hear it.

We are using the same 21369 DSP as XITE, but I'm pretty sure both systems are running at 333 mhz, not 400.

-john b.