Subject: Re: Maxisound 64 HS Pro? Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 07:52:14 +0100 From: Richard Benn Organization: fullerbenn music Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music, comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech References: 1 >I'd like to know if anyone has experience of this card yet. It seems >too good to be true for the price. > Just bought it here (in the UK - at last) a couple of days ago. >1) How does it handle MIDI and digital audio? > There was an extensive posting on this group from Rick Koch a short while ago. If it's not available on the demon server let me know and I'll forward a copy. >2) What's the supplied software like. Some looks good , some less so. I haven't checked it all out yet but I'll get back to you. > >3) Is it quiet and well-mannered? Or noisy and badly behaved? It's basically two cards - one part is OK soundwise but the other, the digital daughterboard - is very quiet > >4) How many resources does it hog on a PC? Lots! - 2 IRQs for starters. > >5) Would you buy it again - or are you inclined to take it back >for a refund? At present I'm trying to get it recognised by my existing software (Digital Orchestartor Plus) but I'm also trying the demo of Cakewalk Pro Audio 6. So far (1 evening of trying) I'm not having much success but its early days yet. I'll let you know more in about a week or so. -- Richard Benn Richard@fullerbenn.demon.co.uk www.fullerbenn.demon.co.uk "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they're yours". - Richard Bach. --- Subject: Re: Maxisound 64 HS Pro? Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 10:04:51 -0400 From: Rick Koch <*koch_r@apollo.hp.com> Organization: HP Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music, comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech References: 1 , 2 Richard Benn wrote: [snip] > There was an extensive posting on this group from Rick Koch a short > while ago. If it's not available on the demon server let me know and > I'll forward a copy. Thanks for the acknowledgement ;^} > > >2) What's the supplied software like. > > Some looks good , some less so. I haven't checked it all out yet but > I'll get back to you. The supplied Quartz Audio Pro SE is fairly robust and works well with the Maxisound 64. There are some special hooks to control the on-board effects of the Maxisound so that you can actually put Reverb/Chorus/Echo effects onto any/each of your 8 audio tracks. Unfortunately, these hooks in Quartz write directly to the Maxisound 64 hardware registers. This prevents you from accomplishing the same in other programs like CakeWalk Pro Audio. Guillemot has rumored that they would make this controllable through sysex or NRPN's, I really hope they do... That may not be a big deal anyway, there's not alot of control over those effects anyway and there's only a few algorithms a piece. I tend to use CakeWalk's CFX Direct X plugins more often. Maxisound works nicely with CakeWalk. In my case the audio profiler chose a DMA size of 4096. I was experiencing out-of--sync conditions with audio/midi playback so I changed that to 8196 and WALLA, perfect sync. I have been trying to get some help on using the CakeWalk effects loop with the maxisound's multi-port virtual audio devices. See, one of the nice things about having 8 multi-port virtual audio devices is that in CakeWalk you can set each track to it's own audio device. If you were to have 8 tracks and assigned each one to 1 audio output device then on playback the CPU would have the task of mixing the digital audio for each track and then porting it out that device. With the Maxisound (and ST97 and EWS64XL) you can assign track 1 to virtual port 1, track 2 to virtual port 2, ect... now on playback it's the Maxisound's 9407 (50 MIPS DSP) Dream chip that does the mixing of the audio tracks. That free's the main CPU up to do other chores like CFX reverbs! As for the problem with the effects loops, I cant seem to make the loop work (reliably) for any virtual device past the 1st. The track inserts work nicely for all 8 though. So again, this is no big deal, and may just be operator error ;^\ > > > >3) Is it quiet and well-mannered? Or noisy and badly behaved? > > It's basically two cards - one part is OK soundwise but the other, the > digital daughterboard - is very quiet As Rich stated, it's two soundcard's in one. The 9407 Dream chip side is the quietest. It interfaces with some 18 bit Burr Brown DAC/ADC's on both the High Quality Digital Daughterboard and on the mainboard. Not quite as nice as the ST97 and EWS64XL since they're 20 bit, but still pretty damn quiet. > > > >4) How many resources does it hog on a PC? > > Lots! - 2 IRQs for starters. > > > >5) Would you buy it again - or are you inclined to take it back > >for a refund? > > At present I'm trying to get it recognised by my existing software > (Digital Orchestartor Plus) but I'm also trying the demo of Cakewalk Pro > Audio 6. So far (1 evening of trying) I'm not having much success but > its early days yet. Lemme know if I can help you. > > I'll let you know more in about a week or so. > -- > Richard Benn Rich, there's an updated Quartz Audio program on the www.guillemot.com site for the French, German, and UK, Maxisound owners. You might wanna get that update. I wonder why they didn't give us USA'ers an update? -- ================================= Rick Koch, *koch_r@apollo.hp.com SW Eng/Contractor for HP Chelmsford, MA (remove * from email address) ================================= --- One last thing I'd like to let you know. If you are looking out for SDRAM that applies to the SPD specs for running in LX boards as well as running at 100 MHz without problems ... I've got one for you. I actually found it completely by accident, but you know how these things are ... some of the best things you find by accident. Anyway the SDRAM brand is 'Samsung', the chips are Samsung's as well of course and the part number is: SEC KMM366S403BTN-G0. This is NOT the number of the chips, it's the number of the DIMM!! pants.netvirtual.com/mp3.html AAVID CF-LK6CB $15 at Real World Technologies http://www.aavid.com http://phantom.iweb.net/docs/tutorials/cdoc/intro.html ramblings --------- top of my mind: computer. 2500 -200 mom ---- 2300 -200 TI-92 from Abraham ---- 2100 -85 Yamaha Wave Force SW60XG ____ 2015 -248 2 4x64 10ns SDRAM (64MB total) -85 Enlight 6680 Mid-Tower Case -344 PW-K650-6XS -60 PD Disk 2 Pack -129 Shuttle HOT-603 -204 AMD K6 200 - w/ B stepping made after September >9732 -225 ATI EXPERT@Play 8MB -85 ATI TV Tuner -262 Ubi-Soft (Guillemot) Maxisound Home Studio Pro 64 -84 Cambridge Soundworks PC Works speakers -63 Yamaha YST-M15 speakers -40 1.44MB Floppy drive -50 Windows 95 or NT -??? APC Surge Protector/UPS -??? NEC Superscript 860 $371 or HP Laserjet 6Lxi $375 OKIPAGE 6ex $400 or Okidata OKIPAGE 4W - $195 ------------------------ -100 SCSI card??? -215 Toshiba DVD drive -472 CD-R drive -- -345 Quantum ST64A011 6.4G UDMA/33 --wait for SE, or get more PD disks -50 4x32 EDO SIMM (16MB) -- for Maxisound --- It's Wednesday, October the 22nd, about 3am, 2:55 to be exact. I have had one hell of a week. It's been I guess, my worst week. I've been through roommate hell. And I've had a revelation. Not that it was something mystical, or even particularly innovative. It was something that I had not considered because I guess the choice hadn't been available to me for so long. I want to continue, but sleep beckons. I haven't slept in my bed since Monday morning. Soon, tomorrow...