What do we want from Creamware?

[astroman]

just to keep things aligned:
DP was CWA's commercial (public) version of their developement system.
It has been sold for a hefty, though reasonable fee and was a 2 way failure:

business oriented developers NEVER generated any acceptable revenus from their products, while 'interested' developers generated a lot of support requests without contributing anything to the platform.

this public version was accompagnied by a tool to assemble and compile SHARC DSP code and do the CWA specific hardware encryption.
Afaik it was licensed to customers for a 5 figure $ value only after individual negotiations.

the (so-called) 'free' SDK is more or less functionally equal to DP, but comes as is - 'developer style' documented (those dudes never seem to have the time to write down what's self explanatory in their minds...) and with an entry fee in form of the purchase of a 14/15 DSP card.

those are the facts - now you may reason about them...

I'll leave out the rant why world class plugins aren't sold as it's becoming boring already...

but those requests to develope DSP specific low level stuff (new atoms) is interesting.

in any context I've read on this forum this is simply VANITY - and there's nothing bad with that, except the fact to not admit it

the fact is there's noone around here who is able to deal with projects on that level. Even John Bowen made compliments to RedMuze for Flexor (which is rearranging existing atoms in new context) and wrote he wouldn't be able to have done the same.

for those who can deal with DSP programming there's Analog's VisualDSP and there are OEM boards with 32(!) next generation Sharcs...

I do not see any reason at all that CWA's economic situation (which is driving the technical one) is related to a lack of developement possibilities.
This may be the low region, but it's already high-end audio processing - it's pro stuff and has to handled accordingly.
If you can't make your way through SDK on your own, you simply don't qualify for commercial developement.

cheers, Tom

[Faxi Nadu]

Even if its just talk, great to see things starting to move forward.

For me, give me offline proccessing in the next gen and i'm happy.

[LHong]

The new DSP-Card development, in order to take advantage of today features and technologies would be nice!
Five years life-time for the Creamware DSP hardware is about right, even I currently own 2 SCOPE Boards.

So, here is the deal, when the Creamware releases the new hardware (DSP), I would trade-in My cards by two-to-one for the new one will work for me! Perhaps, it could reduces the manufactory costly for Creamware and end user, while increasingly performance more than 200%.

LongStudio

[astroman]

seriously - not restricted to LHong but do you have ANY idea about how much it costs to develope such a specific PCB board ?
and adapt a software library of that size ?

it has even been clearly denied by AndreD (w. CWA now) more or less officially that no such thing is planned in near future.

actually it's not even necessary - Scope boards do their job reliably (under certain constraints) and still represent a remarkable value (considering their age).

The lack of Mac support IS unpleasent, but have a look over the fence what current Mac users are buying - machines without slots.
Well equipped studios will prefer a G5 dual of course, but that's at best 5 percent of all machines sold (pure guess).
Since most such studios run Protools anyway they'd rather prefer an external synth or FX box than tamper with their setups

and finally anything without it's own enclosure has an inflationary value today - Waves isn't going the same way for no reason

the Sharc DSP which is used in the ASB boxes also contains mask programmable rom.
Wether this is of any use for CWA's processing (large enough) is beyond my knowledge, but Analog explicetely mentions the 'standalone solution' capability without a dedicated CPU.
Imho pretty smart and cost effective and a non breakable protection, too

cheers, Tom

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2005-07-14 20:04 ]</font>

[menno]

What would be cool is if, whatever new hardware platform CW decide upon, they would let us current users transfer our existing plugins to the new platform.

[symbiote]

menno, If they use application-compatible faster DSPs (which I think they will/are in the current ASB boxes,) you should be able to just keep your current plugins.

---

So yeah, as I was rambling earlier in that other thread (ok not very specific I know), I've gotten another idea (that they might have thought about already):

How about an ASB type box for effects? With ADAT and Firewire (and a few Analog I/O for good measure) for audio, but an indepedant interface. Something crude with basic routing between effects, maybe some native software editor could be nice etc. Put a ton of awesome algos, including a bunch from third parties (Sonic Timeworks, Celmo, SpaceF, something based off Flexor would be pretty nice also,) put it in a box. I wouldn't technically mind VST-integration to please all the integration-weenies (sorry, just poking fun, I don't hate you for real :])

This would let alot of people discover all the freak-nice Creamware algos using whatever hardware/computer/alien spaceship they'd want, including alot of big-studio-type of clients who don't necessairly care about synths, i.e movie soundtracks, postprod, also alot of the hobbyist instrumentalists, etc, and turn them on to the wonderful algos available. I'm sure that, after experienced the algos first hand, alot of them would be more interested in looking at the cards, but leave them the freedom to do whatever they want with whatever platform they want if they don't want to tinker with weird obscure PCi card from Germany =P.

That last paragraph is mostly speculation, but it's something I've heard alot in my circles (who tend to buy what they use audio-wise :]), that they wouldn't buy Creamware stuff because it didn't have high-quality reverbs/compressor/etc, even tho pretty similar stuff is available as whatever is on the UAD/PoCo (we have the best reverbs tho, na ner (ok it's subjective, please don't reply saying how you prefer this or that other native/hardware reverb.)) The synthesis part of the system is perceived as the strong point, while mixing and effects is perceived as lacking, even tho there are absolutely mindblowing algos for this platform, including alot of weird hybrid synthesis/processing stuff (mostly Mod3 with Flexor =P.)

[bluemystic]

Hi,

I'm doing all the work except the sequence on SFP (Mixing, Routing, Effects, Synths...) with 32 DSP's (2x Powerpulsar II and 1x Pulsar SRB). It's not enough but one will tell me that I can record the tracks without effects and remix everything. To my concern, I prefer to work everything in real-time in order to change any setting on the fly.

So here's my wish list:

- A Firewire rack with one 15 DSP card up to 4 cards (a superNoah like) with XLR, S/PDIF, Analog, ADAT, Optical, Midi, HD 250 Gbytes (optional), 2x Firewire 400/800 for chaining racks: this would be the ultimate pro system no matter the price !!!
- Faster SHARC DSP
- Full OS X support (SFP + plugins)
- Partnerships with Clavia, Novation, Access, Roland, Korg and so on... to make their plugins on the SFP platform available(I still not believe in VST altought the range of products is wide): this is a commercial issue.

That's all falks,

Best regards,
Bluemystic

[YAN]

Multiple ASIO source/dest modules in one routing window.

Better support or at least existing users forum at creamware.de

[ARCADIOS]

for owners of 14/15dsp cards, new generation products....free for ever!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ARCADIOS on 2005-09-08 14:09 ]</font>