planet Z

I should point out I'm pretty lucky to have all this gear, but you can certainly get by with much less! Many of the tricks I describe below depend on being able to route audio out from Pulsar and back in. You can do this with a basic Pulsar, but you only have stereo inputs and outputs to play with. To really expand your potential, an optical converter box (like the Creamware A8/A16) is a great investment.

Configuring the Studio with Pulsar

My goal is to integrate the internal PC universe (Pulsar, soft synths, etc) with the external world (ADAT, synths, guitars, outboard effects).

The Pulsar Analog inputs and outputs are wired to patchbay points for max flexiblity

The first set of Pulsar Optical connectors is wired to my ADAT

The second set of Pulsar Optical connectors is wired to my A16

The ADAT analog outs go to the Tascam mixer tape inputs 1-8

The ADAT analog ins go to the Tascam mixer buss outputs 1-8

The A16 outputs go to patch bay points, half normalled to Tascam mixer tape inputs 9-16

The A16 inputs go to patch bay points, half normalled to Tascam mixer buss outputs 1-8

Note, the Tascam M2600 has three sets of 8 buss outputs (all with the same signal), which explains how I can wire the buss outputs to both the ADAT and the A16.

Insert pretty diagram here, when I have time!

Configuring a Pulsar project

To take advantage of all that external stuff, I need to provide routing points in a Pulsar project. This is easy:

Create an ADAT Source module (points 1-8 are ADAT outs, 9-16 are A16 outs)

Create an ADAT Source module (points 1-8 are ADAT ins, 9-16 are A16 ins)

Create an Analog Source module (corresponds to stereo analog input)

Create an Analog Dest module (corresponds to stereo analog output)

This gives an incredible amount of flexibility. Drawing wires on the screen makes connections in the physical world. It is important to remember that once the Pulsar modules are set up, you can route anything to anything, with zero perceived latency. This means you don't even have to think about it as you wire from a digital input to an analog output, or from computer generated audio arriving via DirectSound out through analog outputs to external effects, back in to Pulsar over digital, then through ASIO to Cubase. Flexible routing is Pulsar's forte!

Typically, I create a Big Mixer, and wire the ADAT channels to Big Mixer inputs. Now the ADAT tape channels are running through the Big Mixer, with all of its EQ, effects, etc.

To set up an aux send from the Big Mixer out to external effect, I draw a wire from the Big Mixer Aux 1 send to the Adat Dest 9 - corresponding to the A16 input 1, and then a pair of wires back from Adat Source 9-10 (corresponding to A16 outputs 1-2. Then, I need to add some physical patch cords to my patchbay to connect up the A16 with whatever external effect is desired. Note, that I typically leave my favorite effects patched into the patchbay, so that setting them up from the Pulsar BigMixer is as simple as drawing a few wires!)

Similarly, I love taking a Pulsar synth out through my guitar pre-amp and back. To do this, I just use some A16 channels, drawing a wire from the Pulsar synth to an Adat Dest, then a wire from the Adat source back to a Pulsar mixer. Then I connect the corresponding patchbay points to my guitar rig. FUN!

Insert Pulsar project screen shots here, when I have time!

Integrating Cubase

To exchange audio with Cubase VST, you simply need to add some ASIO modules to your Pulsar project. To route audio from Pulsar over to Cubase, just add a Cubase Dest module. You can set this module to the desired number of channels. To route audio from Cubase back to Pulsar, create a Cubase Source module.

More here...

Syncing the ADAT

Integrating Software Synths

DirectSound, MME, etc, etc.