planet Z

1. If a device won't allow you to open its presets window by clicking on the 'Presets' button, right click on the device icon in the main project window and select 'Open Device presets'.

2. Problems with Midi sysex transfer? Try creating a new winstart.pro using the latest midi i/o devices. These should solve that.

3. Problems using Direct Sound Applications. As above, try rebuilding winstart.pro with latest Direct Sound drivers.

4. Unable to get a nice tidy connection between devices. Click the device with a mouse, and hold the control key down. This allows for much finer movements of devices and will allow you to align device i/o's much easier.

5. Connecting multiple channels. If you find yourself frustrated connecting channel 1 to destination 1, then channel 2 to destination 2, etc, etc. Just connect the first wire, and after that press the 'N' key - and the next channel will be connceted to the next destination.

6. Harold Nobles. To replace the Win95 startup screen, you need a 256-color 320x400 image in standard BMP format. Replace the file C:\LOGO.SYS with your image. Here's a scanned Creamware Telescope image from the Pulsar CD.

Erik de Vries. To set the Pulsar background as your windows wallpaper, extract the bitmap in this file to your Windows directory. In the Display control panel, Background tab, choose the Pulsar bitmap as your wallpaper (and click on Tile).

7. Matthew Heydman. To set up Cakewalk for use with Pulsar's Sequencer remote:

1) In Pulsar, add the Sequencer Remote to a project, and you must route the MIDI out from the Sequencer Remote to ITS OWN DEDICATED Sequencer Dest module.
2) Open the settings for the remote, and make sure that there is an "X" in the "Command Key" box.
3) In Cakewalk, load a project and be sure (in your MIDI settings) that you have selected the MIDI port you chose in step 1. This is so Cakewalk will "see" the MIDI data coming from the remote.
4) In Cakewalk, select Key Bindings under the Tools menu.
5) For "Type of Keys", select MIDI and make sure the Enabled check box is checked.
6) For "Shift Options", make sure that "Key" is selected and set the key to C8.
7) Now map the follwing bindings. To do so, select the note in the left list, and the function in the right list, and click the "Bind" button. G7 -- Realtime - Rewind A7 -- Realtime - Record Bb7 -- Realtime - Play B7 -- Realtime - Stop
8) Click the "OK" button to close the Key Bindings dialog. This assumes you are using the default settings in Pulsar's sequencer remote (which were designed to be used with Cubase). You should now be able to start, stop, rewind, and record from within the Pulsar environment.

Bob Chapman. The Pulsar Sequencer Remote button arrows for Track Up and Down can also be used to advance to the next Cakewalk Marker (for Track up arrow) or reverse to the previous Marker (for Track down arrow). This comes in real handy for mixing when you need to go to the next or previous marker section or advance/retreat several markers and you don't want to switch windows to Cakewalk in order to navigate.

Here are the key bindings for Cakewalk:
F7 = Go To Next Marker
F#7 = Go To Previous Marker

In Pulsar the default for Next Track = 90 and Previous Track =89

8. Eric Dahlberg. Click on any parameter, hit enter & it will be returned to it's default state. Double-clicking on the parameter also does it.

9. Eric Dahlberg. Rename all the modular devices in windows explorer to include their dsp loads according to the planetz dsp usage charts. This way, you can determine how much DSP usage a module will use, before trying to load it, just by looking at its name.

10. Eric Dahlberg. To control several different modular parameters w/ the same cc #, use the modular device called "midi controller" & route it's output to modulate the desired parameters. This gives the added bonus that every parameter can be modulated to a different degree.

11. Paul Kellett. wav2akai lets you create and edit Akai S1000 programs and samples for use with the Pulsar Sampleplayer. Existing programs can be edited or new programs can be created from scratch. It can also convert 16-bit WAV files to S1000 samples, including loop and tuning settings made in SoundForge (or whatever). As of July 1999, it is useful and working, but incomplete. A version that supports all the parameters recognised by the sampleplayer and has a useful help file should be availble soon. Download it here.

12. Stuart Clark. In the Pulsar Settings menu, grab (say) the right screen border and decrease the pulsar screen width by about 2 movements. Experiment till you have the same width as the height of your task bar (1 row). Position your favourite sequencer (non maximised) so it sits in the right quarter of the screen. At any time when using the Pulsar GUI you can move the mouse to the right region and click (the sudo-taskbar) to bring back your sequencer to view (maybe with BM2 on screen). You can double click the sequencer top window frame, to get the maximum view, and again for your normal view. You could do this with any/all sides of the screen.

13. Keyboard shortcuts, from the user's guide appendix.

Controlling faders and knobs from the keyboard:
First click on the desired control (fader, poti) to select it. Now you can change the value with your computer keyboard:
End: Minimum of the control range
Home: Maximum of the control range
Page up: Increasing the current value about 1/128 of the control range
Page down : Decreasing the current value about 1/128 of the control range
Arrow right: Increasing the current value about 1/1280 of the control range
Arrow left: Decreasing the current value about 1/1280 of the control range
Arrow up: Center position of the control range
Arrow down: last value
Return: Switches between center position and last value (same as double-click)
1: Minimum of the control range
2: 11% of the control range 3: 22% of the control range
...
9: 88% of the control range
0: Maximum of the control range

It is also possible to copy the current control value into the clipboard. So you can exactly restore the previous value after trying other settings, using Ctrl-C (copy) and Ctrl-V (paste).

In the Project Window:
Ctrl + Tab: jumps to the next opened window/surface
Arrow up/down/right/left: moves the selected module
N: connects the next in/out pads (after creating the first connection between two modules with the mouse)
Del: deletes the selected module/file/connection/text etc.

Devices Menu:
Ctrl: When opening a device surface, all other device surfaces are closed.

In the File Browser:
F2: Text editing mode
Ctrl + C: Copies the selected file (or folder) into the clipboard (sample programs are copied including all corresponding samples)
Ctrl + V: Pastes in the file or folder that was copied into the clipboard

In the Modular:
Ctrl + C: Copies the selected module into the clipboard
Ctrl + V: Pastes in a module that was copied into the clipboard
Ctrl + D: Dublicates a module (a copy of the selected module is pasted in with a mouse click)

14. Marc de Ruiter. If your older sequencer won't sync to the Tripledat3.03 Pulsar combination by leading the midi out to sequencer dest, like the manual suggests, lead the midi of the Triplesource out to the pulsar midi out and connect this with a real midi lead to the midi in of the Tripleboard. If you still have deviations in sync increase the sync velocity in the drive for Tripledat. I don't know what parameter is changed by that, but it seems to work reasonably well.

15. Marc de Ruiter. Multiple Akai sample programs can be selected in the file browser using the control key, then copy in the usual manner. If you need to copy multiple sample programs in a more unordered way, you can create a directory - and temporararily replace the path to the Devices folder with the name of the directory that you just created. This way you can easily toggle between the CD drive and the location you want copy to, using the devices/samples toggle button.

16. John Braner. I've been playing with some BIOS settings (see the speed demon's BIOS guide) trying to improve memory performance and cut down on "dsp timeouts" with the STS-4000.

I use a Abit BX6 (award BIOS) and the default settings were a little conservative. I have never touched some of these settings before as I didn't know what they were for. Here's what I found:

I changed SDRAM RAS to CAS delay to 2 (from 3)
SDRAM RAS precharge time to 2 (from 3)
SDRAM CAS latency time was set to auto - other wise would change to 2
SDRAM precharge control to enable (was disabled)
Delayed transaction to enable (was disabled)

This has not caused any crashes or problems at all (with Cakewalk 9, Pulsar w/trusty old sample players etc, and approx 10-14 tracks of audio, and a few MIDI tracks), and *has* to make memory performance better.

Next - the dreaded STS4000. I was able to load up a few soundfonts and Akai samples (previously I was only able to load 1 program at a time without crashes - although this could have been caused by the "not giving up dsp" bug - as I was previewing a lot of samples, and my dsp load is at least 3/4 of my Pulsar at present). The sampler ran great! And it only crashed when I tried to load another sample while the sequence was playing! Since this is a known bug, I'm pretty sure that from now on, all my STS problems will be due to STS bugs amd not my system.

The MIDI timing seems fine (is this only a logic problem?), and I haven't tried to use individual outs or program changes (I'd never loaded enough samples for this!) I'm still happier using the sample players until the STS fix comes out (although maybe I'll do a little more "experimenting") 'cause I'm wasting more time "testing" than "playing", but I have faith that the STS bugs will be fixed. The STS *does* sound great, and will be easier than the wav2akai/sample player/awave combo (after the bugs are fixed). If anyone else wants to try these BIOS settings, let us know how you make out.

For ASUS CUSL2 users, check this useful webpage.

17. Jeroen van der Meer. For users who don't like the cursors in pulsar, there is a built-in option to use the default cursors but this changes all cursors. I just wanted the default arrow to be more visible. So i renamed/deleted the pulsar\app\application\standard.cur. This did the trick for me. It uses the windows cursor then. and leaves the rest of the cursors the same. You can also replace the other cursors there if wanted.

18. Seth Miller. Some RunPEP crash errors are caused by an old version of the system DLL msvcrt.dll. Pulsar relies on a more recent version being installed in the \Windows\System directory. Since Windows programs will use a DLL they find in their own directory first, and then in the \Windows\System directory, you can remedy this error by placing an updated version of msvcrt.dll in the same directory as the pulsar application (usually c:\pulsar\app\bin). This is better than just replacing the file in \Windows\System, as other application installs may overwrite the file with an older version, breaking Pulsar again.

19. Jim Matheson. 7 steps to dub!

Modules/devices needed : Dynamixer, Delay, Filter or other effect to put in feedback loop, audio SOURCE, audio DEST

1: connect your physical out directly to your physical in (loopback)
2: connect your signal to a dynamixer input
3: and the dynamixer output to the delay input
4: turn the dry signal completely off in the delay , get the dry signal from elsewhere(i actually had it turned on once and there was no adverse effects using A16 as loopback device)
5: connect the delay output to the feedback effect device input
6: connect the feedback effect device output to the loopback destination
7: connect the loopback source to another channel of the dynamixer (that channel is feedback level control) I hope this makes sense..i have tried it and it works.

20. Ben Walker. Hardware Revision -1 Errors

If you receive this message when trying to run Pulsar after a recent installation, check in your device manager (Start, Settings, Control Panel, System) and see if there is an unknown PCI Multimedia device there. If so, delete this device and reboot - Windows Plug and Play should now succesfully identify the Pulsar, install the drivers and it should work OK.

21. Robert Brückmann. How to use a VST effect as a Pulsar Big Mixer Aux effect

Go here for a version of this tutorial with pictures.

For this tutorial, a reverb was used, because the latency of the asio-drivers (~20ms) is less important with such an effect. If you don't have a reverb-plugin, try the freeverb2 I found on cubase.net. It's a good-quality-plugin - and it's free!

1. First of all the two asio-modules get 2 more channels each (here: 18 and 4 channels). Then the last two channels of ASIO source are connected to A1L and A1R of the BigMixer. AUX 1+2 are connected to 2L and 2R of the ASIO Dest module.

2. Now we turn on the AUX-send 1+2 and the AUX-Return 1...

3. ...and adjust the level of AUX-Send of the used channels. AUX Send 1 is left and AUX Send 2 is right.

4. The Pulsar-related settings are complete! Now the cubase-settings: first we activate BUS 9 (the BUS connected to the AUX-Return 1 = A1L+A1R). It's in "Audio / Master".

5. Select and turn on the freeverb ("Audio / effects") and route the output to BUS 9 - that one we just activated.

6. Activate the monitoring ("Audio / System").

7. Activate the second input ("Audio / inputs").

8. At the end we have to do some settings on an unused stereo-channel in the cubase mixer (add another one in "Audio / System" if none is left):

Turn on AUX-Send 1 and set it "pre"
Select IN 2L and IN 2R as input for this stereo-channel (press CTRL while clicking to select the input)
Simply click on the input-selector (IN 2L and IN 2R) to turn on monitoring
Press the "Mute"-Button to avoid getting the original signal twice.

Well done! Now you can use the freeverb2 as an AUX-effect in your BigMixer (e.g. for your STS-4000, synthies, analog source, ...). But always remember the latency (~20ms). But you can subtract it from the predelay-time in the reverb! And with Pulsar V2.0 you are able to reduce the latency using ULLI (13ms @ 44.1khz with Pulsar I). With Pulsar II Hardware the latency is less than 5 ms. I found out, that cubase doesn't save the monitoring in the channel-settings. So click on the input-selector of the channel each time you load your project to reactivate it!