powercore users, ver 3 is up

[rainmaker]

Sorry to hear so many people having problems with TOC Powercore. I have had the Firewire Powercore for many years and never have had any issues. It has always been stable for me and I couldn't live without the VSS3, Non-Lin2 and the DVR2 reverbs for which I use it mainly. I wonder if there are less problems with the firewire version than the PCI cards. It sound like most have had issues with the cards...? Just wondering out loud?

Rainmaker

[monkey man]

It does sound that way, but remember too that the cards appeared some years before the firewire/external boxes.
It could be that the card owners copped the vast majority of teething woes, which would explain and support your observation, rainmaker.

[jgest]

Sorry to hear so many people having problems with TOC Powercore. I have had the Firewire Powercore for many years and never have had any issues. It has always been stable for me and I couldn't live without the VSS3, Non-Lin2 and the DVR2 reverbs for which I use it mainly. I wonder if there are less problems with the firewire version than the PCI cards. It sound like most have had issues with the cards...? Just wondering out loud?

Rainmaker

But then the whole pci vs fire wire bandwidth thing comes into play........I for the most part besides the 8 month down time of not having virus for the Intel have not had too many complaints about my firewire unit.

[Dave Bourke]

Rather than start a new thread, I resurrected this one to draw PoCo users' attention to the fact that in version 3.x, DP5.13 does not automatically assign the "Always Run in Realtime" property to the plug-ins.

You'll have to manually check this yourself in every PoCo plug-in window, otherwise your project will become an unworkable cacophony after instantiating three plug-ins.

Kind regards.

[monkey man]

Thank you Dave.

That's so... TC, unfortunately.

[TheHopiWay]

Rather than start a new thread, I resurrected this one to draw PoCo users' attention to the fact that in version 3.x, DP5.13 does not automatically assign the "Always Run in Realtime" property to the plug-ins.

You'll have to manually check this yourself in every PoCo plug-in window, otherwise your project will become an unworkable cacophony after instantiating three plug-ins.

Kind regards.

Dave,
Could you elaborate on this a bit?
What's the issue with the setting?

[Dave Bourke]

Plug-ins that use outboard DSP, like UAD-1 and PowerCore, should always be set to "Always Run in Realtime" according to MOTU. Check out any of the UAD-1 plug-ins ••“ they're always set correctly by default. The fact that such plug-ins use non-CPU DSP apparently screws up MOTU's pre-rendering of FX unless they're run in realtime.

I noticed this late last night when I tried to put a third instance of Character on an audio track and the MOTU meter shot into the red with total breakup of the sound. No matter what PoCo plug-in I tried to instantiate, I had the same result.

So I checked the setting in the plug-in window and noticed the discrepancy.

The odd thing is that this only seems to happen on audio tracks. I was playing around with aux tracks today and managed to instantiate four Characters without problems. But as soon as I rendered the tracks to audio, mad spiking and sound breakup ensued.

I don't really have the time to investigate this any further at the moment, I'm afraid. When I get a chance I have a G4 with DP4.61 still installed that I can fire up and check. I'm almost certain that Poco 2.x plug-ins have this option checked by default, so it's probably a v3 error by TC.

Kind regards.

[Sean Kenny]

Apologies for butting in and kin of OFF THREAD, for what it's worth Classic Verb is the only reason I haven't sold my powercore card. Sounds good not AMAZING but good, but like all good reverbs it's quick and easy to easy to use. VERY user friendly

Regards

Sean Kenny

UK Studio Owner and DP LOVER!

The good news, for me anyway, was that now all the plugs are AU and not wrapped so AU Manager can turn off all the dicey stuff that I don't need.
I had it "remove" all the demos and VI stuff leaving just Reverbs, Character, SoftSat EQ,the Delay Chorus and Tubeifx.

What does that mean? Does it mean that you can delete the VST versions or something? I'd like to pare down some of the plugs. I'm also anxious to give ClassicVerb another whirl since you spoke so highly of it.

[James Steele]

Hey-- no--- thanks for adding to the discussion... HopiWay mentioned this too and so I'm stilling hanging on to my PoCo Element card. I got it for $100 on Craigslist and am using ClassicVerb.

[rmhofu]

It's a crazy world. The upgrade was flawless and everything is working perfectly. I haven't had any issues with my powercore firewire. I am running it on Tiger 10.4.11 with DP 4.6 What I would like to do is to remove all the trial plugs that I will never buy.

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

Did TC initially say that you would eventually be able to run any AU plug ins? That's been my concern, wanting to be able to use it as addition CPU for any or all of my plug ins....

[Dave Bourke]

When I get a chance I have a G4 with DP4.61 still installed that I can fire up and check. I'm almost certain that Poco 2.x plug-ins have this option checked by default, so it's probably a v3 error by TC.

My apologies for this, folks, but I've just discovered that the "Always Run in Real-time" option was only introduced in DP5.1. However, I've tracked down the 5.1 ReadMe and it has this to say on the subject:


REAL-TIME VERSUS RENDERED EFFECTS

In DP5, effects on disk tracks are pre-rendered when the effects window is closed. This provides enhanced performance, allowing you to use more effects plug-ins with lower CPU usage. When opening and closing the plug-in window, you may briefly hear the original, unaffected sound.

The Effects Window mini-menu provides a new option to address this issue. When the Always run in Real-time menu item is checked (enabled), you will not hear this brief sound when opening and closing the plug-in window. The consequence, however, is that you will not gain any performance enhancement when the window is closed (the plug-in output will not be pre-rendered).

In some situations, effects always run in real-time. For example, if an effect is instantiated on an aux track or instrument track, it always runs in real time. Here are a few other situations in which effects always run in real time:

■ all powered plug-ins, such as Universal Audio UAD-1 effects and TC Electronic PowerCore effects
■ post-fader effects
■ mono-to-stereo effects
■ mono-to-surround effects
■ stereo-to-surround effects
■ any effects that follow the effects described above in the signal chain

Plug-in automation is not affected by the Always run in Real-time option.

End of quote.

The first bullet point above would lead a reader to believe that this happens automatically, as indeed it does with all UAD-1 plug-ins. The fact that it doesn't happen with PoCo v3 plug-ins makes me think it's a TC issue. However, manually checking the menu option on instantiation works fine.

@rmhofu ••“ as I've written above, the option was only introduced in DP5.1, so you have nothing to worry about with DP4.61.

@RecordingArts ••“ Like the UAD-1, the PoCo platform only runs plug-ins designed specifically for it. It will never run AU or VST plug-ins. For this I would suggest the Muse Research Receptor.

Kind regards.

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

Thanks for that info David, I wondered why I would always get a nice size glitch when I opened and closed AutoTune 5's window, and would often leave most effect's window open, not benefiting from the prerendering...

[monkey man]

Thank you for sharing that, Big Dave.

I popped it into my tips folder for a future head-scratchin', was-goin'-on-'ere moment which is bound to arrive sometime.