#AD516 8 Tracks on A2000?
10 messages in this thread
To All Sunrize AD516 Users,
The setup in which I am using my AD516 is as follows:
Amiga 2000
GVP '3001 '030 '882 25 MHz with 4 Mb RAM
ICD Advantage SCSI Controller
Maxtor 7213 Hard Drive
So far, I have only been able to get 3 playback tracks at 44,100 sampling
rate to playback. To do the complicated soundracks that I have been doing
lately, I have been having to dump to my 8-Track recorder and synchronize with
SMPTE. I have seen my dealers A4000 with Fastlane playback 8 44,100 tracks at a
time so I know Sunrize is telling the truth about being able to do 8 full
frequency tracks at a time.
What I am wondering, is if anyone out there is getting 4 or more 44,100
sampling rate playback tracks at a time on an Amiga 2000 machine, and if they
are, what's the secret? What kind of drive are you using? What kind of
controller? How many simultaneous tracks are you getting?
I would rather keep everything digital and avoid going to tape as much as
possible, and am wondering what the right investment(s) would be to get my
AD516/A2000 combination up to eight tracks at a time.
Thanks,
Terry Tabor
Terry,
I get 8 tracks at 44.1 kHz on an A2500 with AD516/Studio 16. I'm using
a GVP Series II 33 MHz 68030/882 Combo Board with 8 Megs of RAM on the
board (plus 2 Megs of 16 bit RAM and 1 Meg chip); an IVS GrandSlam
controller; and Quantum 240 Meg hard drive.
There is nothing special that I'm doing; it just works. I don't know
why it doesn't work for you.
Dom Fontana
–> Sent from NY via AP <–
Dom, Thanks for the quick reply. After hearing from you and a few
other folks, I think my problem might be the controller card I'm
using. From the tests Amiga World did a few months ago, it looks like
the IVS Grand Slam is one of the fastest for the Amiga 2000. For some
reason, my local dealer won't order me an IVS; says he's had nothing
but trouble with IVS controllers and that the GVP should be just as
fast. But you and a couple of others here have mentioned IVS
controllers in your replies to my posting, and I think maybe it's not
a coincidence. My ICD Advantage has seen its better days though, so
maybe it's time to go mail order.
> From the tests Amiga World did a few months ago, it looks like
the IVS Grand Slam is one of the fastest for the Amiga 2000.
Yes, it's very fast. IVS products are very reliable and I don't
know why your dealer won't order it for you. Plus, the newer Quantum
drives are also very fast. You might want to call SunRize because
they did tests with most controllers and hard drives and can probably
tell you if your current setup is too slow.
Terry,
Check in your manual under the Preferences section of the "Module Refer"
chapter. Make sure you are using the extended memory function correctly.
The next item to check would be "Channel buffer size", there should be a
chart on the page that tells you ram requirements for simultaneous
playback of multiple tracks. Reset the channel buffer to the correct size
and try it. Lastly, you can reduce your screen environment to save Ram,
by using the tiny mixer, closing windows that you don't need for playback
and so on.
Hope this helps.
Chris—> via AP
Chris, I tried every combination I think possible as far as
preferences are concerned to no avail. From the other replies I've
gotten here, I kind of suspect my ICD Advantage is the culprit.
I get eight tracks with no problems, using a Commodore 25 MHz 030
board, an IVS Trumpcard Pro and a Quantum 250 Meg Prodrive. make sure
that you have set your cuelist pre-load and memory buffers correctly.
There should be no problems with your set-up.
SunRize have an excellent technical support program. If you are still
having problems,.
I get eight tracks with no problems, using a Commodore 25 MHz 030
board, an IVS Trumpcard Pro and a Quantum 250 Meg Prodrive. make sure
that you have set your cuelist pre-load and memory buffers correctly.
There should be no problems with your set-up.
SunRize have an excellent technical support program. If you are still
having problems, call them.
I am using an Amiga 2000 configured with a GVP GForce 40 MH '030, 8 Meg of
32 bit addessable RAM, and the onboard SCSI-II controller. I have tried a
number of configurations however, including the Supra WordSync, ICD
Advantage, and CBM 2091 SCSI controllers in conjunction with a CBM 2630
accellerator with 12 Meg of 32 bit addressable memory.
I have also used a number of drives from Quantum, Seagate, and Maxtor. The
slowest was an old Maxtor 340 Meg drive, which still had a average seek
time of about 12 ms, and respectable max throughput.
The absolute worst case was the Advatage and 2630, and even then I was
able to get 4 or 5 tracks at 44.1. Typcially I could get 6 or 7 tracks on
the other configurations, and the present setup allows 7 most of the time
and 8 sometimes.
The speed of the microprocessor does not seem to have much affect, once
you get up to an '030. The biggest bottleneck I have found has been the
SCSI to AD516 path. In my case it is still partially 16 bits, which causes
some degradation, but I believe it is the DMA path between the drive and
the CPU that is the biggest concern.
I know that I have set up Studio16 on a 25 MHz Amiga 3000 and it worked
flawlessly, 8 tracks at 48 KHz sampling rate, which is why I think that
the Disk to memory path is so important.
The path to the AD516 turns out to be 16 bits wide, so an A2000 will work
as well as an A3000 or A4000 as far as that path goes.
So I guess my recommendation to you would be to trade the seperate
accellerator and SCSI host adapter for a combined one, or trade the 2000
for a 3000, which ever is the cheaper way to get the disk to cpu path
widened!
Hope this helps, and holler back if you have any questions!
Bill, Thanks for the reply. Judging from your reply and some of the
others here, it sounds like much of my problem may lie in my outdated
ICD Advantage controller. The absolute best I have ever gotten has
been four tracks at the next rate under 44100 (37,something I think).
I did get four tracks simultaneously using the ICD Advantage and one
hard drive and a GVP HCII and another hard drive. The one common
thing I've noticed so far among people getting 8 tracks on the A2000,
is lots of RAM and an IVS controller card.