CompuServe Thread

#AD516 8 Tracks on A2000?

10 messages in this thread
#38744From: Terry L. TaborFeb 16, 1994 8:20 PM
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
#38757From: Dominick J. FontanaFeb 17, 1994 3:50 AM
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 <–
#38787From: Terry L. TaborFeb 17, 1994 9:02 PM
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.
#38797From: Dominick J. FontanaFeb 18, 1994 8:14 AM
> 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.
#38762From: Chris N.JulsonFeb 17, 1994 8:06 AM
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
#38788From: Terry L. TaborFeb 17, 1994 9:04 PM
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.
#38779From: John LeonardFeb 17, 1994 6:23 PM
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,.
#38782From: John LeonardFeb 17, 1994 6:33 PM
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.
#38783From: Bill ThompsonFeb 17, 1994 6:44 PM
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!
#38789From: Terry L. TaborFeb 17, 1994 9:13 PM
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.