[Sheldon Radford]

Hi,

The number of plug-ins that can be run at once on a VENUE system depends on two factors: the amount of DSP available for plug-ins, and the number of rack slots available for instantiating the plug-ins. Depending on the combination of plug-ins in use it's possible to use up the available DSP before filling all rack slots; it's also possible to fill up all rack slots before using up the available DSP.

The SC48 comes equipped with a maximum of two DSP cards; each card has 9 DSP chips, for a toal of 18 DSPs. These cards do the basic mixing and also run plug-ins. You can tailor how much DSP is used for each function on the Options > System page (even on the Standalone software). Reducing the number of input channels or GEQs gives more DSP for plug-ins. As a general guideline, a single DSP chip can run one or two high quality reverb, delay, or channel strip emulator plug-ins, and five or more compressor or EQ plug-ins. (It's a bit more complicated than this, but this gives a rough idea).

Plug-ins instantiated in the rack can be inserted on channels or used as bus-fed effects, such as reverbs and delays. For example, you could have 18 compressor or EQ plug-ins for inserts (in addition to the built in channel EQ/Comp/Gate), plus a reverb and a delay, for a total of 20 plug-ins. Each channel can have up to four plug-ins - chosen from the rack of 20 plug-ins - inserted.

The number and type of plug-ins available to choose from depends on the plug-ins installed on the console. A plug-in doesn't use DSP until it's installed in the plug-in rack, so you can always have more plug-ins installed than in use.

Sheldon