Sunmachine:  Yeah, I'm using my old Pentium PC for the Scope cards that are connected via ADAT to my MacBook Pro and a TC Impact Twin audio interface. There are no hard drives in the PC, just an 8 GB (or was it 16?) compact flash card with Windows XP.  Most of the time I'm using CopperLan to send MIDI between Studio One on the Mac and Scope on the PC over Ethernet.  CopperLan acts as a big MIDI patchbay for all my controllers and MIDI applications and let me easily connect everything to anything. All hardware controllers like the Novation Remote SL MK II, the Korg padKONTROL and others are merged into the same virtual MIDI port, so I only need one MIDI input for all this stuff in Studio One. To send MIDI from Studio One to the Scope synthesizers I use one or more virtual MIDI ports. In most projects I don’t have to care about setting up the correct MIDI channels because I use a dedicated MIDI port for each synth. All this should work the same on a single computer by the way because it makes no difference where a device is located in the network. 

Dante:  Sounds great. And how do you think Scope 6 might improve this set-up?

Sunmachine: Once the Scope devices are CopperLan enabled we're not stuck to the MIDI CC resolution with 128 steps anymore. High resolution parameter control is already possible today with VST plug-ins if there's a CopperPlug wrapper available. You can even build your own wrappers for VST and AU plug-ins with the free CopperPlug software that is currently in beta status. In the future we'll also see VST and AU plug-ins support CopperLan natively, so that the wrapper will become obsolete. There will be no difference between native plug-ins and Scope plug-ins controller-wise. All will be fused in the CopperLan network and you can control a parameter of a VST plug-in with one knob of your controller keyboard and a Scope parameter with another knob of the same keyboard for example. Or even both parameters with the same knob. Or assign knobs on different controllers to the same parameter.

Assigning parameters will be quite simple. Just move a parameter on the GUI of a Scope device and move a knob or fader or something on a hardware or software CopperLan controller and you'll be done. Actually this sounds quite similar to what we already have today but keep in mind that you won't have to do previous routings once the devices and controllers are available in the CopperLan network. Just load a device and start assigning its parameters. These assignments are bi-directional out of the box by the way. No need to make a two-way connection from a device to a particular controller first. No need to set MIDI channels on both the controller and the target device. No limitations regarding the amount of parameters that can be controlled. As far as I know, nowadays a Scope device can only be controlled via MIDI CC messages on a single MIDI channel, i. e. the maximum is 128 assignments. And all the assignments can of course be saved as snapshots for you to be recalled later with a single click.

Dante: So what do you think the implications of CopperLan might be for Scope device developers?

Sunmachine: I think one of the most powerful features of CopperLan is the fact that targets and controllers can be detached from each other. This means that a Scope developer can come up with great sounding devices without the need of an attached GUI. The latter can be done by a different developer. So someone with no idea about programming Scope devices can make GUIs for them, even for existing ones! With all bells and whistles like meters and parameter names. This might actually become a whole new market for software developers.

This also means that you can have a VST plug-in in your DAW on a Mac that controls a Scope device on a PC. Such a plug-in could even control multiple devices. Imagine a VST channel strip controller plug-in that serves as a GUI for a Scope gate, EQ and compressor all at once.  You’ll have to route the audio to your DAW somehow, though.
 
Dante: How are those detached controllers attached to devices then?

Sunmachine: A dedicated controller for a particular Scope device will know about all of the device's parameters so it can automatically connect to them at start-up.  But there's also the SmartConnect feature of CopperLan for generic controllers.  With SmartConnect it's possible for a controller to connect to parameters that have specific properties. For example a compressor describes its parameters as threshold, ratio, make-up gain and so on. A compressor controller can then automatically attach corresponding knobs to these parameters because it knows which parameter is the threshold value and which one is the ratio.  The same compressor controller can of course be used for different CopperLan enabled compressors and vice versa.

Also keep in mind that CopperLan controllers and targets can be both software and hardware. So why not build a hardware controller for a Scope compressor? Actually all you'll need is a nice front plate and a small controller unit that translates the knob movements to CopperLan commands.  Maybe you won't have bi-directional controls but that’s just like a good old hardware compressor works, too.  See http://www.diy-racked.com/diy-talk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18 for some inspiring pictures.

The Scope software itself could also be CopperLan enabled, so that we would be able to control it from anywhere on the CopperLan network.  Switch screen sets with your controller keyboard or set the number of voices for a synth. And save the Scope project with one of its buttons or load a synth with it.  It might even be possible to have the routing window running on a Mac while the Scope hardware is connected to a PC as it’s the case in my setup here.  So the routing window on the Mac just sends commands via CopperLan to the Scope PC. These commands could also be used by the VST channel strip plug-in I mentioned earlier to load the Scope devices and connect them to each other. I’m not 100% sure if this is really technically feasible, though, but I guess so.  Since I don't know what the CopperLan integration in the next Scope versions will look like, some of this is currently just wishful thinking, but I'm really excited about all the possibilities SCOPpErlan could offer!

Dante: Yes - SCOPpErlan will be an exciting development for sure.