Mr. Anderton - Sonic Core Xite

Tough question. What blows my mind is that my SCOPE card STILL works, even with 64-bit Windows. I really have to take my hat off to Sonic Core for updating the original SCOPE drivers to let people continue using a board they bought, what, almost a quarter century ago?!?! If that doesn't define customer support, I don't know what does.
 
Much has changed in the world since SCOPE appeared. The system can still be a bit touchy if you want to use the plug-ins as VST plug-ins within a host, but that's not the point. The point is to use a host within the virtualized SCOPE studio. In that sense, it's like Sonar becoming a multitrack recorder (with all its plug-ins, of course) surrounded by virtualized hardware that actually uses hardware for processing.
 
While the system remains viable and some of their concepts lie somewhere between brilliant and ultra-genius, a program like Sonar X3e with its rich collection of plug-ins can deliver in a native format what it took a ton of SHARC DSP to do not that long ago.
 
The xcite's audio quality is excellent, and if you're stressing out your computer with huge projects, offloading it to hardware still makes sense. In many ways, SCOPE took the Pro Tools idea of DSP-assisted systems in a direction that I believe was far more daring and innovative. However, as much as I respect the technology and the people who brought it back to life, IMHO it's a fairly niche - albeit brilliant - product. If you're in that niche, go for it. If not, you can probably find other solutions.

Oh and I agree with Craig, this is why I have moved on from DSP cards including UAD (which I have owned too) these days native processing is sufficient enough.  DSP cards were introduced into the audio world when computing was still in it's infancy and a gig of ram seemed like a lot and cost an a arm and a leg.  A 64 bit operating system with 8 gig of ram and a multi processer CPU kicks a DSP cards arse!!  And the native plug-in emulators are as good as the DSP versions now anyway.  IE: Sonars SSL and Console emulators are really good and unless your looking for something boutique both are are sufficient.
 
Ben