Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

I have an old ProTools system and it’s time for me to make the upgrade. I’m looking for some help from you guys who have been through this process. I’m way behind on what’s new, so please forgive my ignorance.

I want to be able to track live drums without latency, preferably with a lot of tracks already recorded with a bunch of plugins on these instruments, and with plugs also on the drums so the drummer hears some good drum sounds in his headphones. My current kit is using 14 mics. I’m not sure if this will be an issue with a PT native system or not. Would there be an advantage in going HDX in your opinion?

Having said all that, here’s my current system:

Mac cheese grater (Mid 2010 - 2.8 Ghz Quad Intel Xeon) OS 10.7.5 w/ 10GB RAM - *No Thunderbolt*
PT 10.3.8 HD TDM. I have 4 TDM Accel cards in a Magma expansion chassis.
C/24 control surface - Will this work? I can’t get a definitive answer from the Avid website.
Several TDM licenses

I’m going to need a new computer, interface(s) and expansion chassis (if I go with the Mac Mini).

My 3 old Digi interfaces won’t work with a new system, so I’m asking for your advice on what interfaces you guys think would give me the best bang for the buck. I think I can get by with 16 inputs. I can probably get by with 8 analog outputs. I have pretty good mic pres, so I don’t think my new interface would need mic pres.

As for computer, I’m reading that a lot of people are happy with the new Mac Mini. Is that what you’d suggest?

Thank you so much for taking the time reading this and for sharing your expertise.

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

If you want “no latency” and lots of plugs including in the monitor path then HDX is the way to go.

In reality I would suggest you try playing with latency and see what low latency is needed.

C|24 will work... for now. End of support dates are on the web.

I would consider sticking the the HDX in the Mac Pro. Why would you get rid of the Cheesegrater? You should be able to (if needed) upgrade the CPU and GPU, add fast storage, and Most importantly run Mojave).

Outside of Avid hardware UAD Apollo, with UAD plugins in the console is an alternative to look at.... with a new Mac with Thunderbolt 3 support.

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

Thank you so much Darryl!

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

Avid C|24 will work but the older DigiDesign Command|24 will not. Be sure which you have, because both are referred as "C24" from time to time

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

Darryl-

My old cheese grater doesn't have thunderbolt. :(

I'm going to edit my original post now to include that.

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

Thanks JFreak. It is a C/24 and I'm glad to hear that it'll work.

Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

When you say ‘old digidesign interfaces’ do you mean the blue 192?

I have one happily running alongside two HD I/Os and an Omni

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

I realize that, but if you are staying with DigiLink IO then you don’t need Thunderbolt and I would think hard about staying with/upgrading the Cheesegrater. If you want to go say UAD Apollo then the Cheesegrater has to go.

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

What you described has been possible with Native systems since two decades ago

Re: Please Help Me Upgrade My Old TDM Rig
 

maybe the OP can define what their definition is of “without latency”.