DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

Hi there,

I am new at using Avid products. At the studio I am now working, we are using a Pro Tools HD system. So basically a Digidesign 192 with a Core card and an Accel card.

Now, the DSPs on the cards can be used for audio signal flow and for processing certain supported effects if I understand correctly.

My question is: Are they also in any way responsible for the AD/DA conversion (and thus for the sound quality) or is this all done by the hardware unit 192?

Thanks and sorry if it had been discussed before, I wasn't able to find an answer.

Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

Conversion is done by the 192. Dsp’s are just expensive pocket calculators. No adda in the dsp. Only signal processing. :)


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Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

Thanks for clearing things up, 19thbear!

That's what I was assuming. So the 192's DSPs are kind of outdated in comparison to modern CPUs, I guess?

Could I run all channels of the 192 at 192 kHz with only the Core card then?

Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

I/O counts can be found below, yes it should be possible.

https://www.avid.com/products/pro-to...specifications

Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

And just to be ”clearer” there is no DSP in the 192’s as you wrote. That is on those 20 year old HD cards. The converters on the 192’s are old and there are way cheaper interfaces today for less than 300usd that kill those old boxes.

Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

I would personally keep the 192. It’s a fine converter. Not the best but certianly not the worst. But that’s another discussion:)


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Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

Thanks to everyone for the valuable information.

We are definitely keeping the 192's, I was just wondering if we'd need the DSP power when upgrading at some point to a new computer. Now I know that they are really only responsible for signal processing, not converting.

Cheers!

Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

My own experience; the 192's run great on the Avid HDN card(no DSP) and can be run with OMNI and/or HD IO boxes without issue. My own 2 cents; the 192 sounds fine, so if your recordings are not hits, its not because of the 192:o

Re: DSPs responsible for conversion?
 

What are you using your system for? Tracking bands/music? Mixing? Virtual instruments/composition?

Those old HD accel cards will only work with 32-bit versions of Pro Tools, which means you are stuck with Pro Tools HD 10 at best. An implication of running 32-bit apps is that they will only ever access 4gb of system ram at best, which is horrible if you want to run virtual or sample based instruments. You would be far, far better off scrapping HD Accel and moving to PT11 or beyond if that is the case.

If you are tracking and mixing bands though, HD accel still remains one of the lowest latency systems in existence. Super stable, you'll be able to monitor directly through DSP plugins and build some pretty hefty headphone mixes as though you are working on an analogue mixing console.

Don't be surprised if you don't see huge gains in performance when you do purchase a new computer. It is simply the result of incapability of HD accel and the versions of Pro Tools that work with it in accessing all of the available system resources. HD TDM systems are from the early 2000's after all!