Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

Just upgraded (from HD3 Accel) to Ultimate (2019.12) & deciding whether to go Native & use a card (with existing Digi 192) or just get another interface & go directly to USB.

Other than more than 32 i/o's (which I don't need) is there a reason to go with Native or can I go direct to/from USB with a non-Avid interface?

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

You can't use a Sync HD without a HDX or HD native Card.

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

Yeah true about sync HD but he asked about the use of PTU without a Avid branded interface and the answer is Yes and there are soo many great interfaces for you to choose from that smokes the 192 as it is an old piece of HW.

Going HD native box or pcie feels old aswell and even HDX which has been out for a decade and promised to be more versatile with voices and never happened. HDX takes CPU off the computer but only with AAX64 bit HDX ported plugins, none of the native AAX64 bit will offer any CPU offload and the HD Native PCIe is discontinued so only TB Box left which is a sign (to me) they are getting long in the tooth. And HD native cards basically dont do much other interfaces non digilink gear dont do so again maybe go with a New Tech interface and leave the past 10 years in the past if you dont want to use TDM of course which was and still is used in many big studios due to good stable usage.

So USB3 or TB2/3 is a great low latency option. We went with 4 Apollo X series interfaces and not only do we have extremely low latency even if we chose to track with UA plugins and when we have large sessions those interfaces just works. NEVER had a single issue EVER all the way back to FW silver Apollo Quads we started with 7 years ago and have gone thru their Black units and now with the X Series we have a really High End sound with those superb preamps and great headroom for mixing.

If you only have USB options there are Apogee and Antelope, Focusrite Red and Dante options and much more that have soo much better conversion rates since the 192’s came out. All IMHO of course.

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

Same here, using Apogee Symphony mkII via ThunderBolt connection whenver 2-in 6-out is enough. Only need DigiLink for high i/o count gigs.

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

OK, so if I don't get a (used) Native PCI card, is it safe, in so far as latency is concerned, to go with a newer interface (Dangerous, Crane Song, Apogee, etc.) directly via USB?
It sounds like Dante might be too slow per RTL?

I'm not interested in the Apollo stuff at all.
Maybe the Metric Halo or similar, with the Direct Monitoring capability, might also be appealing?

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

RME and their TotalMix digital software mixer would also be a good choice.

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

Latency is actually more related to your the performance of your PC or Mac than to the interface. You would choose USB3 over USB2 or TB3 over TB2 in terms of I/O count you need due to the data rate.

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

Data rate is actually pretty irrelevant now.

One 24bit 192kHz track requires 192000*24/8/1024=562.5 kB/s bandwidth. Make that 128 in 128 out and you need 562.5*128*128/1024/1024=17.6 GB/s bandwidth. That is still well within TB2 spec. By halving sampling rate to 96kHz you get 256 in 256 out for the "same price" or can fit same 128 in 128 out in TB1 spec.

Nobody in their right mind would use USB for high i/o count anyway.

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

My 2 cents; I was extremely happy with an HD/Native card and Digilink boxes(ran a pair of 192's and a pair of HD IO's). Tracking full bands all day at a 64 buffer with 6 stereo headphone mixes from PT(AUX sends routed to outputs) and never any mention of latency(unless I screwed something up:p). Having said that, I also support most any of the other suggestions. If you did go with the HDN card and digilink interfaces(and of course, Ultimate software) then you will be able to do 64 IO. Moving to 3rd party boxes is where the 32 IO limit comes into play. If that number covers your needs, then you have dozens of options:o

Re: Pro Tools Ultimate w/o any card or interface or
 

You "were"? What do you have now?
Think I'm leaning towards a 3rd party interface via USB2. Wouldn't be needing massive amounts of i/o's.
The only thing I'm still not sure of is the latency issue.
Some companies, like RME & Metric Halo, have direct monitoring where supposedly it will be no issue with that.
Seems like Dangerous, Crane Song, Prism, etc. can't guarantee RTL times.