Hi Tim
I can only speak from my own experience, and for me, mixing stereo, 5.1 and 7.1 - music only - HDX3 + a souped up cheese grater is very powerful, and works very well for me.
I don't recall saying that Native + HDX is *always* more powerful than Native.... perhaps I was unclear. I apologize for not being more clear. I'm only speaking about my experiences and how things work for my workflow.
I am sorry that ProTools while working in 7.1.2 chews up your DSP. I had heard that from someone else who was working in 7.1.2
Perhaps this is a serious software efficiency that needs to be addressed? I'm speculating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TimNielsen
Except you're wrong on one very important point here, there are times when an HDX+Native is WAY worse than a fully native. My case in point:
I'm on an HDX3. I have a massive session and am working in 7.1.2 mode. The DSP chips fill up so fast with multi-channel senses and routing, that I actually cannot run NEARLY as many plugins with sends as on a fully native system, where I would not have this limitation at all. I have fully maxed out my DSP chips, and when that is the case, I literally cannot add another send, hence I have to completely limit the amount of reverbs I could use.
If I could put my system totally native, I wouldn't have this limitation at all. In a fully native system I could run 20+ reverbs, instead of the 9 that I can get away with now in this session. The limitation is directly caused by the DSP at high track width sessions. Just adding one multi-channel send across my tracks might tie up 3 DSP chips...
In my case I would MUCH prefer a fully native system in every way. Except I need more than 256 voices. I need almost 700. And the only way to do that is to use an HDX3
What they NEED to do, is split the mix engine and the plugin. So in other words, run the mixer in native, and free up the DSP for actual plugins. That would be ideal...
Again, on an HD3, because of how many chip it takes just for the mixer, I have less than half of one card available for plugins, and I am completely hobbled when it comes to multi-channel sends to reverbs... In my case the HDX3 causes nothing but headaches. If Avid ever opens up voice counts on native, I am ripping these cards out and tossing them in the lake.
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