Just got back from AES. PT10 looks great, I'm definitely excited. That said, the plugin thing is a MAJOR concern for me. I talked to a lot of plugin vendors and not one of them was ready for AAX. I'm really looking forward to seeing this list of 25 ready vendors, but the ones I use are all in "wait and see" mode. At this point TDM is 100% dead. TDM will not run on the HDX system at all. So, if there are any TDM plugins that you can't get rid of, HDX is not a good choice, or at least you'll have to keep your HD systems around. Waves, SoundToys, Eventide, SSL, have no current plans of supporting the new DSP architecture. So it begs the question... is the new DSP for Avid plugins only?
The other concern that everyone that I talked to had was what happens in 2 months when Apple releases their next Mac Pro sans PCIe slots? Apparently that's exactly what's going to happen. Avid had better purchase Magma immediately if they want this thing to fly.
Pricing is interesting. Trading in an HD3 system for a single HDX card is $5999. I could do that for double the power/voices/tracks. But... at the expense of SoundBlender, PitchBlender, Eventide, Revibe, Waves TDM, etc? That's a tough one...
An additional HDX card to make it a 512voice system? $6999. Ahem... I'll grab my hat on my own, thanks
-Jamey