Re: Your favorite reverbs for Mix systems.
I've always been a Mac guy. I'm not particularly interested in Windows pro or con - its just that these machines do the job cheaper, and will remain viable longer than Apple seems to hold on to versions of OSX.
Also, as you upgrade your rig, you'll always know that this dedicated computer will still work without needing to be WUP'd or uprgraded.
Mac Mini's can also work, I just don't know that route.
Buy or build a PC. A P4 3.2 GHz is plenty powerful.
I use a Frontier WaveCenterPCI card in the PC. It does 32 MIDI channels (4 MIDI ports - 2 in, 2 out) and 8 channels of digital audio on ADAT lightpipe.
I connect the lightpipe to an ADAT Bridge (to a Mix Farm I/O), and it shows up as an interface in Pro Tools.
The Frontier cards work on the kernal level, so when running 4 stereo instances, the total latency can be as high as 20 ms, and it can be as low as 9 ms in less demanding circumstances. This is alright (to me) for reverb, since I almost always want a pre delay anyway.
When triggering a softsynth, the latency is even shorter. It easily beats my Virus TDM plug in's latency, and that's within in the same machine, running inside Pro Tools!
The fact that the Frontier Card gets optical digital audio IN allows it to sync to my Pro Tools system, so no further word clock etc. is necessary.
You'll need to run some software as a VST host for Altiverb too. Check Altiverb and the maker of your soundcard for compatibility.
There are other options: FX teleport, Mac Minis - all kinds of things.
I can tell you that having a seperate PC for softsynths, and another seperate PC for effects really helps my workflow. Reverbs stay running as softsynths run, get recorded, are closed, and other opened. Pro Tools is always the open window on that computer, and having multiple trackballs to control them can save time too. Leaving the PT trackball over a track's solo or mute button, and having key commands for the transport is really helpful while looking at a second screen on the softsynth PC, and editing perameters. Your main mouse on the softsynth stays where it is, and you can just touch whichever buttons you like without looking at them, keeping your focus on the task at hand. Cool!
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