PT24 / NT - Any FAQs or More details on how it works and operate on NT?

[Echo studios]

Lets put it that way.
This is a BRAND NEW system and the main thing here is....its on PC!
We're used to see Digidesign products released on -and- for the MAC.
Now this is a premiere.
I think that all Session 8 PC users, like me, out there would appreciate to have a kind of general F.A.Q. on the new release of PT24 on Windows NT. How DAE will work with it. Which IRQ, port, ressources does the cards take...What IS compatible with it and what is NOT. you see?
Does the code of the software rough and stable enough?
I know its the same software, same I/O's as Macintosh, but Im sure that we HAVE to know if there is a way to communicate audio with other programs too and also, to get scoops on what you PLAN to do with PT24...software upgrades, else..
Thanks for taking this into consideration.

Dan
Echo studios

[Przemek]

YES

[Bengt Tedeborg]

Oh yes!
I am not going to trade in the superb Session 8 system without knowing exactly what I get in return.

[Digi Engineering]

I'll try to give you some additional info:
-DAE is a dll that loads when Pro Tools loads.
-DAL is our kernel driver that manages the audio cards.
-We have no hard set IRQ and support Shared IRQ's.
-PCI parity must be off for the cards to work.
-The software is in pretty good shape. Our beta sites have found it to be very stable.
-When you create a Windows only session PT records .wav files that should be comptible with any other editing apps that support .wav, including sound forge and CD-architect.
-We are working on wavedrivers so that other apps can access our hardware.
-The current plan is to keep the two platforms as much in sync as possible. We still have a few things to add to the PC version to get it in sync with the Mac. After that is done we hope to do simultaneous cross platform releases as much as possible.
Hope this helps.
-Mike Rockwell

[DigiTechSupt]

Mike covered most of it. Just to be a bit more specific, Inter App Communication (shadow port) is not working. Sync with sequencer apps. will have to be hard wired for the time being. The MidiMan (ISA card with 4X4 octopus) is the best recommendation for a Midi interface right now. The USD is operating through the serial port on the D|24 card. There is current no USD setup app. for the NT side. I assume this is in the works. We'll have a production cable in a month or so that will allow a machine control hookup. We're supporting the Bit 3 13 slot expansion chassis. Only one D|24 card is supported on this system (32 tracks on disk. 128 virtual tracks). As many Farms as a chassis will support (up to 10 cards total including the I/O card). SCII PCI cards are OK. Only core plug-ins are available (DigiVerb included) until third party developers port over. Some will be faster than others. Two Ultra Wide drives and an Adaptec card are required for full track count and performance. FAT 16 is highly recommended. FAT 32 will not work. NTFS will work but the compatibility issues are a big hassle. There's more but, check out the compatibility doc on the Digi web site for basic platform info. For what it is right now, it rocks. I hope this is helpful

Tom S.

[Przemek]

Fat16 has only 2G partitions! And what do you mean ...NTFS will work but the compatibility issues are a big hassle...? Does it work or not? NTFS has bigger partitions! It will be real pain in the @#$ if PT24MIX will support only FAT16 - with its 64 24bit tracks... :-(
I'm waiting for PT24MIXplus/NT, but as I see it is not so fine system as I thought :-(
BTW 128 virtual tracks with d24 - this is more than Mac, isn't it?
Thanks,
Przemek.