Mix Plus Vs. HD1

[XHipHop]

Hey everyone,
I was wondering which would give me more plugins at 48k. I use mostly McDSP, Bomb Factory, and Waves plugs and i was wondering how the two compare so i can know which to purchase for an upcoming setup.

Thanks for your help. If someone can give me numbers that would be extra helpful. ie: mix has this many chips which can run this many plugs and hd1 has this many chips..etc.

Thanks again!
Bob

[usinare]

at 48k HD1 has more horsepower than mix1.
at 96k HD1 is equal to MIx1 at 48k.

[peteri]

All this information is pretty much available on the Digi web-site, so I suggest a bit of research there.

But while I'm here...

Plugin count on the HD chips still doesn't seem commonly listed - but since the chips are approximately 20% faster (I believe from memory) you can guess.

For the plugin counts per mix chip - for digi check the digi-plugin manual on the website, for Mcdsp these details can be found in the plugin specs - found on the plugin finder, again on the main site.

Regards more power - depends on the plugins you're running, if you're just talking about BF and Mcdsp, these will run on any type of mix chip - so I'd guess the mix + will be more powerful, as this has 12 chips (6 per card), as opposed to 9 on a HD card.

However all 9 chips on the HD have sdram - so if you start running stuff like waves - which will only run on these chips, then the HD is a better bet.

This is upto 48k - which is as high as the Mix can go. I believe the official line is that an HD2 at 96k is the same as a Mix+ at 48 - but I might be wrong.

If you're talking about buying new - I'd go for the HD, and buy another process card at a later date if you need it, remember you can supplement your DSP cards with RTAS plugins (which use the processor) and you can bounce down to disk. I really don't see (unless you just can't afford it) why when buying something new you wouldn't go for the newest technology you can (which will have the longest shelf life).

Hope this helps

Pete

[usinare]

you are confused about ur post. the hd cards are more powerful than the mix with any plugin. its on the digi website.

[peteri]

No I'm sorry - please re-read my post, I am correct.

The cards are more powerful - for the following reasons:

The individual chips are approximately 20% more powerful

There are 9 chips on each card (as opposed to 6)

All the chips are sram chips.

All things I said in my post - and a mix+ system has more chips, all be it of a slightly lower power, and in some cases, an inferior type.

Also running at 96k uses twice the dsp relative to at 48k - as I stated, hence the reduced track count (particularly when you go up to 192k)

Also, with any plugin is not true - for various technical reasons, some plugins take a whole chip regardless (I'm thinking AmpFarm here), or the extra percentage in individual chip power is not enough to get an extra instance of the plugin - I believe this is the case with the Sony Oxford plugin.

The big score with HD is that you can have (at 44.1/48 rates) 96 tracks (as opposed to 64 - should you need it).

The digi website says a HD core is twice as powerful as a Mix core (this will be at 44.1/48) - taking my figures, and assuming each mix chips gives power of 100.

Therefore mix core = 6 x 100 = 600

HD chips are 20% more powerful and there are nine chips

Therefore HD core = 9 * 120 = 1080.

Combined with the improvement in the TDMII architecture - that enables better chip sharing and more complex mixers, and the fact that the 20% performance increase per chip is rough (and from memory) hence the rough marketing claim of twice the power.

All the information in my post is correct, I am a Mix+ owner, just about to upgrade to HD2 and I have researched this carefully, remember this post is comparing an HD1 (one card) to a Mix+ (two card) system, so in one way you're not actually comparing like to like - hence the confusion over 'power'.

Pete

[XHipHop]

Thank you Peteri. The reason i chose to compare HD1 to Mix Plus was because the used price of mixplus seems to be about the new price of an HD1. That price also seems to be about the price of my budget right this second.

9 times 1.2 = 10.8

so there are approximately 10.8 "mix" chips on an HD1 card from what you've said.

the only reason that i am considering the Mix plus still is because i'm only planning on staying at 48k. I understand that someday the technology won't be the best out there...but it is also a comfort to know that all of my rtas plugs will work for this system without having to go through tedious upgrade processes.

Again, thanks for your help. I still have to do some thinking about this.

Bob

[tech_head]

Hi,

There are some other considerations.
The Mix+ requires a DSP on each card if you need
the I/O attached. This is 2 DSP consumed for I/O.
You need at least a Mix+ to get more than 16 channels of I/O.

The HD can use 32 channels with 1 card and the I/O is more flexible than say a 882, 1622, or 888.

If you look at the cost of I/O the HD system offers more bang for the buck. Also no sample rate conversion for the Mix+ on the I/O.

If the question is which to buy *NOW*?
Don't even consider the Mix+ for a new purchase.
Mix+ is old technology and the TDM implementation is close to 7 years old if not older.

Long live HD!

tech

[peteri]

Cool

Just as a postscript - I've check my figures and the HD chips are actually 25% more powerful (80Mhtz in a Mix, 100 in a HD).

If you're going to be at 48, there is an argument for the Mix+, if you're going to want lots of instances of DIFFERENT plugins, this is because of the fact that once a plugin is on a chip, with a few exceptions that's the only plugin that can go on that chip - so having more (albeit lower powered) chips will give to the chance of more plugin diveristy.

However, I'd still advise HD, with 9 chips you'll have a reasonable amount of power for small/medium projects - and as I said there's always RTAS!

By buying HD now you'll have the longest shelf life of the technology - i.e. the longest gap before having to bin it. I only got my Mix+ in December (was d24+farms before), and without the good Digi deal they've offered I'd be looking at a pretty short time before what I have is bordering on out of date.

Good luck!

Pete

[EthanMorse]

You might also want to take into consideration that the MIX platform may no longer be supported(new plugins, hardware, etc, etc...) and be tossed into the legacy pile, in the semi-near future.

[tvent]

Sample rates aside,
Go with the HD and a 96 interface over the Mixplus and 888, etc. You will get SRAM on every chip instead of 2, the improved mixbus, double the TDM timeslots, newer(better) converters, not to mention that any new plugins that are developed from here on out will most likely be developed for HD first, then ported (if at all) and made available for MIX. My mom used to tell me - If you don't have (or want to spend) the money to buy the right stuff the first time, how will you come up with the money to buy it twice? I think that applies here. That coming from someone who bought a Mix3 system in November and just upgraded to HD3 this week... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]