HD Native Thunderbolt - Home Studio Expansion

[HPMSound]

I am currently running a Mac Mini (2018) and running a Focusrite Red4 Pre at home. My question is to the more well equipped studio engineers and professionals that I look up to.

Is investing in a HD Native card any at all a good investment to build to complete my home studio.

I am running currently thunderbolt to mac mini. Curious on if I would be getting and added benefits from the Native card Thunberbolt device.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by HPMSound

I am currently running a Mac Mini (2018) and running a Focusrite Red4 Pre at home. My question is to the more well equipped studio engineers and professionals that I look up to.

Is investing in a HD Native card any at all a good investment to build to complete my home studio.

I am running currently thunderbolt to mac mini. Curious on if I would be getting and added benefits from the Native card Thunberbolt device.

Question back to you... why are you even considering this?

The main benefit of HD Native is IO connectivity above what is possible with the CoreAudio 32x32 IO limit. Do you need more than 32x32 IO?

And to use HD Native you need to buy DigiLink interfaces for this to work. And you need Pro Tools Ultimate (not Standard) and a DigiLink license. So few $k to $10k? upgrade??? Depending on interfaces (do you want a MTRX, MTRX Studio? or just a HD IO or 192 IO?). And increased annual licenses/support costs. Do you want the nice high-end monitoring features in MTRX and MTRX Studio? I'm trying to understand why you are interested... its' strange you are asking us to work out why you might be interested.

Other aspects of those interfaces may be worse than what you have now, including HD Driver third party software compatibility.

I would imagine if you were working in pro studios running HD Native and just wanted compatibility in a home studio you would know what you wanted already.

What are you doing with the interface? Much tracking or you mostly mixing? Are you using Ultimate already to do surround? Sound design for movies? .. then sure you might want Ultimate anyhow. But especially if mixing there is really no need for HD Native... again unless you love MTRX features. And want to pay $5k for a MTRX Studio or a lot more. And then you are tying yourself to Avid, I'm not sure I'd like to do that with my own cash until I see quality of things from Avid improve. OTOH, building a new commercial studio... MTRX Studio and MTRX and HD Native would be on the shortlist, as would UAD Apollo and some others.

[HPMSound]

I am currently running Pro Tools Ultimate and would want to open up some more possibilities with dante stuff. By reading the manual going over to the pro tools connections lets me access all of the dante connections. Yes the Dante port is on the back and I can plug stuff in. But when over thunderbolt it caps off at 32.

I am primarily mixing and editing films and shorts up to 5.1 currently.

I have worked in and around pro studios before. But I am now having a better understanding of how to build my home studio up. And during this time of covid. I would like to make the right upgrades. So once I get onto bigger projects. I wont be slowed down. Most of the studios I have worked with used HDX cards which i cant really drop that money plus a chassis. And I have heard they too have their own issues.

I am just trying to ask and understand if getting the native thunderbolt will open more power to both pro tools and to my interface. And Down the road help me expand if anything big happens.

[JFreak]

HDN does not add any power, but it gives you 64 i/o plus the thunderbolt box has headphones output that mirrors outputs 1-2 of your first interface.

[originalscottyg]

Unless you are planning on going to a very extensive Atmos setup, I can't see why you would need more than 32x32 Dante I/O. If you are looking into getting a MTRX Studio for the monitor control and SPQ card for an Atmos HE setup, then it might make sense, although it will be pricey, especially if you factor in the additional speakers and acoustic treatment that would be needed. But for editorial and mixing up to 5.1, I don't think you have the need. HD Native doesn't add any processing horsepower or take any load off of your CPU. I use HD Native with an Omni and a 192 at home, but primarily because I split my time between post mixing and music mixing and I want the additional analog I/O (and the option to add more used 192s) to use outboard gear when I mix music. For my post work, I basically use outputs 1&2 of my Omni, as I don't have monitoring larger than stereo at home.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by HPMSound

I am currently running Pro Tools Ultimate and would want to open up some more possibilities with dante stuff. By reading the manual going over to the pro tools connections lets me access all of the dante connections. Yes the Dante port is on the back and I can plug stuff in. But when over thunderbolt it caps off at 32.

I am primarily mixing and editing films and shorts up to 5.1 currently.

I have worked in and around pro studios before. But I am now having a better understanding of how to build my home studio up. And during this time of covid. I would like to make the right upgrades. So once I get onto bigger projects. I wont be slowed down. Most of the studios I have worked with used HDX cards which i cant really drop that money plus a chassis. And I have heard they too have their own issues.

I am just trying to ask and understand if getting the native thunderbolt will open more power to both pro tools and to my interface. And Down the road help me expand if anything big happens.

That made things clearer. Sorry I forgot the Focusrite Red 4 Pre had DigiLink so you could of course just use that as the DigiLink interface. Be aware you will need to purchase a DigiLink license for a few hundred dollars if you don't happen to have one already... Avid's tax on you using a third party interface, but often an annoyance that trips up people.

I am not sure why MADI is important if you are mixing. Are you looking at a MADI based monitoring? For Atmos? Some other MADI need? For 5.1 or 7.x you should have all the analog outputs you need already on the Red 4 Pre. So I would only imagine you would want to upgrade if you were unhappy with the Rednet monitor control features... and say wanted a MTRX Studio. Or wanted Atmos either via Rednet or MTRX. And if you want to go to Atmos as others have touched on then that is a significant leap... and you will hopefully have a good feel if it is justified for future business. And if so you might be better off asking folks (in the post forums ?) what are the best/affordable ways to get to Atmos. All that might get you into HDX territory anyhow, esp. depending on how closely you need to work with studios that have HDX today.

Hopefully we have killed any idea that HD Native gives you any fundamentally more powerful audio processing. It is only really about IO size and interface options... which also spills over into monitoring/monitor control options... but the $$$ can add up fast.

[HPMSound]

I am currently running Pro Tools Ultimate on my mac mini 2018 and would want to open up some more possibilities with dante with my focusrite red4 pre. By reading the manual going over to the pro tools connections lets me access all of the dante connections. Yes the Dante port is on the back and I can plug stuff in. But when over thunderbolt it caps off at 32 from analog up to the first two ins on the dante channels.

I am primarily mixing and editing films and shorts up to 5.1 currently.

I have worked in and around pro studios as a sound editor as an assistant before. But I am now having a better understanding of how to build my home studio up. And during this time of covid. I would like to make the right upgrades. So once I get onto bigger projects. I wont be slowed down. Most of the studios I have worked with used HDX cards which i cant really drop that money plus a chassis. And I have heard they too have their own issues.

I am just trying to understand if it is a necessity to get for my home studio. I want to try and be future proof as possible as my skills and projects grow.

A small Home Studio of Mine.

Mac mini to Red 4Pre Thunder Bolt
Mac Mini to network switch for dante
Red4 pre to network switch dante
AM2 to network switch dante (Headphone Monitor out to make my desk look cleaner and came with the red4 pre when I got it. And its my stereo Mix fold down monitoring.

red4 pre output
5.1 JBL LSR305 mkII and LSR310s