new Mac Pro, Pro Tools 9 and 002r

[Jepse]

Hi,

I have a 002r with Signature Series modification which serves my purposes perfectly as interface. I am looking to upgrade to a new Mac Pro 8 Core computer as well as go from pro tools 7.4 to 9. In talking to an AVID rep last week he maintained that the firewire connection with the 002r will severely limit the improvement in the number of plug-ins I can use while recording/mixing which a new computer should provide me. My question to those who have upgraded their computer recently with 002r: have you noticed a significant increase in capability even with the 002r and pro tools 9? Secondly, do people see any future modifications with for example Thunderbolt which may help 002 users take more advantage of the faster computers available?

Thanks for your response, or link to discussion where this topic may have been discussed.

Jepse

[albee1952]

That's an odd thing to say as the firewire bus should have zero effect on how plugins run(or how many you can run). Plugins are handled by the cpu(unless you have a TDM system or something like a UAD card setup). There is really no difference in performance with the 002 and any other firewire interface (excepting for the BLA mods making it sound better than some). A new 8 core Mac and PT9 should rock your world and the old 002 can take the ride with you. FWIW, my local Avid genius recommends 6-8GB of RAM, no more, no less. He said that amount will net the best performance overall, and any more RAM will not help(and might actually hurt a little). He sells plenty of systems, so I trust his opinions. Mac Pro 8 core, 8GB of RAM, 3 SATA drives and shoot for the moon!

[Jepse]

Well that sounds far more promising. The concern from the rep as he described it was the "bottleneck" of the 002r's 400 Firewire port. According to him, the speed of data transfer limited the ability of the 002r to make full use of a new computer's capabilities, limiting track count and number of plug-ins on those tracks. He said the FW400 bottle neck for whatever Pro Tools version is the throughput which prompts the "remove tracks and plugins" dialog box. Apparently, the 400 megabits FW capability of the 002r pales in comparison to the HD native and consequently it was suggested to consider a PCIe system.

I am not that up to speed with the technical limitations of Firewire but would be very happy if I could significantly increase track count and plug-in use with my 002r. By the way, your computer is bang on for what the rep recommended in terms of memory and number of cores.

Jepse