Pro tools 8 m-powered and vista 64

[christodoulidesd]

Hello all,

I am in need of a CONFIRMED answer on this question, 'cause there's a lot going around these days but i don't trust unverified info.

Will PRO TOOLS 8 support VISTA X64?

Thanks a lot,
D

[spkguitar]

No.

Official confirmation from Digidesign is on the PT8 compatibility & upgrade page:

Not Compatible with Pro Tools 8

• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• Windows 64-bit OS

[christodoulidesd]

Thanks.

Ok, now will somone explain this to me, please?

I fail to understand the logic behind such a decision. Since most professional audo / video users are aiming absolutely at the highest performance and stability they can get from their systems and since x64 operating systems (and notably the new Windows 7 which will come out very shortly, as reported) are built especially around this multi-core processor and 64bits philosophy, how can a company like Digidesign release the new 2009 version of what's possibly the most popular professional audio application and not support 64 bit os? It's illogical to me and if there's someone who knows the technicallity behind this, i'd love to know.

An owner of M-POWERED 7.4 (and soon 8) on profire 2626

Thanks a lot,
D

[digifriend]

Because Digi insists on making its customers pay top dollar for code they developed 10 years ago and for them to invest time and man-power into actually writing new code to actually take advantage of "Current" technology wouldbe...absurd...
Why would you want more than 2-4 MB Ram on a program that is a Ram hog?
STUPID

[spkguitar]

So... you guys are programmers and understand how difficult it would be to make Pro Tools compatible with 64bit OS?

I thought not.


And as far as I was aware, the only "other company" that has done it successfully is Cakewalk. Even that only just recently came out of official "beta" status. Cubase is still in beta for 64bit compatibility. Vegas is the only Sony product that I'm aware of that is 64bit (and that capability is brand new). Reaper has a 64bit version, but it's still in Beta. The list goes on... hell even Microsoft can't really get the 64bit thing quite right in the operating system. Seriously.


Let me ask you guys another question; how many third party plugins can you name that are 64bit compatible?

Here's another one; how many third party hardware peripherals can you name that are 64bit compatible?


IMHO, Pro Tools wouldn't be anywhere close to productive if you could only use the stock plugins and hardware.

Originally Posted by christodoulidesd

I fail to understand the logic behind such a decision. Since most professional audo / video users are aiming absolutely at the highest performance and stability they can get from their systems and since x64 operating systems (and notably the new Windows 7 which will come out very shortly, as reported) are built especially around this multi-core processor and 64bits philosophy, how can a company like Digidesign release the new 2009 version of what's possibly the most popular professional audio application and not support 64 bit os?

Simple answer; because the 64bit OS is not, under any circumstances, "stable" and/or "reliable".

[Sherbert99]

Originally Posted by spkguitar

Let me ask you guys another question; how many third party plugins can you name that are 64bit compatible?

That would be the worst reason not to make Pro Tools in 64 bit. That's like Microsoft saying why should we make windows 64 bit if Pro Tools and all other apps are 32 bit. They aren't gonna have plug-ins in 64 bit until the host applications are 64 bit. Microsoft went first now it's Pro Tools turn then plugins.

I kind of feel bad for digi because they seem to be falling behind on all these new OS's coming out. It's gonna be hard to catch up. I'd maybe go for getting a bunch of temp freelance programmers. At least get some betas out and make more money on upgrades. It's not gonna matter if you spread out paying programmers for 1000 hours of work over a period of 4 years or 1 year. At least 1 year you can be making money on upgrades. Although support would probably cause issues.

I do have to say I was very impressed with the very few bugs they had on the Vista version. They defiantly seem to be doing solid testing now. I remember XP being a disaster on the initial release. Maybe that was just my system though.

I'm a programmer so I know what it's like and years to do this sounds a little strange to me. I am sure they want to do it right and am taking their time but still Digi better limit their programmers access to the internet. They probably are playing games and surfing the web 4 hours a day. We get people like that at my place. They are horrible.

[DigiTechSupt]

That's not the reason at all (referring to digifriend).

No one working here is resting on their laurels or purposefully delaying the release of anything. It would be extremely bad business for us to do so. Any delays are due to the extent of engineering resources necessary to make it happen.

The bigger picture is that there have been significant OS roadblocks to 64 bit support in Pro Tools, only recently addressed by service pack updates. Not to mention the overall problems almost everyone has seen with Vista. There were enough OS issues with Leopard through it's first few versions to make development even for a 32 bit OS time-consuming. Now we have Windows 7 and Snow Leopard coming down the pike, with all the new coding that will be necessary to support them.

At any company you have to deal with the realities of how to properly manage the engineering resources you have available. With the plethora of OS versions, the need to keep developing new features so people buy your products which allow you to stay in business and fixing issues specific to each platform and OS, it's not easy to do. Of course we want to do it and as soon as possible, however the reality is that it's a large undertaking.

[Hercules]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

That's not the reason at all (referring to digifriend).

The bigger picture is that there have been significant OS roadblocks to 64 bit support in Pro Tools, only recently addressed by service pack updates. Not to mention the overall problems almost everyone has seen with Vista.

Hi DigiTechSupt,

To be positive - I have almost no issues with 32bit Vista - PT7.4 installed and runs beautifully as long as you keep using it (if you leave it sit for half an hour or let it sleep then elastic audio pops up with problems reading the HD at first re-use then all is ok).

It will be nice to move to 64bit and access that 8GB RAM I have, but I would also like to be able to use RAID 5.

Are there any plans to provide RAID compatibility in PT 8?


Thanks

[GordonFreeman]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

That's not the reason at all (referring to digifriend).

No one working here is resting on their laurels or purposefully delaying the release of anything. It would be extremely bad business for us to do so. Any delays are due to the extent of engineering resources necessary to make it happen.

The bigger picture is that there have been significant OS roadblocks to 64 bit support in Pro Tools, only recently addressed by service pack updates. Not to mention the overall problems almost everyone has seen with Vista. There were enough OS issues with Leopard through it's first few versions to make development even for a 32 bit OS time-consuming. Now we have Windows 7 and Snow Leopard coming down the pike, with all the new coding that will be necessary to support them.

At any company you have to deal with the realities of how to properly manage the engineering resources you have available. With the plethora of OS versions, the need to keep developing new features so people buy your products which allow you to stay in business and fixing issues specific to each platform and OS, it's not easy to do. Of course we want to do it and as soon as possible, however the reality is that it's a large undertaking.

So the only problem is engineering resources? You should hire the engineering team for Cakewalk SONAR then. They have been making some pretty fast and stable audio software for x64.

Don't hate me for mentioning the competition - you should be looking at the competing brands and what they're doing right.

But given the decisions Digi made about not including ADC in Pro Tools Native, and still refusing to do it, I'd say that sadly Digidesign hasn't been looking at what other software packages have included for ages.
Please explain to me how Pro Tools is special when compared to other software? How is the company planning to get new customers without even offering comparable feature sets, or listening to the current users (like the feature request poll that didn't include ADC)...?

Is Digidesign doing SO bad, that there isn't even budget to redo the code or just add that feature in a CS update?

[kaspencer]

There is no doubt about it, you MUST pull your fingers out and get your whole team of programmers working on a Vista x64 issue of Pro-Tools. Otherwise you'll have a legal issue with the name and it will be re-named "Am-Tools".

And if you are in doubt about the stability of the Vista x64 platform (some posters on this forum have claimed instability), don't be. I know because I have run it since the Beta and RC1 versions (about November 2006), and now have had Vista Ultimate x64 running since release. It is completely stable. It is a great platform for quad core 8Gb support of applications such as the Hauptwerk virtual organ.

It is completely unforgivable for an application such as Pro-Tools to fail to recognise 64-bit drivers. So let us have an upgrade: in two stages if necessary:
1. Get the 32 bit version to work under WOW64 and recognise drivers etc;
2. Then release a full 64-bit version.

Maybe you don't fully understand what users are saying about software houses which have been so lagardly in releasing x64 versions of applications that would benefit so greatly from being updated to 21st century 64-bit applications. Well I'll tell you: users are angry, upset, annpoyed, frustrated and above all, full of disrespect for such companies.

So when will we get it eh?

Kenneth Spencer.