Lightbridge and 18IO

[wildplum]

There is a thread over on the Mac side of this Forum in which the ability to record more than 18 tracks simultaneously has been discussed. The discussion began with this post:

"Hello,

I can assign any output of PTMP to any output in lighbridge, and they all seem to work, i mean, all at the same time, all 32ch.

Isn't PTMP supposed to be limited to 18IO???

Can anyone confirm this?

regards"


It has since been confirmed many times that, on a Mac, running M-powered 7.3 allows recording of more than 18 tracks. This "bug" was evidently fixed in release CS2, CS3, or CS4.

lightbridge discussion

The question was raised about this capability on Windows machines, for example:

"All I can say is wow!! Is this only on Macs??

A buddy of mine was just lamenting the lack of i/o's in his PT setup. He's on Mac so it's great for him (if it's platform dependant) but I'm on PC. ".

I do not think this question has been answered. I am posting my experience here.

Apparently, this is only for Macs. At least that has been my experience so far. I just got a Lightbridge and hooked it up to my HP laptop running M-powered 7.3.1. I can not get the software to got past 18 inputs. I can record 26 tracks (I only have 26 channels of converters) using the same signal chain and Adobe Audition, so I do not think it is the hardware. Of course, I am new to Lightbridge and certainly not an expert in PT, but so far I have not been able to get past the 18IO limit.

Has anyone been able to go past the 18 track limit on an M-powered Windows system?

[TechKnowledgy]

I'm almost positive that the "bug" that allowed more than 18 inputs was only on Mac.


Max I/O with Pro Tools M-Powered

[DUCHUNTER]

I can confirm that it ABSOLUTELY DOES work with Windows.

http://www.musicvillageusa.com/phpBB...opic.php?t=157

A bit of proof there.


Seems to have been "fixed" in CS3.

[mlange]

I can gladly test this, but I'll have to "downgrade" my PTMP. What were the compelling issues for installing the CS3 & CS4 patches?

[wildplum]

I can confirm that it ABSOLUTELY DOES work with Windows.

http://www.musicvillageusa.com/phpBB...opic.php?t=157

A bit of proof there.

After some extensive testing, I still can not get it to record (or playback) more than 18 tracks.
Here are the specifics:
Laptop: HP nv9440 with 2GB RAM running PT M-powered 7.3.1, connected to a Lightbridge.
(The m-powered application in the programs folder shows a date of 1/9/2007, indicated pre cs updates.)

Lightbridge control panel shows coaxial in and ADAT 1,2,3 “active” (blues squares), “ADAT channels first” is set. Lights on the front panel of the Lightbridge indicate that there is activity on ADATs 1,2,3 (I do not have number 4 hooked up). Sample rate is 44.1.

PT I/O setup window shows all 34 inputs and all 34 have a check mark in the “active” column.

The track interface selection popup shows the first 26 channels in bold, channels 27-34 are not in bold (expected as only the first 26 are assigned to tracks). I can set all 26 tracks to “record” (red button), but only the first 18 show activity on the meters and only the first 18 produce “waves” when recording takes place. (That the first 18 tracks show activity also indicates that the Lightbridge is “providing” PT with signal on from ADAT inputs 1,2,3; given that “ADAT channels first” is set.)


I am not sure how to reconcile these two very different reports.

Has anyone else had success or failure trying this?

[wildplum]

I have noticed something peculiar with the picture posted by Matt Hepworth (cited by Duchunter). In the screen shot, I do not see any activity on the meters nor any "waves" being generated on the tracks. My own testing indicates that while you can set more than 18 tracks to "record" and start recording, no signal is passed to any tracks beyond 18 (hence no activity indicated on the meters and "empty" wave files). Perhaps Matt did not attempt an actual recording (with a Lightbrigde, or similar, hooked up)?