Replace Expansion|HD or Switch DAW Software

[holden]

My Digidesign Expansion|HD chassis (PCI) is not yet 3 years old, an investment of $2,620. Now Digidesign has announced that it will be abandoning Expansion|HD support in future versions of Pro Tools.

Rather than purchasing a Magma PE6R4 to replace my Expansion|HD chassis, I would like to know what other professional-level DAW front ends I can use that are compatible with the Expansion|HD chassis. I expect it will be a lot less expensive to switch software than to switch hardware — I'm a fast learner.

Of course it will also be somewhat satisfying to say goodbye to Digidesign after such a display of customer disloyalty.

Can Logic run Expansion|HD? Others?

[crizdee]

Hi,

Dropping support doesn't necessarily mean it won't work, it may be ok for quite a while yet.

It won't work with any other DAW!

sell the chassis by PT LE and get a UAD-2 DUO

Chris

[Extreme Mixing]

Crizdee is right.

The PCI X slots have been dead in Apple-land for 3 years, or more, in favor of the E slots. They announced that PPC would no longer be supported recently. Nothing high tech lasts forever. That it's not cutting edge doesn't mean that it's not a useful tool.

Steve

[holden]

My HD Accel cards are all PCI, but my Expansion|HD is hooked up to my Mac Pro via a PCIe -> PCI card. The Mac sees the Expansion|HD chassis as being PCIe, so there is no issue with the Mac.

Can a UAD-2 DUO match the perfomance of an HD6/Accel system at 96k/24b (where I do all my work)? Does it have delay compensation?

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by holden

Can a UAD-2 DUO match the perfomance of an HD6/Accel system at 96k/24b (where I do all my work)? Does it have delay compensation?

NO! The only way to match your HD6 accel is to buy the MAGMA PE6R4 gonna have to bite the bullet.

depending on how many tracks you want to run? you could go HD1 accel PCIe and 2x UAD Quad cards! plenty of processing power with UAD and RTAS, but track count might be limited. Or HD2 accel and 1x UAD quad card

Chris

[BradLyons]

Get the Magma, stick with it. There are reasons that Digidesign has dropped it, greed is not one of them. The reason they came out with the ExpansionHD box was that, at the time, Mama didn't have anything that could provide full bandwidth and track-count. Once the PE6R46ERFXDF whatever it's called (I own one, sell them, you'd think I'd remember!) came to be-----Digidesign felt that it would properly work and discontinued their own.

[holden]

Originally Posted by BradLyons

Get the Magma, stick with it. There are reasons that Digidesign has dropped it, greed is not one of them. The reason they came out with the ExpansionHD box was that, at the time, Mama didn't have anything that could provide full bandwidth and track-count. Once the PE6R46ERFXDF whatever it's called (I own one, sell them, you'd think I'd remember!) came to be-----Digidesign felt that it would properly work and discontinued their own.

That is helpful as a technical explanation, but witness that Digi provides an exchange program for going from Expansion|HD PCIe to Digidesign EB7 PCIe to PCIe expansion chassis, but leaves those of us with the Expansion|HD PCI, sold contemporaneously with the PCIe version, with no such compensatory program — We just have to dish out another $2500 in order to preserve our investment in Pro Tools TDM, Digidesign hardware, and the software that depends on that hardware. There is an obvious ethical problem here.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Originally Posted by holden

That is helpful as a technical explanation, but witness that Digi provides an exchange program for going from Expansion|HD PCIe to Digidesign EB7 PCIe to PCIe expansion chassis, but leaves those of us with the Expansion|HD PCI, sold contemporaneously with the PCIe version, with no such compensatory program — We just have to dish out another $2500 in order to preserve our investment in Pro Tools TDM, Digidesign hardware, and the software that depends on that hardware. There is an obvious ethical problem here.

The Expansion/HD chassis is the same... you were able to buy the PCIe or PCI network card separate to match your system... I'm fairly sure you'll be able to upgrade to the EB7 from either. The PCIe network card was fairly inexpensive.

Rail

[holden]

Originally Posted by Rail Jon Rogut

The Expansion/HD chassis is the same... you were able to buy the PCIe or PCI network card separate to match your system... I'm fairly sure you'll be able to upgrade to the EB7 from either. The PCIe network card was fairly inexpensive.

Rail

Thanks, Rail, but the EB7 takes only PCIe cards, not PCI as I have in my Expansion|HD. So even if Digidesign offers a PCI -> PCIe card for connecting to the EB7 that doesn't help those of us with the PCI version of Expansion|HD.

[JFreak]

Sit tight and use your current system for awhile longer. The discontinuation of PCI-to-PCIE expansion can only mean one thing: there will be new card generation around the corner. And new hardware exchange programs...