HDX - Invest or not?

[ndenotter]

Dear users, I've been bugging myself with this questions for months and really want to make a choice now. In my company we're running some Pro Tools HD rooms that need an upgrade. We do films and commercials, mainly music and creative sound-design. I've had a hate love relation for years with PT. I love the cross setup compatibility with since my main righthand composers introduced Nuendo on a windows computer PT has looked more sorry and sorry over the past two years. Next to the main DAW computers we run separate Imac's with Vienna's Ensemble Pro to have a bit of a go with samples and synths we've invested in.

What I want is to run many instance of Kontakt (for Spitfire, LA, Sonokinetic and other samples) Spectrasonics plugs (I use Omni and Keyscape a lot!) and heavy synths like Nexus, Serum! etc...(this next to what the Imac can hold). When I also want to be able to have a bit of a low latency recording session possible when a singer or vo comes by for last-minute sessions.

Is HDX worth it?

[Emcha_audio]

IF you have the budget and the company, then you can pass it on as a company expense and get back on taxes. Plus the price of the cards have dropped a lot. So yep.

[ndenotter]

Well the cards def. dropped in price as I saw indeed. The thing is though, is it really powerfull? Can you run many instruments? I remember the PT10 days with a HD2...okay system to mix with some nice plugs but in terms of generating sound it felt quite sorry (max two or three kontakts, some Omni's, Massive and if you'd tune it up properly maybe one or two Serum's would hold).

I could also invest in "another platform" and use some extra budget on some nice extra outboard. It may sound stupid but I still don't see many videos by composers and producers that create the soundtracks and hit songs I listen to on Pro Tools. They might get mixed in PT but the composing process...

[BScout]

There are zero instruments that run on the HDX card. They run on the computer's processor. Virtual Instruments have nothing to do with the HDX card.

If you want to run a lot of samplers/VIs, invest in Vienna Pro and a PC with a lot of ram and multiple processors.

[ndenotter]

As you can read we do run Vienna pro. But the overall architecture, as to what I read, has that improved so much (since the jump to 64bit compared to TDM and PT10 HD) that you can run a kickass session.

[BScout]

HDX is about the card.
Pro Tools Ultimate is the software (only) part.
HDX card will not contribute to the performance of VIs.
HDX will reduce latency on tracking (if using AAX-DSP plugins only -- so no VIs again).

Regular Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate are built on the exact same architecture. You can find what the added features are for Ultimate on Avid's website but none help running VIs.

If your question is about HDX, it's about the HDX card. You can get the software components separately (Pro Tools or Pro Tools Ultimate). 64-bit architecture has helped Pro Tools address more memory which is crucial for samplers using more RAM (like every other 64 bit DAW.) It doesn't, however, change how Pro Tools works per se.

[ndenotter]

Ps... in terms of converters. Stick to our Aurora's or switch to Avid or perhaps Antelope (many io, very plenty io, what's the catch?)...

[ndenotter]

Originally Posted by BScout

...64-bit architecture has helped Pro Tools address more memory which is crucial for samplers using more RAM (like every other 64 bit DAW.)... [/I].

Thnx! So this was a big step from older PT versions? I run native on a laptop that I use to write songs or compose cue's at home. You always kinda notice the slights limitations but hey it's a laptop not one of the studios you've invested in for over the years. What I hated where sessions corrupting over too many grouped layers, and (part from the buffers size) a massive delay compensation. Example: when composing for ad's for instance I love getting sounddesign/sfx into a creative session, specially a crisp vo to mould the whole production together... I use fabfilter multiband a lot with a sidechain on voice frequencies... just this plugin already can make a session laggy and for some reason create a tming latency of nearly a 32th...

[ndenotter]

So to follow up, what is the best mac to go for? A beefed up “cheese grater” or a shiny new “trash can”? Specially when you want to run vi heavy sessions.

I can find some lists of hdx dsp plugins but any user tips? I love the waves api plugs for their sound, fab filter for their cunningness and slate for their tape saturation and summing algorithms...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ndenotter]

Just to bump this up a bit? How much has the Midi side of things been improved over the years? Are things syncing up better now in terms of latency, delay compensation and a negative midi-delay...?