Anyone gone from HD Accel + Control Surface to HD Native?

[steins]

Hi,

I'm considering getting rid of my HD3 Accel rig in favor of a HD native system, in order to upgrade to PT11. I'm spending most of the time mixing, including 5.1. Occasional overdubs. Customers are now expecting instant totall recall, which has practically rendered most of my outboard gear useless. I've also grown accustomed to mixing ITB.

Has anyone of you been down this road?
Do you miss the DSP-power of the old TDM rig?
What would you consider minimum specs for a Mac Pro doing heavy mixing sessions? I'm currently on a Mac Pro 4.1 Nehalem 2x2.24Ghz Quad Core.

I find a control surface essential for what I do. A large PT-11 compatible controller (D-Commmand/D-Control) is out of reach at the moment. Has anyone gone from a Control24/C24 to an Artist-series or similar controller?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm not expecting answers, just looking for experiences .

Stein Tore

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by steins

Do you miss the DSP-power of the old TDM rig?

Sometimes yes (mixing) but most of the time no. Recording has become a non-issue since PT10 and Disc Cache, and I have never ran out of steam when I master stuff. For now, it seems that latest fully-loaded MBP with ThunderBolt HDN exceeds the performance level I've become used to with HD3/Nehalem so I'm happy with it as soon as Lexicon, Massey, and Eventide deliver all the PT11 goodies.

I don't miss control surfaces because I usually do rough mixes having faders at unity. Starting from there, it is easy to mix with trackpad and keyboard. But I would surely appreciate it if someone donated me a fully-loaded S6

[Bookerv12]

Hi,

We went from an HD4 and HD3 accel system to HD Native.
I still plug in the HD 4 every few weeks to access oddball plugins.
We do mostly mastering and mixing.
The HD Native system is a lot more powerful with an i7 processor.
(Have experimented with Mac pro, iMac, Mini and Hack. So far, the Hack wins by a long shot)
I was planning on getting the new Mac Pro, but I am finding that it really won't do me any good.
While I hate doing mixes larger than 60 tracks or so, I've been getting ones twice that big and the HDN doesn't even hiccup.

We are currently looking at an HDX setup for large tracking sessions, but the Native systems work pretty well if you don't mind changing buffers and switching plugins off here and there.

Lost interest in control surfaces a while back.
Still waiting for someone to make a two fader, useful machine.

[jbrown7282]

I mix entirely on a HDN system.... For mixing its great...HDX has some great benefits but for me Native works just fine...

Happy Mixing

[ianmiller]

I used to have a Control 24, the tried the SSL control surface and now have Artist series units. I like these a lot and find them very good, particularly the touch screen one. They are a little finicky with network connections (if your Mac goes to sleep for example) but otherwise good.

[jacko]

HD2 Accel to HD Native here.
Since moving to HD Native I started working exclusively at 88.2 and 96KHz. It is very powerful on Mac Pro 5,1 6*3.33. It should be crazy fast on a 12 core.

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by ianmiller

I used to have a Control 24, the tried the SSL control surface and now have Artist series units. I like these a lot and find them very good, particularly the touch screen one. They are a little finicky with network connections (if your Mac goes to sleep for example) but otherwise good.

And "sleep" should be turned off on any machine running Pro Tools...

[DetroitT]

C/24 and 8 fader Hui-emagic rooms. both OTP-Recall
I still like a fader now and then as well as trackpading and trackballs.
Still use HD3's but don't miss them with Native or HDX.
Have 16GB or better for Ram though.

[jimdonut]

I went from a hd3 to native and it's way better , I can run more plugins and don't have any of that horrible voice wasting and delays from using the eras and Tdm . I've just been tracking an album on a hd 3 and was reminded of all the hassle !

[steins]

Thanks for all the replies, they made the decision a bit easier . I got an offer I could not refuse on my old HD rig, and a HD native system is on its way.

What made it an even easier decision was taking one of my most plugin-heavy session and replace all TDM plugins with native. The Mac Pro didn't blink, in fact things ran smoother than ever.

Now, if I just could get my hands on a D-Command, things would be complete .

Stein Tore