Buying HD

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by YYR123

"if he has a TB setup or wants to live with TB." HDX can do it on both sides of the isle.....TB not so much. Most TB guys are gonna live on a mac and that is an extra cost.

I am not advocating for HDX and PT software and the inherent lock they have us in now, but I am saying if he wants top performance from TB there are other associated cost of that format. and he did post in the windows section.

I still think staying with PCIe in many cases for Windows users is still the way to go. TB has the portability advantage if you plan on moving it around to different systems or use a laptop, but that is it really.

Regardless, Motu now have Windows TB drivers for a handful of interfaces, Lynx has a compatible TB card for its Aurora interfaces, Resident audio has a couple amazingly cheap compatible TB interfaces. I had expected Focusrite to have to have TB drivers ready by now for the Claretts, but nothing yet.

[mdub]

When we say PCIe, would madi be thrown into that equation, or just HDN or HDX cards?
I would love to have the direction down before I start running wires through my studio.
I would love to get bang for the buck, but I understand that some setups cant do it.
Are there any native DSP/PCIe options that could alleviate some the latency?
Or are most of those designed to play with HD?

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by mdub

When we say PCIe, would madi be thrown into that equation, or just HDN or HDX cards?
I would love to have the direction down before I start running wires through my studio.
I would love to get bang for the buck, but I understand that some setups cant do it.
Are there any native DSP/PCIe options that could alleviate some the latency?
Or are most of those designed to play with HD?

Most any PCIe based interface is going to have significantly lower latency than any USB/Firewire systems at the same buffer sizes. This is the attraction of TB, it is going to have the same basic performance of PCIe but portable if needed. There are quite a few solid PCIe based systems from RME, Lynx (PCIE16), Motu, and of course HDN/HDX. The TB interfaces I stated previously are going to have similar performance. I think HDX is pretty much overkill except for pretty specific scenarios.

[Barry Johns]

I'm not tryin to be critical, but if you have to ask all these questions, I have to ask you, do you really need HDX? Or is it, you can get a great deal, so you feel compelled to jump on it?

How much would you by paying for the HDX card? What are other options other than HDX for that same money? Apollo, Waves Digigrid?, etc.....

Give us some more insight to your current needs, workflow, and what you potentially would be paying for the used HDX card.

[mdub]

It is definitely about the need. I really like the fact that when tracking someone(singer), you can add some effects without having to route outside the box, not that it would be a wrong way to do it, really just for simplicity. I want less hassle when it comes to dealing with latency, it is so annoying when someone ask for a little reverb and then there's the latency. HAHA, drive me nuts.
I am considering other alternatives, like the new Apollo and the new orion 32+, both have onboard DSP. The thing I like about the Apollo is the ability to record the plugin as you go in or just monitor it without printing. But, at the same time there are benefits of working with the avid stuff.
If you guys had a chance to start over, what would you lean towards, is it sink the money into HD or go towards some of the newer options out there.
Like I said, I am in the process of building a studio with a tracking room, a vocal room and a control room. I have an orion 32 which sounds great, but its the latency that makes me want to go another route.

[Barry Johns]

Considering cost right now, if I were you I'd be buying an HD3 rig, which you can buy for less than the cost of an Apollo 8.

If we are taking tracking, with a need for no latency that is effortless, nothing beats TDM.

Apollo, although great, you have to use a separate GUI, same for Waves Digigrid, a deal breaker for me! If UA, thier plugins are very expensive, but granted , very, very good!

No freakimg way in the world would I say go HDX for your need. Lots of reasons to HDX I've not seen any for what you have described.