HDX Compared to my old HD 4 Accel

[The golfer]

HDX is so much more efficient because the signal path if 32 bit from start to end. Thus you will notice a huge gain on Native processing power in HDX.

The difference is huge. As an example, before I was using using between 150 and 192 tracks on an HD6 system. The mixer by itself would eat up to 3 Accel cards. And I couldn't use that much native processing without crashes and voices issue. The same mixer routing on an HDX eats 4.5 dsp chips out of 18 dsp. I run 20 native altiverbs and the cpu is idling at 20%.

[MixerGuy]

so on an HDX-2..... with a 12 core mac Pro ...

could I have 15 instances of 5.0 Altiverb rtas?

and have delay compensation ON

and do plenty of hardware inserts

and mix 200 (mono) tracks of audio..... and mix down to twelve 5.1 audio stem mix tracks? all internally?

?

this is a serious question.

[Brandonx1]

Probably

[The golfer]

so on an HDX-2..... with a 12 core mac Pro ...

could I have 15 instances of 5.0 Altiverb rtas?

I have a 8 core nehalem. My template has 10 x 5.0 RTAS Altiverbs, 5 stereo Altiverbs and 5 mono Altiverbs. All my channels and auxs are running system 5 channel strip on DSP chips. I also run a few waves 360 RTAS limiters. The CPU is idling at 20%.

So I would think 15 x 5.0 Altiverbs should work fine.

and have delay compensation ON

yes

and do plenty of hardware inserts

I have no idea. I don't use hardware inserts...

and mix 200 (mono) tracks of audio..... and mix down to twelve 5.1 audio stem mix tracks? all internally?

My template has 8 x 5.1 stems and I have no problem. So 10 should be ok.

The problem now is we need PT11 as soon as possible to be able to avoid the low memory crashes (4 gig limit). For example I have a 4 reel sessions and it crash every two hours because the session runs low on memory. I have other sessions with over 200 tracks (10 minutes animation) and they are running great.

If you have a good relation with your avid dealer, I would recommend you try an HDX or HDX2 for a week to make your own tests before buying. That's what we did.

[MixerGuy]

Originally Posted by The golfer

I have a 8 core nehalem. My template has 10 x 5.0 RTAS Altiverbs, 5 stereo Altiverbs and 5 mono Altiverbs. All my channels and auxs are running system 5 channel strip on DSP chips. I also run a few waves 360 RTAS limiters. The CPU is idling at 20%.

So I would think 15 x 5.0 Altiverbs should work fine.



yes



I have no idea. I don't use hardware inserts...



My template has 8 x 5.1 stems and I have no problem. So 10 should be ok.

The problem now is we need PT11 as soon as possible to be able to avoid the low memory crashes (4 gig limit). For example I have a 4 reel sessions and it crash every two hours because the session runs low on memory. I have other sessions with over 200 tracks (10 minutes animation) and they are running great.

If you have a good relation with your avid dealer, I would recommend you try an HDX or HDX2 for a week to make your own tests before buying. That's what we did.

Thanks for all the good info.
so you have HDX1 or 2?

[The golfer]

We have an HDX in the music studio and an HDX2 in the post studio. An HDX is really powerfull because it is combining the power of DSP and Native but dont forget that when using 15 x 5.0 reverbs you are stealing 75 voices out of your system.

I also use another 8 x 5.1 aux inputs with waves RTAS PI that eats another 48 voices. So I loose approximatively 125 voices out of 323 in my template for Native usage. I could easily find dsp alternatives for waves but I dont care as much because I still have near 400 voices available for audio tracks.

So with an HDX2, i dont have to deal with the voices issue anymore. I still have one empty dsp card ready to be filled when needed and I keep my CPU happy ( about 20% usage). I strongly believe that spreading the load between Native and DSP brings more stability to the system. When PT11 is released and fix the low memory issue, i will gladly drop a third HDX card in my computer.

Here is a picture of my System usage for my template:

http://downloads.netpostproduction.c...ystemUsage.png

[Brandonx1]

Here is a picture of my System usage for my template:

http://downloads.netpostproduction.c...ystemUsage.png

That's awesome! I gotta get myself another HDX card

[ilulilu888]

How faster can it really get?
Really ? Please explain....
I have an HD3accel system with protools 10.... It works great , everything is flawless , fast , rendering is fast and even 88.2 heavy mixs with over 80 tracks and 20 aux's and tons of plugins ... So what makes such a difference?
And about the sound?
Does it really sound better? ? ?

[Brandonx1]

Originally Posted by ilulilu888

How faster can it really get?
Really ? Please explain....
I have an HD3accel system with protools 10.... It works great , everything is flawless , fast , rendering is fast and even 88.2 heavy mixs with over 80 tracks and 20 aux's and tons of plugins ... So what makes such a difference?
And about the sound?
Does it really sound better? ? ?

Sound is a little tiny fraction better, yes.

As for faster, it's a hell of a lot faster. Sessions open faster, moving through the timeline is quicker. Just everything works better. That's a very tangible benefit. The best way I can describe it is advanced. Pro Tools never felt so good. I normally mix my stuff at my home studio and then rent out a bigger stage for reviews and laybacks. All the stages are on HD accel systems. So about twice a week I get reminded of how much faster HDX is compaired to my old system. It's a great upgrade.

[psmworld]

no performance-difference here between HD3 and HDX. Disk Cache gives both fast response.

i had few times running out of voices or having negative delay-compensation on HD3, so i don´t really need the benefits of HDX.

the native (rtas and aax) performance is not really better on HDX, at least on 10.2. i can´t use much more native plugins on a 6-Core Mac Pro Westmere.

and soundwise there might be a very slight difference, but none the better.

due to the lack of aax plugins, i´m still more productive on HD3 or on HD2 at home. there are too much great TDM plugs i can´t replace at the moment.