PT7 worth getting?

[AM STUDIOS]

Need advice please, currently have P4 3.0Gig with 1gig ram and not getting much success when recording large session 20+ tracks with effects. I have currently going to have to buy Cubase SX3 to get that extra track count and plugins running at the same time(not that i want to)

will PT7 help me now? its either buy a new AMD X2 system worth about $1000AUS
or
Buy cubase SX with current system and the program( wont take me long best mate can teach me all the tricks on it coz he uses it) for $1200AUS

i dont want to have to upgrade to PT7 and buy the new comp which will be about the same price as Cubase, and find out that it will still limit me. any suggestions?

My current projuect will use 24+ mono track and some sessions up to 32track count, these sessions will be plugin heavy..."meaning all tracks will have at least one or more plugin on the track"

Whats my best option?? please help and please dnt give me Cubase V Pro Tools i just wanna record this band and get it done!

My current setup is:
002r
M-audio Octane
P4 3.0
1 GIG RAM
60 GIG HDD (system)
120 GIG HDD SATA (audio files)
80 GIG HDD SATA (audio files 2)
SP1
all windows tweaks done

[Haggis]

ok well, in my opinion, and that is all it is, if you are happy with PT and are used to using it, why would you change to Cubase. I have been using a 3.2 Ghz Extreme P4 for 12 months that has been a very good chip but a very expensive one as well due to the 2MB L3 cache. But it did perform a little better than the +3700 AMD, of course the AMD was a much cheaper chip.

The X2 4400 is (as far as I can see) a dual 3700 and only $570ish AUD. Plus a board, maybe graphics if you go PCIe and a couple of hours time to do a change over.

fwiw, I would do a clean install of everything if you go that way, inc OS.

I've been running cubase 2.2 in parallel with PT for a while now, only for midi features, certainly not audio.

However, given the recent improvements to midi with ver 7 of PT I'll need some time to read about midi improvements inmore detail. Initially I love the instrument track addition, already it's got my workflow improving.

At the moment, and it is still very early in the PT7 experience, I am so happy that I went with the AMD 4400 X2, be interesting to hear about the 4800 comparison.

cheers

[AM STUDIOS]

any other people with opinions? need advice.

I know what u mean by stay with what u know best and i agree with that but i would rather learn a whole no platform knowing it will last me the whole session with no problems than updationg my computer and upgrading to Pt7 and finding out that when i get to vocal recordings and mixdown that i have to sacrafice certain thing to get more juice out if it! I dont want to be continue sub mixing and having to aduio suite my plugins. it doesnt make scence to do so when the computer can handle it but for some unknown the reason the program wont let the computer handle it. i just want to be sure before i fork out some big bucks to me.

[bb_aus]

IMO cubase while great with MIDI sucks donkey for audio, if you are serious about moving go and use cubase first and see if you like it, its a very different animal to PT
i would get PT7 and see how it goes, then look at a new computer
is using Audio Suite such a bad thing? not on everything on course but in small amounts its good

just my $0.02, wait whats that in AUD

[AM STUDIOS]

cubase while great with MIDI sucks donkey for audio

why does it suck with audio? i dont understand, altough all the tools and working areas are different to PT, it would still process the audio the same. please explain more as to why it would be differnent? i will still b using the 002r with cubase it would just be a different program.

[bb_aus]

mainly just the user interface, having to use different windows for everything, PT is just so simple with only 2 windows. if you like the UI in cubase go for it, i personly dont but everyone works differently, thats why i think you should sit down with it first and decide if you like it. both have can do almost everything the other can the differences in how you do it. remember the best DAW is the one that works best for you, in the end little else matters. if you move are you set on cubase? i would consider sonor and samplitude aswell, not that any one is better or worse

Cubase started as a sequencer, audio was added later
PT started as a DAW, MIDI was added later

[AM STUDIOS]

ok cool thanks dude, i understand where your comming from now.!

Well i got a mate comming over within the next week or so who has cubase SX v2 and he will bring it over and hook it up to the 002r, to see how it runs and for me to learn the new interface and how it runs etc.. and for him to teach me a few things about it.

See how it all goes i guess.

I was abit un easy about the whole learning new shortcuts and everything in SX but i downloaded the user manual and you can change the shortcuts to what ever key you want, soi was thinking of changing it to the same as PT shortcuts coz i got the keyboard stickers aswell, this is good i thought, coz now i wont have to learn to different shortcut keys for differnt programs. the only prob it may take a few hours to reset the shortucts and add the new ones in but im fine with that.

[AM STUDIOS]

Ok so are we seeing a huge improvement or not?

If so what are you running and what were your problems before hand?