advice please: d24, dsp farm, 888/24...1st pro tools system purchase

[Hoops]

I am a new user, have been using Mbox & iBook for a couple weeks, and love it for what it is!

However, I now have the chance to purchase (from a friend) a TDM package comprised of: d24, Vintage DSP Farm (will need to be upgraded for G4 compatability... but I will be using it in a beige G3/300 MT for the moment.)
and an 888/24 i/o. I can buy this for $2700.00, so is this a good idea?

Since I will have to upgrade the farm card (approx. $75-115.?), and it seems the average price for d24 ($700-800) and for non-G4 dsp farm ($350-500) and for 888/24 ($1200 - 1500.00)... I am going to offer him $2300.00

I will be testing this system on my beige G3/300 MT tonight, and I would like to use Pro Tools 5.1. Thank you for any advice that may help me decide if this is a good system for the money, or am I better off buying a mix core, or mix farm? I am new user, but longtime fan.

And also any configuration suggestions based on my current system.
Thanks again. --wadesattic

beige G3/300 MT, OS 8.6, 448 MB Ram

[Brad Cobb]

My vote would be to save your $ and and get the Mix Core. The d24 and one card does not have much dsp headroom, once you have a 24 bit, much less a 24 bit dithered mixer in your session.

You might get more bang out of a 001 with a fast cpu. Although, if you can get it dirt cheap and you have some slots for some extra dsp farm cards or a mix farm, well that would be a cool way to build into a more powerful rig.

Good luck, Brad

[Matt Stutter]

DirectConnect is supported on a d24 system. It's a RTAS plugin, only on Disk based tracks - it's a bit of a workaround, but it doesn't take up a whole chip of DSP just for a few DirectConnect voices.......

I upgraded my d24 system recently by putting a MIX farm into my machine, the DSP power available now, is huge... Depends on your work but a d24 system would be a good start.. I was happy with 32tracks before, didn't do a lot of plug-in work though... Different story now though.

But, I am disapointed that DirectConnect now takes up one of those nice shinny SRAM DSP chips. Digi - you could at least give us the option, surely?

[Alécio Costa]

I have a PT24 with a very good G4 800. Lots of RTAS plug-ins, less delay too!!!! want an additional mix card so as to be able to open MAster Series, TC master x 5 band mode and AMPF FArm Hd ready!
change your computer!!! I did it last week and I am very happy!!! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Hoops]

Thanks for your replies! It seems to be a pretty good deal, and he has agreed to a reduced price of $2400.00 for the TDM package of d/24, dsp farm, & 888/24 (I will need to aquire the software though.)

It seems that if I add a Mix farm card to this setup, I can use Virus, Amp Farm, Echo, etc...
and have Direct Connect. I will have used up all 3 pci slots, but should be able to drive a 19" monitor from beige G3/300 built in video, so I think I'm covered.

Can I run Pro Tools 5.1 with this system if I stay with OS 8.6? Or will I need to update to OS 9? I will be installing the software tonight and testing the new system.

Thanks again for your replies!
--wadesattic

[lagasus]

Originally posted by Hoops:
$2700.00

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I think that it's a good deal. If money were no object, I would go with a MIX Core, but I believe that a used one will cost at least $3500. Add an 888/24 to that, and you are looking at $5000.

If you get the d|24 Card, you can always add (a) MIX Farm(s) to that and have, for all intents and purposes, a MIX System. The only downside to that if you do not have a chassis, is that the d|24 card takes up an extra slot.

Comparison...

d|24 with Vintage DSP Farm:
32 Tracks Max.
No Amp Farm, Echo Farm, Virus, etc.
DirectConnect not officially supported.
No Surround.

MIX Core (or d|24 with MIX Farm):
up to 64 tracks max.
can run Amp Farm, etc.
DirectConnect supported
Surround.
More processing power.

[Hoops]

Update: It didn't work at first, but it does now!

I added a mix farm card ($1400.) and a Hitachi 21" monitor ($100.) (I can't believe it myself...) Lot's of tracks and plenty of plug-ins. This will definately do for now, until I can get a G4.

I had to update to from OS 8.6 to OS 9 to install PT 5.1

Initially, the d24/dsp farm with OS 9.2 and PT 5.1 would pass digitest, but the 888/24 would only pass audio/meters on ch 7&8. I tried a friend's d24 card, same thing...

Went to OS 9.1 and re-installed PT and the cards... but no improvement.

Then I went to OS 9.04, and it would now pass
audio & meters on all but channels 3-6... ?

Well, I had aquired the mix farm card by then, so after a couple card swaps, I arrived at the current working order
I ended up with the pci card order of 1) d24
2) mix farm 3) dsp farm, with the 888/24
connected to the d24. Nothing else would
work correctly. The "recommended"" order is for the mix farm in slot 1, d24 in slot 2, etc... as far as I know, but this order would fail digitest.

Now with the d24 in slot 1, followed by mix farm and dsp farm-- digitest says "incorrect card order" and I have to hold the command key to run digitest, which passes the d24 then quits the application at the end of testing the mix farm card...? But Pro Tools finally works and communicates with the 888 correctly (connected to d24, slot 1) ... so I guess it's ok this way, it's working.

My conclusion was that anything higher than Mac OS 9.04 doesn't work with PT/24 and version 5.1. (How the beige G3/300 may have
factored in I am uncertain.) But the addition of the mix farm card seems to make the system happy with PT 5.1,

I don't know if I should bother upgrading back to OS 9.1, and/or should I upgrade to Pro Tools 5.1.1 for any reasons?

---wadesattic

[lukemaniak]

Just a correction to lagasus: AMp Farm runs on D24/Dsp farm system withou any problem.