Differences between PTMP and PTHD/LE?

[tcbetka]

Hello,

I have PTLE, but haven't really used it much. But I am now transitioning to a Mac environment, and am strongly considering upgrading from my Mackie Onyx 1640 to the new Onyx-i board. My intention would be to use this to track drums into PT. It appears from the Mackie website that this unit only works with PTMP software (version 8), but it's unclear if it can run with PTHD software.

So I have two questions that I hope someone can help me with:

1) Is there any significant difference between PTMP and PTHD? I've been reviewing the product descriptions on the Digi website, but having never used either version, it's somewhat hard to picture the difference. So I was hoping someone here might be able to give me the 20,000 foot view, so to speak.

2) I have a 2GHz Power Mac G5 that a friend recently gave to me. He thought it might have a bad logic board (and it still might...), but I've been able to isolate a problem with one of the RAM sticks he had in the unit--and now it seems to be running well, although there's still an issue with the Superdrive. I currently have 2GB of RAM in it, but can likely go more as it can take up to 8GB max. My question is about how capable would this machine be for running PTMPv8? Currently I am running Mac OS 10.4, but if the machine turns out to be OK, then I'll certainly upgrade to 10.5 (Leopard), as that's the last version supporting the Power PC architecture.

I know that the G5 machines have been used to run PT in many studios, but I presume this to be the HD version, with PCI/PCIx cards to lighten the load on the CPU cores. It would be nice if the Mackie 1640i would support a future upgrade to PTHD, but I doubt that will be the case. But if PTMP is as capable (at least for my purposes), then that would never really be an issue--and a person could always upgrade to an Intel-based Mac Pro in the future.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

TB

[mindnoise]

HI,

Onyx ONYLY works with M-powered for now (aka as long as AVID does not pull the plug, because it´s a kind of tolerated hack),
so (1) is irrelevant.

(2) G5 at 2GHz with lots of RAM will work fine enough. But when they get old the liquid cooling system very often dies.

If you don´t want to invest $10,000 stay away from HD.
Apogee has a X-HD card to somehow use PTHD with THEIR Converters.
But i nenver much looked into that.

Als HD/TDM Version of Plug-ins are usually twice a expensive as the native RTAS Versions.
And you need the TDM Version for the HD-Cards to have any effect.
:)

[tcbetka]

Interesting... As it just came out, do you think there's a danger of the Mackie mixers losing support?

Also, the G5 I have is a 2.0GHz machine, which is pre-water cooling. I believe that started with the 2.5Ghz machines, circa 2005. But I could be wrong about that. My machine is not water cooled anyway. All I am really looking to do here is to get into the Pro-Tools arena without spending a bunch of money on hardware, that I may end up not using. By going with the Mackie Onyx-i board (just like my current Onyx board), I can pretty much use any DAW out there, should I decide not to continue using PT. So if I could simply get a new board and a copy of PTMP, then I would be into it fairly economically. All I'd really be risking is the $250 or so I'll be spending on PTMPv8; and Mackie is even giving a $25 rebate on that right now--in addition to the $200 rebate on the 1640i unit itself. So essentially, Mackie is paying for PTMP as it turns out.

The G5 only needs to serve the most basic needs for the PT system right now. As my needs change and my abilities improve, then buying a Mac Pro is simply an eventuality. I should also add that I have a 6-month old 17" Macbook Pro as well; for a backup machine if nothing else.

Thanks for your post.

TB

[ericlees]

yeah there is a huge difference between hd le and m powered, hd also called tdm vs m powered and le also native, is that hd use external dsp cards so you have much power to run bigger sessions, higher sample rate, more plug ins, hd use tdm plug ins and native only use rta. another difference is the omf export option as default in hd and optional on le and not available to m.
you can create vca masters on hd and not in native versions and also has the time delay compensation to reduce latency using external gear or plug ins... the interface is almost the same... so you can have a native version at home or a semi pro studio...in some cases pro also...and in a high class studio a hd rig... that what i do...have an m powered at home for mixing using my laptop and edit...and an hd rig where i work...

[mindnoise]

@TB

so in the worst case you just lose the money spent on the PTMP Onyx driver.

since PT MP is gonig to stay anyway you can use any other M-Audio interface.
and the new ONYX is a great mixer anyway.

:)

[necjamc]

Originally Posted by ericlees

yeah there is a huge difference between hd le and m powered, hd also called tdm vs m powered and le also native, is that hd use external dsp cards so you have much power to run bigger sessions, higher sample rate, more plug ins, hd use tdm plug ins and native only use rta. another difference is the omf export option as default in hd and optional on le and not available to m.
you can create vca masters on hd and not in native versions and also has the time delay compensation to reduce latency using external gear or plug ins... the interface is almost the same... so you can have a native version at home or a semi pro studio...in some cases pro also...and in a high class studio a hd rig... that what i do...have an m powered at home for mixing using my laptop and edit...and an hd rig where i work...

Just to clarify, you can use digitranslator with m-powered for omf import/export.
You just have to buy it separate as you cannot use the complete production with m-powered.

[ericlees]

yeah i know m powered 7.4 and 8 can use the digi translator for omf and mp3 also...but only 64 tracks as max...le 128... on both cases using the toolkit for specific version... so... yeah hd is the real standard not native...but you can get really good results using native...

[tcbetka]

Originally Posted by mindnoise

@TB

so in the worst case you just lose the money spent on the PTMP Onyx driver.

since PT MP is gonig to stay anyway you can use any other M-Audio interface.
and the new ONYX is a great mixer anyway.

:)

Actually, from April 1 through May 31, Mackie is giving you a free upgrade to the driver when you buy an Onyx-i board. So there's not even any lost money there...

I have a little M-Audio Mobile Pre (and PTLEv7.4), but tracking my drums requires about 13-14 channels, last I counted. (Kick (2), gong bd, toms (5), snare (2), o/h (2), HH.) Upgrading to the new Onyx-i board and PTMPv8 with the driver, will cost me about $500-600 after my friend (a fellow drummer) buys my 1640 Onyx board. As I have a Windows DAW machine with a quad-core CPU, any money I put into the G5 I just got wouldn't be necessary to get into PT.

So unless I am missing something, the Onyx-i is about as economical as it gets for I/O into PT...at least as far as my needs are concerned.

TB