Digi Vs MOTU? Pro's Con's - Looking at going 002

[csiking]

Ok, fellow PT's I have a few questions that you folks could help me out on. Now, this first question is for those of you that have PT and MOTU stuff running 4.5; I currently have a MOTU 2408 mkIII & 24i on a Mac G5 Dual 1.8 and honestly the system has always been flakey. Because of this I am looking at going to an 002 Rack. With the MOTU stuff I am ALWAYS fearful of the system crashing. It has improved but still it's flakey. Now, those of you that can compare the two systems, which is more stable? Any issues with Pro Tools?

Next few questions are for everyone using PT. By the screen shot it looks like you can apply 5 plugins per track...correct? With the limit (CAP) of 32 tracks does that hinder many of you? Why does Digi do that? They really should raise that limit to 48 - crap, so what if the 'big dollar' hardware wasn't purchased, 32 is kind of limiting (IMO)! Any how, what about Word Clock...I have a Apogee Rosetta 800 96k and I can clock my MOTU stuff to it...can I do that with PT LE - 002 Rack?? I know clocking is very important and that may be the clincher if I go with them or not. And one last thing...when bouncing a mix is it completely 'Real Time'? Or, does it bounce faster? And, if needed can you bounce to MP3?

If you have any other input that would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[lwilliam]

Well, I sure hope my brand new G5 and DP 4.5 is stable on the 002R. I'm very much a novice with DP and I just ordered the 002R Factory bundle upgrade from the 001.

My understanding is that the key to stability with 3rd party DAW software and Digi hardware is using the latest Digi Core Audio drivers (6.7). However, I'm suprised that your 2408 isn't stable with DP. You should check various settings. At the osxaudio forum, a lot of people are running that combo (2408/DP4.5) with G5s and getting good stability. Instabilities arise from some plugin combinations, however. Definitely check there: www.osxaudio.com

I can't answer your stability questions with DP, but I've been using PTLE for five years and it's been really stable with the 001. As far as the number of inserts, yeah, it's only 5. That hasn't really been an issue for me. I rarely use more than 3 inserts per track (EQ, comp, and maybe a delay or chorus). What are you doing that you need more than five? However, if you really run into a bind with five, you can use Aux tracks to get more inserts by routing your track output to an Aux buss. You get five more inserts that way.

The 32 track limit is really a 32 SIMULTANEOUSLY playing track limit. The version of PT that I use (5.2.1) has a hard limit of 32 tracks, but the newer versions (6.x) allow you to run a lot more than 32 tracks as long as no more than 32 play at once. They use voice allocation for that: 32 total voices.

There is no reason you can't clock the 002R to external s/pdif or ADAT lightpipe just like I currently do with my 001 and an RME ADI8-Pro. You set your clock source to external/optical. For me, it's been pretty much set it and forget it. I don't know that you can run 96K with ADAT optical, though - not and get eight channels. 44.1 or 48K should be fine.

Hope that helps!

[Bhennies]

if I were you I'd stay with MOTU.

the software is pretty stable (dp 4.5) but MOTU drivers for their interfaces are not always the best. Maybe a new 3rd party interface with better drivers?

I just bought DP 2 weeks ago and I'm totally amazed at how powerful the program is. PT is great and I love it, but I'm thinking of abandoning the platform and going to DP with a lynx 2 card. The PT LE software is too limited and the MIDI (yes...even with 6.7) is not great, in fact it's awful. I would keep the 002rack (it's practically brand new) but I could use the money (and rack space), and to be honest if digi won't let me use their interfaces (the core audio driver is terrible- after a few minutes of use it sounds like a broken plate reverb), then they deserve to lose my business.

sorry about all the parentheses.

best of luck....

[csiking]

Thanks for the input so far. Just to be clear, I am thinking about selling everything MOTU and going with PT 002 not using a combination (which I don't think you can any how). I did see after my post the clocking is not an issue which is cool. 32 voices is a limit. Any other input folks??


Thanks

[mersisblue]

i replied to the first thread you started check it out there