Best newer Mac for old PT-MIX system?

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by rickymix

"A Digital Audio or quick silver with a Sonnet upgrade card can get you running Dual 1.6 or 1.8 CPUs"

Whoooshhh..... right over top of my head! :>)
Sorry to be such a computer dummy; could you elaborate on this a little? Are these G4s? I thought the MDD Dual 1.46 was the most powerful computer that could run PT 24-MIX?

Per the noise; I poked a hole for cables through the plasterboard wall and have my 9600 in the next room, so noise is not a huge issue for me unless we move. Heat is a bigger concern. I'll have my 3 PT cards inside the computer. I suppose it would be best to use external storage hard-drives instead of putting them inside?

Per the MIDI sample players, I currently own both SampleTank and EZ Drummer and have extra installations available I believe. I'll email their respective companies and see if there's a way to run them in PT 24-MIX under OS 10.3.9. If not, I can run them stand-alone in my laptop if I can get them to see MIDI from the PT 24-MIX session in the new computer. (MDD Dual 1.46?) I don't see how I can bring the samplers' audio back into the session digitally though, since I don't think I can clock the laptop (PT LE MBox) to the PT 24-MIX's word clock, can I? Analog in will be OK though. Good excuse to use my APIs! :>)

Thanks as always!
Cheers, Rick.

- you can change the CPU of a G4 by a Sonnet G4 CPU upgrade and a have higher clock speed, but this not supported by Digidesign. But it can work very well, fe. I had a Sonnet G3/500 card in my 9600 with PT MIX4 + 4 x SCII TDM + Expansion chassis. I have seen G4's with Sonnet G4 2 x 1.8 GHz cards and Mix hardware working OK. More info at http://www.sonnettech.com/product/pr...rds/index.html

- I know lots of G4's with 3 PT Mix cards running well, but they do get hot. On warm days it could become problematic without air-conditioning in your machine room. Btw, inserting a Sonnet card will generate even more heat. Putting your HD's in external storage boxes can help to reduce the heat

- connect the S/P DIF Out from your Mbox to the S/P DIF In on your first Mix interface, set your clock in Pro Tools to 'digital' and input to 'Digital SP/DIF'. It will be much better then connecting them analog, with our without API's, unless you would like some colouring from the API's

[DigiTechSupt]

I just tried several times to upgrade my laptop's 1.25 GHz PPC G4 operating system from 10.4.11 to 10.4.2

Something isn't right there. Do you possibly mean from 10.4.2 to 10.4.11?

And are we talking about your laptop or your Mix system computer?

[John_Toolbox]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but I really think that processor upgrades for G4's are a waste of money.

A dual 1.6 Ghz sonnet is somewhere close to $600, and a G4 with this upgrade is still not going to have anywhere near the amount of processing power for RTAS plugins that the current cheapest mac mini has.

If you're using a mix system, forget about RTAS and forget about processor upgrades. You'll gain much more by adding more mix cards to it than by putting an obsolete processor upgrade in.

If you really want to run a bunch of VI's, put them on a second computer and use it as a sound module.

[rickymix]

Hi DigiTechSupt,

Sorry, my fault. I was thinking decimals, as per the above posts. The laptop's problem turned out to be that one of the two 1GB RAM chips went bad. Should be rock solid again when I get it back on Monday.

Could you verify that the most powerful computer that can run PT 24-MIX would be an MDD Dual 1.42 G4 running OSX 10.3.9? That would be great!
Thanks again, Rick.

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by John_Toolbox

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but I really think that processor upgrades for G4's are a waste of money.

A dual 1.6 Ghz sonnet is somewhere close to $600, and a G4 with this upgrade is still not going to have anywhere near the amount of processing power for RTAS plugins that the current cheapest mac mini has.

If you're using a mix system, forget about RTAS and forget about processor upgrades. You'll gain much more by adding more mix cards to it than by putting an obsolete processor upgrade in.

If you really want to run a bunch of VI's, put them on a second computer and use it as a sound module.

I agree completely, I was just pointing out the possibilities to rickymix.

Btw, that's also why I have a PT HD 7 Accel with 7 cards in an 7 slot 64 bit expansion chassis connected to a Dual G4 1,25 GHz and have tons of TDM plug-in's (so to record, mix and master I do not have to use RTAS plug-in's at all). When I use the occasional RTAS VI I bounce it to audio as soon as possible and make the RTAS Instrument track inactive to free up the limited CPU power

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by rickymix

Could you verify that the most powerful computer that can run PT 24-MIX would be an MDD Dual 1.42 G4 running OSX 10.3.9? That would be great!
Thanks again, Rick.

This is correct, but no OS 9

[hearttimes]

how does a rig such as you guys are discussing compare to say a newer rig with mbox or something like that? if the op is not going to go up to hd, or the like is it possible for him to be better off with a stronger g5, le, and the latest software?

just curious.

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by hearttimes

how does a rig such as you guys are discussing compare to say a newer rig with mbox or something like that? if the op is not going to go up to hd, or the like is it possible for him to be better off with a stronger g5, le, and the latest software?

just curious.

For me there is no comparisation, a HD rig gives you the best high end TDM plug-in's (most of them are not available in RTAS, see my list here), virtually no latency, 192 tracks, ADC (very important when you do mixing) and so much more. But this has been discussed many times in other 'versus' threads... In the end it all comes down to what you would like to do with your DAW, some stuff you can do with simple (freeware) native software, for some stuff you need to have a full blown HD rig...

[John_Toolbox]

Originally Posted by hearttimes

how does a rig such as you guys are discussing compare to say a newer rig with mbox or something like that? if the op is not going to go up to hd, or the like is it possible for him to be better off with a stronger g5, le, and the latest software?

just curious.

Only advantage of a newer LE system would be the ability to use a faster computer, and compatibility with current plugins/OS. Depending on your needs, Pro Tools 8 looks like it's going to be pretty cool, so being able to use that might be a good reason to go this way.

I would NOT buy anything less than an intel mac for an LE system. The slowest, cheapest intel mac mini is more capable than most G5's as far as processing power for LE is concerned.(a 1.66GHz Core 2 duo mac mini is roughly the same as a dual 2.0GHz G5).

The only reason I'd buy a G5 over an intel mac would be if I got a REALLY, REALLY good deal on PCI-X HD cards(The used prices of these are so high it's generally better to just buy the new PCIe ones so you are a little more future proof). And with all the new plugins/new software being optimized for universal binary, I think it's worth the extra money to invest in an intel machine over a ppc.

[ddayson]

IMO an upgraded Digital Audio G4 works best as it's the quietest (mine has a 1.4Ghz OWC 7455 2M L3 clocked back to it's native 1.3Ghz to avoid corrupting the MoBo audio PRAM). It runs one Mix Core and three Mix Farms with no problems regarding heat, and has enough CPU for a couple of mono --> stereo Altiverbs. It runs OSX 10.3.9 with QT 6.5.2 and PT 6.4.1, and Mac OS9.2.2 with PT 5.1.3 no problem. Firewire and USB is slow etc, but other than that no complaints.

My answer to running modern plugz is to have a PC dedicated to running Giga and VST/VSTi's hosted via Cubase, and connected via a RME Digiface --> ADAT Bridges. Additional PC's can be added easily as needed for larger setups too.

The ability to have modern soft instruments in tandem with the old Mix+++ system works great for me.

Originally Posted by rickymix

Hi folks!
I've finally gotten to the point where I need to dump my old faithful 9600 and get a newer Mac on which to run my PT-MIX TDM system; 3 888/24s, a USD Sync, and a couple farm cards. The new computer needs to be able to burn DVDs, have USB and Firewire capability, and run SampleTank 2 and EZ Drummer, which require OSX 10.4.
However, I've been told that OSX 10.3.8 is the highest OSX recommended for PT-MIX. Have any of y'all figured out a way around this problem? Or is it even a problem? Has anyone run PT-MIX on OSX 10.4 or above?
What Mac computer would you recommend that I get to replace the 9600?
Is it true that "the old TDM won't run on the Intel processor"?
If so, is the G4 MDD 1.42GHz the most powerful Mac I can get which has the right PCI expansion slots? Is it correct that for the MIX cards I need "64 bit, 33 MHz PCI expansion slots"?
And do all G5s and above use the Intel processors?
Thanks for sharing your expertise and time!
Cheers, Rick Novak.
http://www.myspace.com/buckyburro
P.S. I also hope to run Final Cut Pro 5.0 on the new computer, probably on a higher OSX.