Anyone keeping their Mix + System?

[M2E]

What is the highest PT version and OS X version people are using with their mixplus.

I would like to add the Solid State Logic Duende system via VST wrapper but it requires OS X 10.4.4 and PROTOOLS 7.0 use via VSTWrapper.

My current setup is

G4 Dual 1.25
Mix Cubed
Appgee Rosetta 800's
Still use OS 9 and OS X
PT 6.4.1

Well the latest update was 6.4.1cs4. And no, the duendo won't work for the Mix System.
As far as the question goes...I'm sticking with the Mix System until there is a Upgrade System that is unbelieveable. The HD System was not it for me. I went and bought a MBox2 and a Mac Book Pro and will be getting a Mac Pro for that. Just to have so I can transfer anybody sessions to my Mix +++++.
To me...honestly....9.2.2 OS and 5.1.3 was the fastest and most stable I have ever seen a System. When I did upgrade to OSX and 6.4.1, it was so much slower not as stable and I hated it. Then 6.4.1cs4 came out and that fixed most of the bugs. It's still not nowhere near as fast as 5.1.3 but I've learned to deal with it and love it but, that made me very very watchful.
Now that Mac is going from Jag to panther to Tiger to now Leopard and going from PPC to intel and allllllll these changes. I'm super happy I'm where I'm at. I'll wait till everything calms down and the smoke clears to see how Pro Tools 8 with 64bit and Leopard will be.
And just to think, while all of this was going on wit Mac, Windows is still at XP. WOW!!!

[PTUser NYC]

As far as the question goes...I'm sticking with the Mix System until there is a Upgrade System that is unbelieveable...

I agree. Its not that I'm unwilling to upgrade, but I buy tools to do what they do, not what I hope they will do in the future. I held out buying my Mix rig until it did what I need. When It sounded right (Apogee AD8000) and the software was right (PT 5) I jumped in.

When I can get really good ADC, and MIDI with proper latency (while tracking) I'll consider it again.

I have fantasized that Digi releases a proprietary format MIDI controller that has a superclock input. Lets say it attaches to a proprietary connector on the back of the MIDI interface, and records everything MUCH faster than serial MIDI, with appropriate timestamping in the interface on capture.

It would be great if they also revamped the internal MIDI workings so that they weren't serial in nature, or at least increase the bandwidth significantly. It would be great if this new format was also available on an ethernet bus (or something similar) so that external PCs could get in on the fun.

Then Digi would own the composing world, and I'd buy in too. It would be easy to market too. If people saw the stats on MIDI, Digi would win the 'feel' argument immediately. It would become a necessity for any serious composer.

Imagine the ad's: "even if your 5 note chord is quantized to a quarter note, under MIDI, even WITH timestamping, the 5th note to sound will be about 5ms late from the first - but not with DIGI-MIDI!

To me...honestly....9.2.2 OS and 5.1.3 was the fastest and most stable I have ever seen a System...

Yeah, I'm still running that configuration. The funny thing is, it sounds better every year, just as my friends' upgrades do. I think maybe we're becoming better engineers each year, platform aside?

And just to think, while all of this was going on wit Mac, Windows is still at XP. WOW!!!

Right. Like I said, I look for tools, and make my decisions that way. I was certainly bemoaning things like large format samplers, impulse reverbs, VST plus ins and the like.

So I built a PC, and interfaced it with an ADAT Bridge. Wow. Amazing power, and the latency is really small with VSTs and GigaStudio. Often the trip MIDI out to the PC, and back into the ADAT bridge is significantly shorter than to a RTAS synth, which is internal, but buffered.

When I upgrade, the PC will still work as it does too! As Apple goes through changes, every new algorhythm will run on my PC without upgrade.

So, yes I wish I had ADC, and I will be happy the day I no longer have to slide things around, but that's not worth 30 to 40 thousand dollars at this point. Especially since it seems that I would have to upgrade everything again in the near future as history has shown.

BTW, this is the answer to the WUP plan too. You buy a stable platform, you buy your plug ins (I have a Waves bundle with dongle ADB protection!) and then they run on that platform forever more. Chasing new OS versions to run specific programs upgrades just makes you have to pay to upgrade everything else back to working.

I'm guessing that everything will still be VST ready next year, and the year after too.

I love my TDM plugs, and I regularly fill 4 cards with them, but I'm not expecting anything new on that saide in my life. If I need a new gadget, it'll be VST, and I'll only have to buy it, not upgrade everything else on the PC.

I love Macs, but this has gotten silly.

Also, this logic doesn't just apply to Mix rigs - its applys to any rig that works the way you want it to right now. You don't have to change it to add functionality. Its a lot cheaper to give the new stuff their own home.

I can see having a bank of PCs in the future, all controlled by one keyboard and trackball, all feeding the same one monitor, with a switcher to select between them, like banks.

THAT is parallel processing power.

[Delta Music Belgium]

I recently bought a HD 7 Accel (1 x HD Core PCI + 6 x HD Accel PCI cards inside a Digidesign 7 slot 64 bit PCI Expansion Chassis + Dual G4 1,25 - Firewire 800) + 192 I/O + 192D I/O + SYNC I/O + MIDI I/O + Apogee Big Ben + Apogee Rosetta 200 and I filled it with almost all TDM & RTAS plug-in's available, but... I still keep my old MIX+ system! )

Why?

My old MIX+ system is a MIX 4 (1 x MIX Core + 3 x MIX Farm) + 4 x SampleCell II TDM (inside a 13 slot 32 bit Digidesign PCI Expansion chassis + Dual G4 1,25 - Firewire 400 + ProControl) + 1 x 888/24 I/O + 2 x 888 I/O + 2 x Emagic Unitor8 MKII. In my case it are definitly the 4 x SampleCell II TDM cards that makes my old and beloved MIX+ so valuable to me, as there is still no good solution to use all my SC II libraries in PT HD on OSX. The MIX 4 system works very good on OS X 10.3.9 with PT 6.4.1, but here the SC II cards are also not supported anymore, so I only use it with OS 9.2.2 + PT 5.1.3 (or Logic Audio Platinum 4.8.1) and SampleCell 3.1.

Both systems are WC synced to House Clock (Apogee Big Ben and/or Rosendahl NanoSyncs) and the 888/24 + 2 x 888 are connected by AES/EBU to 192 I/O and 192D I/O (= 12 channels of stereo 24 bit AES/EBU in 2 directions). SYNC I/O sends SMPTE LTC or MTC to Unitor 8 MK II and Unitor 8 sends MTC and MMC to MIDI I/O to synchronize both systems when running.

Most of the time I do all the MIDI programming for SampleCell II TDM on the MIX 4, the 12 AES/EBU streams become live inputs (aux) on Pro Tools HD 7 Accel and both systems sync by SMPTE and MTC/MMC (both ways). This digital connection also works in higher sample rates because 192 and 192D can do real time SR conversion on their digital inputs. I can also use the Mix 4 + 4 x SC II TDM as a big 'stand alone MIDI TDM sampler and FX processor' by defining it as a MIDI machine in PT HD 7 Accel (so MIX 4 does not need to run, sync and play it's own MIDI data to the SC II TDM cards) and/or make a real time AES/EBU FX send/return from PT HD 7 Accel to the MIX 4 and back, so I can still use Lexiverb TDM 2.0 (as this is the only plug-in I really miss on my PT HD 7 Accel

Btw, though I use Pro Tools professionally for more then 10 years now and I know (and read) the DUC very well, this is actually my first post on the DUC ever, but... better late then never, no? )

[Grey]

very informative .

keep Mix systems alive!!

[Sean Russell]

Two MIX-3 systems still run here... Though I recently had to get batteries for the G4's cause they were forgetting their date!

Those things save me on a weekly basis!

[JNS]

Keeping my Mix system (Core and 6 Mix Farms, PT 5.1.1, OS 9.1, Rosendahl Nanosyncs, 3 888/24s, 24 channels Apogee A/D, USD, Control 24, about every plugin made for this version, and lots of spare hardware). No matter how I figure it with used or upgrade special it would cost about $20K to upgrade to HD with a comparable system and plugs. I just cannot justify that now when I don't really need it and the clients aren't asking for HD. I've got plenty of tracks, DSP, and great converters.

Wow, just realized this thread was started in 2005.

[Alécio Costa]

I also kept half of my older system, reduced now to a mix plus + dsp farm and 2 adat bridges.

Funny but the mix system is used only for PAZ TDM analysis and occasionally used to record outside the studio. Not worth selling it for a dime.

[pmklein]

Originally Posted by M2E

To me...honestly....9.2.2 OS and 5.1.3 was the fastest and most stable I have ever seen a System. When I did upgrade to OSX and 6.4.1, it was so much slower not as stable and I hated it. Then 6.4.1cs4 came out and that fixed most of the bugs. It's still not nowhere near as fast as 5.1.3 but I've learned to deal with it and love it but, that made me very very watchful.

I've said this exact thing several times here. OS 9.2 and PT5 were amazingly fast and stable. Still have my Mix Plus and love it!

[ddayson]

Yep, still on my Mix rig and PT 5.1.3. I upgraded to all Mix Cards a few years back (now a Mix+++) and completely satisfied with Apogee Converters, 2 X 24bit ADAT Bridges and a Dual Core PC with VSTi's and Giga (24 tracks back and forth via the PC's RME Digiface Interface), and using the Mac's 1.3Ghz G4 to run Altiverb for quality convolution.

I still can't think of anything I'm missing excepting PDC which doesn't bother me much, plus the improved MIDI in PT8 (though I have Digital Performer if I intensive MIDI needs)?

I do have some additional Mix Farms so I might try a PCI Expansion Chassis at some point, but I've only maxed this rig's DSP once in all it's years of use (had to bounce some FX, no problem).

Originally Posted by pmklein

I've said this exact thing several times here. OS 9.2 and PT5 were amazingly fast and stable. Still have my Mix Plus and love it!

[BobbyDazzler]

Still running an old G4 400 with a Mix 5.1.3 system. Its mostly stable apart from a few minor quirks (as much from the old mac, as from PTools).
I'm keen to upgrade, but I don't see anything from Digi that is worth spending money on at the moment.