Number of Voices on HD1 ?

[Ienjoyaudio99]

Hello.

I'm a long time user of LE and looking to move to HD. While I've greatly enjoyed the new features in PT9, I really want to use Heat and have the near zero latency when tracking. I'm running PT 9 LE on a 2.8 ghz mac pro and various RTAS plugins. My question is how do the voices work in HD and how the RTAS plug ins integrate with the TDM system? I know that I can still run my RTAS plugins in HD but i'm not sure of the number of voices an HD 1 system features. At max I do sessions with around 40-50 tracks, usually 20-30 tracks. My most frequently used plug ins are the waves SSL strip, the CLA compressors and the Mcdsp ML4000.

Basically I just want to know the number of voices I can use with one core card and how many plug ins I can run. Also do the RTAS plug ins even use a voice if they are being run off the CPU and not the card? I've never had to worry about the number of plug ins my system can use while i'm working and I feel that such a problem would be counterproductive in my workflow.

Again my system is a mac pro quad 2.8ghz, 18 GB ram with PT9 LE and 003. I'm looking to move to a HD 1 with a lynx interface.

Any info from someone that has more experience with a TDM system your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much.

[CME]

I've not personally ran an hd rig, but I think you might be pushing an hd1 rig. Seems like for what you are doing an hd2 system might be more what you need. In fact an hd native system might be a better choice. From what I've read, at least coupled with the new interfaces, it has extremely low latency. And it looks like you have a computer with more than enough power.

Also I may be wrong but I think an hd1 has like 48 voices. My understanding is every time audio leaves a card it uses a voice and on the way back it uses another. So when you start using rtas it uses 2 voices once you insert one on a track. If you put more rtas plugs after it you wouldn't use any more voices as the audio is still at the CPU. But if you put a tdm plug between rtas you would use 2 more as the audio has to travel back to the card. Hence why I think an hd native would be better if you still want to use mainly rtas plugs.

[Ienjoyaudio99]

Hey thanks for the reply!

I don't think I want to go the HD native route because It sounds like an intermittent upgrade when I would end up going TDM anyway. Also HEAT is TDM only. I just though of this. If I ran the TDM plug in heat on every track and then put RTAS after it, I would run into the problem you described.

[CME]

Yeah if you wanna use Heat then TDM is the way to go. At least for now. It would be nice to see them make it available for everyone. There are alternatives to Heat also. I've got Analog Channel and really like it. There is also Slate's Virtual Console Collection and Mellowmuse SATV. So there are options. And you never know. Maybe someday Heat will be available to everyone.