Top Studios Use HDX/HDN/TDM?

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

HD (Process) was introduced in Q1 2002. HD Accel was introduced in 2003 or 2004.



HDX was introduced in Q4 2011.

The facility I work at went from MIX|Plus systems installed in G4s with v6.4.1cs4 (last version for MIX) to HD|2 Accel systems installed in G5s with v7.1 in 2006. We effectively waited 4 years before upgrading to HD. Most of those systems stayed at OS X v10.4.11 and v7.4 until they were replaced with Mac Pros at OS X v10.6.8 with v9.0.5.

The next upgrade those systems received was v10.3.4 software with their HD|2 Accel hardware. I know some people mocked us for waiting so long to upgrade to 10. Those people who mocked us also had to deal with various automation bugs. v10.3.4 was, practically speaking, the first release of v10 whose non-new functionality acted the same way as v9.0.5.

As part of that v10.3.4 software upgrade, we found some TDM DSP bugs that were not publicly documented. These bugs were such that if you hammered your HD|2 Accel system as hard as possible with v9.0.5 that your sessions would not open with v10.3.4. You would see the SWOD, DSP shuffles, out of DSP, out of memory, etc. As far as I know, those bugs were never fixed. It was these TDM DSP bugs that were the driving force in my employer upgrading to HDX. The upgrade to HDX solved our DSP issues. Sessions now move between 11 HDX systems without DSP errors of any sort.

I work in post, not music. It was only with the release of v10.3.10 and v11.3.1 that I think now is the time to upgrade these systems to OS X v10.8.5 and do a co-install of PT 10 and 11. Every situation is unique. Upgrading to HDX wasn't without some bad feelings (SoundToys and WAVES), though technology marches on and sometimes you have to leave something behind.

Good points.

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by albee1952

I also run a commercial studio(albeit a small one) and found roughly the same capabilities with a DIGI003 and a bunch of outboard pres as my friend's "Pro-built" HD3 system(in fact, I could crash his rig faster than my non-HD rig on any given day). Upgraded to HDN with dual HD IO boxes for bigger input count and left him in the dust in many ways. Now that I am on a newer 6 core rig, I'm doing stuff neither of us would dream of a year ago(and he still can't...) My 2 cents, but I think its a lot more about the room(and its history), the vibe and the people than it is about the gear I'm still working on the "history" part

Can I call you Dave? Dave in my history I've used 002's and 003's extensively. For several years I was doing remote with my 003 and finishing up with my HD Rig. There is now way that any PT native system if that era performed better than HD as long as the user was using the right compatable computer.

Sure, maybe if tested right after a release where Avid typically has us do their troubleshooting for them, sure.


I have been using ProTools native since 2002, whenever the 001 came out, and still use it to this day on a regular basis. Native that is, the 001's been long gone.

I've been using HD TDM PCI E systems for the last nine years with the exception of a year and a half when I tried deeply to make the Apogee symphony system work with logic of which I gave up and came back to ProTools HD.

In all that time with HD, I've only had probably less than five or six issues. And every single one of those issues it was either operator error translate me, or it was a faulty card which just recently happened to me.

[albee1952]

Hey Barry, sent you a PM

[Sugarnutz]

I started using Pro Tools with a 001 and 6.4 on Win XP using a homebuilt Athlon XP 2700 system at the time. A few weeks after I got it I took it to Nashville to do a bunch of edit/process stuff at a studio that used Alesis HD24's (two, but only 8 tracks on the second as they where hooked to a MCI 636). I'd import using the Alesis firewire thing-a-ma-jiggy, edit/process and bounce back to the HD24 hard drive so they could mix. I set up in the front room of the studio with the 001, Crown D150A, my KEF Corelli's and people would walk by remarking how good the system sounded. Not once did that system hiccup or crash all weekend and I payed for the 001 with what I made.

One of the biggest local studios around here (Memphis) with 3 rooms including Neve & SSL consoles is still using older Mac Pros with HD3/PT 9 HD systems. My HD machine still has room for one more Accel card to make it a HD4 system if I want to spend the $200 it'll take.

I'm keeping my HD system for band tracking, but after that it's going into the new PT 12 Vanilla machine for maybe some overdubs & then mixing. I might get an Omni for the HD rig for an ITB monitor controller and just take the SPDIF out of the M-Audio Firewire Audiophile into it for monitoring. PT 12 Vanilla is making me want to spend less money on gear now if I can get away from it. Might put that money towards a UAD2 Octo for all the UAD1 plugins I've got in my account & get a couple of their highend reverbs.