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  #1  
Old 08-31-2017, 02:37 PM
TrackerLe TrackerLe is offline
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Default Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

I know its a little bit stupid, but i am interested, how one HDX Carde compares
to for example a Xeon 12 core system or more...
And is the latency of a HDX Card really better, than a native system using 12 core or 24 core Workstations...

With my Workstation with HD Native, i can use large sessions with 64ms Latency without problems... Does the HDX something, which a native system can´t do... Better latency or more stability...

Thanks
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  #2  
Old 09-02-2017, 03:26 AM
Dan IceWood Dan IceWood is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

sub 2 ms latency with a bunch of plugins..

but do you mean ms or samples as in a 64 sample playback buffer.

session info will give you your system latency
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Old 09-02-2017, 06:34 AM
TrackerLe TrackerLe is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

Sorry for the misinformation...

I mean 64 Samples in the Playback Buffer...

Does a HDX System give an advantage over a HD Native System (except the AAX DSP Plugins)...

And about the DSP Plugins... How is the power of the card in comparsion to a 12 core CPU sytem...
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  #4  
Old 09-02-2017, 07:45 AM
Dan IceWood Dan IceWood is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

HDX is about High channel counts -> 64+
lowest monitor latency of live inputs, and being a rock solid high channel count system.

plug ins wise you probably get more out of a native system, but that is not whatHDX is for.

If you are purely mixing then just go with a native or HD native system.

I use an HDX 2 system and use 90% DSP plug ins - I have yet to reach the DSP limit.

Things like reverb are highly inefficient on HDX - things like eq/dynamics are very good.

Your needs dictate which system is best for you. Comping a modern CPU with old fixed DSP is 9/10 going to favour the modern CPU in terms of sheer number of instances, but as stated that is not always best for the task in hand.

what are your needs?
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  #5  
Old 09-02-2017, 08:22 AM
jjnssn jjnssn is offline
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Default Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

HDX provides delay compensation for side chains. HDX also has DSP for mixer routings. I thought the Native card had some processing power for the mix engine however I maybe wrong.

CPU can handle more plugins than a single HDX card. E.g. I can fill my single HDX card with every different Plugin Alliance DSP plugin. If I change them all to Native my 6 core CPU 3.6 GHZ at 64 buffers, max CPU logical is approx 22% with spikes to 26%. / same at 1024. Heat is off as well for comparison.

System delay is 4331 samples for Native and 4572 samples with DSP.


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  #6  
Old 09-02-2017, 10:42 AM
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albee1952 albee1952 is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjnssn View Post
I thought the Native card had some processing power for the mix engine however I maybe wrong.
We are told that there is no processing power on the HDN card. Having said that, my last machine got a pretty significant performance boost when I moved from my old 003(maxed out to the full 18 IO) to a Native card and HD IO boxes. What's best is down to your particular needs. For me, I work on my own HDN rig(on Windows) and on a friend's HDX rig(new trashcan Mac Pro with a Sonnet chassis). My needs: track 5-6 piece bands(32 live inputs and 16 outputs) without having players complain about latency. HDN covers my needs very nicely(I choose tracking plugins carefully to avoid latency, but run dozens of EQ's and compressors, 5-6 reverbs, a few delays and a couple of VI's. Max plugin latency while tracking is 11 samples and I track at a 64 buffer setting.

Oddly enough, many plugins that report zero latency on my rig, report some(up to a lot) of latency on the HDX rig
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Old 09-02-2017, 10:59 AM
jjnssn jjnssn is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by albee1952 View Post
We are told that there is no processing power on the HDN card. Having said that, my last machine got a pretty significant performance boost when I moved from my old 003(maxed out to the full 18 IO) to a Native card and HD IO boxes. What's best is down to your particular needs. For me, I work on my own HDN rig(on Windows) and on a friend's HDX rig(new trashcan Mac Pro with a Sonnet chassis). My needs: track 5-6 piece bands(32 live inputs and 16 outputs) without having players complain about latency. HDN covers my needs very nicely(I choose tracking plugins carefully to avoid latency, but run dozens of EQ's and compressors, 5-6 reverbs, a few delays and a couple of VI's. Max plugin latency while tracking is 11 samples and I track at a 64 buffer setting.



Oddly enough, many plugins that report zero latency on my rig, report some(up to a lot) of latency on the HDX rig


Had to pull up manual, this is what I had recalled.......From manual. "Additionally, the on-board FPGA provides processing power for mixer con- figurations and low latency monitoring with Pro Tools."

No DSP for plugins.

Albee is spot on. What you get for interfacing is driven by your I/O needs, (or at least that is how I approached when jumping from Native to HDX).

You can buy a 12 Core processor, however what interface you chose for your I/O will have a audio driver with some degree of Latency (RTL, Round Trip Latency).

All that being said... all good questions.... hopefully this is helping.


edited from mac.

Last edited by jjnssn; 09-02-2017 at 11:21 AM. Reason: easier to type on keyboard vs. phone.
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  #8  
Old 09-02-2017, 11:29 AM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is online now
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjnssn View Post
Had to pull up manual, this is what I had recalled.......From manual. "Additionally, the on-board FPGA provides processing power for mixer con- figurations and low latency monitoring with Pro Tools."

No DSP for plugins.
This has been widely discussed in the past. To be clear the FPGA does not run the Pro Tools mixer, that's all on the host CPU. It is used for low-latency monitoring. It's not clear what the "processing power for..." marketing weasel words Avid uses here really means, they may mean the FPGA helps optimize performance by providing memory DMA from the card (but so do other good interfaces/interface cards).
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  #9  
Old 09-02-2017, 12:46 PM
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Bob Olhsson Bob Olhsson is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

There's no processing power for plug-ins on HDN but I understand there is a mix buss and reduced input monitoring latency.
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  #10  
Old 09-03-2017, 03:06 AM
TrackerLe TrackerLe is offline
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Default Re: Stupid Question... How is the power of 1 HDX Card compared to...

Hi Dan

I am using now a 12 core Mac Pro with a HDN+Omni+HDIO Combo and i am really happy
with it. I mainly record vocals and use max. 4 mics... I don´t need a lot of recording tracks. Protools HD is used with VIs like Kontakt,Play,Structure and a lot of softsynths.
Sometimes i use only audio Tracks for mixing and mastering projects, which i ve made with Logic X.
The point is... I worked with a tdm system and it was always snappy, responsive and the low latency was nice, when using tdm Plugins.
If i change from HDN to HDX, what benefits will a get. Is the latency significantly better than HDN (HDX DSP Mixer), when working with native VIs and AAX DSP Plugins.
I have a lot of avid and PGLAlliance Plugins, which are also AAX DSP.
Does it still make sense to go with HDX, although the CPUs are really powerful today...

thank you jjnssn... This means the CPU really more powerful, than a single HDX Card
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