with 6.7 is Mach 5 ready for prime time?

[Markk]

To all you Mach 5 users...how is it working now. When it came out it was much heralded only to show up as a dissapointment with no streaming in Mac and poor Giga support. Are things better now with the new version?

I am on an HD3 system with my giga stuff lightpiping into pro tools - I would love to get it all on one machine. With 6.7 support is Mach 5 ready to do this?

[roberts]

Mach 5 with PT is hit and miss. It's a lot like target shooting blindfolded. I still keep falling back to Logic for all my sampling due to the LACK of a decent realiable sampler for PT.

[Evil Jack]

Mach 5 with PT is hit and miss. It's a lot like target shooting blindfolded

Could you be a bit more specific? What exactly are the issues?

I'm running Giga on a PC with lightpipes too, with my 2.5gHz G5 not really being used to it's full potential....

[NuBus]

I'm running Giga on a PC with lightpipes too, with my 2.5gHz G5 not really being used to it's full potential....

Stick with what you have!

Or try Logic?

[roberts]

Mach 5 HTDM Gliches and RTAS is semi glichy (Audio Clicks). Not any good if can't afford any Fups.

[ajs]

No problems here, running Mach 5 v1.20, usually in RTAS, on a dual 2GHz G5 w/2.5GB RAM. Had lots of problems when I was trying to run it on a much lesser powered G4 machine, so your results may heavily depend on your processing power relative to how processor-intensive your Mach 5 setup is (instances, polyphony, processing, etc, etc), as well as other things that are consuming CPU.

[Lee Blaske]

I am on an HD3 system with my giga stuff lightpiping into pro tools - I would love to get it all on one machine.

I second what another poster said. If you want to get work done and have a lot of stability, stick with your current system. Having sampling farmed out to a different machine is the best way to go, unless you're using an application like Logic where the sampler is built-in and actually PART of the application - not a flaky add-on. Even with Logic, though, power users (especially those doing large scale orchestral emulation) like to use multiple machines for sampling.

You're always better off from a stability standpoint if you don't put too many eggs in one basket. Someday, a single machine IS going to do everything you want. We're not there yet.

I'm still baffled as to why Digidesign has not integrated a sampler into PT like Logic. To me, it makes no sense to have to rely on Mach 5, a product made by one of Digidesign's staunchest hardware manufacturing competitors.

Lee Blaske

[Markk]

Thanks. Guess the answer is no

[jeremyroberts]

No, the answer is NOT no.

The answer is, "it depends".

It depends on your computer processor speed, amount of ram, and how many instances of M5 you intend to use (relative to above mentioned system resources).

I use M5 extensively. I also use Giga on a dedicated machine and occasionally, will fire up EXS (logic6pro). I also have racks of outboard samplers that I could use if polyphony becomes an issue.

And I'm running all of this on an ancient G4/867.

When my dual 2.5 arrives on Friday (tomorrow!) I expect to be able to lose the external samplers. When PT 6.7 ships and M5 is updated for multiple outputs, then things should be pretty awesome.

Some people complain about M5 due to how it loads a SPECIFIC sample library - such as VSL. I own VSL and it really requires at least one, if not a rack full of Giga machines. It is not designed to be convert loaded. So don't do that.

M5 and the bundled CDxtract does a great job of converting and importing MOST libraries, and it is an extremely valuable tool for less than $400.

IF you have a fast machine and don't expect a $400 program to compete with a DEDICATED mega PC for GS3 (that will cost you at least $2500 with adequate ram and a good sound card that can externally sync) - then M5 is absolutely ready for prime time. Let's always compare apples to apples.

jr

[Evil Jack]

OT...

Jeremy - are you using GS3 now?
I'm still on 2.5 (which was hell to get working right in the beginning), and I'm wondering if it's worth risking the upgrade yet?