looking for a digital audio desk to run with Pro Tools 2018.7

[xrekcor]

Hey Dave,

Thanks for your reply, Midas and I have some history, I remember loading many a Midas desk in and out of venues 20+ years ago as a young roadie.... to own one would bring a considerable amount of pleasure but just a lil out of my price range. But hey’ telling the bro’s I upgraded my lil ol UR44 to a Midas M32 would certainly prick their ears up. A friend of mine did tell me that they are just Behringer desks with Midas preamps and didnt have much good to say about them.

The only thing I can fault the Yamaha TF5 is it only has 2 FX engines where most around that price have 4. And if you watch the vid I posted up there a couple of messages back the Yamaha guy states at one point that (basically) people in the market they are aiming for with the TF5 are too stupid to be able to use 4 fx engines.... I think prolly more to do with the amount of features the desk already has that 4 FX engines could conflict with the next model up.

Anyways thinking I really only going to need that for live me thinks and of the possibility of using the aux sends as fx sends through some rack gear? Don’t know enough yet to know if that is possible.

[xrekcor]

well I have taken the plunge......

heading up to Brisbane in the morning to pick up a brand new Yamaha TF5. For the going price range and after several months researching seems to me to fit my purposes the most. Will be interesting to see how PT runs with it. The TF comes with Cubase, so slightly promising as im cross-grading up to Cubase Pro. But really if it works as a straight audio interface as it says it does that all I want, PT has more than enough going on to cover the rest. its other job will be running our bands PA.

[albee1952]

Just my personal opinion re Behringer/Midas(and yes, I also hoisted many an XL3 or XL4 in my 10 years as head of audio at the largest casino in the world). Anyone that slags the X32 is either a gear snob, or has never actually mixed on one. It beats the tar out of anything else near the price range, sounds fine and is pretty bulletproof(a friend owns one that got doused in gallons of water when a tent failed during a torrential downpour. It still works perfectly, except for a strip of white on the right side of the screen, 4 years later).

The guts are probably the same between X32 and M32, but that's not a bad thing as Midas was in on the design R&D. The M32 has the same preamps as the Midas Pro consoles(but the Pro consoles can run 96K). The Midas also has better faders(same as in the Pro consoles) but I have yet to find an X32 with a bad fader(I'm sure it happens but they are cheap and easy to replace). The M32 looks way better if that matters. The OS is the same so stage boxes are interchangeable and either iPad app will work either brand(its interesting mixing a full 32 inputs from 3 iPads with the mixer on the stage I just wish they would build an M48(especially after spending a few weeks on a ProMix 1C)

[xrekcor]

I must admit I did look long and hard at an M32 they have one on display where I’m picking up the TF5 from so will take a look at it. But ultimately it was just stretching the budget a lil too far. Need to invest in some decent mic’s and more software...etc...etc.... plus being a guitarist there will be another guitar in there somewhere..... aaaaaaaarh the benefits of being s single dad, there’s no “she who must be obeyed” bs

[xrekcor]

well I've had the TF5 since Saturday and I have to say I am really enjoying the lil beast. Spent the last few days getting my head around its operation, being an old analog boy from way back this digital stuff is a trip. Today for the first I hooked up the lappy. So far haven't been able to get PT to work with the TF5 seems to be some sort of conflict I think with either PT's project file(s) or something happens during the loading of the session file.

The MBP has no issues seeing the TF5 and lists its 34/34 channels that it has available in HOST MODE in Audio MIDI Setup. I can start PT and the Yamaha TF5 is listed in Playback Engine and also in I/O listing all 32/32 for my ver of PT. The TF5 runs at 48kHz which is set. The TF5 console throws up an error msg if there is a mismatch. For some reason as soon as soon as I load a session file it changes the sessions sample rate to 42.1kHz? can't remember exactly could have been 41.2kHz (and the TF5 throws the mismatch error msg). Even if I go back into Audio MIDI Setup and try and change it back to 48kHz it flicks back to 41.2kHz after a couple of seconds. If I close the session file while leaving PT running. I can then jump back into Project Setup and reset to 48kHz without issue, which lasts until I try to load another session file. Once a session file is loaded I can create tracks. Assign inputs 1-32/outputs 1-32 in PT, can plug a mic in and see the levels in PT, the TF5 allows 4 option points at which you can tap off and send signal to the host computer (Pre DG, Pre HPF, Pre or Post fader)but for PT only seems to allow the first option where you send the dry signal coming in straight to the host with no real control of the signal from the TF5 point of view, I checked this by going thru the options using a mic while watching the levels in PT. As soon as you try to record some dialog PT throws the CPU overload error with the mismatch in sampling rates prolly the culprit.

I spent several hours trying to find a work around playing around with HW buffer sizes and creating an aggregate I/O…etc…etc… Watching the CPU spike like a firecracker when you try to record sometime simple as 1ch, 1 mic and no plugins or sends which also crashes Audio MIDI Setup and MBP throw up a crash report. Anyways I’m lost at coming up with a fix and tend to think PT/TF5 compatibility isn’t going to work at this time. May be others might know a fix

I did however install the copy of Cubase AI that came with the TF5 which seems to work really well. Although will need to upgrade to a better version I was easily able to record 5 audio tracks at a time….. more but I ran out of mics, all the Pre DG, Pre HPF, Pre or Post fader options work. Can sends all the tracks back through the TF5 via a short menu hop… actually I can assign that function to a hot key. Haven’t had a lot of time to play with it. But off the bat im loving the increase in signal quality of the TF5 over the lil o’l UR44.

Would really love to get PT up and running but I think the issue is terminal

[64GTOBOY]

Double check the Midas/behringer website for specific drivers as a lot of times I have found they are updated. Also make sure to have only one designated as master clock(laptop or mixer), it's possible there is some sort of issue there.

[xrekcor]

Hey Mate,

thanks for your reply, the TF5 is Yamaha and doesn't need a driver for Mac. The master clock issue you raised is worth investigating as it was something I haven't check or was aware of.

[xrekcor]

Originally Posted by 64GTOBOY

Double check the Midas/behringer website for specific drivers as a lot of times I have found they are updated. Also make sure to have only one designated as master clock(laptop or mixer), it's possible there is some sort of issue there.

That worked thanks heaps dude.... the TF5 wants to be the clock. I also I found that when I was creating new session files you could set the sample rate in the new session dialogbox. So that was operator error...... Anyways PT seems to run fairly-well-ish in that I am getting the odd CPU overload error..... running 48kHz with a buffer of 512. Anyways time for some shut eye and Ill test again in the morning.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

The only thing I can fault the Yamaha TF5 is it only has 2 FX engines...

Not true. While there are two established FX busses, you can also turn the last few stereo aux busses into FX busses by inserting an effect on it. I've got a TF3 and regularly have two different reverbs, a slap delay, and a tap delay each on its own buss.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[64GTOBOY]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

That worked thanks heaps dude.... the TF5 wants to be the clock. I also I found that when I was creating new session files you could set the sample rate in the new session dialogbox. So that was operator error...... Anyways PT seems to run fairly-well-ish in that I am getting the odd CPU overload error..... running 48kHz with a buffer of 512. Anyways time for some shut eye and Ill test again in the morning.

Awesome, glad you found that