Pro Tools HD1 question

[KKalampo]

Hi all
I'm building a studio and for the time being I can only afford the pt hd1 (hd2 being 3000euros more). Is it worth it?I mean how many tdm plugins can you load? Also I need to record 16 channels simultaneously using AES/EBU.
Any info would be appreciated.
thanks for replying
Kostas

[KKalampo]

anyone???

[Craig F]

depends on the plugs

I would give the HD Native card a hard look if I was looking at a HD1

or maybe straight 9 w/ a 3rd party interface that has the I/O you want/need

[KKalampo]

Originally Posted by Craig F

depends on the plugs

I would give the HD Native card a hard look if I was looking at a HD1

or maybe straight 9 w/ a 3rd party interface that has the I/O you want/need

I want to stick to to hd because i would like to have the possibility of expansion to hd2.I'm just wandering if the hd1 is powerfull enough for starting my studio
thanks

[Third Eye Studios]

Originally Posted by KKalampo

Hi all
I'm building a studio and for the time being I can only afford the pt hd1 (hd2 being 3000euros more). Is it worth it?I mean how many tdm plugins can you load? Also I need to record 16 channels simultaneously using AES/EBU.
Any info would be appreciated.
thanks for replying
Kostas

HD1 is not very powerful. I'm not sure exactly how many plug-ins you can load on the chips, but bear in mind the mixing engine and delay compensation runs off of the chips as well.

If you were working on smaller projects, and only used TDM plug-ins on aux tracks, you might be able to get away with only a HD1. These days, you can pick up process and accel cards so cheap on ebay, might as well go HD2 minumum.

[KKalampo]

thanks third eye studios.I havn't thought of the mixing engine and delay compensationmaybe I'll go for the hd2

[fakir_cz]

Originally Posted by KKalampo

thanks third eye studios.I havn't thought of the mixing engine and delay compensationmaybe I'll go for the hd2

I was mixing a short film in 5.1 on a HD2 Accel system last week and it was a major PITA, compared to my native system. It took 4 DSPs to run 128 voice mixer engine and six more to run a delay compensation. I was constantly getting errors telling me that the bus or output assignment cannot be done because there are not enough DSPs free, and if it could be done I had to wait until the PT reallocates the DSP resources, and so on. And I have already switched all my track plugins to RTAS. I admit that it was my first experience with a TDM system so I'm sure that the session could be more optimized, but nevertheless I was NOT impressed by its performance at all. I am aware of advantages of the TDM system for recording large amounts of channels, but other than that, I'd take the native system over the HD2 any time.

So, I say, get a very powerful computer, PT HD 9 from ebay or DUC and a RME HDSPe AES32 sound card. This will get you all HD software features, tons of RTAS processing power and 16 AES I/O with almost-no-latency routing through the card's on-board FPGA mixer. It's way cheaper than a HD2 system and way more powerful.

[KKalampo]

thanks fakir.I didn't know abou the rme.I'll check it out

[nerd513]

sounds like ur thinking of buying HD new?? just save urself alot of money and get it off ebay for dirt cheap...i wouldnt bother with HDnative...

[Raoul23]

Originally Posted by nerd513

sounds like ur thinking of buying HD new?? just save urself alot of money and get it off ebay for dirt cheap...i wouldnt bother with HDnative...

I just got myself a HD3 accel system pci off ebay and saved a fortune and im LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVIIIIIINNNNGGGG IT

Glad i didnt go native