Does Protools TDM on NT really work?

[Jotown]

I am a Digi 001 for Win98 user who is making the purchasing decision of a Mix+ system for my company.
I know about the lack (for now) of plugin support for Wintel systems, and I don't need any PC bashing flames cast my way.
What I need is to hear from anyone who is currently using a Mix+ system on a Wintel machine.

How happy are you with it?

How stable is it?

Does it really perform as well as a similar Mac System?

It is hard to believe, but I have found noboby in my market (Metro Detroit) who is using an NT system.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Jotown

[This message has been edited by Jotown (edited February 17, 2001).]

[Dreamware]

Protools 24 Mix+ on Windows NT 4.0 Feels exactly the same as on the Macintosh platform. You still have to learn how to use the program. You have to really know what your doing to set up Win NT and Protools. If you follow Digidesign's recommendations for hardware your good to go. Just don't try any hardware combination that they won't support. Here's a setup that works flawlessly:

Intel Pentium-3-850MHZ Coppermine
Intel SE-440BX-2 "Seattle"
768MB PC-100 Kingston ram
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller
Seagate 9.1GB Baracuda SCSI(OS/Programs)
4x Seagate 18GB 15,000RPM Cheetah SCSI (Audio)
Total 72GB of Storage!!!
Matrox G450 32MB Dual-Head video card
Windows NT 4.0 with Service pack 6
Norton System Works Utilities (Critical)
Lots of Hard drive cooling for the SCSI drives!

Sincerly,

Alex Tsirogiannis

President/Owner
Dreamware Systems Canada
604-605-9776

[Dreamware]

I got your page. It has a limited length of time to leave a message and you got cut off. E-mail me at [email protected] if you have questions about Daw's and protools.

[tigeba]

I should mention I recently switched from Protools TDM NT to Protools TDM Mac. I purchased my system around June of 2000 and used the NT version until I bought a used B&W G3 in January.

I will tell you right now I'm not a big NT fan or a big MacOS fan. Overall the systems perform virtually identically. Digi uses a custom widget set on the NT version so it have a very consistent look and feel with the mac version.

On the positive side for NT, and as much as it hurts me to say anything good about NT, It does a much better job of multitasking and managing memory than MacOS. MacOS memory management is laughable, and anyone that tries to tell you anything different is either a) MacOS zealot b) Not a computer programmer c) both

That being said, it's clear that I switched to mac because I wanted to have the latest and greatest stuff ( Protools 5.1 ) and to protect my investment ( Waves Bundle ).

Protools is not enough by itself, you need the cool plugins. I purchased a used copy of Waves TDM ( And really got shafted paying all the "transfer of ownership" fees and "platform crossgrade" fees ) and when I found out that they were not releasing Waves 3.0 for NT, and that Digi was delaying release of 5.1 for NT I decided it was time to abandon ship.

Also, you can find many more used plugins for mac than NT. Most of the good stuff is available new for both platforms but I dont have tons and tons of extra $$ so I tried to make up for it getting used stuff where possible.

One glimmer of hope for me is the promise of OSX for mac and protools apparent commitment to support it ( My other computers are an SGI and a Sun ) If it lives up to the hype it would definately be an operating system I would be happy to use every day.

So here is my recommendation, if you want all the cool stuff and don't want to be a second class protools citizen, get a mac.

If you want to save $500 or so, don't care about the coolest stuff, the pc will perform just as well ( and maybe even a little better )

tigeba


Oh yes, if you do decide to go NT, you must follow the one true path in terms of the proper motherboard to buy, or you will be very unhappy and annoyed. You can search the NT forum, as it was discussed extensively by myself and wolfgang, corey, etc awhile back

[Pete Turbiville]

Jotown, All I can say it that my system has been cooking along for 2 years with no problems. With the exception of the missing QT MOVIE functions and a few plug-ins, it's extremely stable and reliable. I'm running NT-4.0 SP 4, the most recent version of PT's for NT on PT's MIX +. I'm using an Iwill BS-100 MB, 384mb/ram, 500mhz P-III proc, two 9gig IBM SCSI audio drives and Matrox display board. Pete T.

[tonygoodall]

my NT mix+ has worked well for 8 months,
but if you don't get the right motherboard,
it won't work at all
also - the ide drivers on the install-o-rator cd cooked my NT - don't be surprised if they don't work on yours - just leave NT "as is"

tony