Older vs current hardware.

[DareGee]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and a couple of questions about the 11r.
I recently purchased an older (supposedly new) unit at a good price, I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Has anyone out there had any problems upgrading older, vintage models to the latest firmware for use with the 11r expansion pack? Has there been any hardware design changes in the current models? If anyone can answer these questions please let me know. Thanks.

[TieDyedDevil]

Originally Posted by DareGee

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and a couple of questions about the 11r.
I recently purchased an older (supposedly new) unit at a good price, I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Has anyone out there had any problems upgrading older, vintage models to the latest firmware for use with the 11r expansion pack? Has there been any hardware design changes in the current models? If anyone can answer these questions please let me know. Thanks.

I have a revision B unit (they're now up to, what...? E? F? ...) and had no problem installing and using the ERXP.

[Benoni]

You won't have any problems installing the most up-to-date firmware (ERXP)

As far as actual changes.... well I seem to remember they changed from a Plastic nut to a metal nut on the headphone output - or something like that.

I believe they also switched a tiny part on the inside because it was causing clock errors on a certain batch of Eleven Racks.

[moff]

The hardware is unchanged, except for the things Benoni listed. The EXRP and firmware will install fine unless you have IE9 on your computer.....

[sorcerer27]

The only other issue you're going to face with an older unit is the enclosed 8.x version of Pro Tools software. So if you wanted to run a more recent version of Pro Tools say v9 or v10 you'll be looking at a pretty major upgrade expense. The newer units from Avid come with PT9 with includes a free upgrade to PT10. Some like mine actually came with PT10.

[moff]

I haven't seen it first hand, but I have heard a couple of times that some users who have bought new, but older stock, Eleven Racks (since Oct 1) have been receiving emails from Avid containing links to free licenses and downloads for the ERXP and PT10.

If it's a unit that's brand-new and it comes with PTLE 8, register it and wait a couple of days before doing anything else. Can't hurt to see...

[Ralf_T]

Originally Posted by sorcerer27

The only other issue you're going to face with an older unit is the enclosed 8.x version of Pro Tools software.

I actually do not consider this an issue. PT will most probably not work properly unless you are on an "AVID qualified machine". Check the link below:

http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/self...p?DocId=380551

If you are not on a qualified computer, make sure you have a motherboard with Intel X58 chipset and an i7 or Xeon processor and one of the dedicated graphics cards listed here:

http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/self...p?DocId=380591

Intel i7 on an X58 motherboard is reported being a solid work horse with Pro Tools.

Before you waste your money on updates to PT9 or PT10 check whether or not your system meets AVIDs requirements in case you are planning to do serious mixing in PT. I am speaking from experience. I have upgraded to PT9, and I am not able to mix an entire session in PT. Sometimes I even ran into error messages when only having a single plugin activated on a single audio track! Here is my experience with freaking PT:

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=316272

I am now on the trial version of Cubase 6. So far, it works like a charm. No issues with my plugins anymore. I now have a fairly overpriced editor for the Eleven Rack on my machine. If I had known this in advance, I would have sticked to PT 8.0.5 as an editor for the 11R (8.0.5 supports the Eleven Rack Expansion Pack) and saved my money.

Anyway, DareGee, enjoy your 11R!

[DareGee]

Thanks everyone. I posted this message on 2 forums. I never expected the wealth of info that has been offered. I probably won't upgrade to PT 9 or 10 unless it is free but after reading some more, I definitely want to upgrade to the expansion pack. The IE 9 issue won't be problem because I will be installing on a mac.
Once again, thanks for the posts. Cheers.