HD6 vs. HDX comparison

[Tom Graham]

Hey Guys,

In search of a real world comparison, we recently had Mike Shipley mix a track that we cut on HD Native for our last Pro Mixing webinar at 96kHz 24 Bit, roughly about 60 tracks. He did it on his older HD6 Accel system (which he maxed out) and then we took that session and opened it on an HDX 2 Macbook Pro/10.2/Magma Thunderbolt Chassis system.

What was available in AAX DSP opened on the card, what was available as AAX Native or just RTAS opened fine on the host. The mix played great and only took up 1/2 of one card. I believe the CPU usage was hovering around 30%.

We tried to open and play this same HD6 mix on HD Native and were unable to get it to play. Not sure of all the details on this rig - but it was similar to the above stated MacbookPro/Magma Chassis rig.

You can hear Mike's mix, hear him talk about his move to HDX2 system, see the system usage meters, ask him questions and more at our webinar next week. Hope you guys can make it and join the discussion...

http://forms.avid.com/forms/powermix...0140000000U60T

Thanks!

[Shan]

Originally Posted by Tom Graham

We tried to open and play this same HD6 mix on HD Native and were unable to get it to play. Not sure of all the details on this rig - but it was similar to the above stated MacbookPro/Magma Chassis rig.

With my utmost respect to you, why then promote such a statement when you have no details of the native system rig? I can assure you, a maxed out HD6 TDM only session can open on any modern i7 in HD native and even PT vanilla/CPTK. It's generalized statements like this that get the false Internet myths rolling on audio forums in the HD world...and there's been many out there over the past decade.

Shane

[Chris Lambrechts]

Originally Posted by Shan

With my utmost respect to you, why then promote such a statement when you have no details of the native system rig? I can assure you, a maxed out HD6 TDM only session can open on any modern i7 in HD native and even PT vanilla/CPTK. It's generalized statements like this that get the false Internet myths rolling on audio forums in the HD world...and there's been many out there over the past decade.

Shane

Hi Shane, I see what you're saying but I'm sure you would agree that the same goes for the other way around.

It is so hard to compare fully native systems to DSP systems. In many ways one can outweigh the other and in many other ways what would look like a no brain win can be the complete opposite.

To some extend you are comparing apples and oranges when comparing DSP vs native. All Tom was saying was that the native system was the same or very similar computer then the one running the HDX system.

Either way - looking forward to seeing that webinar !!!

Chris

[Dism]

Originally Posted by Tom Graham

We tried to open and play this same HD6 mix on HD Native and were unable to get it to play. Not sure of all the details on this rig - but it was similar to the above stated MacbookPro/Magma Chassis rig.

So HD6 beats a Macbook Pro? I should hope so, even with modern architecture.

Benchmark it next to the 6-core Mac Pro and we'll talk.

[phatbeatstudio]

I have mix,d a few 60+ track songs on a HDX1 system and it works great with lots left over in both native and AAX DSP resources.

It does sound better though. To me its a huge sonic improvement from HD / 192or HDinterface to a HDX & HDinterface. Big sound improvement to me.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by Chris Lambrechts

Hi Shane, I see what you're saying but I'm sure you would agree that the same goes for the other way around.

It is so hard to compare fully native systems to DSP systems. In many ways one can outweigh the other and in many other ways what would look like a no brain win can be the complete opposite.

To some extend you are comparing apples and oranges when comparing DSP vs native. All Tom was saying was that the native system was the same or very similar computer then the one running the HDX system.

Either way - looking forward to seeing that webinar !!!

Chris

It's the marketing spin made with the generalization. If the comparison was made on a laptop then fine, but that's a far cry from being, "a real world comparison". A "real world comparison" would have been done on a tower, not a laptop.

Shane

[WildHoney]

Originally Posted by phatbeatstudio

I have mix,d a few 60+ track songs on a HDX1 system and it works great with lots left over in both native and AAX DSP resources.

It does sound better though. To me its a huge sonic improvement from HD / 192or HDinterface to a HDX & HDinterface. Big sound improvement to me.

with respect, I'm not sure that a 60 track song is much of a test these days. On my HD4 rig, I'm regularly using 128 voices and having to switch to 160 voices for bigger productions. And these are just pop songs, not film mixes or the like, which would require significantly more voices.
Additionally, there are relatively few plugins that are even working on AAX DSP, so what are we really comparing here? When my Waves Mercury bundle is available as DSP, we'll be able to START to make some sort of apples to apples comparison using both track count and DSP. Until then, these comparisons come up pretty empty for me.

[WernerF]

What he said.

[Tom Graham]

Originally Posted by Shan

It's the marketing spin made with the generalization. If the comparison was made on a laptop then fine, but that's a far cry from being, "a real world comparison". A "real world comparison" would have been done on a tower, not a laptop.

Shane

We'll open the session on a 12 core HD native rig next week and see how it does and let you know.

The HDX Rig was a latest generation laptop. So in that sense, it is a decent comparison.

[Tom Graham]

Originally Posted by WildHoney

with respect, I'm not sure that a 60 track song is much of a test these days. On my HD4 rig, I'm regularly using 128 voices and having to switch to 160 voices for bigger productions. And these are just pop songs, not film mixes or the like, which would require significantly more voices.
Additionally, there are relatively few plugins that are even working on AAX DSP, so what are we really comparing here? When my Waves Mercury bundle is available as DSP, we'll be able to START to make some sort of apples to apples comparison using both track count and DSP. Until then, these comparisons come up pretty empty for me.

With respect back, are you working at 96k? 60+ Tracks at 96k is a respectable amount of tracks and horsepower hit - equivalent to 120 tracks at 44.1k.
As you'll hear Mike Shipley say in his interview: "My HD6 was out of power at the beginning of the mix - not the end".

I'm sure if we had more time and budget we could really blow it out to more tracks... but in the end I think the song speaks for itself, it sounds like a 'real world' rock track mixed by a 'real world ITB mixer' The only constraints we put on Mike was to not use outboard gear, keep it all virtual for an apples to apples comparison.

I'm sure you all can come up with many variables to a different kind of test. Partner with other DUC members who have different rigs with the same plug-ins and feel free to do your own... It's a fun test.

In the end it is just a data point. Free information to share...
I always enjoy the discussion... Thanks.