mix farm vs. classic DSP farm

[poodlebuild]

I've been running searches for the basic difference between cards I see on ebay that are $200 and cards that are like $700-800 plus. I see things about revisions and "classic" and stuff but what I want to know is are there some cards that give you higher track count and mixing/routing power and some cards that only power plug-ins? I thought a mix farm would do the former and a DSP farm the latter but now I'm not sure it's that clear-cut. The system I'm using has nothing but a core.

[proxy]

I don't remember the business about more tracks, but they will both run plugs, the Mix Farm running more plugs (usually). Some plugs will only run on Mix Farm and not DSP - in fact, now with HD of course, some plugs won't run on either of those cards.

The DSP farm is still great bang for buck though and can run workhorse plugs like RenComp. Having one of both is very useful.

If you look through some of the older posts here there's info about the specific chips on those cards and what their limitations/benefits are.

- proxy

[studiojimi]

you will be so happy you spent the extra money for the real higher powered cards

don't you and your music/work deserve it?

[poodlebuild]

OK, thanks.

[Dopamine]

<< you will be so happy you spent the extra money for the real higher powered cards don't you and your music/work deserve it? >>

What a stupid comment, I hope you were being sarcastic or trying to be funny.

To answer the question: DSP farms are a great bargain! There are 6 chips on a Mix Farm card and 4 on a DSP farm. Do the math. One caveat: not all plug-ins will work on the DSP farms. For this reason, you would not want to have ONLY DSP farms. They do work great with most of the Waves and Digi plugs.

[erikloesch]

hello dopamine,
you wrote that difference between dsp- and mix farms are only 2dsp´s more on mixfarm ?
had heard that mixfarm card may have more power as 6 to 4, but i really don´t know so i ask
( i own a mixcore and 1 dspfarm)
on the boards i see that the core has 6 tdm chips and the farm has 4 of this with the same numbers.
but whats about the bigger processors? they are not the same style.
the core has 6 and the dsp has 4 other styled ( on dspfarm this bigger chips are named dsp.......
maybe the core, and probably the same ones on mixfarm proc. are the powerhorses?

i ask for this cause i´m interested for expanding my system.
if a mix farm has only 50 percent more power, regardless the plugincompat. you wrote,
dspfarm win´s the match, for lower price...
but is this for sure ?
( do you know , which plugs won´t work on dspfarms ?)

sorry for the silly questions but i´m really new on tdm systems.

by the way

worked fine for years (with compromises) on am 3 /pt le5.1 but, the power for bucks was more than o.k.

regards from germany
erik

sorry the language

[Dopamine]

Post deleted by Dopamine

[Chief Technician]

You Mix Core has the same DSP as a Mix Farm which is 1/3 more powerful that a DSP farm.

This statement is not accurate. You can read the truth about the DSP Farm and then make your decision.