All you experts, please help me !

[producerdna]

my question is

As a PROFESSIONAL Mixer / Producer

1. Do I really need HDX? HD Native with Symphony via Thunderbolt gave me around 3 milliseconds of latency and it was definitely doable. What else am I missing out on?

2. in reality, 1 HDX card equals to how much RAM? If I have 32 GBs RAM running HD Native, would that be close to HDX w/ 8GB RAM?

3. UAD duo translates to how much RAM in PT 11?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by producerdna

my question is

As a PROFESSIONAL Mixer / Producer

1. Do I really need HDX? HD Native with Symphony via Thunderbolt gave me around 3 milliseconds of latency and it was definitely doable. What else am I missing out on?

2. in reality, 1 HDX card equals to how much RAM? If I have 32 GBs RAM running HD Native, would that be close to HDX w/ 8GB RAM?

3. UAD duo translates to how much RAM in PT 11?

For a so-called professional mixer/producer you are laboring under several misconceptions.

When you say HD Native are you talking using an HD Native pcie card , the HD Native Thunderbolt box or what? You first statement/question is confusing as to hookup.

An HDX card has NOTHING to do with ram. Neither does HD Native.

UAD anything (Duo/Quad/Octo pcie cards, Satellite Duo/Quad or Apollo) has NOTHING to do with ram.

DSP in any form has nothing to do with ram. DSP stands for Digital Signal Processing which is a specialized form of processor chip that take processing load of fx off of the host computer. RAM stands for Random Access Memory which is temporary memory for things like audio clips, samples, etc. You want to have as much memory as you can afford and your computer can hold; it's like the old saying you can never be too rich. The more ram you have the easier your computer will work as it won't have to swap data to and from a disk drive (spinner or ssd).

As to whether you need an HDX card with it's dsp processing is up to you and the kind of real work load you intend to work with. Keep in mind that not all plugins have HDX equivalents and are native processing. Native in this case means the host computer does all the work. PT HD Native does not do dsp work but handles all the audio I/O with much lower latency than just about any other audio I/O configuration.

Of more importance is the computer system you're running (which you haven't specified). Make sure it's up to Avid specs and properly optimized. You also need to have a separate drive (spinner or ssd) for PT to record to and a separate drive if you're using a lot of sample based vi's.

[producerdna]

Thank you for the reply Jack,
I think I misrepresented my question.

I'm a loyal Pro Tools user for 12 years and I'm aware of all the technical terms you've described. I currently own HDX w/ Avid HD I/O on Mac Pro and HD Native with Symphony w/ Thunderbridge running on i7 Mac Mini with 1TB SSD and 16GB Ram. I'm still using Pro Tools HD 10 on both rigs because of the plugins I own.

I have to buy an another PT HD rig and it'll be more for mixing.
I need to decide which rig I should go with. HDX or HD Native.
If I go with HD Native w/ PT 11HD and 32GB RAM, how much more or less plugin capacity will I be getting compare to HDX system?

[elicious]

I currently own HDX w/ Avid HD I/O on Mac Pro and HD Native

I need to decide which rig I should go with. HDX or HD Native.

???

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by producerdna

Thank you for the reply Jack,
I think I misrepresented my question.

I'm a loyal Pro Tools user for 12 years and I'm aware of all the technical terms you've described. I currently own HDX w/ Avid HD I/O on Mac Pro and HD Native with Symphony w/ Thunderbridge running on i7 Mac Mini with 1TB SSD and 16GB Ram. I'm still using Pro Tools HD 10 on both rigs because of the plugins I own.

I have to buy an another PT HD rig and it'll be more for mixing.
I need to decide which rig I should go with. HDX or HD Native.
If I go with HD Native w/ PT 11HD and 32GB RAM, how much more or less plugin capacity will I be getting compare to HDX system?

If you truly are aware of the terms mentioned you wouldn't have wrote what you did. Your first post here didn't give the impression you were any kind of professional in recording. Like I said amount of ram and dsp have nothing to do with each other.

As to plugin capacity with one system versus another that depends on how good the coding for a plugin is and not every plugin is optimally coded. You really can't compare one with the other unless you're comparing an HDX plugin from one company with the same plugin in a native version from the same company. Throwing PT11 into the mix muddies the question even further with the dynamic plugin processing available in PT11.

[mesaone]

Do you mix on your current HDX system? If so, how much of the processing that you normally use in a mix is DSP?

If it's a lot, and you're happy with your current system, then you might as well mirror it for your mix system. If you're not happy with it, go HD Native.

Even better, save one of your larger or more processing-heavy mixes to an external. Bring that and your iLok to a studio that has an HD native system with a computer of a similar config to the one you plan to have for mixing. Load the project. All previously-DSP plug-ins will now load native versions instead. Now you can audition the system to see if it will be a good fit for your projects. But you did say you own both a Native and an HDX system - if that is the case, then you already have all the information you need to make a decision.

[producerdna]

As to plugin capacity with one system versus another that depends on how good the coding for a plugin is and not every plugin is optimally coded. You really can't compare one with the other unless you're comparing an HDX plugin from one company with the same plugin in a native version from the same company.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

When I mix, my track count is usually between 75~150. I use generous amount of plugins. about 70% of audio tracks have 1~2 plugins and I put 5~6 plugins on all the busses. (Lead Vox, BG Vox, Drum, Instruments + Parallel Auxes).

I use Waves a lot, Slate VTM, VCC, Soundtoys, and Massey.

I wanted to know if HD Native running PT 11HD would be enough to handle my description above. I'll just try it out myself to find out.

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by producerdna

Thank you for the reply Jack,
I think I misrepresented my question.

I'm a loyal Pro Tools user for 12 years and I'm aware of all the technical terms you've described. I currently own HDX w/ Avid HD I/O on Mac Pro and HD Native with Symphony w/ Thunderbridge running on i7 Mac Mini with 1TB SSD and 16GB Ram. I'm still using Pro Tools HD 10 on both rigs because of the plugins I own.

I have to buy an another PT HD rig and it'll be more for mixing.
I need to decide which rig I should go with. HDX or HD Native.
If I go with HD Native w/ PT 11HD and 32GB RAM, how much more or less plugin capacity will I be getting compare to HDX system?

You own both and you need to ask? Do you not find that a bit odd?

[producerdna]

Originally Posted by Barry Johns

You own both and you need to ask? Do you not find that a bit odd?

As I mentioned on my quote, I run PT 10 HD on both rigs. My question goes to
HD Native users running PT 11 HD.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by producerdna

As I mentioned on my quote, I run PT 10 HD on both rigs. My question goes to
HD Native users running PT 11 HD.

So get the upgrade to PT11 (you're going to be using it anyways) and try it on both rigs. When you say HD Native are you talking about PT11 with the HD Native card? Whether it's that setup or your HDX rig it's still going to cost you $1000 US IIRC.