Anyone switch to Digital Performer ?

[Pop-cycle]

Let Me just start out by saying I love Pro Tools. It works so nice, has a great interface, sounds great and hey just telling folks I use Pro- Tools gets Me chicks .
But I'm ready to move on . I came from recording with an Adat and a 24x8 mixing board (Which I sold , bad move don't sell anything EVER ). Computer recording
looked and is so wonderful I figured I wasn't going to need to record live drums anymore because the fake ones
sounded ( I figured I was going to just recoded my music but I'm ready to get with the bands again ) so good. well after banging My head around trying every drum machine I could get My hands on. I realized I need to record real drums and I want a mixing board back. Digi offers the Digi 002 but come on guys
4 Pre's for $ 2,000.00. The new Mackie Onyx looks like a good deal for 2,000.00 I can get 16 Mic Pre's a firewire card and DP software. BUT what's Dp Like? I don't want to go switch software and wish I kept Pt.
I'm using PT Le with an M-Box and a MAC G4
Thanks for reading My story


John

[blue demon]

I know people who use DP for music and love it. The setup you described should work really well. I had a chance to check out an Onyx up close and personal, and I have to say that it looks pretty cool. Too bad the firewire does not work with PT.

-BD

[jeffwuollet]

Not to sound like an idiot, but how much do the D24 cards go for these days? If you can find a cheap enough system, you can record 24-bit audio with a poop-load of tracks and inputs and you could get even hotter chicks by saying you use a Protools TDM System. I'm using a D24 turned MIX system and I did it all with student refund checks. Not a bad investment if you have the time to hunt. Also, the expandability of those systems are almost chick worthy by themselves! Good Luck either way.

[Pop-cycle]

jeffwuollet,
What is( D24 cards ) is it an older version ( Now who sound like an idiot ) ?
I have to say for some reason I'm a little nervious about useing older versions. But I guess it won't hurt
to look into it.
Thanks
John

[jeffwuollet]

The D24 card was the first 24-bit audio card from Digi. It uses the standard 882/16, 882/20, 888, 888/24, or 1622 rack units and can be used with either regular PCI farm cards or MIX farm cards. I just suggested a D24 because I'm sure you don't want to spend time with a PT III system in the 16-bit region.

Essentially, you'd need a D24 card, a DSP farm card, a rackmount interface, a SCSI accelerator card, and a SCSI hard drive. It's alot cheaper than a MIX system, but if you were inclined to upgrade to a ProTools MIX system, all you'd need would be a Mix Farm card. It's still 44.1khz, but I would put a 24-bit 44.1khz TDM system before a MOTU interface. TDM systems, almost always come out on top.

And if you were so inclined to still use MAS plugs or Emagic virtual instruments(The EVP88 is used on every song I've composed), you can incorperate the inputs from the protools interfaces into Logic and use it's sequencing and MIDI features along with TDM plugs and vice versa through Directconnect.

If you want, go on eBay and look up "digidesign". There are two D24 cards available right now and both for less than $500(Don't count on them staying at that price, but they won't go excessively higher). Also, look for a DSP farm card. This is required, but also enables you to add another interface. The SCSI cards are cheap and the Hard Drives are cheaper. As for the interface, it's a matter of what your budget can afford. If you can spend around $400 on a 888/16, you can have either eight 16-bit analog I/O's or eight 24-bit digital I/O's via AES. I'm using three 888/16's with 24-bit apogee converters in my setup. Whichever way you decide, you'll have alot of simultaneous inputs(Enough for drums and the rest) with NO LATENCY AT ALL!!!!!!!!! Without massive amounts of effects running. Actually, there are only certain effects that cause somewhat audible latency, but those plugs are to be used in mixdown usually.

With all that said, a PT D24 system is a tried and true product. The onyx is nearly brand new and is still in it's plugging stage(Where you hear everything about how cool it is, but no one has owned it long enough to get tired of it's problems). If you get a TDM system, you won't be sorry and you'll say that it was worth the extra bucks when you have your hands full with chicks and guys wanting to record all the time in your studio.

Finally, if you do get a TDM system, I have TONS of plug-ins to give you that will enhance every aspect of recording. If you do decide on getting a D24 system, let me know. [email protected]

[where02190]

We are taking a serious look at going to DP. we recently had a cleint in that rought their PD rig (dual 500Mhz G-4) and they got buttloads of tracks, I mean in the 50-60 range, massive plugin oucnt, and their G-4 was hardly working. It works with any audio interface, and the newest version supports even the oldest MOTU (and other) interfaces. Editing and other daily functions were very intuitive, I didn't need to go to the manual once.

we'll be making some upgrade steps in DAW wihtin a year, and at this point DP is looking to be the winner.