Pro Tools Fly Rig

[Daniel Ellis]

I'm looking to get a rig that I can fly with to track off of the Venue and playback for virtual soundchecks.

Needs to be 48 channels at least.

I've only ever rented Mac Pros for this. Is there a reliable way to do it on a laptop or a Mac Mini or something small?? I don't know much about Pro Tools system compatibility..

[Greg C]

If you're going to go total portable, I'd recommend a Thunderbolt equipped Macbook Pro or the MacMini Server with the i7 4-core processor configuration and a Thunderbolt RAID 5 drive system for both bandwidth to handle the tracks and safety. AFAIK, currently only Promise makes a RAID 5 Thunderbolt array. I haven't tried this out yet myself, but that should be more than enough horsepower.

[digidesigner]

Let's be honest, HD systems are too clumsy to fly, so MADI systems on laptops running *something else* than Pro Tools is what you end up using for 32+ tracks. Also that pretty much means you need to carry your own MADI card for FOH rack and you can forget using SC48's. That is the laptop MADI card I see people mostly using: http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_madiface.php

[Greg C]

So that would knock the MacMini out. You'd need the 17" MacBook Pro with the PC card slot for the MADI interface.

[digidesigner]

Originally Posted by Greg C

So that would knock the MacMini out. You'd need the 17" MacBook Pro with the PC card slot for the MADI interface.

Older 15" with Express slot would do the trick as well

Also looking at the MADIface info it seems using yet another converter box it is possible to use thunderbolt ports too: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/ec...underbolt.html

But all this is so "yesteday", a no-soundcard solution that competition has come out with is what we need for the Venue systems too

[CME]

We have a A&H ilive at church that uses Dante. One cat5e cable to the computer. Very simple and effective.

That said there are some thunderbolt to PCIe adapters out there that "should" work with HD|Native. That and an interface shouldn't be too big. Put a second HD in the MacBook and you're good to go.


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[Kenmillerjr]

My recommendation is the RME MADIface on a MacBook pro and FW800 drive. This solution works for me and I have no problems.

[Greg C]

Are you able to push more than 48 channels over FW800?

[CME]

Originally Posted by Greg C

Are you able to push more than 48 channels over FW800?

Should be able to. I have done 64 channels @ 48k 24-bit for over an hour to a owc mercury mini over fw800. It's the 7200 rpm version of the drive, hooked to a core 2 duo Mac mini, running into reaper via Dante and an Allen and Heath iLive, but works flawlessly.


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[Daniel Ellis]

Thanks for the replies. I've never really looked into MADI but that seems like the best option for this application as far as I can tell.

I have PT LE on my laptop... I guess MADI would work for that but I only get 32 channels right?