Pro Tools HD?

[nate9]

Hello All,

Would upgrading to a Pro Tools HD System improve the sound quality of my recordings?

I'm currently running PT LE 7.4 on a Mac using a Control24.

[Drew Mazurek]

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: Delay compensation, advanced automation modes, some TDM only plugs, could in fact improve your options/workflows and improve your work.

[nate9]

So to increase sound quality that would come into upgrading my pre's or maybe upgrading to a nice analog front end and using an HD for mixing and editing?

I'm still a nooby when it comes to engineering I've been a musician for most of my life and love analog but am fasinated by the digital realm

[KingFish]

Well Nate - I'm going to respectfully disagree with dmazurek, and exorcize my "Right to Opinion"

and that's all this is... "My Opinion"

- The converters, both going in, and out of an HD system... a 192 i/o sound better then an 003, 002, m-box.

- The "Mixer Math" (read the "Stereo Dithered Mixer" thread in here) arguably (and it IS argued alot) sound's better then LE

- a Session with Delay compensation immediately sounds "Tighter" and more "Phase accurate" then a Mix on an LE system with small amounts of Latency, across different tracks.

Even working ALOT harder on a mix on an LE system, plugged into the same monitoring chain... I have not yet, with the same "Ears, and Speakers" been able to "Match" the mixes clarity, punchiness, and dynamics, that I'm able to do on HD.

Working daily, on the same sessions, back and forth from HD at the studio, to an 002 / LE at home - recently finally made me upgrade to an HD system at home, and I'm very happy that I did.

Having said that, Platinum selling records have been made on Mackie Mixers into Adats.

I know great music can be made on a 4 track, M-Box, LE, 002 - a stereo microphone into a MiniDisc recorder.

Work with the gear YOU think sounds the best, and inspires your workflow.

[Drew Mazurek]

Good points David. I was simply trying to dispel the myth that going from LE to HD will somehow make you a better engineer. Which to me, the OP's wording "improve the sound quality of my recordings" sounded like he was asking more or less.

[KingFish]

touche - True enough, I guess I was talking about the "Whole experience", tracking, Production, Mixing etc...

In the end, along with what you're saying, after my long rant about HD... (Guess I have to justify my wallet)

Mic placement, creative use of compression, EQ, room and ambient micing, the quality of the Instrument, and the players skill on the instruments, Mic's, Pre Amps, will make the "Quality of a recording" exponentially better, then any difference between LE and HD could ever make.

dmazurek's on the money - I sometimes have A.D.D when reading - and was commenting on "the differences of quality of an HD system v.s an LE system" NOT the "Quality of YOUR recordings"

[nate9]

To be good at what you do takes hard work.

If a musician starts out playing with a 100 dollar guitar, if he's worth his weight in

gold and if he's serious about it, he will eventually want to upgrade to something that

sounds better i.e. tonal quality, sustain, better pickup's.

The same go's with recapturing his sounds, the better the circuitry the more pure

the audio will be coming through and the more attentive you will be to listening to it.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out if an HD system running with my Control24 would be better than to having a nice analog

console.

[marcioguitar]

well, I think that a LE system very well configured can give you a very comparable quality along with a HD system, if you have a nice preamp, external clock controller + complete music production kit and use the right tools available with PT I have no questions that your projects will stand up!

[Razorfish]

I just wrote a long response to this which detailed the difference I heard and then my computer went. I don't have time to repeat it, but here is the gist:

Everything about my system was the same (converters, room, monitoring), but when I went HD, the sound improved hugely. It was not a subtle difference--I heard proper clarity and depth for the first time. Sessions mixed in HD that were recorded in LE were better just for passing through it. When I recorded sessions and mixed them in HD, I was blown away by the difference.

So, there might be more important pieces in the puzzle, but I cannot but encourage you to ditch your LE system. LE is the new four track. That is its intended market.

Originally Posted by marcioguitar

well, I think that a LE system very well configured can give you a very comparable quality along with a HD system, if you have a nice preamp, external clock controller + complete music production kit and use the right tools available with PT I have no questions that your projects will stand up!

[midnightrambler]

Agreed, except....wouldn't it prudent at this point for anyone wanting to upgrade to wait for TDM 3? (Or whatever the next big thing is that Digi so obviously have up their sleeves....)

;-)