NUMBER OF PLUG-INS IN PT24 X PLUG-INS IN MIX,, MIXPLUS

[Alécio Costa]

I BOUGHT A PT24 two years ago with 2 ADAT bridges which are connected to a Yamaha 02R via fiber optic CD8AT. The problem is that although the PT24 is a 32 track system, it is not able to allow me use one compressor and a 4 band eq in more than 6 channels simultaneously. This is ridiculous, so I have to use my 02R compressors, equalizers and of course outboard gear reverbs. If I put a Waves Q10 and/or a TC MASTERX ( I know they are quite DSP hungry) you all folks know what happens. I am changing now for a MIX PLUS 5.1 and I am afraid. Will I be deceived again? PLEASE HELP ME PRO USERS!!!!How many compressors and 4 band Eq will I be able to open? And what about an Auto tune and the TC Masterx? My stuff is G3 233, 160MRAM, digidrive 18k, WAVES BUNDLE, TC MASTERX3and 5, Masterlist.Thanks for the attention given!!!

[Chris Lambrechts]

Well, for one ... THe mix cards are way more powerfull then the PT24 dsp cards ....

almost all digi plugins do plugin sharing on a mix ... a very nice thing because a compressor will sit on the same dsp chip as a eq etc ....

most third party plugins unfortunately don't ... which means that you will be facing similar problems with the mix+ as you did with the PT24 rig .... if you use third party plug's that don't share ... you run out of dsp.

for example : that TC masterx will eat ... hmm .... my guess because I don't use it myself .... 50% or so on a mix farm chip ... maybe less .... now that makes the rest of that chip unavailable for other plugs ...

either you work with the digi plugs and use a lot of them or you go for the ones you like better and add dsp power ... another mixfarm ....

seeing that HD is out ... I suspect Mixfarms to drop in price on the second hand market ... maybe not imediately but not for long either.

Another thing is of course that PT5.1 and a mix + rig will allow you to use RTAS plugins .... these use the mac's available cpu power .... now a G3 233 won't get you far with that ... but a powerfull G4 could be seen as an extra farm card or more and in this way a worthwhile option looking into ... a G4 733 costs about 1/3 or less of a new mixfarm ....

[Alécio Costa]

THANKS a lot Chris! I would like to be in contact with you and in some way help you somehow.
I am a pro musician/singer/rec engineer/ small studio owner here in Brazil. Cd soon to be released. ( Pop/Soul like Lisa Stansfield, George Michael, Toto, Tears 4 fears field).
My email is [email protected]. But what is your rig? Mix cubed? With the G3 I would use a mix farm on one slot, the other one for the SCSI out as it is being done and the third slot (now available due to the removal of d24/dsp farm) could put another Mix farm. But do you have an idea of how many 4band eqs and compressors od Digi will I be able to open? I have Heard that mix is 3x PT 24 and that Mix plus is 6x PT24. You as a serious user, with a lage experience on it... what is your opinion? thanks again friend! Alec

[Chris Lambrechts]

Well, IMHO a mixplus isn't exactly 6 times more powerfull then PT24 but it is a lot ....

anyhow ... I don't use the digi compressor or eq plugs but I do know that on a mixplus you can open A LOT of those ....
My best guess would be that you could open something like 10 4 band or so per available chip and maybe 12 compressors ... but I might be dead wrong ....

Focusrite 6 band allows 6 mono's per chip so digi 4 band should at least allow 10 per chip.

I'm quite sure that in a 32 track session you can put a 4 badn digi eq and a digi compressor on every single track and still have enough power left to create a few auxes with stuff like a digi delay plug, a few D-verbs maybe ....

You use the waves right ?? well waves has it own plugin sharing ofcourse .... waveshell .... very efficient dsp usage ....

maybe check out this link ... it contains some usefull information on Mix systems in combination with waves plugs ....

www.digitalaudiorock.com/Chip_usage.pdf

[Alécio Costa]

Wow Chris! thanks again! Have you had any kind of trouble syncing PT and MTP AV with ADAT XT? I had a hell of sample rate, clock nightmares. Lot of time to sync, glitches and etc. I even tried puting the MTP as master and making playing through its front control panels and the thing did not function properly. I hope that with MIX plus 5.1 this will not be a trouble. Any comment? I use the printer/modem port of my G3 to connect the sync cable of MTP. Someone in Brazil said that older interfaces used to do the job much better and with a USB port even better nowadays. Any comment on this my friend? so you do not enjoy the Comp/Eq of the PT ? what about Pitch doctor x autotune x TC ....? thanks again my friend!

[cebolao]

hello, alecio!
eu facou o testo para voce.
one mix chip equals:
- 15 waves Q6 eqs
- 6 focusrite 6-band eqs
- 8 mcdsp filterbank E6 eqs
- 28 digidesign 4band eqs

- 19 digidesign compressors
- 3 bombfactory LA2A compressors
- 5 waves c1/g compressor/gates (it takes 85% of one chip - you can use the rest for some q6 or ather waves plugs)
- 4 waves renessaince compressors (84%)
all of them mono - but stereo doesn't mean twice as much dsp (i think about 150%)

now reverb plugins:
- waves renessaince reverb takes 78% of one mix chip
- waves trueverb takes 47%
- tc mega reverb takes 50% (so you can have 2 of them on one chip)
- lexiverb takes the WHOLE chip

one chip is ALWAYS allocated for mix engine. if you want 64 voices, it allocates two chips. this is for playing the tracks from disk.
another one (at least) is allocated for stereo mixer - this is for mixing trax together, sending to busses and so on. the more tracks and sends you have - the more dsp it needs. if you want to mix in surround, the surround mixer will need A LOT OF DSP.

for non-surround mixing the mixplus is a minimum. for surround mix cube may be too small.

don't sell your old dsp farm (i don't mean the dsp core - you don't need it). connect it to your new mixplus and you will have a very nice setup.


now about your adat sync problems.
use the 9-pin adat sync slot at the back of your mtp av. connect it to adat. it will become wordclock slave. now the protools must be slave to adat. to do this the adat bridge must be connected as the first interface. then it's possible to choose "optical sync" in session setup window.
in preferences set adat (mmc) to chase the locator, in transport window choose mmc instead of protools, set protools to timecode slave (control+j) and here you are!

si voce tem os perguntos, email me.

cebolao

[Alécio Costa]

thanks a lot dear friend! obrigado mesmo! I will substitute the old 4.3 version for the 5.1.2. So, with Mix and/or mix plus I can open 4 band eq + compressor at 20 tracks simultaneously?
From which country are you from?