What is the cheapest price (for me) to buy into the "REAL" Pro Tools club?

[Dave Modisette]

Suppose that I wanted to finally be able to have real time monitoring with out a slapback delay and some of the other niceties of a better than vanilla Pro Tools set up. Maybe Pro Tools with a little chocolate sauce and a few sprinkles? No whipped cream and a cherry - I can't afford that.

Right now, I have a Win 7 64 bit machine with a RME Hammerfall HDSP 9652 with a pair of Frontier Tango ADDA converters that give me 18 channels of I/O via ADAT and SPDIF. Figuring out what I can keep and still use and what would have to go and be replaced by AVID gear.

FWIW, I'll never be a big studio that needs more that 16 - 24 channels of input or output and I've only used my 16 inputs on occasion. They are basically just set up for individual instruments and mics so that I can easily call up an input in PT11 native and run and gun.

[propower]

Something like this!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AVID-HDX-PCI...item20f9aaf8e1

Sell all the rest...

At BEST !!! you can save a few bucks with an OMNI system but I would suggest this one instead. Buying piece by piece you can maybe at best do...

HDX Card ~$3000 to $3500
AVID 16X16 Analog ~ $2000
PT11/12HD ~$1800
Maybe saves a few bucks... but the above package from a reputable dealer is the way I would go. And write them - maybe they can do better - Call Vintage King, Sweetwater and whoever else you like -let them compete!

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by Dave Modisette

Suppose that I wanted to finally be able to have real time monitoring with out a slapback delay and some of the other niceties of a better than vanilla Pro Tools set up. Maybe Pro Tools with a little chocolate sauce and a few sprinkles? No whipped cream and a cherry - I can't afford that.

Right now, I have a Win 7 64 bit machine with a RME Hammerfall HDSP 9652 with a pair of Frontier Tango ADDA converters that give me 18 channels of I/O via ADAT and SPDIF. Figuring out what I can keep and still use and what would have to go and be replaced by AVID gear.

FWIW, I'll never be a big studio that needs more that 16 - 24 channels of input or output and I've only used my 16 inputs on occasion. They are basically just set up for individual instruments and mics so that I can easily call up an input in PT11 native and run and gun.

An HDN card with an Omni is cheapest "new" path. Aprox 5k. BUT to get 16 inputs it will cost about 7k for an HDN with a 16x16. They will sound so much nicer than your current converters though. Consider it is a big upgrade in other ways than the software.

If you can find an unused-unregistered license from 9 or 10, you could upgrade it to 11-12 for 600$. Or possibly find an old HD card online with a 9 license, you could get it transferred to your name and then upgrade for 600$ and dump the card.

There are a few different ways, but none of them are cheap!!

[mesaone]

Just to clarify, you can run Pro Tools HD software with your current gear.

You can't buy it on its own, as people are pointing out - but the software itself will work fine without the hardware, should you choose to buy a package and sell off the hardware.

[propower]

Originally Posted by mesaone

Just to clarify, you can run Pro Tools HD software with your current gear.

You can't buy it on its own, as people are pointing out - but the software itself will work fine without the hardware, should you choose to buy a package and sell off the hardware.

You can buy it on its own. Not the way AVID likes it but here is one of the many ads to do this. People have been doing it for years (Ihave done it twice). At this time it registers just fine in your AVID account. And these are 1st class sellers...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AVID-PRO-TOO...item541d16f6ef

[mesaone]

Oops, I should have written "you can't buy it on its own from Avid or an authorized dealer". You're right, you can buy licenses from third parties, as long as the license is unregistered.

That listing, while from a dealer, is not sanctioned by Avid. I'm not sure what's going on with it, since PTHD licenses cannot be transfered between parties without an accompanying hardware purchase and change of ownership form. It must be a new license that they are falsely advertising as a transfer. $1500 is a good price for HD though, much better than buying a system and selling the parts.

[propower]

That one already sold (where's my cut LOL)

Apparently these are new unregistered licenses (most likely split off from bundles). As we go further into the PT12 licensing schemes this path may at some point cease to be viable. For now - seems to be working!

[mesaone]

Semantics between "transfer" and "deposit", I guess. Audiodeluxe isn't one to advertise deceptively.

[WOTE_Tech]

Wind Over The Earth in Boulder, CO is a reputable dealer.

[Wall2Wall]

Buy an UA Apollo 16 and keep PT Vanilla. You can monitor in realtime, record through plugins, etc.

Don't know if thunderbolt works with PC though. Some say yes. Also, don't know if you want to cross over the UA plugin threshold.