Recommendations on Budget Protools 192 System?

[Morris01]

Greetings, I am hoping that some of you with Digidesign/Avid experience could recommend a used system (available on EBay) to go with? I noticed that the 192 interfaces are fairly inexpensive, what else would I need? Computer card? Also is the 192 still compatible with the newer Protools software? Thanks in advance!


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[albee1952]

The 192 is still functioning fine in PT 12.8HD. But, there is a lot to think about here, so let me toss a few thoughts out for consideration.
1-What's your budget?(everything hinges on this number)

2-Do you NEED the HD version of Pro Tools?(if you don't work in surround/post, you probably don't, but the 192 will NOT work without these:
HD software
a card(either HD, HDX or HD/Native)
A Digilink license(with PT 12.6 and up)

3-the old HD cards do NOT work with Pro Tools 11 and newer

4-HD cards come in 2 "flavors"(PCIx and PCIe) and you start with a CORE card(=HD1) and add ACCEL cards(core + 2xaccel=HD3)

5-an HD3 setup(1-core card and 2 accel cards) is actually not that potent(see 6)

6-a modern computer(minimum quad-core with 16GB RAM) can handle a lot of tracks(if properly configured)

7-if you are a fan of UA plugins, you might reconsider the Apollo as it allows you to record with UA plugins and low latency(no other interface allows this to my knowledge)

8-(should have been #2) How many tracks to you need to record at one time(IOW, how many live inputs and outputs do you need)?

Having said all that, I came from a DIGI003 with outboard for 18 inputs and 10 outputs(4 headphone mixes, plus main outs) and I tracked small bands and was not unhappy at all. I had the chance to move to HD/Native at a good price and now have 32 inputs and am using a total of 16 outputs on a modern 6-core and love it(except for the errors I am battling on a brand-new build). The reason I didn't go with Apollo at the time was; no thunderbolt for PC and I wanted 6 headphone mixes. Now, thunderbolt is available on PC and I might have sacrificed the extra headphone mixes to have the ability to track with UA plugins(I have a UA-2 quad card, but every plugin has over a thousand samples of latency, making it impossible to use UA stuff while tracking).

Lot's to think about, so work on answering all the questions so you get the best advice

[albee1952]

BTW, there are several versions of 192 on eBay so be aware of a few details:
1-the 192 DIGITAL is digital ONLY(cannot accept any analog cards or signals).
2-a 192 chassis with no cards is useless without at least 1 digital IO card
3-the "standard" 192 is 8 analog IO and 8 digital IO
4-the "standard" 192 can accept 1 additional card for 8 more analog inputs, OR 8 more analog outputs(but not both).
5-no matter what cards are installed, a 192 or HD IO can only have a total of 16 ins and outs working at the same time(OMNI only allows 8 live IO).