From 001 to 002/003 or HD?

[rems]

Hi everyone!

I've been a 001 user for many years now, with no major problems, but I would like to move on to PT 7 by upgrading to 002/003. One of the reasons is that I wantto be able to record at 96K using my Lavry Blue. Also, I will have a better D/A to mix with. I have been thinking on jumping to the HD boat, but the only reason I would do that is if the HD mixer is better than the Le's. Here is my post on the HD side:

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...part=1#1214775

So, I would like some insight from you 002/003 users. What would you do in my case?

[Ootini]

I have to confess to not being utterly 100% sure of this (Maybe 95%) but I think I read somewhere that the internal mixing of LE and HD is identical. But the better A/D D/A converters in the HD systems would give you an improvement in quality. Though from what I've heard the 003 sound pretty good to me.

Oo.

[rems]

Thanks Ootini for your response! It's true, I've read that the AD and DA conversion in the HD is better than the 003, but I would be using a Lavry Blue for AD, so I guess I would have great conversion goingin. I would really love to know if the mixers are the same, though!!!

Oh, by the way, I would need to buy a Firewire card. Which do you guys recommend?

[spkguitar]

The mixers are different. You can read all about it in the Technical White Papers.

As for firewire cards? You should use One of the Qualified ones.

[rems]

Thanks for the firewire card link, Spkguitar! I'm looking for prices as I write!

I know the mixers are different (48 fixed vs 32 float) but I guess what I want to know is if there is a noticeable sonic difference.

[Ootini]

Not meaning to sound rude but which paper are you referring to? There was plenty of information about how the TDM architecture fits within the HD mixer, but I've not found anything to suggest that the LE mixer runs differently - it's just missing the TDM section. From what I was reading it seems like an HD system running a session with no TDM plugins would bounce down an identical file to an LE system running the same session. I still could be wrong on this and now I'm intrigued.

Oo

[spkguitar]

For details about the HD/TDM mixer, I'm referring to the 48-bit mixer white paper.

Just as EQs, dynamics, and reverbs are plug-ins, the Pro Tools Dithered Mixer is a plug-in as well. It differs from most other plug-ins in that it can grow to span multiple DSPs and as it grows, it passes signal from DSP chip to DSP chip at a full
48 bits instead of dithering and truncating back to 24 bits.
It does so by using two 24-bit TDM timeslots per connection. This enables the mixer to maintain an internal dynamic range of at least 288 dB from beginning to end.

Even without processing, the HD/TDM mixer is utilizing the cards to deliver the final mix at a fixed 48-bit. I referenced this white paper because it goes into much more detail than the information covered in the Reference Guide (Chapter 31, heading titled "24-bit Input and Output").

Because of the way that both mixers process the audio completely differently, they would have to be (and are) two completely different mix engines. There's no possible physical way that they could be the same.

As for which is going to sound better? The average user would probably not be able to tell the difference. There is still a reason why people buy HD, though, and its not just to "lift the restrictions of LE".