Several questions regarding my Mixl24 Rig

[serafinastudios]

Hi all first post here! my apologies for so many questions but its come to a point now where i really shoud do something about it!

Ok so abit of back story (skip this if your easily bored!): At my studio i currently use a LE 6.1 (002r) rig on a g4 running on OS X. Not so long ago my studio wowner purchased via ebay a Mix 24 rig, consisting of a mac running OS 9, One mix core card, and one 888/24 break out box. Ive used the rig very breifly for a few projects. The main problem is that the mac does not have a cd burner on board so i have never got round to making the most out of it. (sounds stupid i know!)

The times i have used it i have used it for vocal sessions, mainly to utilise the 1000's of awesome plugins it has. Ive encountered a few problems mainly one error msg that often comes up, Ive read up and found it to be todo with plugins made for HD running on a mix system (arrgggh!).

Anyways, heres what i really need to know:

How much of a job am i in for if i wanted to update the mac to OS X? i guess this means im going to have to update the pro tools software, is this even still available? Also i have a fair few Rtas plugins, will i loose these when updating? i presume i will not loose any plugins that are TDM?

And secondly: I wish to have more than 8 inputs, i only get 8 ins with the 888/24 so do i need another one of these and another board? or can i buy an adat bridge? (im told i can do this, but dont see where the adat bridge would connect!

And thirdly: Is one mix core card going to be enough? Im really thinking a mix farm card would help me out no end as i am usually working with between 12-32 tracks, and i like to be able to use a bunch of plugins without any lag and the like.

Im sorry if these are dumb questions, ive learnt all i can with LE and now it seems wise to start learning to use the TDM system. It seems mad to keep it sitting in the cuboard but i need to know if its going to be up to the job and fully working before i install as the main rig.

Thanks in advance

Nick

[Seeee]

nick, you can hook up another 888 to that core card. you need a Y cable.

the core itself is weak. get as many legacy dsp farms as you can fit into your computer ($200 each rougly) as of now you still have more juice than your native system because... you can run RTAS plug ins but now.. all the prcessing juice from your computer that was reserved for I/O tasks and mixing is now available as RTAS juice.

as far as OSX goes...

it'll run a mix system but you're limited to version 6.4.1 of pro tools and osx 10.3.8 (no quicktime 7)

so.. sell me the core for cheap and get yourself a G5. hehe

Hi all first post here! my apologies for so many questions but its come to a point now where i really shoud do something about it!

Ok so abit of back story (skip this if your easily bored!): At my studio i currently use a LE 6.1 (002r) rig on a g4 running on OS X. Not so long ago my studio wowner purchased via ebay a Mix 24 rig, consisting of a mac running OS 9, One mix core card, and one 888/24 break out box. Ive used the rig very breifly for a few projects. The main problem is that the mac does not have a cd burner on board so i have never got round to making the most out of it. (sounds stupid i know!)

The times i have used it i have used it for vocal sessions, mainly to utilise the 1000's of awesome plugins it has. Ive encountered a few problems mainly one error msg that often comes up, Ive read up and found it to be todo with plugins made for HD running on a mix system (arrgggh!).

Anyways, heres what i really need to know:

How much of a job am i in for if i wanted to update the mac to OS X? i guess this means im going to have to update the pro tools software, is this even still available? Also i have a fair few Rtas plugins, will i loose these when updating? i presume i will not loose any plugins that are TDM?

And secondly: I wish to have more than 8 inputs, i only get 8 ins with the 888/24 so do i need another one of these and another board? or can i buy an adat bridge? (im told i can do this, but dont see where the adat bridge would connect!

And thirdly: Is one mix core card going to be enough? Im really thinking a mix farm card would help me out no end as i am usually working with between 12-32 tracks, and i like to be able to use a bunch of plugins without any lag and the like.

Im sorry if these are dumb questions, ive learnt all i can with LE and now it seems wise to start learning to use the TDM system. It seems mad to keep it sitting in the cuboard but i need to know if its going to be up to the job and fully working before i install as the main rig.

Thanks in advance

Nick

[serafinastudios]

Thanks so much for the answers, its great when you get a quick reply! One more question though lol, is there anyway i can hook up an adat bridge to it? would be good to do so as i have an Octopre which would be spare from the LE rig.

[Chief Technician]

i guess this means im going to have to update the pro tools software, is this even still available?

Yes, for $35 from the DigiStore (free if you are a registered owner of TDM v6.0 or v6.1)

Also i have a fair few Rtas plugins, will i loose these when updating?

Depends on the plug-in. Chances are low though.

i presume i will not loose any plugins that are TDM?

LexiVerb was not updated for v6, and SpectraFoo wasn't updated for TDM.

And secondly: I wish to have more than 8 inputs, i only get 8 ins with the 888/24 so do i need another one of these and another board?

By board, do you mean card? If so, the answer is no.

or can i buy an adat bridge? (im told i can do this, but dont see where the adat bridge would connect!

Yes. It would connect to another card (if you had one) or to the "B" port of a "Y" interface cable.

And thirdly: Is one mix core card going to be enough? Im really thinking a mix farm card would help me out no end as i am usually working with between 12-32 tracks, and i like to be able to use a bunch of plugins without any lag and the like.

In terms of tracks, yes the core is enough. In terms of plug-ins, it depends on which plug-ins you are using.

I conveniently have a "Y" cable and an interface cable available if you are interested. The other responder also mentioned DSP Farm cards, of which I have a plentiful amount. Email me through my profile.

[serafinastudios]

Great stuff, thanks for the detailed response! one more question!

What version of Os X and Version of PT would you reccomend? is there any combinations of pt and os X that are known to cause problems.

[davidchristopher]

Protools 6.4.1cs3
OSX 10.3.7 (I think) is the sweet spot. I personally am on 10.3.9 with no problems so far...

[Chief Technician]

Protools 6.4.1cs3

You can do one better with v6.4.1cs4.