MTRX Studio

[TheArtistesetc]

Hi,
I want to buy a MTRX Studio.
I am living in Bangkok and I can’t get the answers to the questions I have because of the “problem” language.
My first question is: how I connect it to my Mac (Studio) I saw that there is a Thunderbolt extension available and read also that some of you were using Ethernet… which is the best way?
2: I have few analog gears that I want to connect. Can they be loaded as insert on a bus, track, group or Master Track?
3 I also wanted to add a Ferrofish Dante interface. Do I will have to connect it to the Ethernet port? No problem of latency? Which are the other option?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help.
I am too scare to make a mistake by buying a MTRX studio, so perhaps that I will go for a Carbone and a Pre but which is ok for me for the inputs but I will need a patch by losing the advantage of the Dante, if I understood well…
Thanks!
Ed

[Darryl Ramm]

Yes you install the optional Thunderbolt card in the MTRX Studio, install the CoreAudio device driver on your Mac and get to it.

I would *not* run Dante Virtual Soundcard (DVS) on the Mac to connect to the MTRX studio over Dante. You will get awful latency and Thunderbolt is just better IMNSHO. If you had a HDX setup then obviosly the connection is via Digilink, without that you should be thinking of Thunderbolt as the go to connection. And you get a nice high-quality modern DAD/NTP developed driver for the thunderbolt card.

2: I have few analog gears that I want to connect. Can they be loaded as insert on a bus, track, group or Master Track?

Uh? There is really nothing specific to the MTRX Studio here, it gives you a bunch of line input and output ports with matching port numbers, which is all Pro Tools needs to make this happen.

---

I might be worried about latency on Dante, esp. if you are doing phase critical stuff with hardware inserts, but I have **no idea** what you are doing.

I have no idea what Ferrofish box you are talking about, an A16 or A32 or ...

An A16 you can connect viat ADAT if needed at base sample rates to get 16 channels.

The MTRX Studio is a really nice box, DAD/NTP designed for Avid and it's great the drivers are developed and supported by DAD/NTP. My real only personal concern with it is lack of MADI.. my own biased preference for interconnect.

I am too scare to make a mistake by buying a MTRX studio, so perhaps that I will go for a Carbone and a Pre but which is ok for me for the inputs but I will need a patch by losing the advantage of the Dante, if I understood well…

Mistake with what? You mean the Avid Carbon and Carbon Pre. The Carbon is a funky box and comes with it's own issues, including potently latency problems with Avid Hybrid Engine and I have concerns that it's a one-off box and will eventually die, and you are very dependent on Avid for all support for that box. But *if* you want DSP monitoring then it has that.

For some applications a MTRX (not MTRX Studio) with Thunderbolt may be a better option, at higher cost. But no idea of what you are doing and no idea of your budget...

[TheArtistesetc]

Thanks a lot for your answer!

I think that I am really lost…
I have been a Pro Tools user for 20 years but the last 11 years I had a personal disease that put me away from the world…
At my time it was only possible to use Pro Tools with a AVID interface…
So it is no more the case now?
I can buy this?
Goliath HD Gen 3 (it has all what I need…)
https://en.antelopeaudio.com/goliath-hd-gen3-start/

I wanted to buy a Mac Studio full option…
For the same price I can have a Mac Pro: Apple M2 Ultra avec CPU 24 cœurs, GPU 60 cœurs et Neural Engine 32 cœurs.
128 Go de mémoire unifiée
Do you think it is a better choice?

(I don’t need Digilink in both case?)

Thanks a lot again and sorry for my “stupid” questions

[smurfyou]

Yes you can use any interface supported by your OS. No need for an Avid one or any Digilink connection.

I think the Mac Pro would be a waste unless you have a specific need for it. Even a "fully spec'd" Mac Studio would probably be overkill but it's not bad to buy the best you can. I just don't see a need here for a Pro if you're not stacking it with cards.

[cvicente22]

Hi TheArtistesetc,

I would like to suggest downloading a trial version of Pro Tools Ultimate using the link below and try setting up your Goliath HD III with it. You may DM me your iLok account so I can deposit a temporary license of digilink I/O.

https://my.avid.com/get/pro-tools-trial

[Darryl Ramm]

You will find many past threads on DUC discussing interface options. e.g. one example https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=421542. search with google with the site qualifier site:duc.avid.com.

Note concerns from folks about Antelope as a vendor and some of their previous product churning.

Lynx Aurora (n) is an option but multiple users on DUC in the past have reported problems with Lynx interfaces and hardware insert ADC latency correction. No idea if that is multiple cases of user confusion with hardware insert ADC, folks tripping over (some known) bugs in Pro Tools, or some actual issues in the Lynx interfaces reporting incorrect latency data at some times/weird situations.

My personal favorite vendor is RME, but if say you want a high-end single box 16x16 or 32x32 line level interface then RME does not offer that.

You might make more progress here if you outlined your actual interface product requirements and budget and asked for suggestions.

[Darryl Ramm]

[breaking up a reply because of DUCs badly managed WAP filters breaking stuff here yet again]

The current Mac Pro is an expensive funky box that only really makes sense if you need to install PCIe interface or other PCIe cards... including potentially if you need lots of third party PCIe/NVMe SSD storage. If you have those needs it can be a good option, but for large scale SSD or maybe very high-end networking applications be aware of its PCIe card slot/PCIe lane limitations because of how it uses an external (to the CPU dies) PCIe switch. It's unfortunate that Apple never delivered the 4X die versions of the M-series Ultra in a Mac Pro (or any other) system, hopefully they might in future. They need to do so something at the very high-end to avoid being smacked by AMD and Intel, but then they are pretty focused on the much larger iPhone market and distracted with things like virtual/augmented reality toys.

[TheArtistesetc]

Originally Posted by cvicente22

Hi TheArtistesetc,

I would like to suggest downloading a trial version of Pro Tools Ultimate using the link below and try setting up your Goliath HD III with it. You may DM me your iLok account so I can deposit a temporary license of digilink I/O.

https://my.avid.com/get/pro-tools-trial

Hi
Thanks a lot!!!
But I don’t have it yet and can not find it in Thailand…
So I think that I will buy 2 Focusrite red 16 line (I need 32 inputs…)
So I will come back when I will have them but perhaps not before April because I need to find the place where I will make my studio before…
Thank you very much!!!

[TheArtistesetc]

Hi David
Thanks a lot for all the infos!!!
In fact I can not find the Antelope in Bangkok…
But yes, I need 32 input to plug all my gears and synth (I don’t want a Patch Bay)
So I found the Focusrite red 16 line…
I can by 2…

I don’t think I need a Mac Pro too…
I will take the studio full options..

(It is very complicated because I was out of life d’or 10 year. After I need to find a system that feat me and then to see if i can buy it in Thailand…)

Thanks a lot lot again!!!
Ed