HD and RTAS Plugs, Why Buy TDM Plugs

[Barry Johns]

I've recently purchased an HD1 Accel system and run it on a MacPro 2.66 with 5 Meg of Ram. To date, I have been using Massey TDM plugs as well as RTAS Waves SSL, and UAD plugs. All has worked flawlessly so far. I've not come close to maxing out my HD1. My original plan was to buy another Accel card right away, but now it's got me thinking. Am I missing something, why would I buy TDM plugs when I can use RTAS, especially at the mixing stage? I get that for tracking, TDM plugs are the way to go, like Soundtoys and others. I also get for some plugs that are TDM only. For example, I want to get Waves V bundle. When I've got a MacPro and can run tons of these plugs when mixing, why would I spend double just to use them TDM?

[IO Composer]

MacPro 2.66 with 5 Meg of Ram.

5 Megs is not a lot of RAM. You should get more

If you're running the latest uber-core Mac, you'll actually get significantly more power from RTAS than you will with a fully decked out HD3Accel system. There really is no advantage to TDM plugs in the scenario you're describing.

-Jamey

[Matt_G]

Here is some more reasons to consider using RTAS plugs in a HD system... TDM vs RTAS plugin distortion

Matt

[Steve MacMillan]

TDM plug-ins have much lower latency, so they work better for keeping compensation low. This is important if you are recording into a mix or streaming audio from another computer (ie Logic). RTAS plug-ins by themselves do not work on a track that is in input. Some plug-ins are TDM only.

STeve