Pro tools on two macs?

[lasselarsen]

Fellow toolers

Well I'm new to the DUC, so excuse me if this topic already has been dicussed.javascript:void(0)

I'm running Pt 7.3 Hd accel 3. mac os 10.4.8 on a dual ppc G5.

Recently I purchased a macbook pro, now I'm thinking of, running an additional pro tools Le
set up, for cpu greedy rtas plugz.

Any one tried this set-up.?
Would it be better to run Logic pro?
Can I somehow use the power of the macbook pro. in my Hd accel system ?

Thanks
Lasse

[mhmh]

Any one tried this set-up.?

I run Cubase on a second machine and am very happy with it. ProTools is Master and synchronizes Cubase via MTC.
Lots of VST Instruments and much better MIDI Arrangement possibilities.

Would it be better to run Logic pro?

In my opinion, yes. MIDI Arrangement is much more advanced.
I arrange in Cubase and then import the MIDI Tracks of the Instruments that run in PT for better timing.
A problem with Logic though is, that it cannot cycle in Slave-Mode, which kept me from changing to Logic on the second machine.

Can I somehow use the power of the macbook pro. in my Hd accel system ?

I don´t think so. Wasn´t this supposed to be a Logic feature, combining several machines for more CPU Power?

Martin

[thin ice]

I am doing the same thing with Pro Tools and Cubase SL for VST instruments. I just export the audio for virtual instruments and import into pro tools before the mix. Couldn't be easier with MTC from one machine to the other. Cubase and Logic were designed for midi with audio as an extra later. Pro tools seems to be the other way around.

[mhmh]

Cubase and Logic were designed for midi with audio as an extra later. Pro tools seems to be the other way around.

Exactly. Combine these two and you have best of both worlds.

[Seeee]

Is this sample accurate sync? back in the day chasing via MTC was basically freewheeling and it'd be Ok for a few minutes but 3 minutes in your toast.

this was when I was using an adat as the master and chasing via a datasync2 so maybe it's different now but without a clock reference to resolve to it's useless. Are you clocking one off another as well?

[thin ice]

This is fine if you're just using midi for keyboards or virtual instruments. There is still a slight delay in midi, so either compensate on the midi part in Cubase or knock it back 10 ms once you record to Pro Tools. midi is not an exact science since we moved away from Ataris!

[Lee Blaske]

Recently I purchased a macbook pro, now I'm thinking of, running an additional pro tools Le
set up, for cpu greedy rtas plugz.

What kind of plug-ins? If you're talking about synths, samplers, etc., that also have AU versions, your best bet is to set the second computer up as a slave to run the synths/samplers, with a shell application like Native Instruments' "Kore," Plogue Bidule, V-Stack (unfortunately discontinued), etc.

Regarding "sample accurate" playback between two machines, there's always going to be some lag through the audio hardware, and through MIDI (actually, you'll have tighter timing with a MIDI over LAN solution). With a properly set-up system, the delay shouldn't be at all bad. Besides, "sample accurate" is kind of relative, because even in a perfect system, things are going to hinge on the types of sounds used, and how the digital content within them is edited. If you're doing extremely tight, quantized music, you're still going to have to eyeball things to make sure they really line up. With a lot of real instrument sounds, there's often a pre-attack component to the sound that needs to start before the meat of the note actually sounds. You either get that right be having a good feel and competent keyboard playing, or by adjustment and tweaking after the fact.

In short, it all comes down to using the tools correctly in a musical fashion. Sample level accuracy is no cure-all.

Lee Blaske

[lasselarsen]

Quote:

What kind of plug-ins? If you're talking about synths, samplers, etc., that also have AU versions, your best bet is to set the second computer up as a slave to run the synths/samplers, with a shell application like Native Instruments' "Kore," Plogue Bidule, V-Stack (unfortunately discontinued), etc.


At this point of time, the main plug-ins I'm using (rtas) is.

Dkfh,Ezdrummer,Stylus rmx,Hybrid,Ampeg2 and Amplitube2

Thanks

Lasse

[Seeee]

Exactly.. so using two macs sync'd via MTC for AUDIO is not good enough. i mean if we're complaining about ADC and going to extremes to flip waveforms into phase and aligning oh's to snares and vocaligning to the milisecond... having a OH mic tracks running on the second computer would not be good enough for me. even with nudging on the other computer theres the drift and an unpredicatable drift too. I thought there were blackburst generators, smpte slave drivers, and external clocks for this purpose. I am not saying it CANT be done, I am saying that in order to sync two macs up running pro tools on both for x amount of audio tracks may not meet your expectations because of drift.

[sleadley]

In HD land we often run 2 or even 3 macs running Pro Tools all synced together with Midi over ethernet. The key to this is to have all the systems locked via their clocks and wew have found that the lockup times are very very fast. Far superior to LTC with a Sync I/O and the sync is sample accurate. We made sure that we use 1000 base switches and that the systems are not connected to any other internet traffic. I have also used my Laptop connected to an HD system via this same scheme and used it for Synth sounds and this also worked fine. The lag in the softsynths is a more significant factor than the MTC over ethernet delay. But I would suggest you try this and you will be pleasantly surprised.
When we were mixing the Score for Happy Feet we had 3 HD systems and a Virtual VTR system all locked via Midi over ethernet and it worked flawlessly.
best regards
Simon L.