Dolby Atmos Production Suite renderer on another computer

[nedd]

Hi All,
I was wondering is it possible to use renderer on another machine than the one running DAProduction suite?
I run Production suite on my MacPro, but also have another windows machine with HDX, MADI and it would be handy to offload local renderer from Mac to the other comp. Perhaps with Mastering Suite on the second computer?

[lucienpalmer]

I tried the same thing last year. You would have to have a second copy of pro tools loaded on the second machine to feed audio into the production suite. Output 128 tracks form the first pro tools computer and input 128 channels to the second one and send via plugins to production suite. It's not worth the hassle.

What you are asking for is the Mastering Suite. That runs on a separate system. It's also better because the Production Suite has plugin latency, and the Mastering Suite latency is basically nothing.

[nedd]

Thanx Lucien,

does that mean I would need to purchase their Dell PC with RME...I have a HP 820, HDX and MADI, could I run there Mastering Suite?

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by nedd

Thanx Lucien,

does that mean I would need to purchase their Dell PC with RME...I have a HP 820, HDX and MADI, could I run there Mastering Suite?

Yes, the only way to get the Mastering Suite is with an RMU. Either the Dell, or some dealers have the new Mac version, but that requires a specific trash can mac, Sonnet chassis, Focusrite Dante card, and Dante/analog interface for LTC with sync HD. I ran the numbers before buying my RMU, and the Dell server version was slightly cheaper and only took two rack spaces, so I went with that. BTW, the PC mastering suite needs two RME MADI cards and the TCO option card.

You might be better off running the Production Suite HDX plug-ins and if you run low on processing, add another HDX card. My system ran great with HDX3 and Production Suite. I only switched to the Mastering Suite to be able to create full masters. You could predub all your projects and find a Dolby Atmos Certified studio like mine to make the master.

[nedd]

Great info here Lucien, thanx again.
I was planning to add the second HDX card to my Mac, but then I would have to pull the USB3 card out. How did you managed to get all 3 HDX cards inside your Mac? You also have video playback card there, or not?
I was also wondering if it's possible to get the USB3 of the SATA on board connectors?
I would definitely consider your studio and expertise in (hopefully) near future when the Atmos mixing has been installed and workable here, I'll contact you thru your web site.

[lucienpalmer]

I'm running two expansion chassis by Netstor. One has a larger power supply for graphics cards and works great with three HDX cards.

The other Netstor is a slightly different model with a built-in 4 slot SSD RAID. It has my HighPoint raid card (running two pairs of SSDs), a USB 3 card, and SSD PCI card for my system drive.

Inside the Mac are my GTX1080 and AJA Kona LHi.

[nedd]

Thanx Lucien, I guess with the help of expansions, power supplies and SSD RAID, it makes production suite run smoothly. A lot of good infos here. Cheers!

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by nedd

Thanx Lucien, I guess with the help of expansions, power supplies and SSD RAID, it makes production suite run smoothly. A lot of good infos here. Cheers!

In general, I don’t find that the production suite is a huge processor hog. If you feel it dragging your system down, there are settings tweaks you can do to help it. The two biggest hogs are binaural encoding and live rerenders. If you don’t need to headphone monitor, turn off binaurel. If you don’t need to instantly switch to monitor 5.1 constantly, disable the re renders