HD Native vs Thunderbolt direct

[soundmanjames]

Hi guys, Im struggling to work out a clear answer for my question...
I run PT Ultimate on a Mac and have ordered a new Mac Studio.
My interface is a Lynx Aurora (n) with digilink to a HD native pcie card.

My options are to put the pcie card in a chassis and continue as I have been or put a TB card in the Lynx and run TB direct to the new computer.

What would be the difference between the HD Native system and a complete TB direct system (other then track io)

I use the system for music production and often like to overdub whilst running various plugins etc...

Im struggling to see exactly what the HD native interface offers (other then more io). Is there any fancy latency compensation that I would miss?

Many thanks
James

[BScout]

Offers nothing today. Only reason for HD native was 2 things: more I/o channels (but they changed this in the last PT version where HDN and ultimate with third party have the same limits) and allowing you to use hardware that only has digilink connectors (which yours is not limited to)

So nothing is added in your case

[soundmanjames]

Great thanks BScout. So no fancy delay comp stuff going on?

[Darryl Ramm]

Not delay comp per-se but Lynx LTHD Digilink interface matches the latency of Avid HD IO (or older firmware match 192 IO latency).

Even if the drivers report accurate conversion latency I don't think Pro Tools Ultimate will correct for any non-Digilink interface latency. Now wether ~1ms is important or not...

[BScout]

Originally Posted by soundmanjames

Great thanks BScout. So no fancy delay comp stuff going on?

If you are working with CoreAudio, the delay comp is transmitted for the audio interface anyway (and compensated.) And insert delay comp is manual for all platforms (HDN, HDX or CoreAudio.)

Since you were not on the HDX DSP mixer with HD Native, you didn't get any of that benefit anyway. You'll get LLM as an option in CoreAudio.

So nothing is changing for you in that regard.

[soundmanjames]

Thanks guys, so basically I shouldn't miss the the HD native card by swapping to TB direct?

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by soundmanjames

Thanks guys, so basically I shouldn't miss the the HD native card by swapping to TB direct?

I guess you will lose the stereo mixer that’s on the HD Native box? If anyone actually uses that…

[685]

This was a helpful refresher for me. Maybe it will help you

http://youtu.be/vfOjm6iWzU4

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by 685

This was a helpful refresher for me. Maybe it will help you

http://youtu.be/vfOjm6iWzU4

What the heck is all that waffle about HDX and HD is supposed to answer soundmanjames actual question?

[soundmanjames]

thanks 685 - it doesnt really compare HD native and thunderbolt direct though... it looks like if I have been happy with HD native then I should be just as happy with thunderbolt only.
It should also mean I can run headphone mixes directly from the Lynx mix engine