It's actually a crying shame re Windows

[TNM]

Why Avid did not put a Thunderbolt 3 port on the device so it could be fully compatible with Windows I will NEVER understand.

Finally the interface I have been waiting for since I first ever used Pro Tools, comes to life, and I still can't use one 3 years later.

So instead of 6499 AUD for a device that would give me the all in one I need, I have to spend 3x as much, yes, near 19 thousand dollars (AUD) to get ONE HDX card with thunderbolt chassis and one MTRX Studio.

Sigh.
Windows users punished again.

Furthermore, these could have been *easily* expandable with twin thunderbolt ports, like UAD.

Avid missed a golden opportunity with this one... and the ONLY thing I can think of is that they wanted it as a dead end sort of system so those needing more I/O would still have to spring for the uber expensive HDX.

Sure, a HDX card has 18 DSPs (I think)? vs 8 on Carbon, but that's not worth 12 thousand dollars more. Not to mention the sheer convenience of carbon.

Double sigh.

All I really need is a bit of comp and EQ here and there, and one reverb send, and I am sure the 8 DSP could do that.

But again, that golden opportunity they missed..

Thunderbolt 3 with daisy chaining, even if they limited it to two devices max, would be *something*... 48 analog ins, 16 DSP.. I just still can't believe they shot off their own foot to spite their face.

And don't think I am the only windows user who is ready to sell up current solutions to get the easy integration of Carbon, far from it.. Avid lost a lot of money in the process with their decision.

Do they really think, because someone can't have Carbon, they will spend 3x more to get a much clunkier solution? All it does is make us even more determined to be treated equally.

I am annoyed.

But also very disappointed.

I said my piece.

[its2loud]

Why didn’t you just buy a Mac? That would have been cheaper for you.

[smurfyou]

From a product standpoint it was a really odd choice to exclude a large chunk of users.

Also an odd choice to develop a proprietary connection used by no other product in their line.

[Darryl Ramm]

Just bad and totally puzzling product decisions. All that effort and the bloody obvious choice (even with slow Windows adoption) was Thunderbolt. And if AVB was so important for some reason then provide that off the back of the box. But with the rest of the DAD badged product line having MADI and Dante and not AVB then its even more puzzling. It smells to me like competing groups playing turf games, I mean otherwise you'd have to attribute these decisions to incompetence ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[smurfyou]

It definitely screams different groups. MBOX, Carbon, and MTRX could just as well be from different companies. Remember they all have their own unique software as well. Contrasted with RME who manage to have a single program to control every interface they've released in the last 20 years.

Rant over

*yes of course MTRX was actually a different company but point stands

[K Roche]

I certainly won't pretend to be tech savvy enough to offer any comment about the practicality of having/putting a TB port on the Carbon or why Avid chose the AVB protocol for connection Or why Microsoft cant seem to offer and AVB option on PC computers

And having switched from PC toMac some 25 years ago, I realize it is easy for me to say to the OP BUT if fact Carbon is what you really want, why not (as its2loud pointed out ) just consider something like a Mac Mini and a 3rd party display for $800 -to- maybe $2000 for doing audio ? Which seems more practical as opposed to contemplating going HDX just to stay with a windows PC ?

[TNM]

Originally Posted by its2loud

Why didn’t you just buy a Mac? That would have been cheaper for you.

Left mac in 2020 after 2 decades and never looked back and never will. Ever.

LOVE Windows and my 500+ Steam games plus PT performs way better on Windows at low latencies (as long as you have a good low DPC motherboard like I have, there's no comparison, and that includes even up to M3 pro).
If you arm say 32 tracks at 64 buffer with effects, Windows kills it. Core audio and Apple's low clock speeds (both Intel days and now) without maintaining the full speed at all times like one can do in Windows, has always worked against it for low latency. Why do you think PT high buffer playback engine, Asio guard, DP pre gen etc was even created? It wasn't for Windows, but for Mac.
Again this is reliant on a good interface and motherboard with very low DPC latency, but with a Windows system you either need to do tons of research or go to a pro audio builder. That part is true. But when it works.. it purrs.

I have a Quantum in my bedroom and a triple UAD setup in the studio room, I attached a heavy duty handle to my case so I can move between the two rooms (just next door to one another) easily, but I can tell you, when I tested with the Quantum maxed out at 26 inputs at 32 buffer in Cubendo, there were no spikes, effects galore, headroom galore, and it made my UAD *completely* redundant, especially with UAD Native now. I'll be selling all my UAD hardware.

The reason I would still be interested in Carbon is because of PT mixer integration. I am tired of using Apollo and PT Mixers, in fact I might put Quantum in Studio as I am winding down the external equipment and total simultaneous ins I need anyway, and with quantum, I can use the DAW mixer.

STILL, it's not quite the same as Carbon, and just because I no longer NEED DSP, doesn't mean I am against it, and I like the idea of ultra low latency rock solid stability with 100% reliable recall without CPU issues.

See the thing is, UAD is not low latency.. All the GOOD effects are full of lag, a couple inline and you are way worse than native with RTL. But Carbon is the perfect compromise.

Even HD native would be much more expensive due to card plus interface cost. No way. I will not be punished.

I will not change formats.

I will stick to UA or Presonus. Likely the latter. I'll sell at least one Apollo 8 to start and take it from there. Until Avid grows up and does something pro customer, no more $$$ from me.

Everyone knows it's ridiculous.. even review mags.. they created an ethernet interface without expansion capability lol and so far it has zero advantage over thunderbolt. They made an error, and they need to fix it.

[K Roche]

Then objectively speaking , seems to me that it is likely that only if and when Carbon sales start to decline sufficiently below Avid's expectations, would they maybe deem it "a mistake" and maybe that would cause them make a design change
But that's a double maybe, and until then I would not hold my breath

[TNM]

It gets even worse.
A sale just started with 1000 AUD off, Carbon (the proper deal not the pre) for 5500 AUD lol.
Oh well.

[TNM]

Originally Posted by K Roche

Then objectively speaking , seems to me that it is likely that only if and when Carbon sales start to decline sufficiently below Avid's expectations, would they maybe deem it "a mistake" and maybe that would cause them make a design change
But that's a double maybe, and until then I would not hold my breath

Hehe.

My line of thinking is, even if it has sold well, had it been properly network expandable at the very least, and a USB 3 or Thunderbolt Windows version was available, their sales would be doubled (combined first time Windows buyers plus mac users buying a second one, and *some* windows users like me buying two).

So maybe it's not a failure, but it's still a dead end. Not my words, the press'.