Long Live DSP

[Tom Hartman]

Wow what a frustating last few days.

For no reason at all, I'll disable software monitoring in Logic and use the Mbox Pro control panel to have a latency free overdub experience. It works fine. Then, a few minutes later, go to do another OD, and on playback everything is late. Quit Logic, relaunch Logic, try again, works fine.

Then, click over to iTunes for a second to listen to something, and all the audio sounds like it's skipping at 1000 miles an hour. Go back in Logic and hit play, no sound. Look in the audio setup, no Mbox Pro listed. Ugh.

Restart Mac. Wait two hours for Mac Pro to restart. Try iTunes. Works fine. Try Logic works fine.

So Logic doesn't like the Mbox 3 much. At least not MY Mbox3.

And I tell you, after working for days now with it (never had these problems with the Duet) I'm going to spend more time in PT. If PT is flakey with it too, I am selling the house and getting a TDM system. Family will live in the AVID boxes it comes in, we'll make do.

I am really getting tired of this native stuff.

"Why, with todays powerful computers, you can have 8000 tracks with 800 plugs on each channel, much more powerful than TDM" blah blah blah.

Trouble is EVERYBODY feels that way. So every plug in manufacturer makes plugs more and more demanding, huge sample libraries, huge pianos, huge drums, now you want huge track counts, now you want huge plug ins on each track, now you want low latency....oh my, oh my.

Give me an HD8 or something will you? Or just a couple Studers locked together. I've had a very long day and clicking around in little low latency mixers onscreen so I can overdub is getting tedious. No wonder TDM guys are so "avid" about their systems.

All hail TDM.

TH (former Native fan)

[Fix]

Couldn't agree with you more. My TDM system has been almost completely rock solid for 6+ years. Finally switched my computer to a new Mac with a Magma Chassis and it's even better!

[Firechild]

+1

AVID , please give us a HD5 Core card with a nice hardware exchange deal !

[Quan]

I dont feel stable with native but with TDM very. Long live TDM!

[7thheaven]

Agree. My TDM is pretty solid. Some plugs are buggy but the TDM world is where it's at

[axiom]

Originally Posted by Tom Hartman

Trouble is EVERYBODY feels that way. So every plug in manufacturer makes plugs more and more demanding, huge sample libraries, huge pianos, huge drums, now you want huge track counts, now you want huge plug ins on each track, now you want low latency....oh my, oh my.

Give me an HD8 or something will you? Or just a couple Studers locked together. I've had a very long day and clicking around in little low latency mixers onscreen so I can overdub is getting tedious. No wonder TDM guys are so "avid" about their systems.

It drives me nuts too. My solution was to move almost all of my software instruments to slave machines (I now have 6 of them), and keep the live tracks on the HD3 machine. I allows me to keep my MIDI tracks uncommitted until the last minute before mixing down, and I can always add another live part, even with an entire mix playing through its plug-ins. Maybe a bit of overkill, but I don't ever hit memory or CPU limitations any more.

[Tom Hartman]

Originally Posted by axiom

It drives me nuts too. My solution was to move almost all of my software instruments to slave machines (I now have 6 of them), and keep the live tracks on the HD3 machine. I allows me to keep my MIDI tracks uncommitted until the last minute before mixing down, and I can always add another live part, even with an entire mix playing through its plug-ins. Maybe a bit of overkill, but I don't ever hit memory or CPU limitations any more.

Wow Will that's quite a system! But it's worth every penny when you are on deadlines and want to concentrate on getting work done. I don't care how fast computers get...it's like moving into a bigger house, you'll eventually fill that up too, just like a bigger drive. I don't think the answer is bigger and faster, the answer is dispersing and allocating tasks like you have done.

TH

[midnightsun]

I agree with Axiom and Tom Hartman for the most part, but think that computers are getting better at multitasking. I remember when every process had to be separate: RADAR>analog console>outboard effects>tape>mastering>CD. Many of these tasks can be done in a single computer.

I found Logic by itself to be a great way to go, but always had issues when using Logic/TDM on a G5 system. Maybe things will be better when I get my new Mac Pro in a week or two. I sure wish I knew of a way to have Logic instruments record directly to a Protools session!

[BobbyDazzler]

Would be great if you could allocate a dedicated CPU core to input processing and avoid all this latency crud.
I don't understand why a blisteringly fast i7/Xeon can't trump an old TDM chip in this regard.

[Tom Hartman]

Originally Posted by midnightsun

I agree with Axiom and Tom Hartman for the most part, but think that computers are getting better at multitasking. I remember when every process had to be separate: RADAR>analog console>outboard effects>tape>mastering>CD. Many of these tasks can be done in a single computer.

I found Logic by itself to be a great way to go, but always had issues when using Logic/TDM on a G5 system. Maybe things will be better when I get my new Mac Pro in a week or two. I sure wish I knew of a way to have Logic instruments record directly to a Protools session!

Yeah I know, I use Logic daily and sometimes it's amazing. 80 tracks going with a lot of plug ins and the CPU is asleep. But I still feel all cozy and comfy with a big old DSP card or 3 in their handling everything, or at least many things. The bad thing about TDM is that poor delay compensation that gets drained pretty quickly...I think the Avid Native system is the best thing out there, but I'm a still a card believer.

TH