HDX smokes HD2

[carlone]

Originally Posted by Firechild

Guys, remember that the disc cache feature is also in use when recording that´s why you have no trouble at all to record 768 tracks simultaneously. The feature called disc cache by AVID is just another word for RAM disc.
So basically your are recording to you RAM and ( later ) in the background the audio is transferred to your HD / Network disc / USB memory.
So to give you an idea how it works.
You have successfully recorded 128 audio tracks from a 30 minutes orchestral performance, but right there when you hit the stop button and saved your session there is a powerfailure. Everything goes down. Now big parts of your audio is totally gone because your audio was just recorded to RAM and not yet fully transferred to your external USB Harddisc.

Firechild, I don't think this it totally correct.
Pro Tools has always buffered a very small amount of data to ram while writing to disk but I think it's way less than a meg.

Disk cache is actually caching audio that is first on the timeline in pro tools (that's why there's a timeline cache meter) then it caches the rest of the audio in the session (disc cache meter). It's for playback of audio.

But to your point - that alone takes a huge load off of your drive(s) for recording audio so your performance should far exceed anything prior to this disk cache feature.

[nst7]

NewdestinyX,

I don't recall ever seeing an ad in which Digi suggested that TDM sounded better, unless they were talking about the whole system in general. Obviously the HD interfaces sounded better than the LE ones, so they may have been pointing that out.

But I could be wrong. I don't claim to have seen every ad or statement they ever ran. I just don't recall seeing it myself.

In addition, whenever I would ask that question to the rep or salesman of a plugin manufacturer, such as Waves or McDsp, they plainly stated that the plugins sound identical.


However, as mentioned, certain users stated that they did sound better, at least to their ears.

[nerd513]

Originally Posted by Frank Kruse

A more interesting question for me is how does HDX1 compare to HDN assuming native-only plug-ins?

The fact that HDX1 smokes HD is not really surprising since HDN already smoked HD3 at least.

Frank.

no it doesnt

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by nst7

In addition, whenever I would ask that question to the rep or salesman of a plugin manufacturer, such as Waves or McDsp, they plainly stated that the plugins sound identical.

Wow! You and I definitely talked to different salesman and read different ads. The implication has always been 'TDM' better on every level.

However, as mentioned, certain users stated that they did sound better, at least to their ears.

Many 'swore' and argued that. One of the most contentious topics on this forum for many years. Do we have 'selective' memories?

[mykhal c]

Originally Posted by Firechild

Guys, remember that the disc cache feature is also in use when recording that´s why you have no trouble at all to record 768 tracks simultaneously. The feature called disc cache by AVID is just another word for RAM disc.
So basically your are recording to you RAM and ( later ) in the background the audio is transferred to your HD / Network disc / USB memory.
So to give you an idea how it works.
You have successfully recorded 128 audio tracks from a 30 minutes orchestral performance, but right there when you hit the stop button and saved your session there is a powerfailure. Everything goes down. Now big parts of your audio is totally gone because your audio was just recorded to RAM and not yet fully transferred to your external USB Harddisc.

doesn't work that way when you record recordin' is done to whatever your device is (hdd, ssd). then when you press stop your timeline is 'then' re-cached. at which time your 'playback' will now include what was just recorded. so no, one is not recordin' to disk/ram cache. i was under the same impression when i first started lookin' into it...i was corrected also.

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by mykhal c

doesn't work that way when you record recordin' is done to whatever your device is (hdd, ssd). then when you press stop your timeline is 'then' re-cached. at which time your 'playback' will now include what was just recorded. so no, one is not recordin' to disk/ram cache. i was under the same impression when i first started lookin' into it...i was corrected also.

This is a actually how all DAW's interact with a ram cache. You're never recording to the cache. And if you think about it you really wouldn't want to. If the computer crashes - ram would empty and you'd lose your current pass - where the hard drive has your sound bites still even if computer crashes.

I also think Avid makes things very confusing by calling it "Disk" cache in the Playback Engine Dialog. Because there is such a thing as a true 'disk' cache which is entirely different than a ram disk cache. There's plenty of room to change the name to RAM Disk Cache.. It would be so much more descriptive.

[edadema]

Originally Posted by Kaneepa

Totally agree with you PhatBeatStudio...

HDX-3 here... since 5 days!
Running super smoothly!

Some remarks:

Tried recording 768 tracks ... no problem... disk activity: 6 % !!!!

Channelstrip AAX DSP max instantiated : 1000 ! (one thousand!!!)

Trident A-Range Softube AAX DSP max instantiated: 384 !

When you switch different latency compensation settings NO MORE CLOSING AND REOPENING THE SESSION.. it switches in one second!

Activating HEAT on a 130 track session.. takes 2 seconds!! and only ONE dsp !

The general feeling is MUCH more snappier, smoother, and pleasant to work with then my old HD6 system!

Regarding AAX DSP plugins, apart from Avid ones (revibe II, reverb one, EQ3, mod dly III, Real tape suite, D-fi bundle) all the Softube plugins are running in DSP (apart from TSAR-1).

Tomorrow (2nd of January) more AAX plugins from brainworx will be available... and I hope that Waves, during NAMM, will do an announcement..

Of all the switches (Mix+ to HD, HD to Accel, etc.) this is one of the best planned and one of the smoothest.

Regards.

Michele

I love the Hype!!!! Now use it in the real world. Put more than 6 VI's and watch what happens
....and Waves AAX is probably a year away.(How many hundreds of Plug ins do they need to code?)

It is like when you get your new computer and you use it before you load anything on it. It smokes!!!
It just shows how ridiculous we are. There are like 3 or 4 plugins available to work on a HDX card and people are bragging it up...lol
You guys are like 2 years away from even using the cards fully. Right or Wrong????? So why so excited? You really have a over priced Native system.

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by edadema

....and Waves AAX is probably a year away.(How many hundreds of Plug ins do they need to code?)

It is like when you get your new computer and you use it before you load anything on it. It smokes!!!
It just shows how ridiculous we are. There are like 3 or 4 plugins available to work on a HDX card and people are bragging it up...lol
You guys are like 2 years away from even using the cards fully. Right or Wrong????? So why so excited? You really have a over priced Native system.

Haha!! +1.. Well stated, Edadema! And I love the track count tests people do with no plugins attached.. which tell us nothing "real world" - or the equally silly 'let me see how many hundreds of instantiations of RenCompressor I can add to test my processor' - when that's not an even remote test of what would happen if tracks were playing back.

But - it is what it is - and I guess it gives some people a sense of security that after spending multiple thousands of $ - they need to see evidence of 'its horsepower'. ;-)

[Kaneepa]

Originally Posted by edadema

I love the Hype!!!! Now use it in the real world. Put more than 6 VI's and watch what happens
....and Waves AAX is probably a year away.(How many hundreds of Plug ins do they need to code?)

It is like when you get your new computer and you use it before you load anything on it. It smokes!!!
It just shows how ridiculous we are. There are like 3 or 4 plugins available to work on a HDX card and people are bragging it up...lol
You guys are like 2 years away from even using the cards fully. Right or Wrong????? So why so excited? You really have a over priced Native system.

Hi Edadema, I partly agree with what you said.

Sure, after having spent that kind of money.. we all want to be sure to have done the right investment.. but..actually I'm using in real world... constructing right now and mixing some sessions I created using HD6...
Converting the old tdm plugins in AAX dsp (obviously only a few.. but with channelstrip, revibe, all the softube eq/dynamics.. you can do it..)...
and the general feeling is much more snappier than HD...

Regarding VIs... I noticed a great improvement dealing with rtas plugins in general (like using 100 plugins and having only 11% of the cpu busy.. maybe Protools 10.1 using HDX hardware has more room for native CPU processing... i don't know.. )

I'm gonna try a test using more than 10 VIs... and post the results..

Regards.

Michele

[edadema]

The Funny thing I will be able to run any session you run off my LapTop. I just installed Revibe 2, Impact and Reverb One on my Laptop. Beautiful!!!
Remember the old argument TDM or Native. I was on the TDM side now there is no difference. We can move on.
I can't wait for the first AAX DSP is better than AAX Native Thread. lol

I agree with you too. HDX is Mos Def better than TDM. I don't think you can even compare the two. I hope VI's do run better on your amazing system. They still choke on mine and my CPU will be at like 9%