HDX Mac System Upgrade Questions

[innerbooty]

Greetings,
Not sure if I should post this under the Pro Tools thread, or here in HDX. Starting here I guess. I am running HDX on a flashed 5,1 2009 Cheesgrater 8-Core 2.66 with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD boot drive. Radeon RX 560 works great, is not flashed for Mac so I get no boot screen. UAD Octo Card. Running Mojave. The Mac was free, and once I got the Hybrid Engine going with 2021.6 I've been able to run some big ass sessions with very few hitches. Despite Mp3 import issues, I have stayed with 2021.6, partially because of all the horror stories I read about when people try to upgrade.

However, 2022.9 looks cool. I love the new AUX I/O feature. And I know my current Mac is headed for the dustbin. Might be time to think about upgrading. So -- when to upgrade, and what to?? Guessing I should go for an M1, rather than like a maxed out 2012 or Trashcan Mac Pro? Or wait for M2? Guess I'd need an expansion chassis for HDX and UAD Octo. I just want to try the best I can to do it at the right time, and not overspend on something soon to be outdated. Would welcome any thoughts. Doing mostly audiobooks and podcasts these days, but had previously been all music production, and want to be able to keep doing that, big mixes, VI's, etc. I bought a Pro Tools Perpetual license that I will be activating in April when my current subscription year expires.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
(p.s. Need to update my tag. No longer running Apogees. Now running an Avid HD I/O 16x16)

[DetroitT]

22.9 Pro Tools working well here on Mojave, 5,1 MacPro HDX
(Aux bridge-routing in Hybrid Mode)

[innerbooty]

Thanks, good to know! Might try on a different drive. I can't afford any downtime at all. This is probably a question for another thread, but what is the best way to migrate Pro Tools from one version to another? I have many, many plugins and instrument libraries. Will I need to reinstall them all one by one? Or should I clone my existing drive somewhere else, then install 20022.9 over my current 2021.6? And how do I go back if things go south with 2022.9? I read about people going back to previous versions all the time, but don't know how to go about it. Thanks!!

[DetroitT]

Clone your boot drive (backup / restore)
Superduper or Carbon Copy
(Over night or during lunch depending on Drive type and size)

Rename your current Pro Tools by adding version to title.
Then install new version.

[innerbooty]

Thanks for the info. I wonder if this whole procedure is described in more detail somewhere? So, just to clarify - I can simply rename my current Pro Tools.app file (I'm on a Mac) to "Pro Tools 2021-6.app" and install 2022.9 right on top of that? No other drivers or system files need to be set aside in case I want to revert back? Will my HDX card require a firmware update, and if so, will that prevent me from going back to 2021.6? Also, as for cloning, I was reading in a thread elsewhere that Carbon Copy and other drive cloning solutions are less reliable at creating fully bootable clones with some recent changes to the Apple drive file system. Is that the case? Thanks again for the info!!

[Hugh-H]

Hello,
Well... mostly fine. You can rename the old one and it still launches fine and the new version will install as ProTools. The only issues you run into doing this is with the HDX Drivers, PT is a bit whiny about different HDX driver and PT versions. Sometime version spreads will work ok and some don't. And REALLY problematic if there was an HDX firmware upgrade.

Assuming you can work around the HDX drivers (de-install and re-install) there are different Workspace file combinations that will or will not work across PT versions. Here's what I do, others may differ -
Navigate to /Users/Shared/ProTools and create two folders - Workspace 21 and Workspace 22.
Copy - not move - your current v21 Workspace file to it's folder.
Install everything with v22, it will update the v21 to v22.
Copy - not move - the new v22 Workspace file to it's folder.
Now you have Workspace versions you can swap around.
You still have to deal with the HDX driver versions.

And of course as previously mentioned - clone your drive just in case.

H

[innerbooty]

Thanks, that's helpful. That's along thing I feel like I read about a lot on the DUC, nightmare issues with HDX drivers. Yikes... Maybe I should go ahead and install 2022.9 on a separate internal drive and take it for a spin there first, before installing it on my main drive. But if it does install new firmware on my HDX card, will that mean I can't go back to previous versions of Pro Tools? Do we know what the firmware versions are for HDX, and when the last update was?


I just found this, saying the last update was 2021.3, in which case I should be up to date - assuming this info is up to date??
https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...HDX&popup=true

[mBox]

Currently running HDX in Sonnet Thunderbolt 2 chassis w/ 2013 D700 Mac Pro.
OS and PT versions are very old.
We have full support but no update of late.
Now the question is, what is the safest route?
Mac Studio M1/M2 with what PCIe chassis system?
Which chassis works>
Or Mac Pro 2019?
Will the HDX cards work in the 2019 PCI slots?